Fender: Vintage radius and frets vs. Modern

[twotimingpete]

I own an ordindary modern Fender tele with medium jumbos and a 9 inch radius.

You can buy a lot of "vintage style" Fenders, from various lines, that have the rounder 7.25 radius and smaller vintage style frets.

I have no experience with this, but I'm definitely curious. My understanding is that the rounder 7 inch radius makes hard bending a bit "different" (if not outright harder) but helps make your hand rest more naturally on the board making for, supposedly, easier chording.

As for vintage frets, I don't even have a theory as to why these would be better other than for vintage correctness for the sake of vintage correctness. I've never played a medium jumbo guitar and wished the frets were smaller.

Since we often think of different choices as a trade off, what's the possible advantage to vintage style frets, if any exists at all?

[Dr. Scottie C]

 

As a player I wrestled with this question for quite some time, and came to the conclusion some years back that it really depends not only on the player, but the guitar as well. Some pieces just play better w/ bigger wire, and some the other way around. A wide, flat board with tall wire, coupled with a Floyd Rose or similar trem. just begs to be played fast, and it's no suprise that most players who play fast favor a set-up like this- the same guitar with "vintage" wire would feel really strange, and would be a disapointment to play.

 

A great example of a guitar that works w/ vintage wire is a Tele that gets used for spanky chicken' pickin'- lower action with .10's or even .09's and you've got the feel (which gives you the sound). - put big wire on it, and it becomes a different guitar altogether.

So I think the answer lies more in = what kind of player are you?

If shred is the name of your game, vintage frets and a 7.25 radius is prob not for you.

If strumming in the "cowboy chord" position is what you do best.....Jumbo frets, and a flat fretboard will likely not be too enjoyable for you.

[lz4005]

Scottie pretty well nailed it.

One trade off argument for/against smaller fret wire is that in theory it should let the fretboard wood have more of an audible effect on the tone of the guitar. Larger frets put more mass in between the string and the board which should minimize the effect of the wood while giving slightly better sustain.

Another one is that players who have a heavy touch on their fretting hand often find it easier to play in tune with shorter frets, because there's less distance to push down on the string before it bottoms out on the fretboard. It's the opposite of having a scalloped neck.

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Scottie's covered most of the ground, but when people start talking about bending notes with a vintage radius, it's good that they watch this:

 

 

[Into Nation]

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Ratae Coritanorum wrote:

Scottie's covered most of the ground, but when people start talking about bending notes with a vintage radius, it's good that they watch this:

 

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Use your foot for bends?