Parts of Guitar - Electric Guitar

Introduction

Dear friends, welcome to our blog. In our last post we discussed about all parts of guitar related to acoustic guitar. Today we would discuss parts of the guitar found on electric guitar. Although most of them are similar to acoustic guitar except a few differences, that we are discussing here in this post. So continue reading and enjoy.

 

Parts of Electric Guitar

 Pickups

Pickups are transducers attached to a guitar that detect (or "pick up") string vibrations and convert the mechanical energy of the string into electrical energy. The resultant electrical signal can then be electronically amplified. The most common type of pickup is electromagnetic in design. These contain magnets that are tightly wrapped in a coil, or coils, of copper wire. Such pickups are usually placed right underneath the guitar strings. Electromagnetic pickups work on the same principles and in a similar manner to an electrical generator. The vibration of the strings causes a small voltage to be created in the coils surrounding the magnets, this signal voltage is later amplified.

Volume & Tone Control (Electronics)

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

Tremelo or Vibrato Arm

The Vibrato (pitch bend) unit found on many electric guitars has also had slang terms applied to it, such as "tremolo bar (or arm)", "sissy bar", "wang bar", "slam handle", "whammy handle", and "whammy bar". It is used for a pitch raising effect.

 

Pickup Selector Switch

 

In most of the electric guitar they are equipped with multiple pickups. The guitarist are given an option to select the pickup which he needs to use. This could be achieved by adjusting the pickup selector switch. Commonly, it has five way adjustment selector to produce the desired sound effect.

 

Output Jack

This is the way through which the electric guitar sound is sent for amplification. The output signals are sent via an audio cable to the guitar amplifier.