Right im sorry for anyone looking at this thinking "Time Waster" but i must ask what is the better Wood for a neck, and with Neck radius is 9 better than 12 or what?

i ask as im looking to spend £600 or there abouts for my first strat for my 18th, I play Bluesy things And alot of John Mayers stuff.
Im about to start learning Hendrix SRV and Clapton stuff religiously so i can really begin to build my musical vocabulary.

If while your here you would like to drop some model suggestions i would love you forever...

There's no audib;le difference between maple and rosewood, so pick the one you like.

Same goes for 9 and 12. Neither is better, except to an individual.

Actually there is a difference. Rosewood is said to have a warmer sound, while maple has a more treble sound which is what I love, but go try them out to see for yourself.

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"You won't part with your's either"

Fender American Standard Stratocaster 2006

Fender Standard Telecaster 2007

Depends on the model. Strats always sound better with rosewood, and my own personal preference is a 9.25"radius with medium jumbo frets.

I really want a tele though and although i love rosewood, am thinking a tele would be best off purchased with a maple neck to help along that trademark trebbly tone.

Yea i play a Squier Telecustom with a maple neck and it is a superb guitar, i realise im saying this on a fender forum but my guitar is truly superb and sounds good too.
However as you know im still dying to own my Strat and will most likely lose my tele to attain it

Id go with rosewood either 12 or 9.5 since I like both

I dabble back and forth with maple boards but I readily admit it, deep down inside, my overall preference is clearly a rosewood board.

I dealt with the 7.25" radius necks and tiny frets when I had no choice (although I always compound radiused the upper frets).

I always liked medium frets and when Fender started putting them on Strat necks, I thought it was one of the best things they ever did.

I surely preferred the 9.5" radius over the 7.25" as I didn't have AS MUCH of a problem with the fret bends but somehow, it just didn't feel right.

Currently, I have a Strat with a 12" radius neck and a rosewood board with medium jumbo frets. The first time I played the guitar, I couldn't stand it and hurriedly put it back on the rack. I then decided to give it, "equal time". I took it back off the rack and played it some more. Within two minutes I adjusted to it. I wound up buying the guitar and now, it has grown on me to the point where I never want to put it down. I've never been more pleased with a guitar!

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You dig?

Ha! I tied it by voting for maple!

Maple is brighter and has a sharper attack.
Rosewood is warmer.
I've been playing maple for 11 years on the one guitar I have and I love the clean sound and also like a lot of presence in my high gain (80s/90's rock) sound- so I love it. I know that the signature ESP for Michael Wilton of Queensryche is basically a strat with an Alder body and maple neck and I love that my strat sounds like it.

I played a rosewood board MIM strat tonight but it wasn't my amp so I'm still not 100% sure of exactly how they sound... though I did think the attack was not as immediate. I never like rosewood for high gain though.

SRV played rosewood for his rocky stuff (the signature SRV strat with Pau Ferro is wrong) and he only used maple for the clean slow stuff like "Lenny" and "Riviera Paradise".

I think Hendrix only played maple, like David Gilmour- and I think Richie Sambora's sig strat is too.

John Mayer's sig strat is just an SRV-ish guitar since he is an SRV fanatic, except it is more accurate to SRV's "#1" or "59" than the Fender SRV sig is because the sig has a pau ferro fretboard (which sounds like maple) and John Mayer's has rosewood AND a 9.5" fretboard radius- I think the SRV has 12", which is also wrong.

SRV's #1 or "'59" (was really a '62 with '59 pickups) so it had a vintage 7 1/4" fretboard radius, but his action was a massive 6/32" so he didn't have the fretting out problems.

A more curved radius makes for more comfortable chording- that's why SRV played old guitars that had it, but even the 9.5" radius (MIM Strat) can give you slight fretting out problems above the 12th fret if you do HUGE bends.

I am selling my warmoth neck with a compound radius of 10" at the nut to 16" at the 22nd fret because I hate it.

Tomorrow I am ordering a neck from USA Custom guitars with a custom ordered compound radius of 7 1/4" to 12" because 9.5 frets out for me on the huge bends and the 12" radius is just slightly too flat and uncomfortable.

I would buy a Deluxe Lonestar Strat for $770, but it only has 21 frets and I know I'll get fret buzz with the 9.5" fretboard radius.
Because of the lack of features that Fender holds back for the $1200 guitars (22 frets, contoured heel on the body, etc.) I am going to spend $360 on a custom neck for my one guitar instead of spending $770 for an almost good enough guitar and having a second guitar (which I do want).

If you can't afford $1,200+ to build a custom guitar from USACG check out the Deluxe Lonestar Strat for $770- it looks like a great guitar, comparable to the John Mayer sig (except the sig is a US made and has special pickups). I'd buy it if I wasn't so picky! It's available in the brown sunburst too - I think that guitar is the best value Fender has, but it doesn't meet my personal requirements (which means nothing to anyone else since John Mayer or SRV would probably enjoy the Lonestar)!

I've seen live shots of Hendrix with rosewood, in fact his Monterey strat was rosewood. Later on, the majority of his strats were maple though.

David Gilmour had a rosewood neck on his Black Strat from '74 to '78. He also had several other 70's strats with rosewood boards.

I have two strats with maple now, my next one is going to have rosewood. I like both for different reasons, but prefer the feel of maple.

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The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

Right i've decided to buy Maple first and within another few months
i'll buy a Rosewood too, I'll also be asking you the best Amp to buy now as i play through a Roland micro cube atm but i just cant stop thinkin i need something extra to achieve a beautiful sound.

Im not the most knowledged in the area but im lead to believe a valve amp is better....

Check out my new Poll "Valve or Solid-state".

Thankyou all for your input here and please continue adding ths is hugely helpful and interesting