Guitar Dictionary | A-Z
- Laminated
In the context of guitars, laminated refers to the top and back of an acoustic guitar being made of thin plies of wood that are glued together, as opposed to solid wood guitars.
- Lap Steel Guitar
A guitar played horizontally, on which, a steel bar is used as a slide. Commonly called the Hawaiian Guitar because it was invented and popularised by the Hawaiians.
Synonymous With: Hawaiian Guitar, Steel Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar
- Lead
- Short for electric lead guitar, a guitar that relies on electrical amplification instead of the natural resonance of the instrument. Because there is no need for the resonance of the body, electrical guitars commonly have a solid body instead of a hollow body.
- The insulated wiring used to connect guitars to amplifiers, guitars to effects units or amp heads to speaker cabinets.
Synonymous With: Cable, Cord, Electric Lead Guitar, Lead Guitar
- Left Hand Tapping
Essentially just a hammer-on with the fretting hand but without the string being plucked.
See Also: Tapping, Right Hand Tapping
- Legato
A style of music with a smooth and unbroken flow. In the context of guitar music legato is achieved by techniques that avoid the need to pluck the strings, such as slurs (hammer-ons and pull-offs) and slides.
Full Article on: hammer-ons
- Let Ring
An instruction in written music that states you should allow notes to sound (let the string vibrate) until the sound fades or until the string has to be re-plucked.
- Let Ring Throughout
An instruction in written music that states you allow all notes to ring until the riff is finished.
- Lick
A sequence of notes forming a repeatable or distinguished sound. Licks are like phrases in a vocabulary that you can build guitar solos from.
- Locking Nut
A type of nut that is found on guitars with a locking tremolo system. It consists of a strip of metal that hold the tension of the strings via small metal plates that can be screwed into place.
- Locking Tremolo System
A type of tremolo system patented by Floyd Rose that involves a flexible floating bridge that responds smoothly to the vibrato bar. It is sometimes called the 'double-locking' system because the strings are locked at the bridge and the nut using nut locks. Every time you alter the tension on any of the strings the floating bridge moves and puts the other strings out of tune. This leaves you having to tune your guitar twice before attaching the nut locks, making tuning difficult.
Synonymous With: Floyd Rose Tremolo System, Floyd Rose Vibrato System, Double-Locking System, Double-Locking Vibrato System, Locking Vibrato System
- Locking Vibrato System
A type of tremolo system patented by Floyd Rose that involves a flexible floating bridge that responds smoothly to the vibrato bar. It is sometimes called the 'double-locking' system because the strings are locked at the bridge and the nut using nut locks. Every time you alter the tension on any of the strings the floating bridge moves and puts the other strings out of tune. This leaves you having to tune your guitar twice before attaching the nut locks, making tuning difficult.
Synonymous With: Floyd Rose Tremolo System, Floyd Rose Vibrato System, Double-Locking System, Double-Locking Vibrato System, Locking Tremolo System
- Loudspeaker
A piece of electrical equipment that produces amplified sound. Used in conjunction with an amplifier either in separate units (an amplifier stack) or in one unit (a combo amp).
- Lutherie
The knowledge and craft of making guitars.
- Luthier
A manufacturer of lutes and guitars, acoustic guitars in particular.