Guitar Glossary

Abalone - These are molluscs. Their shells are used for inlays on the bodywork of both electric and acoustic guitars.

Action - This is the distance from the strings to the guitar's frets.

Alnico - This is the magnet used in electric guitar pickups. It's made from aluminium, nickel, and cobalt.

Backline - This is just another way of saying the set up.. amplification, stands, microphones..

Body - The main piece of your guitar that seems to hold everything else together.

Bolt-on Neck - This is any guitar neck that is screwed on, traditionally all fender guitars have bolt on necks.

Bottleneck - This is another term for a slide, which fits onto your finger. When playing with a slide, it gives an eerie sound. It is called a bottleneck because guitarists used to use the neck of a glass bottle as a slide.

Bridge - This is the fitting that secures the strings to the body of the guitar.

Ceramic - This is the material used for most metal style pickups.

Coil Tap - This is a switch that allows the player to turn off one of the coils in a humbucker to therefore turn it into a single coil pickup.

Combo - This means an amp with built in speakers.

Filtertron - This is a type of pickup mainly used by Gretsch.

Fine Tuner - This is featured on a floyd rose vibrato. There are small screws that are used for tuning.

Fingerboard - The wood that is on the neck that has the frets on it.

Fret - The small metal strips on the fingerboard. There are normally 21, 22 or 24.

Headstock - This is at the end of the neck furthest from the body. This is where the machineheads are positioned.

Humbucker - This is a type of pickup that was designed by Gibson. It gives a fatter sound than standard single coils.

Jack Socket - This is where you plug the lead into the guitar.

Machineheads - These are the mechanisms that keep the strings tightly secured to the end of the neck. They allow you to tune the guitar.

Neck - This is the bit you hold while you play

Neck-thru Body - This is where the neck is also part of the body.

P90 - This is a type of pickup which is popular in blues guitarists, as it is a single coil with a slightly fatter sound.

Pickguard - This is also referred to as a scratchplate. It's the plastic piece located below the soundhole or around and below the pickups.

Pickups - This is what allows your electric guitar to be played through an amp. It picks up the sound vibrations from the string.

Polepiece - These are the 6 metal cylinders that poke out of single coil pickups.

Scale Length - This is the distance between the top nut and the bridge.

Set neck - This is where the neck is glued to the body, such as a Gibson Les Paul.

Single Coil - This is a pickup made famous by Fender Stratocasters.

Slide - This is a glass or metal tube that is placed on a finger and used to gently touch the strings while playing.

Spring Claw - This is the metal piece that hols the vibrato strings together.

Stoptail Bridge - This is a combination of a bridge and a tailpiece found on some guitars.

Tailpiece - This is usually found on jazz guitars, and is what keeps the strings and bridge attached to the body.

Top Nut - This is the plastic piece that the strings sit on at the top of the neck.

Truss Rod - This is a metal bar that runs through the entire neck of the body, which can be adjusted by removing the strings and the cover on the headstock. Be careful though, this is what keeps the tension in the strings from snapping the neck.

Tubes - This is slang for the valves in an amp.

Vibrato - This is a change in pitch.