Fretboard Radius

[jimk]

How is the radius on a guitar's fret board measured? Is there some special gauge that's used, or is it done with a tape measure?

JimK

[tennis_nick]

How is the radius on a guitar's fret board measured? Is there some special gauge that's used, or is it done with a tape measure?

JimK

I built gauges.

Take a piece of cardboard about 14 inches long, 2-3 inches wide.

place a pinhole by one end, and use a ruler to add another point at the 12inch mark, the 9 inch mark, the 7.25 inch mark, and all the other "popular" radii.

You can use the initial point and the point of choice to draw a part of a circle, which would be the "radius" as guitarist incorrectly call it. you can make cardboard cutouts and check it on the neck

[jps]

Go here for radius gauges:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measu ... auges.html

More interesting tools are these:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measu ... auges.html

[deaconblues]

$20 for 2??

I'd make them myself...

[jdogric12]

Jim, if I understand your wording correctly, the answer is as follows: the "radius" refers to the radius (distance from center to edge) of a circle that matches the curvature of the fretboard. If a guitar has a very flat fretboard, there is not much of a curve, and would correspond to a large circle, thus large radius, kind of like the earth (it's curved but you don't notice it except from space). A "tight" or small radius would be a small circle, whose curvature is much more noticeable in the small cross section of its edge that a fretboard occupies. How'd I do? Is that right?

[henry5]

What's the radius on a 72 era 4001? That's about perfect for me.

[jingle_jangle]

$20 for 2??

I'd make them myself...

...which is always an option for the person with more time than money on his hands, because that's what it always seems to come down to, Dan.

I made a set out of acrylic, using a flimsy cardstock one I got in a book as a pattern.

A fair percentage of what Stew-Mac sells in the way of tools are a bit strange. I'd say that tools of the "strange" category are marketed to pro luthier wannabees, who imagine they need some of this stuff, and want to spend money on their hobby, thinking that more $$$=better results.

This equation is definitely true when a luthier is beginning and equipping his tool chest with basics, but items like those below are of limited utility.

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Repair_ ... -5359.html

(the top of an acoustic guitar is made of very soft wood. The combination of reciprocating action and hard plastic wheels can cause wheel tracks on either side of the crack, leading to happy late night sanding sessions; this tools is unnecessary overkill. The copy is aimed at amateur gizmo freaks, though it hints at "increasing shop profits." If the luthier does not have a Foredom flexible shaft tool (many do not), you're into over $400.00 to find out it's primarily a dust collector--it sits under a workbench and collects dust. The Foredom can be useful; I have one and have used it once.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... _Base.html

I've got one, and it's caused me grief a few times. Reason: the depth adjustment is difficult to lock in place, and it drifts due to vibration. It requires pliers and a vise to set this thing properly; something the over-simple instructions do not mention or even hint at. Not to mention that the adjustment itself is counter-intuitive. After several years of occasional use I still find myself puzzling over which way to turn those nice knurled brass doo-hickeys.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... plate.html

I can get a 12" X 24" piece of clear acrylic for about $10 locally or online. I suppose this is one of those impulse / convenience items like the condoms that they (used to?) have at the Fry's Electronics checkout stands. Never know when you'll be caught out. But $5.66 plus shipping for a 6" X 9" piece of acrylic strikes me as another way to vacuum the money out of a luthier's pockets.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... l_Jig.html

Simply put, silly. Drilling tuner pin holes is quite simple with the old standby of fitting the tuner to make a dimple where the hole goes, marking depth on the drill bit with a bit of masking tape wrapped around it, and drilling, usually with a light-duty 2-speed cordless hand drill, set on "H". This one is for the luthier who has everything, but still hasn't built his first instrument.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... auges.html

Yeah, these are dopey to the max...The copy says, "Use them frequently to check your work as you smooth or shape a fingerboard or frets: a quick visual check keeps you from accidentally altering the shape — a mistake that's easy to make and hard to fix."

Ummmm...I don't know anyone who shapes fretboards with the strings still on the instrument, making the notches extrasuperfluous.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Clamp.html

Look like the hot setup, don't they? Well, they don't really clamp tightly enough to be of any real use, and they exert max pressure, not on the center of the neck and across the fretboard, but on the edges of the fretboard, where the nylon straps take a severe bend. I bought ten of these puppies, and they reside in my "graveyard" drawer...a couple of them snapped the third or fourth time I used 'em.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... auges.html

A sucker's bet. I wonder why they don't offer a "gold plated" option, as these are really useless jewelry. Any repair/setup guy who needs this sort of thing, just isn't intuitive enough to properly string a guitar, much less set saddle height.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... haper.html

A nice idea, on first inspection. However, a difference of one-thousandth of an inch (.001") in diameter of a bridge pin can make the difference between "it fits perfectly" and, "toss it into the fireplace", and this expensive doo-jigger isn't accurate or calibrated, even. Additionally, most bridge pin repairs involve enlarging the pin holes and fitting oversized pins to recapture the pin-to-bridge and body contact area, and this thing only makes' em smaller.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... r_Set.html

