Compound radius costs.

[tippy5]

I have had Collings and Dana guitars with the compound radius. I found them to be too drastic. I have owned many boutique electric guitars with compound radius and I found a favorite 10 years ago. It is the Tom Anderson stock 12-14" radius. I have never played a guitar that plays so easy. The phrase "plays itself" applies with this design.

John Suhr electrics have a lot of 9.5-12" fret board radii. Since electric finger gymnastics seem to me to be suited for more aggressive genres I think bigger frets and compound radius is suited for that form of playing compared to acoustic fret boards.

I play 15" radius acoustics and I like them much more than 16" Martins. I play fast, accurate, performance stuff on 12" Gibson's. Just a preference but I can't do classical guitar flat boards. My fingers after decades of playing are curled.

I once read in Stew Mac catalog that the extrapolated saddle radius is wider than the exiting radius. But James Goodall emailed me that he curves it narrower. I can't remember what spec that he quoted... something like his bone saddle radius is around 14.7" for his 15" radius.

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by tippy5

I have had Collings and Dana guitars with the compound radius. I found them to be too drastic. I have owned many boutique electric guitars with compound radius and I found a favorite 10 years ago. It is the Tom Anderson stock 12-14" radius. I have never played a guitar that plays so easy. The phrase "plays itself" applies with this design.

John Suhr electrics have a lot of 9.5-12" fret board radii. Since electric finger gymnastics seem to me to be suited for more aggressive genres I think bigger frets and compound radius is suited for that form of playing compared to acoustic fret boards.

I play 15" radius acoustics and I like them much more than 16" Martins. I play fast, accurate, performance stuff on 12" Gibson's. Just a preference but I can't do classical guitar flat boards. My fingers after decades of playing are curled.

I once read in Stew Mac catalog that the extrapolated saddle radius is wider than the exiting radius. But James Goodall emailed me that he curves it narrower. I can't remember what spec that he quoted... something like his bone saddle radius is around 14.7" for his 15" radius.

Well, the electric guitar guys are more likely to do crazy bending, but still want ultra-low action, so that's where the drastic "compound" radii comes into play.

The saddle radius for a "compound" radius fretboard should theoretically be larger than the fretboard end radius, and it would in theory be proportional to both nut and end radius, and a function of the scale length.

[min7b5]

I’m personally not a fan of a compound radius fretboard. I find it harder to articulate individual strings for the right hand, both fingerstyle and with a pick.

[El Conquistador]

Originally Posted by min7b5

I’m personally not a fan of a compound radius fretboard. I find it harder to articulate individual strings for the right hand, both fingerstyle and with a pick.

Erik,
Could you please expand your thinking on this. I am having a hard time connecting neck radii (left hand for most of us) and right had picking issues.

Steve

[Bruce Sexauer]

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

Erik,
Could you please expand your thinking on this. I am having a hard time connecting neck radii (left hand for most of us) and right had picking issues.

Steve

On a violin the bridge radius is critical as otherwise the bow cannot connect to one string w/o interacting with the adjacent strings, an further the player want to be able to change from one string to another with a very predictable bow angle adjustment.

The guitar player’s right hand has similar considerations, just more subtle. It is much easier to hit on, two, or three strings ONLY if there is a slight curvature to their plane. While somewhat the case for a finger stylist, it is much more critical for a flat picker. A flat picker’s stroke is generally circular, more or less, and dips into the strings when catching a string or two. As the radius of the string plane increases, the radius of the pick can decrease, making the pickers job easier, and their playing cleaner.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see that when one plays fingerstyle as well as Eric Skye does, the string radius at the bridge is very relevant.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

On a violin the bridge radius is critical as otherwise the bow cannot connect to one string w/o interacting with the adjacent strings, an further the player want to be able to change from one string to another with a very predictable bow angle adjustment.

The guitar player’s right hand has similar considerations, just more subtle.....

What he said!

Yup, for me, it's about the right hand's ability to articulate individual strings. To get the melody to pop out in front of the harmony in solo playing. Or as Bruce pointed out so well, in flatpicking in particular, to be able to more accurately get the string you intended. There are a few acoustic guitar makers (mostly from Canada for whatever reason) that really do a very flat radius and I frankly just make a lot more mistakes flatpicking them...

Someone is going to point out that classical guitars have historically been mostly flat. But I think because they also typically have a much wider string spacing, and perhaps because the strings are larger in diameter, it's easier to articulate. That said some classical builders do have a radius, and it's possible, as it is on a steelstring, for a bit of a workaround: I have a very cheap old Yamaha classical guitar that I play often because my father gave it to me almost forty years ago. It's as flat as Illinois, but I had someone make me a bone saddle with a radius of fourteen, and it plays great.

[Bruce Sexauer]

On a nylon string, it is relatively easy to over power the compromise to the ideal that a radiused saddle presents in combination with a flat fingerboard. Not that big a deal to create a radiused fingerbaoard should the compromise become untenable in your old age.

Interestingly, perhaps, many fiddlers flatten their bridge in order to make their bow angle charges quicker. Better fiddlers tend to play two strings at once a larger proportion of the time than violinists, and to be playing rhythmically back and forth between strings as much as playing linearly. Rarely do I see the fingerboard recontoured to suit this modification, thus the out side strings have higher action proportionately than the inside strings. Violins have nothing like the left hand playing pressure of SS guitars, so it is similar to Eric’s situation, possible but not actually ideal.