Components of a guitar. The structure of an acoustic, classical guitar Guitar description of parts

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Let's figure out what a guitar consists of, what its parts and components are correctly called, and what functional tasks certain elements perform. The article is for informational purposes only, but may be useful not only for beginners; the article details and correctly names the main design details. Often, even professionals name these parts not entirely correctly; perhaps the information given in the article will help to correctly understand the meaning of the names. For a guitar master, the article can also serve as a navigator through the catalog of our store. By clicking on the link, you can open a page with the product in the next window.

The main parts of the guitar are the neck, which is crowned by the head, and the body of the guitar.

There is a mechanism built into the head of the guitar that allows you to regulate the tension of the strings. The upper or lower surface of the head is most often decorated with overlays - made of dark wooden mosaics; sometimes the overlay may include elements of mother-of-pearl and other materials. Along with aesthetic purposes, the pad strengthens the head.

The head is firmly glued to the neck, called the part of the neck from head to heel. The same material is used for the neck and head; cedar, mahogany or maple are often used; the heel of the neck is glued from the same material at the bottom. The part of the heel that is visible from the outside is called the heel.

The neck of a guitar is called both a whole and its individual elements. To be more precise, let's figure out what elements the neck consists of. The upper part of the neck is made of a hard material - ebony, rosewood, mahogany, modern guitar makers sometimes use hydrocarbon composite resins.

At the top of the neck there is a bone, which is called a bone; it can be made of natural bone or plastic. The bone can be easily dismantled if necessary; it is either held under the pressure of the strings or glued so that it can be easily peeled off. Through the bone, the vibrating string imparts energy to other elements of the guitar's structure; its position can significantly affect the sound of the guitar.

The fretboard is divided into frets, which define positions for producing a certain pitch of sound, limited by the fret nuts. As the tone increases, the distance between the frets decreases. The length of the frets is calculated mathematically precisely. Depending on the scale of the guitar, the fret sizes change proportionally. To mark frets, you can use scales corresponding to the lengths of the frets. Each fret is limited by a fret threshold.

The body of a guitar consists of three main parts - the top, back and sides between them. The middle part of the guitar's body is called the waist.

The futor of the lower deck is located above the seam where the parts of the soundboard are glued together. There is a special one on the inside, and it is also glued into the upper part of the deck.

In addition to the footers, the decks are glued on the inside. In addition to transverse springs, they glue to the top deck. Springs provide rigidity to the guitar body structure. An equally important task of springs is harmonic tuning; it is not for nothing that in Spain springs are called harmonic.

Guitar springs serve as an important tuning tool when building an instrument. The vibration energy of the string is transferred to the structure at nodal points from the bone through the stand and. The task of the springs is to compensate and distribute the energy of vibrations so that we can hear the sound of the desired intonation and timbre. Adjustment is carried out by positioning the springs, selecting the material, changing the thickness and height of the springs. The springs, like other internal parts of the guitar, are made of spruce and cedar with good resonant properties.

At the junction of the decks and shells they are glued. The rail is specially bent to the shape of the shell. Often, between the top deck and the shell, the role of a counter shell is played by crackers - special small wedges.

In the figure at the bottom of the guitar body it is indicated; usually, a button is not installed on a classical guitar, since the performer plays while seated; on Western and other folk guitars, a button is installed so that the strap can be secured.

For guitars with steel strings, it protects the neck from deformation under the tension of the strings.

Tip: tap the fingertips of your left hand on a hard surface more often to form subcutaneous calluses. They will not be visible, but in the future it will not hurt to clamp them.

In this lesson you will become familiar with the structure of a guitar. I strongly recommend that you do not move on to the next lesson if you do not completely understand the previous one.

The structure of a classical guitar.

A guitar consists of two main parts: the body and the neck. It is very important to know its structure at the beginning of your studies. Because then the lessons will be much more difficult.
In turn, the body of the guitar consists of:
Top deck; ; shell; springs (6); resonator hole (also called voice box); socket; stand (filly).
The guitar neck consists of: heel; head; (or heads); pegs; thresholds. And of course the strings. If it is convenient for you, you can familiarize yourself with the structure of the guitar in the figure.