$24.95. Uh-huh. Not an imported European name brand, like you can find at electronics stores for about $100.00 a set, and worth every penny in the long term. Nope, these are imported from China, and you can buy a similar set at Home Depot for $10.00. I know, I have both kinds. Oh, forgot to mention, at HD they're not marketed as "guitar tech" tools.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Press.html

Now, this one is a pretty cool tool, all things considered. Mine has saved me a lot of grief, because when you hammer anything on a finshed guitar, you're risking trauma to the instrument and chips in the pricey finish, and this tool presses bushings out and in. BUT--the mandrels themselves flop around on the jaws and frequently slip. If the genii (plural of "genius") at S-M gave just a bit more thought to fine-tuning these tools after first sample arrives for their approval, they would have put a small friction washer on the mandrel joint (a part costing a half-cent in quantity) so they would hold their position prior to use.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... _Wood.html

Otherwise known as "money for scrap". Twelve bucks for two pieces of scrap wood so you can earn how to bend acoustic guitar sides, and then move onto making more expensive scrap. Suppose you actually bend a couple of beauties out of this stuff. Whatchoo gonna do with them? You can't make a guitar out of this soft stuff, and at $6+ for each raw piece, plus the hour or two you slaved over a (literally) hot iron, you sure don't want to toss 'em into the scrap pile (which seems to grow larger with every Stew-Mac purchase).


There are, of course, many other items they sell that are of limited utility and fictitious or tortured practicality. Still, I'm a customer for occasional basic items...I use my homebuilt buffer every day, my guitar vise and neck setup jig are indispensible, and they're my (pricey) fallback vendor for all sorts of commodity items. Unless you inform them in no uncertain terms, however, they prefer to ship DHL, which, as Peter (Family Guy) says, really "grinds my gears".

Like many boutique operations, Stew-Mac has learned the restaurant pitch of giving themselves a nicer look and smell than a traditional vendor, and socking it to us when the tab arrives. A somewhat cynical restaurant platitude says that you pay more for "vertical" food than if the same ingredients were laid out more horizontally. It's all in the marketing and resultant public impression.

Anyone remember "The Sharper Image"? I used to buy interersting, gadget-freak stuff from them in the late '80s. The last purchase was a nice rolling suitcase, back in '95 or so...it broke the first trip, and when I tried to return it, I found out that it was "discontinued" (a month later?) and I would have to pay another $40.00 to "upgrade" to its new equivalent.

Back to the point here...Sometime in the mid-'90s, Sharper Image started putting a little logo "bug" next to some items in its catalog and retail outlets. The "bug" said, "Sharper Image Design", meaning that it was an item that was their exclusive and dreamed up by its former-boy-genius founder and CEO, Richard Thalheimer. Virtually every one of these things was slick, useless, and (hate to say it, but I will), "bad" design, as considered in the usual sense by designers. It was the product design equivalent of a Kenny "G" concert.

Soon thereafter, I realized that, although I received a catalog from SI virtually every month, it had gotten to the point where there wasn't a thing in any of them that I wanted to purchase. Uh-oh. Either I was growing up, they were missing their mark, or possibly both.

SI went out of business earlier this year, after a fight between the board of directors and Thalheimer, who lost control of his company a few years back. I knew the end was in sight when I walked past the SI store in Corte Madera back in '03, and one of Thalheimer's personal rides-- a custom-built Harley chopper--was on the sales floor with a price tag on it.

No way am I insinuating or predicting S-M's demise with these allegories. I'm merely pointing out that too much thought in gilding the lily and too many "exclusives" of dubious or limited value, water down a company's lineup and do a bit to tarnish its star. Stew-Mac seems to be caught up in the American obsession with larger and larger quarterly profits, and the meat-grinder that demands more SKUs every month. As long as they don't ignore their core customers, then it should be OK, but I don't need a filigreed end-pin extractor so I can be the first on my block with one.

[grazioso]

amen! that is a lot of useless tools out there at s-m and the fact is that much of their normal stuff is about 10-30% more expensive than other places. i refuse to pay extra for their idiotic sticker on superglue..

[jingle_jangle]

Ha! Agreed...except that, for me, their superglue is one of the most convenient products they sell.

I can buy any one of about 40 or 50 superglue products, either locally or from McMaster-Carr in LA.

Theirs is fresh, vacuum-packed, and comes with a non-spill bottle and a real nice brush in the cap. It's worth the extra couple of bucks to me.

To each his own on stuff like this, I think, Dusan.

[firstbassman]

if I understand your wording correctly, the answer is as follows: the "radius" refers to the radius (distance from center to edge) of a circle that matches the curvature of the fretboard. If a guitar has a very flat fretboard, there is not much of a curve, and would correspond to a large circle, thus large radius. A small radius would be a small circle, whose curvature is much more noticeable in the small cross section of its edge that a fretboard occupies. How'd I do? Is that right?

Jason, yes, that is correct.

Here is a site with good explanations and drawings:

http://www.ratcliffe.co.za/articles/radius.shtml

[Mossman]

Here's an inexpensive alternative for checking your fretboard radius...

http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardia ... Gauges.pdf