(pleasant guitar strumming)
- Hi, everybody.
I'm Mike.
I'm here with Fender
and I'd like to talk with you
a little bit about acoustic guitar anatomy.
Now, you may have just taken your brand new
Fender acoustic guitar out of the box, looked at it
and said, "Well, okay. Now what?"
Well, hold on to your horses.
We're gonna take you on a tour
through some of the important components
of your acoustic guitar.
For this video, I'll be playing a
Fender Paramount acoustic-electric guitar, plugged
into a Fender acoustic amp.
Let's begin with the headstock.
Now, the headstock is where you'll find the tuners,
which allow you to raise or lower the pitch
of the string that you're tuning.
To raise the pitch on this side
of the headstock, turn counterclockwise.
(low note bends)
And to lower it, turn clockwise.
(low note bends)
On the treble side,
to raise the pitch, turn counterclockwise,
(high note bends)
and clockwise to lower,
(high note bends)
like so.
Other guitar models,
have a six-in-line headstock,
like the Acoustasonic,
but this Paramount, has
what we call a three on a side headstock.
Let's move on to the neck.
Now, the neck of this Paramount acoustic guitar is bound,
that's the white material you see
on either side of the fingerboard.
And I wanna point out the frets,
which are the metal bars
that run underneath the strings.
You press down
just behind them to choose (strums chord)
what note you're going to play.
When you fret a note,
(low note rings)
moving up the neck, will raise the pitch,
(sequence of guitar strums)
and moving back down toward the nut, will lower it.
(descending notes play)
On the neck of this acoustic guitar,
you'll notice the position markers.
These are little, pearl inlays
that tell you exactly where you are
on the fret board
and they're located at the third fret,
the fifth fret, seventh, the ninth, the 12th,
and so on.
You'll also notice that the 12th fret has two inlays,
just to let you know that you're at the 12th fret.
Now, the 12th fret, is also the location
of the octave.
What that means, is that when you play a note
at the nut, and again at the 12th fret,
that'll be the same note,
but just an octave higher.
Let me demonstrate.
Here's an E,
(low note rings)
and here's an E at the twelfth fret.
(high note rings)
Same note, just a little higher.
As you're playing guitar, you may also note
that there are dots on the side of the neck
and that just helps you see where you are
when you're standing up and playing with the guitar.
Moving on the body of the guitar,
I'd like to point out the neck joint,
which in this case, is called a heel.
Now, on most acoustic guitars, you'll find
that the neck is glued into the body
but on some models, you'll find that it's bolted on,
just like an electric.
Acoustic guitars can come in a variety of shapes
and sizes, including Parlor, Jumbo, Dreadnought,
Double-o, Triple-o, or Grand Auditorium,
like this one.
This one even has a cutaway to allow easy access
to the frets, at the end of the fret board.
No matter what size or shape your guitar is, it's beautiful.
On an acoustic guitar, the body is made up
of multiple pieces of wood.
Here we have the top, the sides, and the back.
You'll notice, on the top of the guitar, is a pick guard,
which protects the body from vigorous picking.
On the face of the body, we have the bridge,
which is this piece, right here.
On the bridge, we have bridge pins,
into which the strings are anchored,
and the saddle, which is responsible
for governing the height of the strings,
as well as transferring the vibration of the strings
to the top.
On most acoustic-electric guitars, there's a pickup hidden
underneath the saddle.
Now that pickup, takes the strings vibration
and translates that into an electric signal
that gets sent to your amplifier or P.A. system.
The controls for the electric pickup
on this Paramount acoustic, are located
on the side of the body.
We have controls for treble, bass, and volume,
as well as a built-in tuner.
In the center of the body, we have the sound hole,
which is where the sound projects from
when you strum.
It's surrounded by a beautiful decorative rosette.
If your guitar is an acoustic-electric,
you'll want to look for the output jack,
which is usually located right around this area.
That's where you'll plug in the cable
and then plug that cable into your amplifier.
If you're standing up while playing
or simply prefer to use a strap,
you'll wanna look for the strap buttons.
On this Paramount acoustic, they're located here,
and here.
Most often, acoustic guitars will only have an end pin
and in that case, you would tie the other end
of the strap, to the headstock.
And that's everything you need to know
about your acoustic guitar.
For more information, visit Fender.com
and stay tuned for more videos.
(soothing guitar music)