Some note. The stand is often called a “filly”. Pegs exist to tension and loosen strings. There are usually 6 springs inside a classical guitar. They serve primarily to increase the strength of the top deck.
Well, we have completed lesson 1, which gave us knowledge about the structure of a guitar, and we are moving on to the next lesson called “Building a Guitar.”

Lesson 2
Guitar tuning

In classical guitar, the standard guitar tuning is:
1 note string mi 4th string note re
2nd string note si 5 string note la
3rd string note salt 6 string note mi
The first string is the bottom one. Thus, the system goes from bottom to top. Well, let’s take a look at the lesson called guitar tuning. This lesson is very important at the beginning of your studies.
For those who are unfamiliar with the notes, it is necessary to learn them; without them, further studies in the classical guitar course are impossible. Notes can be learned in lesson 3.

Lesson 3

Notes and stave (stave)

5 stripes - staff. The key is G (treble).
Octave - distance from note before to note before. The smallest distance between notes is a semitone.
The distance between the sills is fret. Each fret is a semitone.

Half note. Where 1 is a flag, 2 is a calm, 3 is a note head

Lesson 4
Alteration signs

There are signs for rising and falling sounds.
A sharp raises a note by half a tone
A flat lowers a note by half a tone.
Bekar cancels the previously placed accidental signs
A flat double lowers a note by a tone.
Double sharp raises the note by a tone

Lesson 5
Order of notes on the fretboard

You need to learn the notes on the fretboard. This lesson expands on guitar tuning.

Lesson 6
Chromatic scale
Now it's time for practice. Now you are presented with the chromatic scale in C major. The chromatic scale is a scale built on halftones. Try to unlearn it. You need to play the bass strings with your thumb (P), the third string with your index finger (i), the second string with your middle finger (m) and the first, as you probably guessed, with your ring finger (a). In parentheses are the Latin abbreviations that are used in all notes. But, as a rule, chromatic scales are played by alternating the index and middle fingers. You can find out about them on the page " " .
Chromatic scale in C major

Lesson 7
Duration
Music has its time, this time is determined and called duration.

Lesson 8
Letter designation of notes, chords,
keys and alterations Letter designation of notes:
do - C salt - G
D - D A - A
mi -E si - H
fa - F si b - B

Chord letters:
C major - C D minor - d or Dm
E major - E A minor - a or Am
Little m - minor

Letter designations of keys:

Today, most people build and make repairs and this requires

Today I will talk about the design of the guitar, how the neck and body of the guitar are structured, I will also give a diagram of the structure of the guitar and talk about the materials from which this or that part is made.

General information

Acoustic guitar is divided into 2 main types:

• Classical
• Variety

Rice. 0 Acoustic and pop guitars

Classical guitar Most often used for the performance of classical works, folk, folklore, flamenco, bard and marching songs. The classical guitar is also called the Spanish guitar, since it was first made in Spain. The classical guitar has a wide neck and nylon strings.

Pop guitar is universal for all musical styles, but personally I associate it with genres such as blues, folk and country. The pop guitar is also called a western guitar or simply an acoustic guitar. The pop style has predominant metal strings and a narrow neck compared to the classic version.

Acoustic guitar structure (diagram)

Both classical and pop guitars consist of two main parts: housing And neck.

Fig.1 Guitar design diagram

Guitar neck structure

The neck consists of a headstock (2), a fingerboard (3) and a heel (4). On the headstock there are pegs (5) - a mechanism that is designed to fasten and change the tension of the strings. Also on the headstock there is a top saddle (6), which is designed to reduce string vibration. It is usually made of plastic or bone.

Rice. 2 Upper sill made of bone

Notches are made in the fretboard on a special machine, into which the fret nuts (7) are subsequently pressed. The saddles protrude above the guitar neck and separate its frets (8) (the distance between the two saddles is called a fret). The neck heel is glued or bolted into the body of the guitar. If the heel of the neck is glued into the body, then the distance between the strings is adjusted by an anchor bolt, which runs along the entire length of the neck and is located under the pickguard.

