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fretboard radius for CBJ?

Posted by Comrade Paul on January 3, 2015 at 6:00pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

i know its a personal thing, but really with the small width of the CBG neck, what's a common fretboard radius to use?

I've been using a handmade radius block, not sure what it is, but its time to get serious about my fretting so I'm buying one.  What's the most common radius for the more narrow CBJ?  

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Replies

  • Titch the Clown April 21, 2016 at 1:48am

    This guy caused a stir when he came out with is fretboard radius router bits

    http://sje-tools.com/12-fretboard-radius-router-bits

    The pros love em

    • doggylv . > Titch the Clown April 21, 2016 at 8:14am
      Now THIS is the kind of jig even I can make!!!!!
  • Taffy Evans April 20, 2016 at 11:21pm

    Hi Paul, well for me a flat board is best for slide work. When the fingerboard has a radius so does the bridge saddle so all the strings have the correct action, height above the frets. A flat slide on strings with a radius hmmmm.

    Cheers Taff 

  • darryl kernaghan April 20, 2016 at 9:24pm

    I have a form for 18" radius,but i've also just used a plane to take a couple of shaves off each side of the board on a slight angle then just sand using the palm of my hand's natural curve,takes minutes and works ok,the trick is to apply little or no pressure on the centre line,sand with full length strokes,with a bit of care you can get a good result,i don't go any lower than 240 paper doing this,so nothing too drastic happens

  • Comrade Paul April 20, 2016 at 6:35pm

    Or you can find some 16' pipe, attach sandpaper to it and sand out a block :)

  • David McQueen April 19, 2016 at 2:58pm
    To make the sanding blocks I used a two step process. First I took a piece of 1/4" x 2" wood and made myself a compass with a hole to put a pencil through at 9" 12" and 16".

    Then I used this to make templates which I used mark the end of a 2x3" piece of wood with the radius at both ends. This is a curve out radius that I used as negative. I carved that out with a knife. Plane and sander and then used spray on glue to put rough sandpaper on it.

    Then I used the negative to set up a shooting board and sand out the curve in a piece of soruce with it. This is then coverd in rough sandpaper fastened with spray on glue.

    It is kind of a long tedious process, but I really do like a curved radius. Doing it again, I would only do a 16" Radius. I really like a four string with a 16" at the nut going to flat at the bridge.
    • doggylv . > David McQueen April 20, 2016 at 7:37am
      Thank you David for this info, might give this a try!
      • David McQueen > doggylv . April 20, 2016 at 1:03pm

        I got some pics of the positive and negative... concave and convex ( ithink).  Use the positive to sand out the negative .   Use the negative on the fret boards.  the wood is just spruce 2"x3"

        image 145.jpeg

        photo 98.JPG

  • Wade January 8, 2015 at 8:12pm

    I radius some of my high end builds. What I like to do is break that sharp edge of the fretboard with some sandpaper. It gives my builds a softer, broken in look and more comfortable to play.

    • Comrade Paul > Wade January 12, 2015 at 3:35pm
      Absolutely, I do also. Makes for a real comfortable neck. Thanks!
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