Flat Fretboards?

[dbsfgyd1]

So yeah, I'm reading about flat fretboards. I've played a couple and I like them. I'm no firecracker when it comes to shred-y solo playing, but first feels good. Anybody else?
My Sterling Ray 34ca has a 9.5" radius. My Epiphone Thunderbird Classic Pro has a 12" radius.
I've got an FSO, locally made, with an Allparts neck, and I think that one's a 10" radius.
I like each of them for their sound and feel, but the flatter radius I find most comfortable.
What brand of bass with a flat-ish radius are you playing, and what about it works for you?
Thanks for your participation.

I had a Warwick Corvette STD that had a flat finger board. It played pretty well. Did it make me play better? Did I like it more than your basic Fender PB orJB? I can honestly say no. I was just another bass and I had a job to do, play bass not (ahem) fret about the fingerboard.

 

[Matt O]

7.25 is my favorite. I think I might be the only one in this thread lol.

That said, the OP question is about which flatter radius boards do you play and why. I have a Höfner Club and a couple Thunderbirds and a few others with repetitively flat fingerboards. I don’t play them as often, but I find them more comfortable played with a pick. My Thunderbirds are for angry piano picking and The Club is a palm muting pick beast. I find 7.25 equally comfortable pick or fingers. Also, I don’t do any tapping etc…

 

[Count Bassie]

This morning, in my ruminations, it occurs to me that it's not really, necessarily that important- just one isolated aspect of an instrument, but the sum of the parts that makes it work for you.
You adjust to smaller considerations to take advantage of the greater benefit, compromise is always part of the formula for success. Maybe the flatter fingerboard in the current equation is a matter of a diminishing return, given everything else you're experiencing.
My Ray 34ca feels really good to play, 9.5" radius notwithstanding. The burden of weight over a couple sets is what I'm really looking at.
My Epi Thunderbird is a 12" radius and feels different, but it's the ergonomics that make that one work. The sound can be a little overbearing unless I manage that- but I can and do, so there's that compromise.
Anyway, I thought this was worth exploring, and has been interesting. Let it roll...

Thanks everybody for being a part of it! It's been informative and enlightening.

 

[Nedmundo]

One of my pet-peeves is the pushing of “compound radius” fingerboards on electric guitar. For “playability!” Jacksons almost all have 10-14” radius now and if you look on the Warmoth site, almost all the for sale necks have a 10-16” radius.

What annoys me about it is it is completely unnecessary for ‘playability.’ Classical guitar I would argue is the most technically demanding of any style and played on dead FLAT fingerboards.

Martin guitars have a 16” radius and no one whines about that. However many electric guitar players would call it ‘unplayable!’

Geometrically, a compound radius makes sense, and from what I understand some guitarists prefer the more rounded radius for playing chords in the lower frets, while the flatter radius facilitates shredding in the upper frets. I'm happy with a straight 12" on guitars, but my newest guitar, a 2025 Fender Am. Ultra II HSS Strat, has a compound radius--and it's fantastic.

 

[Clark Westfield]

My Schecter has a 16” radius which I used to love

Now getting older, when. I play over 45 minutes, my hand start to cramp.

With my Sadowsky or Reverend, which have a 12”, fatter feel, my hand is fine.

 

[1String]

My only bass with a flat "fret" board is my Ashbory, but it really differs from anything else in more ways than just an infinite radius.

 

[Root 5]

Isn't it just having the best of both worlds? I don't see why that should be annoying.

No.

 

[Count Bassie]

To me a flat fretboard feels easier to play. But it's not the only part of the formula... You only know what suits you best by playing it. What's the feel, the path you take as a player? What does your hand do, what's your ergonomic fit?
You can't probably be so great at everything, so you do what you get the most out of. Maybe the flatter radius gets you there, maybe a rounder one does.
I guess.
That's my conclusion.
Again, great stuff, good convo.

 

[shirojiro]

12” radius on a Fender Aerodyne Precision special feels great to me.

I think the new Charvel San Dimas basses also have a flat fretboard.

I really like the 7.25” radius of the Classic 50s fat neck too.

For some reason I don’t love 9.25”.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Huh...

So I guess Fingerboard Radius is right up there -- albeit just below -- Weight, in the list of Things I Never Knew I Was Supposed To Care About With My Basses.

Seriously, until I started frequenting TalkBass I had no idea what any of my basses weighed. But hang out here long enough, and eventually curiosity (read: peer pressure) got the best of me, and I bought a digital luggage scale, and now I finally know what my basses weigh. Not that the knowledge has any effect on which basses I prefer...

Likewise, other than the Warmoth guitar I recently cobbled together which I just happen to know -- because I had to specify it when I ordered the neck -- has a 10-16" compound radius, I have no idea what the fingerboard radius of any of my basses are.

