Guitar Bits and Pieces Trivia Quiz

Answer: Foot

The head is at the top of the neck (surprise, surprise) and generally houses the tuning keys and the maker's brand.

The neck joins the body to the head. The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone ___ er, where was I?

The horns are the sticky outey bits at the front of the body on some guitars - think Fender Strat. They are used for balance and appearance.

Answer: Nut

The nut is traditionally made of bone though plastic and carbon fibre are becoming more common. I use cow bone when I carve a nut because I get it free from my butcher, it's nice and organic and means there is another piece of a dead cow not being wasted.

The bridge is way down at the other end. It also supports the strings.

Answer: Zero fret

I've never heard of a high fret and "top fret" is an informal term used by the ill-informed.

"Don't you fret" is something my mother used to say. It's also a Kinks song from way back (I suspect my mother may have known Ray Davies before she met my dad).

Answer: Vibrato unit

Vibrato unit is the generally accepted "correct" term for the tremolo arm or whammy bar.

Bigsby is a manufacturer of fully excellent vibratos. I like them because they have "no springs attached"

Answer: Tone, sustain, weight and durability

Some pundits will tell you that the body timber has no impact on tone and that all tone comes from the pickups. While the pickups are probably the prime determinants of tone the timber also has something to do with it. I don't know why but I've built identical guitars only differing the body timber and they sound different.

Timber certainly effects sustain (sound over time) as some timbers seem to deaden a note.

Weight is a key consideration. Guitarists tell me that their upper bodies get very tired after hoisting a guitar for a couple of hours.

Durability is also important. You don't want your guitar to wear away after a few months or get a dent each time you get drunk and drop it. Not that electric guitarists ever get drunk, eh?

Answer: Truss rod

When you tighten up a bunch of steel strings the neck of the guitar suffers extreme force. Without the truss rod a neck would bend and break eventually. To counteract this the luthier fits a truss rod in a groove in the neck under the fingerboard. The truss rod usually has a rod fixed in a steel channel. The rod is threaded so that when it is turned it screws through the channel which effectively changes its length. This causes the whole thing to bend which offsets the bend in the neck.

Truss rods generally come in two types single and double action. The latter will bend both up and down according to the direction that the screw is turned.

If you're buying a guitar check the neck for straightness and also make sure the truss rod is working by adjusting it with the correct tool (usually an allen key). BE CAREFULL! A little bit of turn translates to a major deflection in the neck.

Answer: The Action

Some guitarists like a high action, some like a low one. Generally speaking a low action suits a fast style (no letters please, I did say "generally speaking"). A low action increases the risk of strings "buzzing" against the next fret down.

Answer: 12th fret

One of the key dimensions of a guitar (and all string instruments with equal length strings) is the "Scale Length". This is the distance between the two support points at each end of the strings (usually the nut and the bridge). The 12th fret is placed half way along this length and, obviously, divides the string in two. Divide a string in two and you get a note one ocatave higher than the strings open frequency. Divide it at the 2/3 point and you get into fifths. I will say no more because I ain't no musician and I'm liable to get it wrong.

Answer: To eliminate the hum inherent in single coil pickups.

A pickup is basically a magnet with copper wire wound around it. If you move a piece of steel (the string) in the magnet's field you will create an electric current in the coiled wire. You can then send this current to an amplifier to turn it into sound. By varying the frequency at which the string moves (by changing its length) you vary the frequency of the current and hence the final note.

The problem with single coil pickups is that they transmit "Mains Hum". This is usually a 50Hz or 60Hz hum caused when the pickup picks up EMF from the environment, often from local electric wiring or other AC sources.

Humbuckers us two windings of opposing polarity. This means that each winding cancels the hum caused by the other - they "buck the hum". They probably said something else but changed it so they could go public.

Nylon strings would not work on an electric guitar. Strictly speaking they would make a sound but you wouldn't be able to hear it. This raises all sorts of existential questions that are beyond the scope of this quiz and too boring for me to even consider.

Answer: Gidgee.

Fingerboards need to be hard and pretty. Traditionally they have been made from ebony or rosewood but these are both endangered species. Until sustainable plantations are set up any luthier with a modicum of conscience should steer well away from them.

Gidgee is a remarkable Australian timber in relatively plentiful supply. It's harder than ebony, very attractive and easy to get.

Spruce is used for the tops of arch tops and violins but is too soft for fingerboards.

Tallowood is another Australian timber but makes lousy fingerboards as it tends to crack and split.

Balsa is way too soft. Good for model aeroplanes but that's about all.