Pick up your guitar and find these five parts. You will touch them every practice session for the rest of your life.
1. Headstock and tuning pegs
The six pegs at the top. Each one tightens or loosens one string. Tighter equals higher note. We will tune in the next lesson.2. Neck and frets
The long part with the metal strips (frets). Your left hand lives here. The first fret is at the top, closest to the headstock; the higher the fret number, the higher the note.3. Pickups
Those black or chrome rectangles under the strings. They are tiny magnets that turn string vibration into electricity. Most electrics have two or three. You will hear the difference between the neck pickup (warm, mellow) and the bridge pickup (bright, biting) by lesson 10.4. Pickup selector, volume, tone
Usually a 3- or 5-way switch plus 1 or 2 knobs. The switch picks which pickup is on. Volume knob is exactly what it sounds like. Tone knob rolls off treble; turn it down for a warmer sound, up for cutting brightness.5. Bridge and output jack
The bridge anchors the strings at the body end. The output jack is where the cable goes. Plug into the input on your amp.Try it
Plug in. Set amp volume low. Strum all six strings open. Flip the pickup selector through every position while you strum. You just heard your guitar speak in different voices.Next: tuning up. Every single time, before every single session.