Even though there are many other factors which determine the sound of an electric guitar, the woods used in an electric guitar’s body are a fundamental factor in determining the instrument’s tone.

On an electric guitar, the body is usually composed of one or more pieces of solid wood, most commonly Alder, Ash, Maple or Mahogany. Guitar bodies might be made from one single piece of wood, but it’s more common to find guitar bodies made of 2, 3 or 5 thick, solid pieces joined together.

Sometimes guitars feature a slice, or ‘top’, of one kind of wood layered on the main body, or ‘back’. The most common combination for this type of construction is maple layered on mahogany. The main advantages of this are taking advantage of the attractive grain which maple often has, and combining the bright, powerful sound of maple with the rich, warm sound of mahogany. Other wood combinations can be used to take advantage of different looks, sounds and weights.

The human hand is incredibly sensitive, so the exact shape and size of a guitar’s neck makes a huge difference to how the guitar feels, but the neck also has a substantial influence on the instrument’s tone and sustain.

So it doesn’t twist or warp, the hardest, densest woods are used to make necks: on electric guitars, it’s most commonly maple. Necks can be carved from a single piece of wood, or from several pieces joined together for added strength and rigidity.

Although primarily a playability issue, the shape of a neck also affects its overall mass, which has an effect on tone – more mass means a fatter, thicker tone. The profile of the neck can range from a somewhat flattened “D” through a rounded “D” to a distinct “V” shape.

Along with the design of the neck itself, the method of joining the neck to the body greatly affects the tone and character of an electric guitar.

Bolt-On Neck

This type of construction is the most common for electric guitars. The neck is simply bolted onto the body. This design is relatively easy to build, gives a clear, punchy tone, and is easily repaired if a guitar is damaged.

Set-In Neck

The neck is glued into a groove or slot on the body. This method of building a guitar is slower and harder, so is more expensive. This design offers a more pronounced mid-range and bass. A damaged neck or headstock can be repaired, but it’s quite difficult.

Neck-Through-Body

This type of neck extends from the headstock through the end of the body. Each side of the body is glued to an opposite side of the neck, like wings attached to an airplane fuselage. It’s the hardest and most expensive type of electric guitar construction.

Neck through body construction creates an extremely strong instrument capable of excellent sustain with a deep, thick sound. Replacing a damaged neck is impossible. Combined with the cost, this makes neck through body electric guitars relatively rare.

When you play a guitar, you feel the wooden fingerboard and the metal frets inlaid into it more than any other part of the instrument. They affect the sound, the feel and the tuning of the guitar, so picking the right materials and making sure they’re put together correctly is essential.

Hard, dark woods like ebony and rosewood are the most commonly used fingerboard woods as they provide an ideal blend of durability and resilience along with a good tone. Maple is a fairly common option on electric guitars for a different look, feel and tone.

The exact position of a fret between the nut a bridge of a guitar determines the pitch of a note, so the fret grooves are cut into the fingerboard using precision computer controlled cutters so they’re in exactly the right place. The material, height, width, and overall shape of the frets themselves also affect playability, tone, and intonation, so frets are manufactured and installed with the utmost care. Yamaha’s combination of computer-controlled processes for accuracy and the sensitive touch of a craftsperson is the best way to do this.

The guitar’s strings are suspended between the bridge on the body and the nut at the headstock, and it is the distance between the bridge and nut that determines the pitch of the open string. A tiny change in string length can make accurate tuning impossible, so precision is extremely important.

The nut has grooves in which the strings rest that are carefully cut to the perfect size and shape of each string. The depth of each groove is precisely set by a craftsperson for each string to make sure it’s the perfect height from the frets so it’s easy to fret without causing any buzzing.

A guitar’s nut is usually made of hard plastic, bone or advanced synthetic material. Because electric guitarists often bend strings, it’s important that the string doesn’t stick in the nut or the guitar won’t stay in tune. Electric guitar nut materials need to be both hard for good tone, but also slippery for good tuning stability.

Electric guitar bridges can be quite complicated as they perform three key functions.

As with acoustic guitars, the bridge of an electric guitar is where the strings are anchored to the body. The transfer of vibration to the body, and the way the bridge changes the vibration of the strings, controls the tone of the guitar.

An electric guitar bridge is often also referred to as a tremolo or vibrato bridge, which is mounted on springs and lets you modulate, or ‘bend’ the pitch of the strings up or down. Finally, electric guitar bridges are usually adjustable to precisely tune the intonation, so a string played at the 12th fret is exactly one octave above an open string. Perfect intonation means the guitar stays in tune all the way up the fretboard.

