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I tend to make my fingerboards a little on the wide side having fat fingers, 13/16" at the nut. I was wondering what radius you prefer for the wider boards?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Joe Im going to poke a little fun at you, but 13/16 wide at the nut???? I would not consider that wide at all I know you ment 1 13/16". Actually this is a very common width Finger style player offen prefer this width or even wider. To answer your question I still use 16" radius on this width. I have one client that has a bad joint in his index finger. It is permenatly bent. for him I use a 14" radius.MichaelP38870.373900463

Joe,I always use 16" radius. Some use the 20" but thats a little bit flat for my taste. 1 3/4 width at the nut.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

If you go to your local vintage guitar shop, and play an old Fender, You will see the extreme example of a small radius. If I'm not mistaken, they were 6 or 7 inches.They are actually quite comfortable to play, especially if you use a lot of barre chords. The problem lies in using string bending techniques. If you bend strings on a fretboard with a small radius, the string will "fret out" at the next fret and cause a sudden change in pitch. Most guitarists today like their fretboard radius between 12" and 18", or a 10"-18" compound. If you stay within these parameters, you'll be allright.

Al

[QUOTE=A Peebels]...old Fender,...If I'm not mistaken, they were 6 or 7 inches. [/QUOTE]
Generally, they were 7.25".

I do a compound radius of 10" moving to 14" on my electrics.

And 12" moving to 16" on my acoustics.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Good info guys. I currently have 14", 16" & 20" wood radius blocks but was thinking about getting a 18" long aluminium radius beam from stew mac. I can't afford to buy more than one now. I was undecided as to what radius to get. I'm thinking after reading your post that the 16" may be the one for me to start with. Thanks for the great feedback. I'll check back later.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
And 12" moving to 16" on my acoustics.[/QUOTE]

Brock,

How do you do that? Start with 16" overall then sand down to the smaller radius?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

[QUOTE=MichaelP] 13/16 wide at the nut???? I would not consider that wide at all [/QUOTE]

You could be right. 13/16" is a little tight. I might try the extra inch.    ... but it sure was nice getting all those fingerboards out of one piece of wood

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

[QUOTE=Joe Beaver] [QUOTE=Brock Poling]
And 12" moving to 16" on my acoustics.[/QUOTE]

Brock,

How do you do that? Start with 16" overall then sand down to the smaller radius?[/QUOTE]

I don't. I have Craig Holden's jig. I just set it for 12" at the nut and 16" at the saddle location then profile the radius with a router. It takes less than 5 minutes and it produces perfect results.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com