Compound fretboard radius?

martin b

Hello. Just wanted to run a little notion through the collective wisdom filters on here. I'm planning a refret on my guitar soon, from the vintage narrow I have now to a medium jumbo, and am pretty set on the Evo Gold wire. So I've been musing for some time on whether there are any subtle tweaks I could make to the board to enhance playability. For example I'm thinking of rolling the edges just very slightly to help with thumb-overs etc. Easing the feel of the width without changing the width as it were. So nothing drastic.
Then I began to wonder if there was any reason why I shouldn't consider the radius as well. The flatter boards of these guitars obviously echo the classical heritage of their origins, but is this just convention, or are there any practical reasons why this aspect should be adhered to? I feel like I would enjoy a little more camber around the first position especially, but of course this is not an adjustment you can try out and then reverse out of.
I'm told Collings guitars have a compound radius of 12"-17". Sounds pretty well thought out to me. I believe the Selmer spec is 16", am I correct? I don't know the radius on my guitar, but it's pretty flat. My feeling is that this modification might gently improve playing comfort whilst not radically altering the guitar.
I've pored through the treasure trove of expertise and opinion on these forums and have gained much enlightenment, but have never seen this discussed. So, any builders, techs, seasoned tweakers out there have anything to say on this? Maybe people are doing this already. Or, at the very least, could someone just shoot down this idea before I screw up my guitar!
Thanks for listening.

Jazzaferri

I have been toying with this idea as well. As I get older I find barre chords or are position playing gets harder as the joints in my fingers become more prominent. A shorter radius would make for less finger pressure to get clean notes. A compound radius on 2 sides might work. The hard part is making sure the radius changes happen in the right spot for your fingers

martin b

Yes exactly, less finger pressure and a more optimum angle. Not sure what you mean by "a compound radius on 2 sides". I guess I'm hoping someone's worked this out already and will just give us the recipe!
Thanks Jazzaferri.

alton

Hmmm. This is a topic I used to obsess over on electrics. Tonally, I was always a Gibson fellow, but after owning several, I never really found one that fit me. I found that the neck on a 1970's fender strat was the most comfortable for my paws. Terribly built guitars, comfortable necks. So i bought one. I began to notice that fretting and picking was easier and attributed it to the radius. 7 1/2" was it for me. All other guitars felt like I was playing a flat 2"x4". I had the strat refretted with extra jumbo train tracks (also replaced pickups, tuners, fixed stupid 3 bolt neck joint, etc) and asked the luthier to do a slight compound radius on the higher frets (not so much the board, just the frets) so that bent notes didn't fret out. It plays great and is my most comfortable electric.....going off subject here.

Anyway. With all of the crazy chords that we grab in this music, I am surprised that smaller radii are not more common. I have trouble grabbing certain chords comfortably on GJ guitars (min6/9 anyone?), yet I can nail just about any chord easily on my strat, and I never even gave fretboard radius a thought until this thread. Good one @martin b. I'd also like to hear others weigh in on this.

martin b

Thanks Alton, yes a vintage Fender neck is the electric neck for me too. The modern ones have a flatter radius, 9" I believe, and I don't care for it. I also have a little Portuguese Fado guitar (which I don't know the first thing about playing) which has something like a 4" or 5" curve, crazy, but it feels right and they clearly like it that way.
That's all apples and oranges of course. In my view, for those of us coming in from playing American style guitars, the longer scale length is the main challenge and requires the most adjustment, and is what makes some of those chords a real stretch. I'm just thinking this might make clean chording a little easier.

Buco

The neck on my friend's Shelly Park feels more like an electric would though I don't know the specs.

Jazzaferri

as a side benefit having a lot of radius makes it easier to pick chords with the bottom note not on S6 without playing a mute on the sixth string

crookedpinky

I'm putting a new fingerboard on an old-ish Anastasio. It originally had a Les Paul style headstock which was impossible to find tuners for and and extremely narrow neck - very akin to a Les Paul size only 670 mm scale. It was an odd beast. Anyway I remodelled the headstock to a Selmer style and ordered a radiused fingerboard. However it occurred to me in a dream that if I simply cut the board to fit the neck that the radius would be wrong at the nut end. This article explains why. http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Neck_Building_and_Repair_and_Setup/Compound_Radius_Explained.html
I am now refretting with a flat ebony board as I don't have the skills and tool to do a compound radius and I'm not confident that I would get the radius calcualtions right. My other alternative is just to get a luthier to do it. Good luck to all of you with your refrets/new board.

Bones

You can buy a pre-slotted and radiused fingerboard from I think Stew Mac or Luthiers Merchantile.

You can do a sort of compound radius yourself with a series or radiused sanding blocks and then finish off by blending the radii with a flat sanding board.

Ebony is tough to hand sand. Put on a CD and take your time. Check your progress often. You can't put the wood back on very easily.

Jazzaferri

You must however matchtheradius of the nut and bridge in order for it to work properly

crookedpinky

That was my point Jazzaferri. A pre radiused and fretted board sounded like the perfect answer until I realised that the taperine width at the nut end would throw the strings out of alignment and needed further radiusing to compensate for the change.