Rice. 3 Anchor under the guitar fingerboard

The head of the truss rod is located either in the headstock or at the bottom near the rosette. Bolt fastening allows you to adjust the height of the strings.

Guitar body structure

The body of the guitar consists of a top (9) and a back (10), which are cut in a figure eight shape. They are connected to each other by the walls of the guitar with the so-called shells (11). On the front deck, under the strings, there is a round resonator hole (12), which is usually called a rosette. In cheap guitars, which are made from low-quality materials, the rosette is decorated with plastic or paper stickers, while in more expensive guitars, it is decorated with veneer or mother-of-pearl.

Rice. 5 The resonator hole is decorated with mother of pearl.

Some guitar models have an additional sound hole, which is located at the top of the soundboard and gives the guitar special acoustic properties:

Rice. 6 Guitar with additional resonators.

On the top deck there is a so-called bridge (tail holder) (13). On the tailpiece there is a bottom saddle (14), which is made of plastic or bone. The strings are attached to the tailpiece with special buttons (15), which are made of plastic. A protective pad (16) is glued to the top deck to avoid scratches and chips.
Since the guitar is subject to very unpleasant forces from the tension of the strings, it is reinforced from the inside with special slats, which enhance the strength of the body structure, but also affect the sound of the guitar, enriching the sound with very noticeable acoustic properties.

Rice. 7 Slats that strengthen the guitar from the inside.

Materials

The bodies of the cheapest guitars are made of ordinary plywood, which has a very lousy sound, are equipped with tuners that practically do not stay in tune and strings that need to be changed immediately after purchasing the guitar. The necks of cheap guitars are made from pressed plywood and God knows what else. The top and bottom saddles are made of low-quality plastic, and the frets are made of some kind of bi-metal.

Rice. 8 Rosewood guitar body

The bodies of expensive guitars are made of mahogany, rosewood and maple. They are equipped with good tuners that stay in tune and, of course, strings that are pleasant to play. The necks of expensive guitars are made of beech, mahogany and other durable woods. The top and bottom saddles are usually made of quality plastic or bone, and the frets are made of quality metal.

Therefore, we continue to get acquainted with other varieties of six-strings. Today you will study in detail the structure of an electric guitar and its main components. If you are just planning to buy an electric guitar, then this post is for you.

Let's introduce ourselves!

Visually and structurally, the electric guitar still has some similarities with the acoustic guitar, but no matter how these similarities unite them, these are still two fundamentally different types of instruments. We can observe differences both in the design itself and in the method of producing sound. For acoustics, a resonator hole in its body is enough for us to hear it, but for an electric guitar we need a completely different approach - receiving sound through a number of devices by transmitting it from pickups to an amplifying device and subsequent output to acoustic systems. Of course, you can try to play it without a connection, but it is unlikely that you will do this, because that is not why you bought it or are going to buy it.

Well, that seems to have been sorted out! Since you are such an ardent fan of guitar music, then undoubtedly the electric guitar will become a good assistant in your creativity, perhaps for many years. There are quite a lot of varieties of electric guitars today, but the differences in their structure are not large; this could be, for example, the type of fastening of the neck to the body of the guitar, the type of tailpiece, the type of anchor rod (1 anchor, 2 anchors) or the type of installed pickups, i.e. e. The differences are only in some details. Since we're talking about details, then let's look at what an electric guitar consists of.

Electric guitar device

The pictures below show the Fender Stratocaster solid body electric guitar, perhaps the most popular instrument in the history of rock music. For many musicians, this is the ideal form and unique sound. Well, now in more detail about the design. The electric guitar consists of:

1. Frame
2. Pickguard
3. Pickups
4. Switch
5. Volume and tone controls
6. Bridge
7. Cable connector
8. Buttons (straplocks)
9. Overlay
10. Marks (dots)
11. Upper sill
12. Vulture head
13. Pegs
14. Strings
15. Anchor nut
16. Neck attachment
17. Tone block cover

The example of this guitar shows the general structure of an electric guitar, and the numbers indicate its main parts. The two main components of any electric guitar are the body and the neck.

