Re-radius a neck?

[toejam]

I've got this '01 USA Fender Double Fat Strat Hardtail... it sounds great, is very loud acoustically, has great sustain, but I don't dig the 9.5" fretboard radius that much. I want something flatter, and I'd prefer at least a 12" radius or larger. Would it be beneficial for someone to reradius the fretboard (which is rosewood)... and I guess it would need a refret at the same time... or should I just slap on a different neck? Would a new neck cost about the same as the refret/reradius?

[Grandturk]

I'm paying $300 to have jumbo frets put on a neck. So, yeah, I would say buy a warmoth unless you're really attached to THAT particular neck.

[Axewielder]

I did a compound re-radius and refret of my ASAT neck (it was 7.5"...ugh!) It would be worth the trouble if that neck/body combination is magical in some way or has sentimental value. Cost-wise, it's pretty much a wash with getting a new neck.

[toejam]

Thanks, guys. The neck does feel pretty nice, but I'll look into Warmoth, too. Maybe I'll also get some stainless steel frets so I won't have to worry about wear.

[Axewielder]

You could always get a Jackson "Vintage Style" Strat!

[toejam]

I could do that, too! :idea:

[Chad]

I went through this same process awhile back. I ended up just selling the guitar and looking at other guitars on the market.

Do you absolutely love the guitar and plan on keeping it no matter what? Then do a re-fret and re-radius.

If you think there is any possibility you might sell it at some point, then you'd end up spending a lot of money while at the same time probably de-value the guitar....double whammy. From that perspective, it makes sense to maybe look into getting a different neck....that way you could put the original neck back on if you chose to sell it. But that's a lot of trouble and expense......and face it.....the guitar would be a "mutt" at that point (that may or may not bother you).

Factoring all of that stuff, I felt it just made sense to look for a guitar that would better fit my needs.......there's tons of stuff out there.

[TommyD]

Re-radius a neck?

> I'm sure reshaping the fretboard could be done,but here are the potential problems I see.

Is the fretboard itself thick enough to support it?. If this were a Jackson,the answer would automatically be yes. However,the few Strats I've really taken a close look at were thinner.and curved on the botton side,meaning the backside if the fretboard that is glued to the maple isn't flat.

Whoever resands the fretboard would have to be a really skilled luthier,all it would take is a slight misalignment and the radius could be off center,misaligned lengthwise,or take too much off the fretboard at the respective ends. The jig they use would be critical here.

After that,it would be like cutting slots and fretting a fresh neck. Keep in mind that this job would reduce the overall thickness,and possibly the tone.

Also,on a radical sanding job like this,or if maybe this was done on a machine with a cutter of some kind,the weather outside may play a role. As much wood as you'd be removing,all it would take is a dose of wet weather outside,in a non-climate controlled environment,and the neck might move some. Tommy D.

[Chad]

Or one could do like EJ did with his vintage first year Strat. Leave the fretboard alone, put big frets on (like 6100s), and file the frets to the altered radius. Probably not optimum, but at least it doesn't mess with the fretboard wood.

[toejam]

Thanks. I've toyed with the idea of selling the guitar in the past, but it just didn't happen. I love the feel and sound of it, just having the action a little higher and fretting out on some bends bugs me. The rosewood board seems thick enough. I guess I could always just put bigger frets on. I don't have much preference for fret size, as I can adapt easily to different sizes.

[Grandturk]

For what its worth, I asked about re-radiusing the neck on mine when I dropped it off for a refret. Its a 7.5" reissue Fender neck - 1 piece maple. Basically he said he could plane it out to about 9.5" but that was as far as he would be comfortable going because of the way the truss rod is installed. Apparantly the channel for the truss rod can be pretty close to the fretboard, so when you start taking wood off of it, it can weaken.

Modern construction necks might have a little more "meat" to the fretboard.

Anyway - I went with keeping the fretboard radius as is and installing some monster jumbo frets. I played a CS Strat at the shop with a vintage radius and monster frets and it played great, so I used that as a reference for the tech.

[toejam]

Cool. Bigger frets may just be only what I need on it after all. I'll have to take it in to my local shop soon and see.

[atdguitars]

Bigger frets will work. Doing a re-radius is a bitch and very labor intensive.
If you go with new frets have them graduate the frets to help get the action down even more. If they start graduating the fret height from the 12th fret up then the action can be dropped a lot and really increase the playability of the guitar. Graduating the height isn't the easiest job but its well worth it.

[toejam]

Bigger frets will work. Doing a re-radius is a bitch and very labor intensive.
If you go with new frets have them graduate the frets to help get the action down even more. If they start graduating the fret height from the 12th fret up then the action can be dropped a lot and really increase the playability of the guitar. Graduating the height isn't the easiest job but its well worth it.

Thanks for that tip. Maybe that's why Jake E. Lee's old signature ESP models had jumbo frets from 1 to 12 and then 13 to 22 were smaller?

[Grandturk]

Thanks for that tip. Maybe that's why Jake E. Lee's old signature ESP models had jumbo frets from 1 to 12 and then 13 to 22 were smaller?

I heard that people did that based on their preference for the amount of "finger space" between the frets. If you have wide jumbo frets, you lose a little bit of room between each fret vs. tall skinny frets.

That's why if you look at a neck with vintage small frets, it looks like the frets are wider spaced than a neck with jumbo frets.