Sooooo... Help on fretboard radius, anybody..?

[BigLeroy]

So! Hello guys. This is my first post. I am a little confused with which fretboard radius option I should choose. I have the body already, it is a Jazzmaster body routed SSS and wired like a Strat, obviously, and I have the Recessed Schaller Floyd Rose bridge rout. Now, I was looking at the bridge itself and saw that it has a 12" radius at the bridge and up at the nut of the guitar,  a 10" radius, as opposed to the original Floyd Rose, having both 10's.

I have been getting very confused lately with my research into which fretboard radius would suit the Schaller Floyd Rose bridge without me needing to shim anything on the bridge itself. I don't know if the top has been discussed or not; I mean, with the amount of research in it that I have been doing, I am almost positive I haven't found an article containing an answer haha soooooo if you guys could help me out with a few suggestions of what would work without needing shimming..that would take a complete load off of my mind lol. And in advance... Thank you!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

The most popular neck for comfort and playability is the compound radius Warmoth makes that runs from 10" to 16". Since the geometry is conical rather than cylindrical, that leaves you needing an 18" radius at the bridge. If it's a Floyd, you'll need shims.

I'm curious about your objection to using shims on the Floyd. It's common practice, and not difficult to do. You only have to do it once, unless you change necks. You can get a set of 12 here for $10.

 

[BigLeroy]

Thanks! 

And no, it isn't that I have a "no shimming" policy. It's mostly just new territory to me, the Floyds. Plus, I don't really know how to do it. Guess its just another something I'll have to look into.

Again.. thank you!

 

[Cagey]

There's nothing to it. You simply remove a saddle by undoing a hex screw, place a shim or two, and screw it back on. The bridge will have come with the appropriate hex wrench. All you have to know is how thick your shims are, and what radius you want. There's a whole thread on neck radii and bridge radii here that you might want to read through. There's some good information in it. It's kinda long, but if you're patient, you'll get to where you learn why and how to shim, how much, etc.

 

[Shadow]

Jumble did the calculations and some explanation about this on his blog actually:

http://www.jumbleguitar.com/2012/04/17/bridge-logic-revisited/

Hopefully it helps some, but the conclusion he came to was that the closest you could get was two shims each on the outermost strings, and 1 each on A and B strings.

 

[BigLeroy]

Wow, thank both of you.
I'll definitely look into that Cagey. I didn't know what shimming actually was, so I guess it was a little pre-mature of me to assume that I could get away with not doing so. Thanks again :headbang1:
And Shadow, that's pretty interesting. Thanks for the info. I will give that a shot, since in the article, it has the radius he calculated with as a 10-16" compound, correct? Cool :glasses10:

Thanks both of you, yet again. Y'all have lifted a weight off of my mind, because I've been wondering about this for two days now hahaha. So I guess 10-16" is the way to go, and some shimming is needed but thats okay.

 

[stubhead]

Not to be wrenching monkely, but there are those among us who will choose a straight radius for a variety of reasons. In my case, it's a question of hand positioning up the neck where you need partial barres. I also like to play slide-everything... and there's the polar opposite, some shreddy folk want the neck flatter way down low. If it were up to me, Warmoth could offer this for no extra charge, because at least what I gather from this forum, things like a straight 12" radius are popular too.

 

[Cagey]

I hadn't considered it, but I can see where you wouldn't want a conical radius if you were a slide player. Even if you use concave tube slides, they don't change by position. They're constant, so you'd want a cylindrical radius.

Pretty sure slide players are still on the rare side of the kingdom, though. Wouldn't make sense for manufacturers to settle on a design that made them happy but no one else.

Of course, I've probably already been wrong 3 times today, broke 7 laws, offended 8 religions, and it ain't even dinnertime yet.

 

[stubhead]

WHOA! DUDE! The synchronicitizers must've got plugged into the 220v outlet, because right there in my e-mail was "Premier Guitar" yakkin' on "How to set up a Floyd":
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2013/Aug/How_to_Set_Up_a_Floyd_Rose_Style_Trem.aspx

I'm not a Floyder, even in the privacy of my own home, but he appears to put all the steps in the correct order - which is really important for something that's a totally interactive system, i.e. "guitar." I just glanced through it, and my only quibble with it was the same thing that's wrong about every single setup article in Premier Guitar - >

YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE
ALL THE STRINGS OFF ALL THE WAY AND
THROW THEM AWAY EVERY TIME
YOU ADJUST A WIDGET!​

Grrr. Grrr, grrr...

To adjust a butt-end truss rod you put a capo on at the first fret before you loosen them, no strings sproinging all the hell all over the place. It looks to me like with a Floyd, you'd want to slide a piece of blue (low-tack) masking tape under the strings around the fifth fret, and put another piece of tape on top of that? Floydians, hep me out here. Whatever you do, just prevent the sproingies with some-thing.

Premier Guitar only runs around $30,000 worth of advertising from string sellers every month, so that couldn't possibly be enough to compromise their integrity. :dontknow: :icon_tongue: :dontknow:

(Have you ever noticed how all the environmentally-"BUY GREEN!" stuff-makers never tell you the greenest thing of all - DON'T BUY CRAP YOU DON'T NEED?) :laughing3: