As soon as you get your shiny new guitar, or shiny used guitar, you should want to pick it up and jam away to your favorite rock band. Unfortunately if you’re reading this you probably didn’t purchase the ability to play guitar while at the local shop. This will be the lesson that starts off a series of lessons designed to get you playing guitar as efficiently and quickly as possible.  

The Guitars Neck and Headstock

This doesn’t mean you can just play songs and such immediately, but you will know how they work and why they sound the way they do. Some guitarists just learn how to play chords and songs and don’t know how to reproduce the feeling they want in their original music. GLI has fine-tuned these lessons so that you will know chords, scales, arpeggios, rhythms, and a vast amount of other information that will make you the best player in the least amount of time. You will not just play chords like some sort of juke box, but you will know how to make your own chords, know what notes are in every chord and know how to construct it in a short time, such as F#m7. Yes you will understand this as well.

To start out, we need to cover some basic guitar anatomy. Like a car, you can’t use a guitar without knowing what does what! Let’s take a look at the most common type of headstock.

Chances are your headstock looks a lot like this one. If it does not look exactly like this, then it shouldn’t be very different (unless you're playing a broomstick or inanimate object for a guitar). Differences may will include tuning pegs on both sides and maybe even a different color. These differences are only minimal, and your guitar will still have these vital parts. Lets cover the top half first!

Tuning pegs – Tuning pegs lengthen or shorten the length of the string; use these to tune your guitar.

Tuning Posts – The tuning pegs turn the tuning posts to increase string tension when tuning.

Truss Rod – This is a metal or carbon rod that goes through the neck of your guitar. Truss rods counteract the tension that the strings put on the neck, giving you a strait guitar neck. Without a truss rod your neck would be bent or maybe even break!

Nut – The nut holds the strings in place at a certain distance. It also helps strings to ring when they are not fretted. Some nuts are called “locking nuts” and clamp down on the strings to keep them from going out of tune, usually on Floyd Rose style tremolos.

Fret – A piece of inlayed metal to adjust the length of the string resulting in different pitches is called a  fret. It’s like a bunch of nuts on the fret board.

Fretboard – The fretboard is somewhat self-explanatory - it is the area that contains the frets, a thin piece of wood slightly curved on top for comfort. The fretboard glues on top of the neck. The fretboard is NOT the neck of the guitar!

Headstock – The headstock contains the tuning pegs, posts, truss rod adjustment, and nut. This is where your guitar's brand and name are placed. The headstock is usually the same piece of wood as the neck, but sometimes they are separate.

Fret Marker – This is an inlay of plastic, ivory, or other synthetic material that gives an easy access point to quickly locate frets. Fret markers are usually at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets. You should memorize which frets have a marker during your first few practice sessions.

 

The Guitar's Body

If your headstock looks like the one above, then the body of your guitar should closely resemble this one. Since all guitars are not necessarily shaped like Fender Stratocasters, yours may be a little different but should have the same components, as long as it works…

Single Coils – These are arm pickups, which 'pick up' the vibration of the strings with magnets and convert it to an electrical signal that is sent to the amplifier.

Humbuckers – Humbuckers are pickups that have two single coils wired together; one is wired normally and the other is wired backwards! This cancels out humming and buzzing when the strings are not moving.

Bridge – The bridge holds the strings in place much like the nut. The bridge can set the action and intonation of your guitar; if your guitar is strait from the shop, you won’t need to worry about these items.

Whammy Bars (not pictured) – Whammy bars attach to the bridge, and when pressed, move the bridge so that string tension is decreased and the pitches are lowered. Whammy bars are detachable and you may have to put yours on before you use it.

Strap Button – Strap buttons hold the strap in place so your guitar can safely hang from your neck. If your strap buttons are in the wrong place, your guitar may hang at the wrong angle.

Pick Guard – This is a sheet of plastic that prevents your hand or pick from scratching the guitar's finish.

Pickup Selector – This switch selects which pickups are on or off, often a 5 way switch.

Ton and Volume Knobs – These knobs adjust the Volume and Tone. If you have two tone knobs, each will control a different pickup.

Input – Ironically called the input in many cases, this is where the signal of your guitar is sent to the amplifier. But you do plug a cable from your amp into this jack.

Make sure you know what parts perform which function. Some you will use frequently and others you might not want to touch or adjust. However, with this information under your belt, you should be able to move on to basic playing and tuning.