Electric guitar body

It is very different from an acoustic guitar and can be either solid or hollow inside (varieties of semi-acoustic guitars) or glued together from several pieces of wood (most often one). But there is one nuance here - the more pieces there are in its composition, the worse the sound of the guitar will be due to the fact that in the places of gluing all the resonating properties of the wood itself will be lost. The only exception would be a composite made from different types of wood. Electric guitars with such a body have an aggressive and harsh sound; they are mainly played for heavy music.

Hollow bodies have a completely different sound - more saturated, but quickly fades away. These guitars are best suited for playing jazz, country or blues music. Its disadvantages include the fact that a creaking sound may appear during loud playing. The quality and type of wood has a greater impact on the sound in hollow body guitars than in solid body guitars. But regarding the shape and design of the body of electric guitars, in contrast to acoustic ones, we can say the following - these parameters have little effect on the sound of the instrument.

The top of the body in some guitars is covered with a top - this is a special pickguard that is made from a different type of wood and most often serves as a decorative element rather than a functional one. But on guitars like the Fender Stratocacter, a plastic pickguard is installed. It contains: “single” type pickups, and other guitars may have “humbuckers”; a pickup switch that allows you to turn on the pickups individually or simultaneously; volume and tone controls, with which you can adjust the level at the output of the pickups, as well as change the timbre of high and (or) low frequencies.

To attach the strings, there is a bridge on the body (also called a “machine”), which can be either with a tremolo system (VintageTremolo in the picture or Floyd Rose) or without it (Tune-o-Matic or Hardtail). But to connect an electric guitar to an amplifier, a jack connector (Jack TRS ¼”) is specially installed on the body, to which the plug located at the end of the instrument cable is connected. To hold the guitar suspended with a belt, special steel buttons are located on both sides; sometimes so-called straplocks (belt locks) are installed. Ok, we've figured out the body, now let's see how it works...

Electric guitar neck

In terms of its design, this part of the electric device is also noticeably different from the acoustic one. What are these differences? - you ask. Firstly, it is the length and radius of the fingerboard, and secondly, the headstock can be of a variety of shapes; this is a rare occurrence in acoustic guitars. The fingerboard is glued on top of the main body of the neck and is most often made of rosewood or ebony. This is the part that you press your fingers against while playing. On the pickguard there are metal thresholds that divide the neck along the entire length into frets and allow you to change the tonality of the strings and take different ones accordingly, and there are also marks/dots between these thresholds that clarify and designate for convenience the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and subsequent frets .

At the beginning of the fingerboard, i.e. at the top, a top nut is installed, and immediately after it comes the headstock, on the platform of which there are mechanical pegs designed to tension and fix the metal strings and, most importantly, a nut for adjusting the anchor rod, which protects the neck from deformation due to tension load strings In this example of a Fender Stratocacter guitar, the neck is not glued in and is attached to the body with 4 bolts. The cover on the back of the guitar covers all the bridge mechanics as well as the electrical part.

This is what an electric guitar is like! Well, have you figured it out? Great! Now you know well what parts it consists of. Perhaps this article will help you in choosing a guitar, but we will talk about this in more detail in another article. Don't miss the next post about! Be sure to watch the interesting video under the article to reinforce the learned material.

On the previous page we looked at the types of guitars and settled on the electric guitar. On this page we will look at the parts that make up an electric guitar.

The structure of an electric guitar is shown in Fig. 1.

Rice. 1. Electric guitar structure

Grif. This is the most important part of an electric guitar, since it is the quality of the neck that will determine not only the ease of play, but also the ability to play the electric guitar itself. The neck consists of two parts: the base and the fingerboard. The fingerboard is the layer of wood at the top of the neck on which the nuts are installed, dividing the neck into frets. The type of wood of the base and fingerboard, as well as the thickness of the neck, affect the sound, but discussing these issues is beyond the scope of this course.

