- This article is about part of a stringed instrument. A headstock is also the motorized chuck on a lathe.
A
headstock or
peghead is part of a
guitar or similar stringed instrument such as a
lute,
mandolin,
banjo,
ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at the "head" of the instrument. At the "tail" of the instrument the strings are usually held by a
tailpiece or bridge.
Machine heads on the headstock are commonly used to tune the instrument by adjusting the tension of strings and, consequentially, the pitch of sound they produce.
