What Are Guitars Made Of? – 5 Surprising Facts About Guitars

Did you ever get a chance to visit a guitar factory to know what are guitars made of? As a music lover, every second guitarist wishes to see manufacturing units like Fender or Taylor. It does not matter whether you are buying the best acoustic guitar under 100 or not. The quality and performance matter. We have organized this article to get a chance to know what are guitars made of? what happens in the guitar factory? and how they manufacture your favorite models?

Let’s go!

Some Interesting Facts About The Manufacturing Of Guitars

• Animal intestines are used as raw material in natural guitar strings: byproduct only.
• Electric guitars only use a single type of wood, whereas acoustic guitars have multiple types of wood.
• Not every guitar is handcrafted, and machine units make some
• Mahogany, Ash, Maple, Basswood, Walnut, and Spruce are the common types of wood used for manufacturing purposes.
• The tuner, frets, and pickups are made of metal or plastic.

The Forming Of Body Material: Important Procedure On Which Quality Depends

The first and foremost procedure that every guitar manufacturer does is collect the material to construct the body. Mostly, animal intestines are used for strings and frets, and different types of wood are used to manufacture the whole body. However, the quality relies on the kind of wood manufacturers are using.

Furthermore, organic material is now being used in the construction of guitars because they increase the product’s lifespan. If you are a guitar enthusiast, you may know that electric guitars are made of a single type of wood, whereas acoustic guitars have different materials on the top, back, and bottom sides.

Does The Neck Of An Acoustic Guitar Have the Same Type As The Body?

The neck of a guitar is also made of wood, but the scenario is not the same every time. Some guitar models feature a fretboard that is smooth and long-lasting. Moreover, these fretboards are commonly made of rosewood and maple. In some models, the frets used on acoustic guitars are made of soft metal or stainless steel.

You may notice that the fret is glued with the neck or bolted onto the body in your guitar.

Some companies like Yamaha, Fender, or Taylor make a whole acoustic guitar with the same wood. That is why they are relatively costly than other competitive products.

Other Accessories That Makes A Complete Guitar Starter Kit

If you are purchasing a good deal, then you will get additional accessories with a guitar. These included accessories save money on other purchases. Let’s have a look at how they are made of :

Pickups: The first thing is pickup which a person needs to use with acoustic or electric guitar. They are responsible for carrying sound generated by the strings. Most of the pickups are made of magnets and electronic copper wire coils. There are different types of pickup available on the market. It depends on the personal preference of a guitarist with whom he/she is comfortable.

Bridge: It is a part of a guitar that holds strings in place and transfers vibrations from the strings to the soundboard. Bridges are usually made of wood with an ivory or bone saddle supporting the strings.

Headstock: The headstock is a particular part of acoustic/electric guitars where string tuners are placed. They are made of wood and sometimes metal (depending on their manufacturers), but both of them work well. The point to be noted here is that most electric guitars do not have a headstock, which is not a significant problem. Their bottom side can tune those models that do not have headstock.

What Is the Modern Manufacturing Process: Is It Viable Or Not?

The handcrafted manufacturing of guitars is still in trend, and it can never be old because people rely more on it. Some models are designed on custom orders, and they can only be manufactured by hand. On the other hand, most industry giants such as Yamaha, Fender, or Taylor shift their machines from human work to computerized machine units.

These brands thought that the computerized method would increase efficiency and productivity, which is true to some extent. But, still, they need a workforce to operate these machine units.

“The most common type of computerized software used among brands is Solidworks”

Aharon

Aharon is a music artist and blogger. He is passionate about music and currently doing bachelor’s from University Of Istanbul in Turkey. Aharon loves to know about the latest musical instruments and products and his passion took him forward to start a blog on it. He aims to provide unbiased product reviews of musical instruments that help other newbies to know what exactly they want in order to know that they are spending their money on a right product