Picking apart the electric guitar

Interested in electric guitars, but can’t get your head around reviews and specialist articles? You’re in the right place. After this article, you should be able to follow even the most in-depth guitar nerds.

You’ll find the parts mentioned here on every electric guitar, they’ll just look slightly different depending on the model. After that, I’ll go deep into every component listed.

1. Truss rod
2. Pickups
3. Body
4. Bridge
5. Output jack
6. Tone knobs
7. Volume knob
8. Pickup selector switch
9. Pickguard
10. Neck/fretboard
11. Frets
12. Nut

Truss rod

Strictly speaking, what you see in the picture isn’t the rod itself, but the opening used to align it. The truss rod is a piece of metal that goes through the entire neck, stabilising it. It’s very important, as steel strings pull much stronger than nylon ones. The curvature of the rod can be changed using a hexagonal wrench. This in turn is necessary because thicker strings pull more strongly than thin ones, bending the neck more.

If the neck is too curved, the strings will be too far away from the frets and the guitar will be difficult to play. The reverse, a neck that’s completely flat or even bent to the wrong side, means that the strings can no longer vibrate freely and start to rattle.

Some modern electric guitars have a kind of rotary wheel at the lower end of the neck instead of this opening.

Pickups

A pickup generates an electrical signal from string vibrations. The sound of a guitar depends heavily on the pickups. To produce different types of sound, most electric guitars have more than one pickup, the most common being two or three.

Most guitar pickups are either single-coil or humbuckers. Single coils have only one copper wire coil. They sound brighter and are more susceptible to buzzing. Humbuckers consist of two copper wire coils and usually end up twice as wide. They buzz much less, are louder and have a thicker, but also somewhat muffled sound. If two single coils are activated at the same time, buzzing can be reduced as with a humbucker.

See also the pickup selector switch below

Body

In contrast to an acoustic guitar, the body of an electric guitar isn’t hollow, it’s entirely wood. As a result, manufacturers usually prefer types of wood that aren’t too heavy. There are exceptions: some electric guitars have a partially hollow body, so-called semi-acoustic or semi-resonant guitars. But even they’re pretty quiet without amplification. The body generally has much less effect on the sound of an electric guitar than that of an acoustic guitar.

Guitars can be divided into types according to the shape of the body. The most common:

• S or ST for Stratocaster design – note that only Fender and the associated brand Squier can use the full name.
• T for Telecaster – again, the full name is reserved for the Fender brand, although there are many imitations.
• LP for Les Paul – this brand name belongs to the Gibson company. Sometimes also referred to as «single cut» because one side is cut out at the top.
• SG – another well-known Gibson guitar. Sometimes also referred to as double-cut.

Bridge

The bridge marks the lower end of the freely vibrating strings. Different concepts apply here – it’s important to differentiate between a moving and fixed bridge. With the former, also known as «vibrato» or «whammy bar», you can change the pitch of strings by tightening or loosening them. This enables special sounds.

Even with a rigid bridge, there are screws with which the bridge or parts of it can be aligned and thus easily moved. This is necessary to adjust the string height. In addition, individual strings can be shortened or lengthened slightly at the bridge to precisely tune your guitar.

Output jack

Not much to say here. It’s where you plug in your guitar cable.

Tone knobs

Tone control mainly affects the treble range. If it’s at maximum, the guitar sounds bright. At the lowest end, it’ll sound dull. Some guitars only have one tone knob for all pickups, such as the Fender Telecaster. Others have one control per pickup, the Gibson Les Paul, for example. The Stratocaster is a special case – it has three pickups, but only two tone knobs. With traditional wiring, the bridge pickup can’t be controlled. With modern wiring, the lower knob is responsible for two pickups simultaneously.

Volume knob

The volume knob can also be responsible for every pickup or just one specifically. Many guitars lose some of their treble range when volume is turned down. To avoid this, special circuits called «treble bleed» are required.

Pickup selector switch

This switch determines which pickup is active. In certain positions, several pickups can be active at the same time. Your choice of pickup has a strong influence on your sound. A pickup near the neck has a warm, soft sound, while one near the bridge has a more cutting, hard sound. It’s similar to striking a string in different places.

Depending on how many pickups a guitar has, it needs different switches. Most have three or five possible positions.

• Three-way switch: common on guitars with two pickups. The upper position usually activates the neck pickup and the lower position the bridge pickup, while the middle position activates both.
• Five-way switch: common on guitars with three pickups. If the switch points towards the neck, the pickup near the neck is active. The same applies to the bridge pickup and the one in the middle. Intermediate positions 2 and 4 usually activate the neck and middle pickups or the bridge and middle pickups respectively. The combination of bridge and neck pickup as well as all three aren’t covered. Some guitars have a second switch to activate these, however.

The positions of five-way switches in particular are often numbered. If the switch is in position 1, it points towards the bridge and activates the lowest pickup. Position 2 activates the bridge and middle pickup, position 3 only the middle, and so on.

Pickguard

The pickguard, usually a piece of plastic, protects the guitar from damage caused by the pick or right hand. At the same time, it usually also covers some of the electronics and supports the pickups.

Neck

A guitar’s neck denotes the entire elongated part above the body. The thickness and shape of the neck are decisive for playing feel. Seen as a cross-section, the shape will look like either the letters C, U or V, depending on the type.

C is by far the most common. Flat C shapes are also referred to as D shapes or «C modern». According to Fender, however, D refers to a particularly wide fingerboard and not a specific neck shape.

On Fender guitars, the neck is usually screwed on and can be replaced. Gibson glue theirs, so they aren’t interchangeable.

Fretboard/fingerboard

The fretboard is the part of the neck on which you press the strings. It has to be made of very hard wood – maple, rosewood or, more recently, pao ferro are commonly used. There are lacquered and natural necks, which require different cleaning.

The fretboard of electric guitars is slightly rounded: middle strings are slightly elevated above those on the edge. This curvature strength is indicated by a radius. A 7.25-inch fretboard is strongly curved, 12 inches is rather flat. A flat fretboard can make pull-offs and fast solos easier, while a strong curvature is preferred for rhythm guitars.

Frets

Frets can refer to both the frets themselves and the spaces between that you press with your finger. The frets of different guitars differ both in height and thickness – both have an effect on playing feel. Some manufacturers claim to make their frets from particularly hard steel so that they don’t wear out even after many years.

Nut

The nut is the narrow strip at the top of the fretboard. It’s effectively the zero fret. Unlike frets, it isn’t made of metal, but of bone or plastic. Make sure not to confuse it with the saddle, located at the other end of the strings, near the bridge.