Most Popular Slang For Guitar That You Should Know

If you’ve ever wandered into a guitar store or overheard two or more guitarists in conversation, you can be forgiven for thinking they lapse, from time to time, into a foreign language.

Talk of pots, pups, axes, and shredding may seem alien to the uninitiated, but these are slang for guitar with which most guitarists will eventually need to become familiar.

Beginner guitar player need not worry; you can learn to play very well without ever knowing that a “pup” is slang for a guitar pickup. Over time, though, these terms will likely become a part of your guitar vocabulary.

So, without further ado, here are a few of the most common slang words used to describe guitars, guitar parts, guitar sounds, and guitar techniques.

Slang Words For Guitar

Six-String

“Well, I walk these streets, a loaded six-string on my back…,” thus begins the final verse of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Referring to the guitar as a six-string has become everyday slang.

Twelve-string guitars and, more recently, seven-string guitars have become very popular; the six-string guitar is still the most popular, though, and the instrument standard.

Axe (Or Ax)

A popular slang term for the electric guitar, “Ax,” or “Axe,” was initially used to describe the Jazz saxophone. It may have been because of the rhyme (sax, ax,) or it may have been because of the swinging motions many sax-men made while playing.

Whatever the origin of the term, it soon became applicable to the jazz trumpet as well. After being used by jazz musicians, later on, guitarists began referring to their guitars as axes too, and this time the phrase stuck.

A relatively recent Christmas Album featuring guitar remakes of holiday standards was titled “Merry Axemas.”

Jazz Box

Generally speaking, there are three types of guitar: hollow body (acoustic), solid body (most electrics), and semi-hollow body.

The semi-hollow body guitar, a beautiful instrument a bit larger than the standard solid-body electric guitar, boasts violin style f-holes. These playable works of art are occasionally referred to as “jazz boxes.”

As popular as the jazz box is among players in that genre, it was probably Chuck Berry who brought the semi-hollow body guitar to the attention of popular music fans everywhere.

Frankenstein

Sometimes, slang words hit the nail right on the head and need little explanation. A “Frankenstein,” as the name would suggest, refers to a guitar cobbled together from the unearthed lifeless remains of dead guitars. Okay, so the slang isn’t that perfect, but it does mean a guitar built from parts of others.

Indeed, this has been going on since electric guitars have been around, but the most popular Frankenstein guitar belonged to the late Eddie Van Halen. Friends of his would refer to his beaten, taped together, souped-up axes as “Frankensteins.” His most famous was the red and white model.

While “Frankenstein” as a proper noun refers to Eddie’s original axe, The Frankenstrat or Frankie, a “Frankenstein” can be any guitar that has been heavily modified to the extent that more than one fundamental part has been switched out.

Slang Describing Guitar Sounds

Dirty

A “dirty” guitar sound refers to a distorted or overdriven sound with lots of feedback. This can be accomplished by raising the gain on the amplifier until the sound becomes “dirty.” Now this slang word is most common in rock music.

Today, countless effects pedals and modeling processers are designed to engineer perfectly dirty sound. Rumor has it The Kinks kicked holes in their guitar amplifiers to produce the distortion that became part of their signature sound.

Clean

A “clean” guitar sound is free of effects or any natural distortion or overdrive. A “clean” guitar should mimic, as closely as is possible, the sound of an acoustic guitar.

Fuzz

“Fuzz” is a particular kind of distortion that relies not so much on overdrive as on a severely clipped soundwave. Jimi Hendrix relied heavily on “fuzz,” as did the Rolling Stones and countless others.

Drops

Drop tunings such as “dropped D” and “dropped C” aren’t actually guitar slang words, but they come up enough in conversation among guitarists and can be confusing to the uninitiated.

“Dropped D” tuning is when the low “E” string is tuned down to a “D”. “Dropped C” tuning means every string, but the low “E” is tuned one whole tone down from standard tuning, and the low “E” is dropped two whole tones.

Slang Related To Guitar Techniques

Riff

Some slang words have become so popular they can barely be called slang. The term riff is one example. However, the proper term for a riff is actually an “ostinato.”

A relatively short, repeating piece of music, a riff is often the first thing that springs to mind when someone thinks of a riff-driven song.

The most effective riffs are often simple-sounding and relatively simple to play. Think Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit“, or the king of all riffs, Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.”

Because effective riffs are often easy to play, and because they form the backbone of so many famous rock songs, they are a staple for beginner guitar players.

Licks

Like a guitar riff, a lick is a short, catchy guitar part. A lick differs from a riff, though, because a lick need not be repeating and is usually played at a higher pitch.

The opening of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and the intro to Eric Clapton’s “Layla” are two examples of highly-effective guitar licks.

To learn about more slang words related to guitars, check out our full article here.