Fret Calculator

If you find this utility useful, please link your site to this page.

This page accurately calculates the position of the fret slots for guitars and basses.

Simply enter the the number of frets and the scale length in millimetres then press the calculate button for an instant result.

Some common guitar scales expressed in inches and millimetres

  • 24.00″ = 609.60mm (Fender Duo-Sonic/Jaguar)
  • 24.75″ = 628.65mm (Gibson or Rickenbacker)
  • 25.00″ = 635.00mm (PRS)
  • 25.50″ = 647.70mm (Fender Stratocaster/Telecaster/Jazzmaster)
  • 27.67″ = 702.82mm (Baritone)
  • 30.00″ = 762.00mm (Short scale bass)
  • 33.25″ = 844.55mm (Medium scale Rickenbacker bass)
  • 34.00″ = 863.60mm (Long scale Fender bass)
 
Fret Distance from previous fret (mm) Distance from nut (mm)

35 Comments on “Fret Calculator”

  1. Thank you for this! I am knitting a Gansey sweater for my partner’s 60th and want to include his beloved Fender Stratocaster – easy to portray the six strings, but I wasn’t sure how to represent the frets. Your calculator has enabled me to accurately draft these across the 300 stitches around the sweater. Fantastic!

  2. I need this! My first time refretting my strat and while cleaning out my very first fret I accidentally increased the width by just enough that the tangs won’t grip. I need to make it work either with glue or with epoxy and this will tell me if I’m centered or not when I do. Crossing my fingers.

  3. Good Morning! I’m building a classical guitar (nylon) and I’m not sure whether or not to do some bridge compensation. Do you have any indication?
    Thanks a lot for the help!!

    • Hi, I can’t help as it’s not something I’ve ever done! Of course a classical guitar has a saddle perpendicular to the fretboard but I don’t know whether it’s the same distance from the 12th fret as the saddle or a little further away.

    • You have two ways of fret posición on classical guitars, the most common is to mesure 650mm from the nut to the Bridge saddle, the compensation on the saddle, is 1,75mm longer on the bass side, using a 3mm wide saddle giving you enough space to calibrate on top., remember that on clasic guitars the third string goes fuul back on the saddle.

  4. What this site helped me with was a problem with intonation and the measurement being off on the length between the nut and the first fret. Also if you ever have in question what your scale length is you can figure it out with this info and a good digital micrometer. This is going to be a go too site for me in the future.

  5. What do you think is a safe margin to round up/down measurements to, when using distance from the nut?

    I’m pretty certain that once the fret tang size, width etc is taken into account that not even a fretboard milled by CNC could be so accurate unless the frets were near instantaneously rammed into the slot to obviate any fore or aft movement of the tang against the wood fibres!

    • Yes you are correct, you also have to take into account the accuracy of the crown.

      And how accurately can anyone measure and cut – 0.2mm or 0.1mm maybe?

  6. I have use this site for all my Fret spacing calculations including fan Fret guitars, and it has never let me down and never been less than 100% accurate. I can’t recommend it highly enough!
    Steve Suggitt, Chapel Guitars

  7. It’s wildly inaccurate.
    24 frets with 473mm length should get me 29.65 at the beginning of the 12th fret.
    Your calc has it at 23.65. Not even close.

    • I think you might be confused.

      Is 473mm the length of your fretboard? You need to use the scale length – i.e. the distance from nut to saddle.

  8. Thanks, building an electric guitar from bits in the shed. Not sure if my Dovetail saw can cut to plus or minus 0.01mm but great to have the ideal answer. The 20 fret Shedocaster made by the Splinter Guitar Co. is about to be fretted using the rolled edges from a tin box of biscuits.

  9. I have compared your indications with other frets calculator. Yoe have exactly the same measurments. Thank you.

  10. Very useful and incredibly quick. Used it to check my own calculations for a cittern I am making. Thanks for the help.

  11. Muchisimas Gracias!!! la verdad es que es una herramienta muy util!

    Many thanks!!! The truth is that it is a very useful tool!

  12. Saved hours of trial and error – ok, guessing! Building a key box for a medieval keyed fiddle, Thanks very much indeed!

  13. Pingback: Stage 9) Slotting the fretboard « Jcsmusical's Blog

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