Body (deck). The body is also the main part of the electric guitar and plays a big role in shaping the sound.

Pickups. These are devices that convert mechanical vibrations of metal strings into electrical signals (they will not work with nylon strings). There are two types of pickups - single (single) and hambacker (humbucker).
A single-type pickup allows you to get a clear sound (since the sound is picked up from one point on the string), but at the same time it captures electromagnetic radiation well - interference, noise, background, which will be present in the sound of an electric guitar. In addition, compared to humbuckers, the single-coil produces a weak signal. To eliminate the shortcomings of single coils, a humbucker was developed, which uses two coils in such a way that the desired signal is amplified, and interference that is in antiphase cancels each other out. The disadvantage of a humbucker is that the sound is picked up from two points on the string, so there are rises and dips in the signal spectrum, which are perceived by the ear as minor sound distortions. Therefore, a humbucker will not sound like a single-coil, and both of these pickups are often found in guitars - a humbucker for playing rhythm on overdrive, and a single-coil for performing solo parts that require a clean sound (without distortion).

Rice. 2. Passive pickups

Above we looked at passive pickups. However, there are also active pickups, the coils of which use fewer turns, thereby expanding the frequency range (therefore, using active pickups can sometimes significantly improve the sound of an electric guitar). Fewer turns means lower signal level, so the output of this type of pickup produces a very weak signal, to amplify which a preamplifier powered by a 9V battery is installed in the guitar body. This is the main disadvantage of active electronics - it is necessary to replace the battery (although not often). There are different opinions about the sound quality of active and passive electronics. However, for a beginning musician this point is not significant.

Rice. 3. Active EMG Hambacker pickup

The sound of an electric guitar is influenced not only by the types of pickups and their number (you can turn them on individually or together using a switch), but also by their position. There are three pickup positions: at the neck (neck), in the middle (middle) and at the tailpiece (bridge). The sound of the neck when picked is low and deep, and the sound of the bridge is bright and high. Some pickups are designed to be mounted in a specific position - at the neck, in the middle, or at the bridge. This is something to consider when replacing (with better) pickups on an electric guitar.

Pickup switch. Serves to turn on the pickups individually or together, which allows you to get different sounds.

Bridge (typewriter, tailpiece). This is a device that attaches the strings to the body of an electric guitar. There are bridges with and without a tremolo system. Bridges without a tremolo system hold tuning better (the “swinging” of the lever on a budget tremolo system quickly leads to detuning), but they do not allow you to lower (and raise) the tuning while playing.

Rice. 3. Tremolo systems

Tremolo systems (machine) are of the following types: Fender (Fender), Floyd Rose (Floydrose), etc. The Fender machine has a simple mechanism and only allows you to lower the tuning. Electric guitars with a Floyd Rose machine are equipped with microtuning and a special clip, and allow you to both lower and raise the tuning.

Inexpensive guitars with a Floydrose machine have more problems than with a Fender machine. Therefore, you must decide for yourself whether you need the additional features (and additional problems) of a tremolo system or not.

Pegs mechanism (pegs). The tuning machine serves to adjust the pitch of the strings. Its quality affects how well the guitar will stay in tune and how much effort will need to be put into tuning.

Anchor. A curved steel rod that is located inside the neck of an electric guitar and serves to prevent the neck from deforming from the stress created by the tension of the strings. At one end of the anchor there is an anchor nut, the rotation of which with a hex key changes the bend of the neck. Access to the truss rod nut is often covered by a cover that is located at the base of the headstock (at the nut).

Electronics. It is located in the body of the electric guitar, accessed by removing the electronics compartment cover (in the picture it is located on the back of the body of the electric guitar). In the case of active electronics, the body of the electric guitar may have a separate compartment for a 9V battery.

Now you know about the structure of an electric guitar, and we move on to considering their types.