Does neck radius matter for soloing?

[Neeradj]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

Am I the only person to think that the neck's profile is more important to comfy soloing than the radius? All of my guitars have different radii, and they're all great soloing guitars. The one thing they have in common is a great neck profile; not too round, minimal lacquer, great neck heel. (Aside from my Strat, whose heel is monstrous)

I'll have to disagree, though I'm keeping in mind this is very personal! I can play a fat neck with a flatter radius, but I can't play a D shape with a smaller radius just as good. The main reason why I don't like Fender guitars is that they make them with fat necks and small radiusses, I only use my strat for clean and jazzy stuff partially because of that. The USA Jackson Kelly profile is heaven for me, flat radius and medium neck (not thin, not fat)

 

[skh515]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

Fender 50's reissue telecaster (texas specials for now)
Fender 50's reissue telecaster (antiquities)
Fender 50's reissue stratocaster (antiquity texas hots)

Why do I get the feeling you like "V" necks? :biglaugh:
Maybe it takes one to know one.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

yeah, soft v and u shaped necks on my fenders are heaven for me.

 

[MikeS]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

See, I think that the radius plays in important role in the comfort of the neck, especially in the fingers (with the profile having more to do with the thumb and hand). One issue is the action - I spent about 2.5 hours messing with my 50s RI Tele last week trying to get the action down, to no avail. It's not quite to the point where I am 100% comfortable playing it for soloing and lead work. Chording is great, but the upper frets are just not condusive to leads for me.

Now I'm not saying one can't play anything on a V Shaped small radius neck, but for me it's not as comfortable on the higher frets than my LP, which does have a slightly different profile, but the action is amazing and single note phrasing is a breeze compared to the Tele. Like I said earlier, playing on the Tele is more labored, and I atribute that to the tiny fingerboard radius.

 

[skh515]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

I did a little experiment with AutoCAD.

"Lay some science on me teach." Jimmy James (Newsradio)

A 2" wide fret board (which is what I think most fretboards are somewhere around the 12th fret) with a 7 1/2" radius is 0.067" higher in the middle (when compared to the edges). A 2" wide fretboard with a 16" radius is 0.0313" higher in the middle. So the height in the middle of the a r16" fretboard is half that of a r7.5" fretboard, which seems significant. However, the difference between seven hundreds (7/100) of an inch compared to three hundreds (3/100) of an inch is quite small. It is about equal to the thickness of 8 sheets of 20lb. copy paper.

Conclusion A: Maybe radius isn't as big a deal as we make it out to be.
Conclusion B: All guitarist are like the Princess and the Pea and are able to sense the curvature of a fret board down to a feel microns.
Conclusion C: I'm not a scientist at all, and this was all just a big waste of time.

I'd make this a pole, but I'm not sure my ego could take the results.

So what's the answer? Decide for yourself, I can't do all the work for ya! :rant:

Having said all that, when I look at a guitar I'm not interested in the radius or even the profile. All I care about is how does it feel and how does it play. The only time I would really think about those things is if I had a guitar and I wanted a second one that played just like it.

One last point before I call this rant complete.

Hand size - I think people with smaller hands can probably play easier on a smaller radius. People with large hands can probably play on a flat fret board without much trouble.

O.K., I'm done. "What do you think sirs?"

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

just stay away from compound radius necks, yuck

 

[skh515]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

just stay away from compound radius necks, yuck

Tell us more Xero

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

I'll have to disagree, though I'm keeping in mind this is very personal! I can play a fat neck with a flatter radius, but I can't play a D shape with a smaller radius just as good. The main reason why I don't like Fender guitars is that they make them with fat necks and small radiusses, I only use my strat for clean and jazzy stuff partially because of that. The USA Jackson Kelly profile is heaven for me, flat radius and medium neck (not thin, not fat)

I think that you're actually agreeing with me, Neeradj, not disagreeing. All I'm saying is that I find the profile more important, and up until that point in the thread, profile had been left out of the euqation. You're saying they work hand in hand, which they do, but I find the profile to be the key to comfortable soloing, as all my guitars have different radii; it's just not as big a factor, although jumping from my Strat to my Jem takes a moment to readjust ...

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

Tell us more Xero

compound radius is what some custom places like warmoth offer. It has a conical shape that changes as you go up the neck, at the nut it'll be a 10" radius and toward the heel it'll be a flat 16" radius. The theory is good, comfortable chording at the low neck and more bending and such higher. It's a shame it doesn't work that way, it just makes the whole thing feel awkward, harder to set up, and a fret level is a nightmare.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

When you find a profile and radius combo that doesn't seem to cause your hand to get tired, you're home.

For me, when I get a weird neck in my hand, I can't play for nearly as long. I couldn't stand the 7.25 on the 52RI Tele I had briefly, but Seymour seems to make it sing pretty nicely. I guess if you have true talent, it really doesn't matter too much.

 

[Bluzboy66]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

I'll have to disagree, though I'm keeping in mind this is very personal! I can play a fat neck with a flatter radius, but I can't play a D shape with a smaller radius just as good. The main reason why I don't like Fender guitars is that they make them with fat necks and small radiusses, I only use my strat for clean and jazzy stuff partially because of that.........

You really should check out some of the American Standard Strats - new, and older - I was never really comfortable with the Strat in general until I played the American Standard. Seems like they split everything down the middle on those......C-shape with 9.5" radius......comfort AND playablilty. Sometimes the good stuff is right under our nose. Lord knows, I've passed MANY Fenders thinking that they just wouldn't work for me. Now I own 2 - but they're both Teles.

Mike

 

[Mincer]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

well, with a scalloped fretboard it doesn't matter- and no more 'fretting out'!
the only thing that matters for soloing is practice- you can adapt to any guitar if you spend enough time with it.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

the only thing that matters for soloing is practice- you can adapt to any guitar if you spend enough time with it.

Mincer, your comment reminds me of this Hawaiian guitar player that came out and took a solo during Victor Wooten's show at Irving Plaza in NYC last January. This tall guy came out with a ukalele, and proceed to shred the crap out of it!! He played all kinds of VH stuff (Eruption, Spanish Fly, etc) and then he did all this crazy classical guitar stuff!! It was MIND BLOWING!!! And it shows what can be done with enough practice and a twisted outlook.

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Does neck radius matter for soloing?

You really should check out some of the American Standard Strats - new, and older - I was never really comfortable with the Strat in general until I played the American Standard. Seems like they split everything down the middle on those......C-shape with 9.5" radius......comfort AND playablilty. Sometimes the good stuff is right under our nose. Lord knows, I've passed MANY Fenders thinking that they just wouldn't work for me. Now I own 2 - but they're both Teles.

Mike

Thanks Mike, but I shortly owned an American Standard Tele a few months ago and still had that problem. I guess this proves how important radiusses are for me. The adaption theory is true though, when I played my first guitar which was the Fender strat, my fingers couldn't adapt to bad Gibbie Les Paul Studios, but they could easier adapt when I played the good ones. It took me awhile to adjust to any guitar until I got my V really :smack: