Paul's Guitar Museum
5. terms derived from animals...
Paul:
To try to better complete the words of origin describing the guitar it is obvious to me that many of the terms are derived from an animal...
The word "HEAD" describing the part of the guitar which holds the machines - I believe descended from 12th to 14th century guiterns and / or guitar types where the "tuning end" of the
instrument was an elaborately carved animals "HEAD".
BUT... I found Egyptian stringed instruments w/ a sphinx head
carved at the head. also many other instruments w/ animal
or human head depictions carved in the head down through
history.
TAILpiece - obviously at the other end where the strings are tied
BELLY - or table, an archaic term used to describe the top
WAIST - the part of a guitar that incurves coinciding to a human waist
NECK - connecting to the head
SOUL - a term from France denoting the sound post (violin) where vibrations are conducted from the belly to the back
BACK - when tortoise shell lyras were in existence - quite literally the animals back
BLEED - a word used to describe the margin of space between the "E" string and the edge of the fretboard. If a guitar has too little "BLEED" it won't allow the player to bend the "E" string, it will "fret out" because it will "fall off the end of the fret"
HEEL - The part of the guitar neck that arches to meet the sides. This is where the "neck joint" is (hidden behind the heel)
FOOT - A term used to describe the "base" of the "neck block" where (on classical guitars) the back meets the neck block... it kinda looks like a "foot"
