This has probably been answered before, so please excuse the new post on a (possibly) old subject.

Since I've been playing forever and a day, I should know this, but would someone explain neck radius and how "big" the neck will feel in relation to the radius? I know that the larger the number (7.25 vs. 9.5, etc.) means the fretboard is flatter.

All three of my electric guitars have massively different necks on them; which one I like most depends on the day.

-My 1992 U.S. Vintage Series '62 Stratocaster has a 7.25" radius (vintage spec, I have been told).
-My 1995 MIM Tele Special has a 9.5" radius. The edges of the fretboard are "sharper", less rounded/rolled than my Strat, if you will...it's not better or worse, just different; I don't know if the edges of the fingerboard have anything to do with the radius or not.
-I don't know the radius of my 1980 G&L F-100; it has the Series II neck, which is the faster neck profile of those particular guitars, it is fairly flat, but there's still a bit of curvature to the fretboard (the Series I necks are fatter; I've played a couple that belonged to friends. Series I and Series II have nothing to do with the date of manufacture, it just was the way George and Leo decided to differentiate between the two neck profiles).

I do know this: the differences between these necks make me play differently on each of these guitars.

The G&L is easier for fast picking and harder-rock-style soloing. I don't shred [I can, but I don't want to] but this neck's feel is more akin to a shredder's axe. I like the flat, wide frets of my G&L the best of all the guitars I own, but the thinness of the neck prevents me from putting it on top of the list all the time (the humbuckers and mahogany also tend to make me turn toward the Strat & Tele more...I'm usually a single-coil guy). This was my first guitar, and every time I think about selling it, I play it and remember why I keep it...even though it's not my usual taste in guitars, it plays and sounds great, plus it gives me a little different sound and style to shake things up a bit. Because it feels/sounds so different, I use this axe to break out of the ruts I fall into from time to time.

The Tele is better for blues and slide. The Strat falls right in the middle of the two...

Truth be told, I would like a bigger, fatter, deeper neck than I have on any of these axes...none of them are bad (and I could play these three until Kingdom Come), but I have played a few guitars with huge, fat necks (a fairly new American Telecaster and an Epiphone SG copy) and it just felt nice...

So I guess my question is this:

Does flatter radius necessarily translate into a larger (deeper) neck profile, or are the two specifications unrelated?

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Unrelated. profile really only relates to neck thickness (depth as you call it) and shape of the rear, and less so width. radius you have correct, pertains only to the curvature or the fretboard. Think of the radius of a circle, a smaller radius has more curvature, a larger one less curvature. The specifications are mutually exclusive.

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Thanks for the clear, concise answer!!

The specific Radius of the fretboard is one of those things I have never gotten hung up on in the past; if a guitar felt good (even if it was "different"), I would play it...if I didn't like the feel, no matter how pretty or good-sounding the guitar was, it was soon sold or traded...and I'm beginning to suspect my personal definition of a "good feeling" neck is more related to depth than radius anyway.

OK, here's a follow-up question: How does Fender label the different neck profiles, as related to depth/fatness/whatever?

Is there a system or do we just say a "SRV" neck or a "Jeff Beck" or a "Jimmie Vaughan" profile?

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

+1
That's the answer you needed. I used a G&L SB-2 Bass with a vintage neck, and a 7.5 radius. I found out after a while I liked the 9.5 flatter board on the Fender.

I'm a little rusty on this but at varied times they used terms to describe them as "C," "D," soft V, hard V, 10/56, boat neck etc... There may be a standard and I seem to recall at one time they may have described this on their site. The artist models like you mentioned are often associated with a profile popular to a specific type or model year as opposed to a neck profile exclusive to their design. I remember the Jeff Becks as being rather thick and club like. My preference has always been the 10/56 which is sort of a soft V and called that because it was a common profile on many necks dated then.

I might add that some aftermarket companies, when offering necks have their own system for describing profiles based on Fender models, which are not necessarily the way Fender classifies them. I didn't readily see anything on Fender's site about it but there may be something in the Custom shop section. Warmoth for example describes theirs here with diagrams:
http://www.warmoth.com/Pages/CustomNeck.aspx scroll down to 5, back contour and select "more info"

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Thank you so much, James ...now to figure out which one I like best overall...

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Ok, I checked the Custom Shop site and they have a quote form and under neck shape (Profile) they classify them now as follows:

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I guess the holy grail would be to seek out and play every guitar on that list to see which feels the best before buying! Sounds like a fun project.

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'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Guitar buying has always been a subjective experience. You start out with either whatever you can afford or what your idol played or whatever was handed down to you and you develop your own preferences based on exposure to variation.

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...where is the "Big $@!" profile? That's the one I want...

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I fell about laughing at the title of this thread. Screamin' A is asking us to educate him.

C'mon!

We would not be so bold...

Cheers - C

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Having played Gibsons exclusively for over 30 yrs I bought my 1st Fender 4 yrs ago.
I INSTANTLY fell in love w/the 9.5 radi on my MIM Tele....being used to hyperextending my knuckles on a 12.5, playing the 9.5 was an epiphany of relaxation !!
Bought a 9.5-14 compound f/b on my Amr.Dlx. Strat a year ago and i'm addicted.

I'm so enamored w/my Fenders now, that i'm actually considering selling some of my non Fenders, to buy more Fender guitars

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Think of the fretboard as a segment of the arc of a circle. It flattens out as the radius of the circle increases. Thus, a segment of the arc of a circle with a radius of 12 will be flatter that that of one of 7.5.

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In that I cut my teeth on a '58 Strat long before I became long in the tooth I, like Jamesv
prefer V-profile necks....Clapton>'57VHR>10/56 in that order....the necks becoming 'chunkier' as you go. The 10/56 is pretty much Fender's generic V. From there on I'd say the vintage C on my Gilmour and my LP '60's fast neck.

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