Fretboard radius - Guitar Building Tricks and Tips

RE: Fretboard radius

Rocknroller912 — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 20:22:14 +0000

@tv101

You are correct I think. I did a new fretboard for a professional jazz player two years ago and this is what he said.

RE: Fretboard radius

NSJ — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:21:13 +0000

@tv101 the thing that gets me is a compound radius, they're often 12 to 16 but there's so little in it it seems a bit pointless. I think between a 7.5 or 9 and a 16 you'd notice it more but those three seem way to similar to be very noticeable at all.

RE: Fretboard radius

NSJ — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:18:37 +0000

@robin a tighter radius is meant to be more comfortable for chords but if bending a string doing solos the string can choke out because you're pushing up hill so to speak. With a flatter radius you can have the strings low and do big bends without them choking out.

RE: Fretboard radius

Russ — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:14:50 +0000

Apparently all the young "Shredders" like a flatter radius so they can play fast @robin. 🤣

🙂🎸🎶🙏

RE: Fretboard radius

tv1 — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:40:11 +0000

What's the an advantage to having a flatter fretboard, I'm not a player, still learning?

(Allegedly), it's easier to play and bend single notes vs easier to play chords. But I can never remember which is supposedly easier to do on which sort of radius!

Acoustics tend to be flatter, so I guess that implies that single notes are easier on flatter radiused boards, and chords on more radiused boards, but that's pure guess ...

RE: Fretboard radius

tv1 — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:31:41 +0000

My curiosity got the better of me so I rigged up a crude jig and drew a 12, 14 and 16 inch radius to see the difference, needless to say it's not a lot!

I've never really understood why some guitarists are so insistent that they can "only" play a guitar with X, Y, or Z radius, or a scale length of this, that or the other, or only 21, 22 or 27.5 frets (etc).

I have no idea about those specs on most of my guitars. Sure, some feel different when I play them, but that's what I want from having different guitars - a different feel and sound from them.

I can play them all equally badly.

RE: Fretboard radius

Robin — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:22:07 +0000

What's the an advantage to having a flatter fretboard, I'm not a player, still learning?

Fretboard radius

NSJ — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 01:03:26 +0000

My curiosity got the better of me so I rigged up a crude jig and drew a 12, 14 and 16 inch radius to see the difference, needless to say it's not a lot!

Looks like you could use a 12 ich bridge with a 16 radius board without any major issues. I always had it in my head there'd be a bigger difference.

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