Guitar Parts Trivia Quiz

The headstock is the name of the piece at the top of the guitar which holds the strings in place. The headstock usually contains tuning pegs or a similar mechanism to hold the strings in tension and to allow for the strings to be tuned to the correct notes. There are many different designs of headstock with some having the pegs in two rows and others having all the pegs in one line.

The nut is the name of the small part between the headstock and the neck. The nut can be made from many different types of material including ebony, ivory, bone, brass or plastic. There are notches in the nut that hold the strings and keep them at the right height above the fingerboard and the right distance apart.

Frets are usually made from metal and are located on the fingerboard of the guitar. The frets divide the guitar into sections each representing one semi-tone on the musical scale and they enable a guitarist to accurately play different notes on the instrument by pressing down the string onto the appropriate fret.

The body is the name for the section of the guitar where the sound is created. Guitar bodies are usually made of wood although other materials such as plastic or metal can be used instead.

The tuning pegs, which are sometimes also called machine heads, are small knobs that allow the player to make small adjustments to the tension of the guitar strings. Changing the tension on the strings allows the guitarist to change the tuning of the guitar to ensure that each string is playing the correct note.

The neck of the guitar is a long piece, usually made from wood, which extends from the body to the headstock and holds the fingerboard and frets. Due to the tension that the guitar strings are held under the neck has quite significant force applied to it and so it is usually strengthened with a metal rod called a truss rod which runs inside the wood of the neck.

When a guitarist plucks or strums a guitar string it vibrates; in an acoustic guitar this vibration is transferred to the top of the guitar known as the soundboard which creates the sound of the guitar by amplifying the vibration of the string. An electric guitar does not have a soundboard and instead uses an electrical pickup to detect the vibration and send this signal to an amplifier to create the sound.

The sound hole is a hole in the soundboard of the guitar which enables the soundboard to vibrate more freely and enhances the sound of the instrument by allowing the vibrating air inside the body to escape. Traditionally the sound hole on guitars is round however on some models of guitar f shaped holes (like those used on instruments in the violin family) are used instead.

Guitars usually have six strings however it is possible to get guitars with as few as four strings or as many as eighteen. Guitar strings were traditionally made from animal gut but in more modern times they are made from other materials such as nylon or metal. Nylon strings are common on classical guitars while metal strings tend to be used on acoustic and electric guitars.

The bridge is located on the front of the guitar and holds the strings in place. In non-electric guitars the bridge also helps to transfer the string vibrations to the soundboard to help create the sound of the guitar. The bridge includes a part known as the saddle which supports the strings; the saddle can often by fine-tuned to change the intonation or to raise or lower the height of the strings.