Hi There, I agree with KC ref Fender, I have played them most of my playing career.(50 years)..I have a telecaster with a 7.25 radius neck and that is very comfortable...Here is some info from the net in addition.
Depending on what style of music you play on your guitar, a matching radius could improve your ability to play “that” type of music. Let me explain, if you have ever played a classical acoustic guitar you would notice that the fret board is pretty flat. A flat radius fret board suits this style of music. Quite simply your fingers are more comfortable playing classical music on a flatter radius neck. Increase the radius or curve of the neck and now you have a guitar that is very comfortable for playing rhythm guitar. Your fingers are more comfortable playing chords. A good example of this type of radius is on some of the old Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters. These are very comfortable necks to play on although a little narrow and thin for my taste.
Ok so here is the problem. Most of us have to do double duty. We need to play rhythm though most of a song and then break into those guitar gymnastics we practice endless hours on. Soloing on a small radius neck presents several problems for the shredder in all of us. String bending for instance is severely limited due to the “fretting out” of the string as it moves across the radius. Floyd Rose style tremolos just don’t work well because there isn’t enough radius built into the nut. You could not get the action down low enough for most seasoned soloists without some serious fret buzz and no real string bending to speak of.
The older Fender guitars I mentioned earlier had a radius of 7.25 inches. The larger the radius is in inches, the flatter the radius of the fret board is going to be. Most straight radius necks on modern day rock guitars are anywhere between 10” to 16”. This is a trade off between rhythm and soloing. You’re just going to have to try one out before you decide which radius fits your style the best.
Back in the 80’s Warmoth Guitar Products developed the first compound radius guitar neck. Their guitars start out with a 10” radius and flatten out to a 16 inch radius neck at the body. According to Warmoth this neck is supposed to be fast and the change in radius is unnoticeable. It makes sense to me that this guitar neck would be very comfortable to play on. I do intend to order one in the near future for one of my guitars to give it a try. I will let you know how it works out.
Anyway, at the very least you now have a good idea what other guitarists are talking about when they mention their neck radius. I hope this information will give you more power in choosing your next axe. Remember, look at the technical specs of any production guitar you are interested in. A cool looking guitar just might not fit your musical needs.
Hope this helps.
Fenderphil
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