acoustic guitar radius help

[Birdman14]

I am working on my first acoustic guitar build and have gotten to the point of shaping the radius on the fretboard. I have a 9.5 radius block that a friend used to radius his electric guitar, but I am not sure if this is too tight of a radius for my acoustic?

[printer2]

Really depends on the radius you want. If you want a 9.5" radius you are all set but when it comes time to doing the saddle you would extend the radius to it and shape it accordingly. I think some of the elder statesmen guitar builders here use a plane and put in whatever radius they want, I am not all that acomplished yet so I just do it with the 12" radius I made.

[John Arnold]

IMHO 9.5" is a bit much for an acoustic, but it's all about what the player prefers. I tend to stay around 14" +/- on the acoustics I build.
I don't use a radius block. I just plane, scrape, and sand the fingerboard, keeping the edge thickness and the center thickness uniform. With the tapered width, that generates a compound radius that seems to work for me.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

IMHO 9.5" is a bit much for an acoustic, but it's all about what the player prefers. I tend to stay around 14" +/- on the acoustics I build.
I don't use a radius block. I just plane, scrape, and sand the fingerboard, keeping the edge thickness and the center thickness uniform. With the tapered width, that generates a compound radius that seems to work for me.

I figured John would reply on this one. ;-)

I do the same as John. It is easy to do by scribing a pencil line the desired distance down from the edge of the fingerboard. I do about 0.7mm down from the fingerboard edge. You can start with a little, then add a bit more until it gets to the point where you are comfortable with it.

This method will yield a compound radius with very little effort.

[Birdman14]

That's what I needed to know, thanks!

[B. Howard]

My standard is a compound radius but my personal guitar has a 10" on it because that is my personal preference.

[LouieAtienza]

When I first started putting time into playing I preferred a flat board similar to a classical. Now that I cannot afford time to practice technique I prefer a "compound" radius, but not as radical as some. Standard I do 10"-14" or 12"-16". I built a jig for this, which is actually faster than setting up the CNC, though the CNC allows easier customization (I've even experimented milling relief into some fretboards.)

[redir]

I used to like a flat board as well but started playing on a 16in and now I typically do the compound radius as was mentioned. I tried a 20 on classical guitar but went back to flat.

9.5 would be way too tight for me. To each their own.