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Author Topic: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.  (Read 9391 times)

martinw

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Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« on: May 30, 2010, 04:33:06 PM »
I'm looking at Tele necks, and there are some good ones around with 7.25" radii. I've not had a Fender with that radius for ages, and can't remember how it felt.

How big a deal is the supposed problem with choking on bends? I've come across it when trying guitars with vintage frets, but would it be less of a problem with med-jumbo or jumbo frets and a reasonably high action?

Anyone use a 7.25" radius and like to chip in?

Cheers.  :)
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Philly Q

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2010, 04:43:23 PM »
AndyR's your man on this one, Martin!  :)

Personally I've disliked the 7.25" radius whenever I've tried it, but like you I suspect that may be at least partly down to the weeny frets.  I think it might well be more comfortable with big frets, because you have more "grip" on the strings. 

High action helps because even when the string is bent to the "top of the hill" it's still clearing the higher frets.

I once had a Fender US vintage reissue which had the 7.25" radius, but it looked like they'd effectively flattened it a bit by dressing the frets themselves lower under the D and G strings.
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Sollophonic

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2010, 04:56:05 PM »
I have two Teles, an MIM Standard with a 9.5 radius, and an MIM 50s Re-Issue with a 7.5 radius. I love the smaller radius neck, it suits my playing style, and I dont find that the strings choke out, even with a low action. I do use 11s strings though.



I dont even find it difficult to swap between the two guitars either.

Mind you I have different radiuses on all my guitars. My two acoustic resos have flat fingerboards, the polar opposite of the MIM 50s.


AndyR

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2010, 05:09:44 PM »
AndyR's your man on this one, Martin!  :)


:lol:

Yep, yer man here is hacking into fenders with 7.25 even as we speak (resetting necks etc) - so I have two of them here beside me... with a ruler!

I often wonder whether my action is very high - but Jonathan at Feline Guitars told me a while back that it's not amazingly high.

I'm sorting out two strats at the moment. One is 2mm on the high E at the 12th fret, the other is 2.5mm (only just put this one back together, but it feels about right).

Neither choke at all on strings 2 - 6. On 1, the high E, I wouldn't class it as choking personally, but some might... accoustically you can hear a slight effect as you bend, a slight change in tone, but no real loss in sustain (I'm talking about bends from around fret 15 upwards). Through an amp I can't hear the effect.

I use 0.011 to 0.049, and I hit strings pretty hard. If I was using 10s or 9s and had a light touch, I think I could get these a lot lower with the same sort of tolerance.

I'm the same as Sollophonic though - I have all sorts of scale lengths and radii, and I don't seem to have any problems switching between them.

Incidentally - the guitar that Jonathan was looking at (when he said my action isn't that wildly different than many people's) was a Baja tele. That's got a 9.5 radius with 0.011s on it... and I can get the action on my 7.25 radius guitars lower :lol:
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BigB

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2010, 05:12:00 PM »
Have a Tele with a 7.25'' rosewood fretboard on a thin neck and relatively small frets (I assume that's what you call 'vintage frets'), and I quite like the feel of this guitar - much more to my tastes than the thick neck / 10'' radius maple fretboard / jumbo frets on my Vox Standard 25. Never been really happy with flat-and-wide fretboards anyway.

I had to raise the action a bit at first (was really low), but nothing more than on my other guitars, really. It can indeed choke a little on bends, but it seems like I mostly had this problem during the very first weeks so possibly I got used to how this neck reacts and adapted my playing to it - I mean, not that I'd be doing less bends, but changed how I do them somehow ? (nb : using 10-46 strings on all my guitars FWIW)

Anyway : as far as I'm concerned, this is one of my favorite necks so far, and last time I played a Tele with a larger radius it just didn't felt right to me.  
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AndyR

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2010, 05:19:27 PM »
Ah! I forgot to mention frets - the guitars I'm working on are Roadworns - so biggish frets. And my Baja has HUGE frets that Jonathan put on for me :D

But, my Fender with the lowest LOW action is a CIJ 52 with tiny, tiny frets. Feels like the curviest fingerboard and does not choke at all. I actually had to raise the action because I couldn't play it very well because it wasn't fighting back at me.

I've also got a MIJ Custom 60 type thing, rosewood board, small frets - I think the same thing as BigB. I seem to remember that one did choke a bit at first, like he says, but then it kinda stopped doing it. That one has a lower action than my strats, but I tend not to use it to play up at the "dusty end" so much...
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Philly Q

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2010, 05:25:26 PM »
You must have strong fingers, guys. 

