Acoustic Guitar - An acoustic guitar is a guitar that is not dependent on an external device to be heard. The acoustic guitar is quieter than other instruments found in bands, so when played in groups is often externally amplified (thus called acoustic/electric). Included in this group are the classical and flamenco guitars, steel string guitars and the archtop.

 

Bridge - The purpose of the bridge on an acoustic guitar is to transfer the vibration from the strings to the soundboard, which then vibrates the air inside of the guitar and amplifies the sound produced by the strings. On both electric and acoustic guitars, the bridge holds the strings in place on the body.

Electric Guitar - Electric guitars have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies, and create little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups convert vibrations of the steel strings into electrical signals. These are fed into an amplifier through a cable or radio transmitter. The sound frequently gets modified by other electronic devices or through the natural distortion of valves in the amplifier.

Electronics - On the guitars that have electronics, these components allow the player to control some aspects of the sound like volume or tone. These at their simplest include passive components such as potentiometers and capacitors, and may also include specialized integrated circuits or other active components requiring the use of batteries for power, preamplification, signal processing, or even for tuning. In many cases the electronics have shielding to prevent the pickup of external interference and noise.

 

Fretboard (or fingerboard) - is a thin, long strip of wood that is laminated (sometimes includes pearl inlays) to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run. In the playing of guitars, a musician presses the strings down towards it in order to change their vibrating lengths, this causes changes in pitch. This is called "stopping" the strings.

Fret - a small bar of metal across the fingerboard of the guitar; when the string is pressed by a finger at the metal bar it will produce a note of the desired pitch

Guitar Pick - a plectrum used to pluck a guitar usually made out of plastic. Can be found in many shapes and sizes, as well as, density.

Guitar Strings - The six (or twelve) strings of the guitar need to vibrate at different frequencies in order to produce the range of pitches required to create music on the instrument.

Guitar Body - The acoustic guitar body while helpful when holding the guitar when playing is designed for sound which is shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity.

Hard-tail - Instruments without a vibrato arm are considered hard-tail.

Headstock - The headstock is located at the end of the guitar neck furthest from the body. It is fitted with machine heads that adjust the tension of the strings.

Hollow Body Guitar - Is a semi-acoustic or hollow-body electric that is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups.

Inlays - Inlays on a guitar are visual elements set into the exterior of the wood. Typically, the inlays are located on the fretboard, headstock, around the soundhole and on the pickguard. Inlays range from simple plastic dots on the fretboard to fantastic works of art covering the entire exterior surface of a guitar.

Inlays shown on the headstock and neck

Lining - The top, back and ribs of an acoustic guitar body are very thin, so a flexible piece of wood called lining is glued into the corners where the rib meets the top and back.

 

Neck - A guitar's frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock, and truss rod are all attached to a long wooden extension, collectively they constitute the guitars neck.

Neck Joint - This is the point where the neck is either bolted or glued to the body of the guitar.

Nut - The nut is a small strip of bone, plastic, brass, corian, graphite, stainless steel, or other medium-hard material, at the joint where the headstock meets the fretboard.

Pickguard - This is usually a piece of laminated plastic or other material that protects the finish of the top of the guitar from damage due to the use of a plectrum or fingernails.

Pickups - There are two main types of pickup: the single coil and double coil (known as humbuckers), each of these can be either passive or active.

Truss Rod - Is a metal rod that runs along the inside of the neck. It is used to correct changes to the neck's curvature caused by the neck timbers aging, changes in humidity or to compensate for changes in the tension of strings.

Vibrato arm - a lever attached to the bridge or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar enabling the player to quickly vary the tension and the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento or pitch bend effect. This is also called a tremolo arm, tremolo bar, vibrato bar, whammy bar or wang bar.