Guitar Anatomy - Parts named?

Many people might not know or simply have not thought about it, that there are many different parts and names to the guitar. Probably because when they look at an guitar all they see is an wooden box with strings attached. So what's to know right?. But there are more to a guitar than it being an wooden box with strings. So here I'm going to name the different parts of the guitar. For both the electric and acoustic guitar. Some parts have more than one name. Depending on who you talk with. But here's a picture that gives the names of the most common parts of the guitar.


Headstock (Head)
The head’s primary purpose is to hold the tuning mechanisms/gears and ends of the strings of the guitar. Do you know that the guitar’s resonance is transmitted through the head when the guitar is played? Try this. Put one of your hands on the head and strum the guitar with the other hand. Have you felt the strong vibrations on the guitar head? The guitar head helps in sustaining the played notes (Hence, "headless" guitars tend to have less sustain than normal guitars)
You might have also observed that the design of the head of the guitar might vary across different guitars (usually slotted on classical guitars and fully solid in acoustic and electric guitars). Well, don’t worry. The design of the guitar head is catered to tuning the guitar and has little effect on the tone of the guitar.


Tuning Peg
Tuning pegs are found resting on the head of the guitar and as the name suggests for itself, they are used to tune the guitar by tightening or loosening the strings.


Nut
The nut is found at where the guitar head meets the neck of the guitar. It is simply a piece of material (e.g. plastic, bone) in which small grooves are carved out. These small grooves hold the strings in the proper position and guide the strings up to the tuning mechanism.
The height of the nut influences the action of the guitar and worn out guitar nuts would cause open strings to buzz. Do seek professional advice if you intend to make any adjustments to the nut.


If you have a cheap guitar that buzz, I'll give you a tip on how to fix this DIY style. Simply cut out some small plastic strips from some PVC food packaging that you have. Loosen the strings and slide the plastic strips in the grooves of the nut so the strings comes up a bit more. The extra clearence the strings get to the frets solves the buzzing sound you get.


Fretboard (Fingerboard) and Frets
The fretboard is also known as the neck of the guitar. The fretboard could be broken up into many smaller sections by thin metal bars called frets. By pressing down a string above a particular fret and playing it, the string will give a pitch at that fret.


Position markers
Position markers are indicators that can be found on certain frets. The position markers can be found usually on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and 15th frets. These markers serve as a fast way for guitarist to locate the frets when playing the guitar.
Note that the 12th fret has a marker that differs from the rest of the markers on the fretboard (normally shown by 2 white dots in most guitars). This is because the 12th fret of a string produces the same note (octave) of a higher pitch an open string.


Pickup - Soundhole - Tone and Volume Controls
Most acoustic and classical guitars have hollow bodies. A soundhole is an opening in the hollow body designed to project the sound of the guitar. Basically, you can think of the sound hole as an amplifier which makes the pluckednote sounds louder.
On the other hand, most electric guitars have a solid body with rectangular magnetic objects called pickups. These pickups are designed to pick up magnetic fluctuations caused by a vibrating string above it. After which, electrical signals are sent from the solid body guitar to amplifiers via cables. Pickups have the same purpose as that of a soundhole. The tone and loudness of the guitar can be controlled using the Tone/Volume Controls.


Pick Guard - Scratch Guard
This part of the guitar is there to prevent the finish of the guitar from being damaged. If you where to play with a plectrum and strumming hard, then this would cause the plectrum tip to scratch the body of the guitar. Not all guitars have this in place. And if you like you can add this to you're guitar if you're affraid of it being scratched.


Body
The body of the guitar comes in all shapes and sizes. Regardless of which, the guitar body holds the bridge, strings, strap holders, pickups (in electric guitars) and volume/tone controls. In general, the quality of the wood as well as design of the body can have a big influence over the tone of the guitar. This is one of the reasons why some guitars can cost up to 10X more than that of another one.


Bridge
The bridge is a piece of hardware where the strings are anchored to the body guitar. In hollow bodied guitars, the bridge transmits vibrations from the strings to the guitar body for amplification. The height of the bridge also determines the action of the guitar. So if you ever need to change the action of your guitar, this is one of the key places to make adjustments.