Members u6crash Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 I realize that many acoustics have a flat, or nearly flat, fretboard radius to facilitate the use of a slide. However, I find my hand cramps up playing barre chords on my acoustic more than the electric. I don't recall having this problem on my previous acoustic and I wonder if it is because my current one has a larger radius. I'm playing a Carvin Cobalt with 15" radius. I can't see any reason as far as tone goes, that an acoustic couldn't have a smaller fretboard radius. Am I missing something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bjorn-fjord Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 A smaller fret-board radius limits the amount of string bending you can do. This is a bigger deal on electrics. Old Fenders were notorious for "fretting out" while bending strings. Picture the fret board as a small section of a cone. If you hold a ruler on a cone, parallel to its axis, the ruler will be in contact with the cone along its entire length. If you move the ruler out of parallel at all it will "high center" on the cone. This is basically what's happening when a string "frets out". The larger the cone the less this occurs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members relictele Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 Not to be pedantic, but I was told one time by a Fender dealer that radius refers to a quality of necks (i.e., the back of the neck) while camber was actually the proper term when referring to the fretboard (or the curvature thereof). Don't know, but it makes a bit of sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JasmineTea Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 The last time I saw the word "camber" was in a shop manual for a pickup truck..it was refering to certain aspects of the suspension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members takeout Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 Originally posted by relictele Not to be pedantic, but I was told one time by a Fender dealer that radius refers to a quality of necks (i.e., the back of the neck) while camber was actually the proper term when referring to the fretboard (or the curvature thereof).Don't know, but it makes a bit of sense. Pedant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted February 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 I'm aware of the fretting out situation on string bends, but current Fenders are still 9.5" fretboard radius and that's a big difference over 7.25". I've never had problems fretting out on modern Fender electrics, so why couldn't they employ the 9.5" radius on an acoustic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bjorn-fjord Posted February 18, 2005 Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 I can't think of a reason why not. Nobody's asking for it I guess. Next time you need a refret you could re-radius the board although this could conflict with your position markers on the side of the board. I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted February 18, 2005 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2005 Well, my acoustic has a bound fretboard, so it would be more trouble than it is worth. However, I'd like to build one from scratch before too long, so maybe I'll have it then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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