Frets on the Fretboard

On my cigar box guitars, I prefer to paint on frets as opposed to placing fretwire. This allows for smoother slide playing. (Photo by Mark Feuerborn.)

In this post, we will add frets to the fretboard. This is a somewhat simple process, so long as you have a ruler that has both metrics and inches on it. First, we'll need a fret calculator, as the frets on a guitar are not just placed all over. They each have very specific placement dependent on the guitar's scale length, that is, the distance between the bridge and the nut. Go to https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator for the same fret calculator I use.

Here, you'll be prompted to input your desired number of frets (the average number is 19 to 22), and to put your guitar's scale length in. Find your scale length in inches, then convert it to millimeters and input that number for the scale length. The Fret Calculator will also ask you to input your specific instrument, though this is not relevant as we have already determined the bridge placement. It doesn't hurt to select acoustic guitar, in any case.

After putting in all requested information, the calculator will yield the positions of every fret, measured by their distance from the nut. The measurement should be given in millimeters, while most rulers have centimeters on them. To measure with the ruler, move the decimal point on the millimeters over to the left once and the results will now be in centimeters. Proceed to place your ruler's zero mark on the nut, then mark off the fret positions based on their position from the nut.

After marking out all frets, grab a paintbrush and paint up the lines that will now clearly depict your guitar's frets. If you're looking to get even more detailed, the dots seen on a common guitar's fretboard are meant to be put on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th, and 19th frets.