Guitar Fretboard Radius - Including Compound Radius Boards! - Everything You Need to Know

Welcome back to the channel! For those new here, I'm Seán and I am a luthier and guitar-building teacher. This video is intended to teach you all about fretboard radius - why they exist and why you should care. I hope it helps make this descision a little easier.
Make sure to like and subscribe, and leave a comment about whatever I talked about; if you agree, disagree or have any other ideas yourself. I'd love to hear them!
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Check out some of my other video playlists:
GGBO 2022 - Short scale bass with faceted neck - • Building an Awesome Ba...
GGBO 2021 - Jazzmaster Style Neck-Through, Semi-Hollow, Carve Top, Multi-Scale - • Jazzmaster Style Neck-...
GGBO 2020 - LP Style - • LP Style Greenheart an...
How to Build a Guitar Cab - • How to build a 1x12 Gu...
Homemade to Handmade Guitar Rebuild - • Homemade to Handmade -...
Short Tips, Tricks and Tutorials - • Short Tutorials
I am a guitar builder (and now teacher) from Ireland, but currently based in the South of England working with Crimson Guitars. I am a teacher and a luthier and I am currently loving my job and the direction my life is going. My guitars are built by hand, from the heart and with love in every shaving.
If you like what I am doing here on the Tube, please like and subscribe to the channel. This is another of hopefully many more videos, cataloguing my journey forward into the world, and I hope that you might share this journey with me!
Thank You for being a part of this.
00:00 - INTRO
01:01 - WHAT IS FRETBOARD RADIUS
02:04 - STRAIGHT VS COMPOUND RADIUS
04:03 - WHY RADIUS YOUR FRETBOARD?
05:20 - WHY HAVE A COMPOUND RADIUS?
06:13 - BRIDGE MATCHING
10:13 - COMMON RADIUS EXAMPLES
12:56 - MY FAVOURITE AND OUTRO

[@timnaegele5991]

This was actually a great video for a guy thinking about doing a Warmoth project. Thanks bud

[@SweetTGuitars]

I say radius😊✌️&💙

[@thisguy2973]

3:40 I heard the trigonometry term as “conical” radius. Once it was explained that way to me, it all clicked lol

[@robokeo]

you legend thanks for these videos. very much needed in this space.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Glad to help! Thanks for checking them out

[@VoyeurGuitars]

As a bass player, I like a flatter fretboard. I've been building my basses with a 20" radius. It's all so subjective and personal preference.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Absolutely! Most basses I've seen tend to be rounder, but it's impossible to say anything definitively. Especially with bassists, I'm noticed they are more varied than guitarists!

[@robertr4193]

Nice information. It makes more sense to me now why the radius is what it is on different guitar necks and the logic behind it. Than you for the explanation.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

I'm glad my videos help, thanks for checking them out

[@ryanwalker3015]

Another great informative video Sean. I still go back to your neck angle video for my, as you say, “mats”. Keep em comin man. Great stuff.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Thanks a million, I appreciate the support! I'm sure KZbin loves the returning views too, so thanks for that ;)

[@BBGuitars]

NEEEEEEEERD! Jokes mate, great stuff, had no idea how to set a compound bridge until now.

[@seanjoynt2605]

I like all the shop talk. I also prefer not going any tighter than 12 inch radius. Ia have a guitar that is more of a 16 which I really like as well.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Glad you like it all, I'm having a good time making them

[@michaelwilson9253]

Hello from Dallas TX, Compound 10 to 16

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Nice, one of my favourites for sure!

[@anima60]

good to see you making new videos again after a little break. Your videos are a goldmine, you helped me a lot stop to overthink / overcomplicating things. I'm starting my 2nd guitar as a amateur and i already checked again some of your videos. If I may, i got a question : i'm curretnly doing a tree of life inlay, do you have any recommandation for inlay gluing ?(both mother of pearl and celluloid) i've saw some diverse opinions. some said to use CA superglue and others epoxy + fretboard dust. Keep on !

[@m.a.bushling]

Thank you for explaining the purpose of a compound radius! I have never understood. I fell in love with the 16" radius on my Godin, but 12" is my second favorite. I think I would use "compound radii" when discussing preferences, like if I were to say "Some players like compound radii" because I would be discussing guitars/fretboards in the plural. BUT, if talking about a single fretboard "compound radius" (Some prefer a guitar with a "compound radius"...) because the fretboard is one unit, like the radius of a segment of pipe is one unit. I don't think either would be wrong, though. Not that what I think really matters. Useless question alert! At what point does a fretboard radius become so flat that a player really wouldn't notice the difference between radiused and dead flat?

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Good question, and I'm not sure. I haven't heard of a radius flatter than 20", for whatever that's worth. I appreciate the pedantics of radius vs radii, but of course it doesn't matter at all at the end of the day - people will usually know what you mean

[@philswoboda5149]

In old Latin the endings us / i tell us singular vs plural. So radius (one) v radii (more than one). But most modern folk don’t care and intermingle the two indiscriminately

[@mikaelstrom1114]

How would you go about changing radius on a fretboard? Using one of those radius blocks? I'm about to do this on a project guitar and could use some advice. Cheers!

[@berberlowish]

Great information as always! Would a compound radius become too bad with a tune o matic, because of its fixed radius?

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Technically it may not be the very best if the flatter radius is much past 12", but as with all things it can work with a little tweaking and compromise. My 2021 Jazzmaster build is a 9.5-14" radius, with a TOM style bridge at 12" and it plays perfectly fine with silly low action. Maybe it could be technically better with a "correctly radiused" bridge, but it's one of the best playing guitars I've tried as is (not to toot my own horn)

[@goder18]

You said that compound radius numbers represent 1st and last fret, but most common explanation is that it is 1st and 12th fret. Is there any luthier standard on this?

[@ninosciorra6312]

Thank you so much for the explanation but now you got let us see How to realize a compound radius…

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Well the short version is that you put the flatter radius into the whole board, then the tighter radius just at the first 3-4 frets and then use a straight levelling beam to blend the two and you will get a good compound radius.

[@m.a.bushling]

Looking at my Gretsch Streamliner hanging on the wall. It has a 12" radius. Do you think it would be (reasonably) possible to sand it flatter to a 16" radius? Or am I asking for more trouble than it's worth by even considering it?

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

It's absolutely doable, but you would have to remove the frets, re-radius the whole board and then reinstall the frets and do the fretwork. Not a super quick job

[@DaveBroTube]

Instead of resurfacing the fingerboard to the larger radius, it would be easier (and may be quite acceptable to you) to simply re-profile the *fret tops* to the larger radius. You need enough fret material to make the frets flatter in the middle than at the edges while still retaining enough fret height for playability, so you might want to do this as part of a re-fret.

[@DaveBroTube]

Technically, a flat fingerboard has *infinite* radius, not 0" radius.