The paper presents the development of approaches to the crack detection in metal rod structures based on the analysis of the lowest eigen-frequency modes. Full-scale experiments and numerical calculations are carried out, and the obtained results are compared. A vibration analyzer is used for full-scale experiments, and numerical calculations are performed by using Autodesk Inventor. With regard to the internal friction, the antinodes of various vibration forms were identified using a specially developed program. The model includes sensors for the the field experiment as masses affecting the frequency-response characteristics. The dependences are obtained for eigen-frequencies in the presence of cracks and for the crack locations. The polynomial dependences of the crack location on the lowest eigen-frequency modes of the rod can be used to analyze the crack position of in cantilever beams.