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A fundamental part of a stringed instrument is the neck (and of course its fretboard), as this is the part of the instrument that is touched by the musician's fingers. While we can discuss necks and fretboards technically, we feel that we cannot give advices on which is the best typology to choose, as the relationship that each musician creates with his or her instrument is so personal and intimate that this choice must take into account the personal tastes and subjective sensitivity of each musician.
When we talk about the shape, we are referring to the different kinds of curvature of the section of the neck. This kind of curvature is indicated by a letter, that best represents the shape itself. For example, V-shape indicate a wedge shape, while C-shape indicates a much softer curvature.
Guitars With Compound Radius Fretboard
The most common shapes are: U-Shape, D-Shape, C-Shape, V-Shape. La V-shape can be further defined using the adjective hard/medium/soft, depending on the slope of the sides. The neck is a crucial element as for the feel offered by the instrument, and consequently there are no rules that can leave out of consideration the personal taste of the guitar player. Generally speaking we can assert that V-shaped necks can be found on guitars used in musical genres where speed of execution of the lead parts is crucial, like in rock metal.
The fretboard (or fingerboard) is the long strip of wood, laminated to the front of the neck, where frets (small metal bars of different sizes) are inserted. The radius is simply the curve of the fretboard itself. It is a segment of a circumference expressed in inches, and as a result, the longer the radius the flatter the fretboard. On the contrary, a shorter radius corresponds to a more convex curvature. The most common radius are: 7.25″ – 9.5″ – 10″ – 12″ – 16″, up to a maximum of 20” or even totally flat fretboards (like those of classic guitars or some electric models).
Guitars with a longer radius (and consequently a flatter fretboard) are preferred by musicians who need a low string action, easy bending and speed of execution: for these reasons they are mostly used in musical genres like hard rock or metal. With shorter radius, chords become easier to play, but the strings will have to follow the fretboard’s curvature, with a higher string action. We want to make clear that the radius alone does not determine the playability of a guitar, but must be taken into account as a starting point when adjusting the action of the strings in order to obtain a balanced set-up of your instrument.
Setup A Compound Radius Guitar — Haze Guitars
The final results in terms of feeling, clearness of the sound, playability, sustain, etc., depend on this set-up process of the instrument. Of course, the musician plays the most important role with his or her personal touch, sensitivity and taste: so it becomes impossible to define an ideal radius, and the same instrument can be more or less playable depending on the guitarist.
Finally we want to mention an invention of the modern lutherie: the compound radius, that employs different radius on the same fretboard, with a shorter radius from the first to the 12th fret to facilitate the chords, and a longer radius from the 12th fret to the end of the fretboard to make bending and lead work easier.
The truss rod In order to counterbalance the strings’ tension, keep the neck in the correct position and set up the action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard), a threaded metal rod whose tension is adjustable is inserted into the neck. How does it work? To correct the curvature of the neck (and of its fretboard) you can act on a simple nut and washer system. You can find different variations of this system in almost all electric and acoustic guitars, but normally it is not employed in classic instruments.When you’re shopping for a guitar or bass, one of the dimensions you’ll be presented with is an instrument’s fingerboard radius. What is that? How is it measured, and why is it important?
Tele Style Electric Guitar Neck Qs Hard Maple / Indian Rosewood Fretboard 12
The fingerboard radius is the measure of the arc of the fingerboard across its width. You don’t have to look too closely at most electric guitar and bass fingerboards to see that few if any of them are truly flat; most of them have a slight convex curvature across their width. The fingerboard radius is the measure of that curvature.
Other types of stringed instruments don’t have these “radiused” fingerboards. Most classical guitars, resonator guitars, banjos, pedal steel guitars and some steel-string acoustic guitars, for example, have flat fingerboards.
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Cort G290 Fat Ii
The fingerboard radius measurement itself refers to the radius of a circle from which a small segment of the circumference equal to the width of the fingerboard is taken. The radius of the circle hence determines the amount of the fingerboard’s curvature (see diagram below). For example, if you take a circle with a 9.5” radius and remove a line segment from its circumference equal to the width of the fingerboard, you then have a 9.5” fingerboard radius (a common modern spec).
If you take the same fingerboard width from the circumference of a circle with a larger radius, you now have a slightly flatter fingerboard radius. For example, a circle with a 12” radius yields a 12” fingerboard radius, which is slightly flatter than a 9.5” radius on a fingerboard of the same width. The lower the measurement, the greater the curvature, and vice versa.
If all this sounds like a scary flashback to high school geometry class, these calculations do serve a serious purpose. Fingerboard radius is an important spec because it impacts playability. It’s a subjective measurement—there is no right or wrong degree, but there are several established conventions that players can choose among to suit their personal preferences. A smaller (more curved) radius is generally perceived as more comfortable for playing chords; a larger (less curved) radius is generally considered better for single-note playing and bending.
Guitar & Bass: What Does 'fretboard Radius' Mean?
Has a few of its own well-established fingerboard radius conventions. These have evolved over the years, and a few different ones are available today that reflect various player preferences, such as vintage authenticity, modern playability and even specialized compound-radius designs in which the amount of curvature changes along the length of the fingerboard.
Today, most electric instruments use one of two main fingerboard radius measurements. Most prevalent is the modern 9.5” radius (241mm), which was adopted in the 1980s and is now found on about two thirds of electric instruments.
The next most common fingerboard radius, 7.25” (184mm), is a vintage-era spec now used on just under a third of electric instruments. The 7.25” fingerboard radius originated in the early 1950s, and was used for most electric instruments until the 1980s. It never really went away completely, but its prevalence was superseded in the modern era by the slightly more flattened 9.5” radius.
Warmoth Jaguar Build
Diagram illustrating the concept of fingerboard radius. Both neck/fingerboards seen here in cross section are of the same width; note that the smaller vintage-style 7.25″ radius on the left yields greater fingerboard curvature than the longer modern 9.5″ radius on the right.
Other fingerboard radii are seen on current electric instruments far less often. As of summer 2014, a dozen or so modern instruments have a more flattened 12” (305mm) fingerboard radius--and a single model, the Special Edition series Custom Telecaster FMT HH, has an even more flattened 15.75” (400mm) radius.
About three dozen currently available electric instruments feature a compound-radius fingerboard in which the degree of curvature gradually changes along the length of the neck, with the arc greatest near the headstock and gradually (but not completely) flattening toward the body end of the fingerboard. Such a fingerboard, for example, may have a 9.5” radius at the headstock end and a 14” radius at the body end; other compound-radius designs used by include 7.25”-12” and 12”-16”. The advantage of a compound-radius fingerboard is that some guitarists find the more rounded radius near the headstock preferable for chording and the more flattened radius near the body preferable for soloing.
Telecaster Guitar Neck Rosewood Fretboard Maple Neck 9.5
The height of the strings above the fingerboard (or the action) is typically set at the bridge to match the curvature of the fingerboard radius more or less exactly, although players can easily adjust individual string height to personal preference. On instruments with compound-radius fingerboards, string height is typically set to match the fingerboard radius basically in the middle of the scale length; i.e., at or near the 12th fret.
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