I have never ever thought about fretboard radius. I didn't even know it was a thing until relatively recently; I have several guitars that are all vastly different, they feel different, play different, have different neck profiles and different finishes and I find that the one I have most difficulty playing, or feels most noticeably different is the super thin wizard neck on my Ibanez RG550. I feel like my fingers slip off the neck on the top E string sometimes. I started out playing acoustic guitar so I think I feel naturally more comfortable on a guitar with a chunkier C shaped neck. I'm pretty sure my home-made guitar has a totally flat fingerboard because I wouldn't have known how to do a radiused fretboard but it feels pretty comfortable to me.
Why should not buy an instrument online. Go to music store and try the models you are interested in buying. Then once you made your mind up then buy one from them or order the same model online. Put it into your hands first. I'm used to 12" radius. My telecaster is also a 12 inch radius which isn't real common on a Fender but they put that on some the deluxe models. Mine is a duluxe nashville tele mim. I was playing a hamer explorer which is similar to a Gibson 12 inch radius. Bought the tele for versatility of the 5 way switch with 3 pick ups instead of two. Also played some country in the mix and the tele can certainly do that.
Interesting discussion. I have a ‘69 strat with a 9-1/2” radius I had purchased when I was an early teenager. I am now 70 and prefer a 14” radius neck. 12’s are fine because the rest of my collection is 12”.
How the neck feel in your hand is the most crucial thing in the moment of purchasing a guitar. Is so relevant than determines if you keep it or sell it in a year or two. That’s my experience at least. For me the neck suits the best is 7.25/9.5 and narrow nut 1.625. According to Fender Custom Shop a big number of guitars in the ‘50s leave the factory with 7.25/9.5ish “accidentally compound radius” due to sloppiness in production I mean lack of consistency. And for neck profile soft V is near perfection.
Totally agree that the neck is very high on the list of importance. The important thing is to be open things as a whole when you are buying and try, try, try. I am lucky enough to have a 60s CS strat, on paper (and comparing it to my other guitars specs) I shouldnt like the 60s style oval c neck. But man that guitar fits like a glove! Conan. PM
Here's a bit of a story. I've been play guitar now for over 40 years. But in 2003 my wife wanted to learn. So she bought a used Telecaster Thinline MIM. She started to learn. But it ended up in a closet.So after many years, I decided to try it out. It was relatively light weight and easy to play. But it had a 7.25 radius and after playing it steady for 6 years straight. I am used to this radius and even playing a 9.5 radius seems too much for me now and yes I can bend and do other tricks with no problems. So now when I look at Fenders I look at the radius.
When I was growing up as a teen in the 70s I had no idea of scale length, action height, radius, nut material, string spacing etc...All I knew was that I had a guitar with 6 strings that tuned in EADGE. The rest was getting used to it and making music with it! Excellent video!
as someone that is just getting back into guitar after almost 20 years i agree, back then i just picked up a guitar and played it, the reason i havent played in so long is i broke my elbow left elbow and then i broke the same elbow again. i recently got back into it and my rg just felt the best, and i struggle to play my les paul, jet, siloute and my tele. and i thought it was scale length or string spacing but a few of them are the same, it is the radius, something i had never thought about back then but seems to be a massive difference now, and its not from watching videos about it, i came across these videos because i was trying to work out why i was struggling to play my other guitars
@@ProjectMusicSW Cool! I have a seven string Ibanez BTB bass guitar with a 950mm radius- that would be over 37". The fretboard is so wide though I think that it's required.
