Flat or radiused fingerboards?

[andys]

Bit of a discussion going on on the Main Street section, and it was suggested that we move it over to here for further debate/discussion.

The MM guitars from what I can gather all have flat radiused fingerboards, though maybe there are a few that have radiused boards. For me, my MM Blues is the only guitar I have with a flat board, and for slide and fingerpicking I find this ideal, though at first it took some getting used to, as my previous Vintage resonator had a radiused board.
For electric and other acoustic playing I like a bit of radius, but not too much, but this Busker guitar has opened me up to the joys of playing on a wide flat fingerboard.

What do others think. Do you prefer radiused fingerboards or flat fingerboards?

[SoloBill]

Hi,
I much prefer flat.

It seems to me that my hand is 'designed' to have curved fingers when I grip something and flat fingers when I am pressing something. To fret strings on a guitar as a barre I am pressing them.

[Deleted]

Andys

The Fyldes have lovely gentle radiused fingerboards, perfect for conventional playing. The Busker Cannon has a flat fingerboard, the Delta has a slightly radiused fingerboard and the Beltona has a fingerboard more heavily curved than the Fyldes. 3 different types of resonator guitars and 3 different styles of playing them, although the Beltona is more different than the the Buskers are.

For slide I prefer t a flat board, as a full 6 string slide is then easy to do. Ona curved board it needs a bit more thought to get the effect!

Barry

[smoochimoto]

Honestly I never really thought about it much until I started attempting to play slide. All the "flat tops" I listed in another thread have relatively flat boards. I mentally reviewed guitars I found uncomfortable, and generally the mfgs had the reputation for fairly pronounced radii on their fingerboards. I can't check because they're long gone, but in the late 70's/early 80's when I owned several Fenders I found them immensely uncomfortable. I always thought it was because the necks were so slim, but their radiused fingerboards were a selling point If I remember correctly so maybe that played a factor. When I had the Hohner set up, my friend set the strings flat. He was concerned I would have trouble playing non-slide music on it but it feels very comfortable even with 16-60 phos bronze set tuned to std. I guess I come down on the flat side of the fence.

Clear as mud as usual,
Lucian

[SoloBill]

Dec 5, 2008 2:44:16 GMT smoochimoto said:

<snip>, but in the late 70's/early 80's when I owned several Fenders I found them immensely uncomfortable. I always thought it was because the necks were so slim, but their radiused fingerboards were a selling point If I remember correctly so maybe that played a factor. <snip>.

Clear as mud as usual,
Lucian

Doh! I too thought that the necks on Fenders were too thin I never thought about the fingerboard radius!

[smoochimoto]

Nor did I until recently. I should point out that newer Fender guitars (esp since the vintage reissue and relic craze) aren't necessarily all slender necked. I played a used mint Nocaster relic (??!!) that had a wonderful neck. The salesperson and I measured the neck width and radius, then compared the numbers with a Martin Marquis D-28. They were very close.

Perhaps I belong in the bronze age
Lucian