Guitar fret position calculator

A fret calculator determines the exact distance from the nut to each fret for a given scale length, so the instrument plays in tune along the whole neck.

Any scale length. Presets are included for Fender (25.5", 647.7 mm), Gibson (24.75", 628.65 mm) and PRS (25", 635 mm), and you can enter a custom value.

Each fret position uses the equal temperament formula: distance from nut = scale - (scale / 2^(n/12)), where n is the fret number. The 12th fret therefore falls at exactly half the scale length.

Yes. Enter a treble side scale length, a bass side scale length, the string spacing at the nut and at the bridge, then pick the fret that stays perpendicular to the neck. The table then gives the distance from the nut on each edge of the fretboard, the angle of every fret and its cut length.

The full size template button tiles the neck over several A4 or Letter sheets. Print at 100 %, with no page scaling, then measure the ruler printed on every sheet: if it is not exactly 100 mm, your printer has rescaled the drawing and the template is wrong.

Yes. Advanced mode accepts any number of divisions per octave, 19 or 24 for instance, as well as a Scala (.scl) file for an unequal scale. The share link carries the scale with it.

Each fret takes 5.613 % off the length that is left, so the spacing shrinks as you go up the neck. On a 25.5 in (647.7 mm) scale the nut to first fret gap is 36.4 mm, while the eleventh to twelfth fret gap is only 19.3 mm. The table gives both figures, the distance from the nut and the distance from the previous fret.

Aim for 0.1 mm. On a 25.5 in scale that is about half a cent at the twelfth fret and one cent at the twenty fourth, well under the five cents a trained ear starts to hear. The same error at 0.5 mm stays harmless near the nut but reaches five cents at the twenty fourth fret, which is why placement matters most in the upper positions.

Yes, and nothing changes in the calculation. Fret positions depend on the scale length and nothing else, so the same formula serves a 347 mm soprano ukulele and an 863.6 mm bass. Presets are included for soprano, concert and tenor ukulele, mandolin, five string banjo and the three string cigar box guitar, and any other scale length can be typed in. The number of strings only affects the width of the fretboard, never where the frets go.

Dividing what is left of the string by 17.817 at every fret is the same calculation, written as a shortcut: 17.8172 is exactly 1 / (1 - 2^(-1/12)). Carried out to the twelfth fret it lands within two thousandths of a millimetre of half the scale length, so it is perfectly usable. The older rule of 18 is the same shortcut with a rounder number, and that one is too coarse: on a 25.5 in scale it puts the twelfth fret 2.4 mm too close to the nut, which sounds 12.5 cents flat at the octave. This calculator uses the exact formula.