Flat versus radiused neck

[hopefulpicker]

I am a novice player with a steel string Martin DJR acoustic. Looking for a "crossover" nylon string guitar. I like the Kremona S62C op 7/8 size but emailed Sean Henry the importer and found that it has a flat neck. I realize most classic guitars have 2" or wider flat neck, but since my Martin is 1.75" nut with radiused fret board I have to ask how does flat versus radius neck affect "playability"?
I also like the Cordova Fusion 5 which has a 48mm nut (1 7/8") and a radiused fret board, but it has a cutaway which I don't like.

I have had no problem in playing flat boards. If there are stores near you that carry guitars you might try out some flat fretboard classical guitars--even if the nut width is more than you like, you'll be able to get a feel of the flat board. You might even like it. Did you ask Henry if you could order the Kremona with some radius?

I was able to order my Kremona Sophia with a different face wood, no electronics, and a different rosette. The only problem was that it took a while to get the guitar.

[hopefulpicker]

Thanks for your reply Evan. I did not ask about special services. I might do that. My wife has a 30 year old Yamaha CG150S classic guitar with a flat
fret board and a 52mm nut. My short fingers/small hand is not comfortable playing it.
Funny, in my mind I would think a radiused fret board would be harder to reach around/over than a flat fret board. Will have to research this.

Yeh, a 52mm nut is a bit of a reach. I suspect that if that was what you were raised on you might find it OK. I have good sized hands and started with classical guitars but jumped to 1 7/8" as soon as I was able.

[Bax Burgess]

Did someone already say this? The contour of the neck can make a noticeable difference whether or not 2" is comfortable.

[btbliatout]

As I understand it...

Radiused necks allow for easier barre chords. The barring finger has to straighten out less, which makes it "easier" to do, and slightly faster to do (economy of motion).

No one seems to ever talk about an advantage for flat necks. I only have speculations:

• For a radiused neck, I imagine the action will vary from string to string and from fret to fret MORE SO than on a flat neck. I mean, in theory, String 1 and String 6 will have to be pressed further downwards than String 3 or String 4 would. So for the sake of uniformity, a flat neck appears to win. It may be that this could affect intonation (not that my ears could hear the difference though), or tension differences between string to string. - Please educate me and teach me otherwise if you know better.
• For a radiused neck, if a fretted string is pressed perfectly downwards to have a perfect perpendicular angle to a curved fret... Well, let's say two or more strings are being perfectly pressed downwards, in that situation, the strings would theoretically be pressed CLOSER together, reducing string-to-string distance. That's another way uniformity could be lost a bit (though I'm unsure if it's meaningful in any practical way). This loss of uniformity would again not occur on a flat neck (as far as I can tell).

Just thought I'd put in my thoughts because I find this a very interesting topic.

[N4640W]

There are hardly any “straight lines” in the human body. Also bridges are curved to match neck radius, I believe. Having grown up with classic guitar design, modern narrower and radiused necks seem much more ergonomic and feel more natural to me.