How would I even measure that?

I do remember a professor at music college telling me that the Peavey T-40 I played in 1980 had a very flat fingerboard...but I have no recollection of that bass being noticeably different from any other bass I've owned over the subsequent 46 years.

Okay, yeah, the Chapman Stick I played in the late 80s definitely had a flat fingerboard! As did the classical guitar my girlfriend owned circa 1983.

But any of the other instruments? :::shrugs:::

 

[Ricky Rioli]

The thought of a more curved fretboard appealed to me — that would follow the natural curve of my fingers, right?

So I enthusiastically ordered a MIJ reissue P-bass with 7¼ radius.

Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that the extra curve would require reaching further around the neck to reach the E string, and that created a knock-on effect that fed all the way back to my knackered shoulder.

Within half an hour, the shoulder had announced that the beautiful dark candy apple red P bass was going back to the dealer.

I felt very foolish writing that email, am still blushing at the thought of it years later.

 

[andymac]

The thought of a more curved fretboard appealed to me — that would follow the natural curve of my fingers, right?

So I enthusiastically ordered a MIJ reissue P-bass with 7¼ radius.

Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that the extra curve would require reaching further around the neck to reach the E string, and that created a knock-on effect that fed all the way back to my knackered shoulder.

Within half an hour, the shoulder had announced that the beautiful dark candy apple red P bass was going back to the dealer.

I felt very foolish writing that email, am still blushing at the thought of it years later.

You 100% should not feel foolish! Totally the sort of thing that you can't know until you try!

I can't count the number of times I have thought "that sounds like a great idea" or "that sounds like me", then tried or purchased something, and found the complete opposite in practice.

• Lots of controls vs few controls
• Active vs passive
• Rounds vs flats
• Thin neck vs thick
• J vs P
• Regular P vs mudbucker
• Maple vs rosewood
• Flat fingerboard vs rounded
• Lots more I can't remember
• Plus other non-bass things in life

In all those cases, I thought in theory one fit with the music I play, and my style and preferences, and I found, either right away or after some experience, that the opposite one actually worked better for me, often by a lot.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Huh...

So I guess Fingerboard Radius is right up there -- albeit just below -- Weight, in the list of Things I Never Knew I Was Supposed To Care About With My Basses.

Seriously, until I started frequenting TalkBass I had no idea what any of my basses weighed. But hang out here long enough, and eventually curiosity (read: peer pressure) got the best of me, and I bought a digital luggage scale, and now I finally know what my basses weigh. Not that the knowledge has any effect on which basses I prefer...

Likewise, other than the Warmoth guitar I recently cobbled together which I just happen to know -- because I had to specify it when I ordered the neck -- has a 10-16" compound radius, I have no idea what the fingerboard radius of any of my basses are.

How would I even measure that?

I do remember a professor at music college telling me that the Peavey T-40 I played in 1980 had a very flat fingerboard...but I have no recollection of that bass being noticeably different from any other bass I've owned over the subsequent 46 years.

Okay, yeah, the Chapman Stick I played in the late 80s definitely had a flat fingerboard! As did the classical guitar my girlfriend owned circa 1983.

But any of the other instruments? :::shrugs:::

I too had no concept of radius until very recently, even though I've been playing since '72. I knew the neck on a '71 P bass felt "wrong" for me, too wide and chunky, but I couldn't tell you more than that. I have no idea what the radius on my Rick 4001 was. I only recently learned that my Jazz Plus has a different radius than my Sadowsky PJ. And I can see visually how flat a board the Warwicks have.

Bought a set of radius tools with my other tools so I could start doing my own set-ups. A lot easier to see it if you use those tools.

Weight? My aging 72 year old back tells me that more efficiently and with greater urgency than any scale could.

 

[Iridescentone]

What I first played a Stick I was so used to seeing a radius of some sort that the impression/illusion was of a concave fingerboard. I imagine the same might happen at 47". That has to be barely perceptible under the fingers, almost to the point of why even bother. I guess it makes no difference to a CNC machine...

Same for Travis Bean. I never measured the Bean radius, nor have I ever read what it might have been. It "looked" concave by comparo to other basses especially old Fenders. If there was a radius there you could've fooled me.

 

[Petethebassman]

7.25 is my favorite. I think I might be the only one in this thread lol.

That said, the OP question is about which flatter radius boards do you play and why. I have a Höfner Club and a couple Thunderbirds and a few others with repetitively flat fingerboards. I don’t play them as often, but I find them more comfortable played with a pick. My Thunderbirds are for angry piano picking and The Club is a palm muting pick beast. I find 7.25 equally comfortable pick or fingers. Also, I don’t do any tapping etc…

Not the only one, I very much prefer a 7.25 radius and both of my Fender basses have that. Very comfortable to play.