GUITAR BOARD

Can someone explain fret board radius to me???
i know its the curve of the board but not how its mesured...............

Trev

Trevor Bourne wrote in message
news:uCQSb.355$7j4.77789@wards.force9.net...

Hi,
Think of the curve of the fretboard as being the edge of a circle.
The radius of the circle then describes the curve of the board.
A smaller circle eg 7 has a more curved and rounded feel than one with a
bigger value which will feel flatter.

Cheers
John P.

ah!!! thanks john you wouldnt believe how hard thats been to get the
answer!!!

ta
Trev

John P wrote in message
news:--KcnfJFA5HPRYbdSa8jmw@karoo.co.uk...

Trevor Bourne wrote:


Its usually measured at the 12th fret. There are two types of
radiussing - cylindrical, which is obvious, and conical, which is far
harder to achieve but much better for action. Most modern guitars have a
cylinder radius, which means as the string get further apart towards the
bridge, they are not tracking the curve of the frets as accurately.
When Parker made the Fly, moulded carbon fibre fretboard, they were able
of course to give it a true conical shape.

In these days of CNC machining you would imagine that conical radiussing
(which means, say, 9 inch radius at the nut, 12 inch at the 12th fret)
would be universal. But no, sadly. It aint...

This remains one of the differences between the best handmade guitars
and cheaper stuff. Apart from that, some bass relief is also carved into
a good fingerboard - a dip in the surface around the middle fret range -
and the saddle radius will add a tilt which lifts the bass strings
higher overall.

David