Many different factors alter the way the bridge works, feels and sounds including the shape, size and material of each part – even down to the exact angle where the strings sit on the bridge (the saddle) - but there are 3 main types of electric guitar bridge: a vintage tremolo, where the strings pass through a metal block in the back of the guitar that’s attached with springs and allows limited movement; a stoptail bridge that is generally two metal pieces attached to studs in the top of the guitar with no movement; a locking tremolo, which is a complicated bridge that physically clamps the strings at the bridge and nut (using hex bolts) to allow for extreme pitch bends while staying in tune.

Tuning machines are sometimes called machine heads, tuning keys, tuning pegs or tuners. Each string passes through the nut and is attached to a tuning machines on the headstock.

Rotating the key on the tuning machines wraps the string around the tuning machine’s post pulling the string tighter and raising its pitch.

Good quality tuning machines are engineered so the post doesn’t move unless you turn the key, helping keep the guitar in tune.

Electric guitars sometimes feature locking tuning machines, where a mechanism physically locks the string to the post to stop the string slipping and to help tuning stability. Locking tuning machines also make string changes quicker.

The tension produced by a tuned up set of steel strings is considerable, and will bend even a very stiff neck, pulling the headstock towards the neck and making the neck a ’U’ shape. If there is too much of a curve in the neck, the guitar will be hard to play because the strings are a long way from the fretboard.

To counteract this force, steel string guitars have a metal bar called a truss rod embedded in the neck with a nut on one end that can be adjusted to straighten the neck and compensate for the tension of the strings. The nut can usually be accessed either via a removable cover on the headstock.

Almost all guitar necks will need adjustment from time to time due to weather changes or if you change string gauges, but a well installed truss rod will give easy and accurate adjustment throughout the life of a guitar.

The woods used in a guitar and the way they are combined are fundamental tone shaping elements. There is no “best” wood or combination: the individual player’s tonal preferences and needs are the ultimate deciding factors, but there are basic requirements for strength, stability, and tonal balance that guide the selection. The chart below lists some of the woods used for various parts of Yamaha guitars along with their source and main characteristics.

Solid body electric guitars are what they sound like - their bodies are made of one or more pieces of solid wood. The only holes or chambers in the body are to house the electronics and hardware. Solid body electric guitars depend on the type and quality of the wood and of their components to get their individual sound.

Solid body guitars are the most common types of electric guitars. If you want an all-purpose electric guitar that can be used in a wide range of musical situations, then a solid-bodied guitar should be top of your list.

Semi-acoustic guitars (sometimes shortened to just ‘semis’) have hollow bodies, sometimes with a solid wood block down the center where the pickups and bridge are mounted. They have a warmer, more dynamically responsive sound than solid-bodied instruments.

Semi-acoustic guitars still rely on an amplifier, and do not produce a usable sound when played acoustically. Despite this, their amplified sound usually sounds softer and more ‘acoustic’ than solid-body guitars. Their increased responsiveness may explain why they are favored by blues and jazz guitarists.

Semi-acoustic guitars are more prone to feedback than solid guitars. This is why it is unusual to see rock and heavy metal players using hollow-bodied guitars: the distorted sound favored by these musicians increases the chance of feedback.

Electric guitar and bass pickups are an integral part of how the instrument’s sound is produced. The magnetic field of the pickups turns the strings’ vibration into an electrical signal.

The pickup’s own tone is a big part of the guitar’s sound, but because the whole guitar vibrates together, how the pickups and the rest of the guitar match is key to a great tone. A certain pickup might sound great on one guitar, but much less exciting on another instrument.

This type of pickup consists of one coil of wire wound around a magnet. They can be susceptible to hum or buzzing, but give a bright, clear tone which can help express subtle nuances in playing.

Humbucking pickups, or humbuckers, are essentially two single-coil pickups mounted side-by-side and wired together. This adds the two pickups sounds together, which gives them a thick, powerful sound, and also cancels any hum or buzzing. Some guitars with humbuckers feature a switch (usually called a coil split or tap) to turn off one coil and make it work and sound like a single coil pickup.

Along with magnet types and the choice of single coil or humbucking pickups, electric guitar and basses sometimes have an option of active or passive electronics.

Passive electronics are the most common option – there is very little circuitry and the only controls are volume and tone, which makes the sound less bright.

With active pickups, a battery-powered circuit allows you to have EQ which you can boost or cut, like the treble and bass controls on a hi-fi. This gives more tone options, generally has a louder output and gives a more modern sound.