For me, what seems to happen with the small frets is that my finger touches the wood (oo-er  :roll: ) of the board, it distracts me and the string slips from under my fingers.  With bigger frets, I don't think I'm ever actually getting wood (fnarr fnarr).
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BigB

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2010, 05:30:27 PM »
I've also got a MIJ Custom 60 type thing, rosewood board, small frets - I think the same thing as BigB.

Same thing indeed - we talked about it when I was going thru the usual "which BKPs for this guitar" phase :wink:

I seem to remember that one did choke a bit at first, like he says, but then it kinda stopped doing it. That one has a lower action than my strats, but I tend not to use it to play up at the "dusty end" so much...

IIRC action on mine is about 2.3mm on the hi E / 12th fret - which is more or less how I like my guitars anyway - and I really use the whole neck (could even use more if available - got bad habits from the Custom 24 being a _real_ 24 frets neck so 21 frets tends to be a bit short to my tastes  :mrgreen:) and doing bends everywhere.
 
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dave_mc

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2010, 06:40:14 PM »
i think my tokai has a 7.25" radius. I think it also needs a refret, though, so that's no help. :lol:

from what I can remember from other 7.25" fenders I've tried, I didn't have much of a problem, though you probably don't want to be doing too many compound bends. a whole tone is about your lot with a "normal" action. From what I can remember. And also personal preference/playing style etc. will play a pretty big part.

martinw

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2010, 06:46:41 PM »
Thanks for the replies. All seems fairly positive, with no-one having major probs (unless they're keeping quiet!  :lol:)

I use 9-42's, with  about the 2mm+ actions some of you mention, not ultra low. I'm no shredder, so I'm not overly concerned about super complex stuff up at the top end.

The neck I'm looking at is an Axesrus one, with a V profile and Jumbo frets. I've found it tricky to get exactly the right spec for under £100. Not going down the Warmoth route!

There are other options with flatter radii, but my gut feeling is that it's something I don't need to worry too much about.
Cheers!  :)
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FELINEGUITARS

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2010, 07:01:41 PM »
I'm looking at Tele necks, and there are some good ones around with 7.25" radii. I've not had a Fender with that radius for ages, and can't remember how it felt.

How big a deal is the supposed problem with choking on bends? I've come across it when trying guitars with vintage frets, but would it be less of a problem with med-jumbo or jumbo frets and a reasonably high action?

Anyone use a 7.25" radius and like to chip in?

Cheers.  :)


A 7.25" radius will choke quite a bit - mainly on the high E if you have low action
Fretwire size is not the issue - simply the fact that a cylindrical radius board  of a small radius will only allow a string to be bent so far before it chokes

However  there are several adaptations that can help
Fret dressing the guitar and introducing a little "fallaway" on the last 5-8 frets  and putting in a little compound radius-ing after about the 10th -12th fret.
This helps stop that high E catching on the frets higher up the board when you bend
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Lew

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2010, 07:13:38 PM »
I'll be the voice of dissent... everyone's lying to you! 7.25" is $%&#ing horrible and uncomfortable!  :P

dave_mc

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #12 on: May 30, 2010, 07:24:25 PM »
I would add that, although I said it doesn't really annoy me that much, it does make me play a different way. EDIT: i would listen to jonathan, in other words.

BigB

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #13 on: May 30, 2010, 09:42:54 PM »
from what I can remember from other 7.25" fenders I've tried, I didn't have much of a problem, though you probably don't want to be doing too many compound bends. a whole tone is about your lot with a "normal" action.

Don't know what's a "normal" action for you, but I have no problems doing 2 tones (no pun intented) bends on the B string on my Tele.

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Frank

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Re: Fingerboard Radius Question - Fender Experts.
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2010, 12:56:16 AM »
I started out playing Fenders with the 7.25" radius and skinny frets with heavier strings, high action and a fair amount of neck relief to stop the strings choking. Nowadays it's all about flat fingerboards and jumbo frets but I've stuck with the high action and .010 or .011 strings just because that's how strats sound best acoustically and the longer scale length gives a higher string tension which I think makes Fenders "ring" more than Gibsons and other short-scale guitars.

Maybe if I'd started out playing on flatter radius fingerboards none of this would have happened!