Fret Fret A fret is a raised element on the neck of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On most modern western fretted instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard. On some historical instruments and non-European instruments, frets are made of pieces of string tied around the neck. Frets divide the neck into fixed segments at intervals related to a musical framework. On instruments such as guitars, each fret represents one semitone in the standard western system, in which one octave is divided into twelve semitones. "Fret" is often used as a
Bass guitar the strings, and extending the lower string scales allows the string to produce harmonics that are more in tune with the fundamental. To keep proper pitch across all frets in a multi-scale bass guitar, a fanned fret design is applied to the fingerboard. In this case, the frets extend from the neck of the instrument at an angle, in contrast to the standard perpendicular arrangement in standard neck designs, in which the fret spacing is wider for the long scale and closer for the short scale. This is not to be confused with perfect intonation across the whole neck, which