The fingerboard, also known as a fretboard, is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of wood that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run. In the playing of such an instrument, a musician presses the strings down to it in order to change their vibrating lengths, causing changes in pitch.
A fingerboard may be fretted, having raised strips of hard material perpendicular to the strings against which the strings are pressed when pressed down; frets generally allow for more precise changes in pitch and for less dampening of the vibrations. Frets may be fixed, as on a guitar or mandolin, or movable, as on a lute. Fingerboards may also be unfretted, as they usually are on bow-played instruments, where dampening is generally not a problem due to the prolonged stimulation of the strings. Fingerboards may also be, though uncommon, a hybrid of these two. Such a construction is seen on the sitar, where arched frets attach at the edges of the fingerboard; unfretted strings run below the frets, while fretted ones run above. The frets are sufficiently high that pressing strings against the fingerboard is unnecessary for the frets to stop their vibrations so that the lower strings' vibrations are uninterrupted.
A fingerboard is also a article of climbing training equipment.
