I recently tried out a classic series 50's strat at guitar center, it felt so amazing in my hands. I looked for a neck online and saw I can easily get a used classic series for the same price or a little more. I also ran across that 7.25s are not really great for bends due to fret outs. To fix this you must raise the action, I'm curious if you have to raise the action that much that it really slows soloing down that much. I feel as if hendrix, clapton, and gilmour managed to play on these necks, that it can be done even though they are the best.

Anyways I also heard of classic player strats which are 9.5 radius/soft v that I didn't get to try. Is it possible that I just prefer the soft v contour over the modern c, or is it most likely the size? I guess I'll have to try both before I considering purchasing.

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1.) Does the action have to be much higher on a 7.25 to prevent fretting out on whole tone bends?
2.) Is is possible I prefer a soft v shape, rather than a completely different neck size?

I have the 50's strat (re-2007).

The action on mine is up for the same reasons, but not so high that I can't still comfortably range from blues to 80's style soloing. (*appropriate signal processing applies as the stock pickups are quite weak IMO)

But, its not the action that bothers me on this guitar, I'm actually considering having taller frets installed, because of how much my fingers get stuck on the fretboard when bending.

Of all the installs and upgrades I want for this guitar, I'm considering buying another more modern strat, and leaving a 50's guitar a 50's guitar.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Theres no significant difference, in action or fret out. I've played a few 7.25"R boards lately trying to figure what to have on a neck I'm building. I haven't noticed any major difference at all between them and 9.5"R boards. I played a 63 telecaster lastweek with a far lower action than my 9.5"R. baja telecaster. I had absolutely no problem bending strings on it. Even got up a tone and a half on the B at the 15th fret.

I think its all a con developed in the 80's to convince us that we need flatter boards or compound radius boards. A flat board is great if your playing George Lynch. I dont notice much diff otherwise.

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No no and no

My Strats have fast 9.5 in radii, while my Tele has a 7.5" radius. The heavy music and soloing that I do on the Strats is much more difficult on the Tele due to its smaller radius. That's perfectly fine, though, because I bought the Tele especially for slow old-school blues playing in the lower frets -- which it is great for. So ... yeah ... don't get a 7.5" radius board if you want to be doing monster guitar soloing on it.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Fastest I'd try to solo on it is Clapton or Hendrix, I'm not a fan of metal shredding nor am I a fan of sweep picking or anything of that sort. Still out for more opinions on this.