I am visualizing this as a fretboard that is essentially flat under the top three strings, then curves down under the bottom three - radiused the most at the nut, then somewhat less as it goes up. I haven't done any drawings, but I'd guess that you'd be lowering the low E sting about the diameter of itself, or .050" - relative to the original position - except that practically speaking, you'd actually tilt the whole assembly to avoid excess woodworking/fret dressing, but I see where this guy's coming from.
If you play the length of the neck, not just cowboy chords, frets wear in kind of a long crescent pattern, with the wear starting low on the high string, extending over to the A & D string around the 10th to 12th fret - the same pattern you see on maple-neck guitars with the varnish worn off. When you re-level frets in the conventional way by inking them and leveling out the divots, you actually grind in a setup that's almost the opposite of what this is proposing - which is, of course, the origin of the compound radius to begin with. If you visualize this the way I see it, then tilt it to conform with what already exists on a 12" straight radius, it's almost like you'd just want to retain the radius when you relevel the frets - but not quite.
It might not seem like much, but shred guitar setups are extremely finicky. I don't even like action that low, but I am acutely aware of how a guitar is setup - as I mentioned above, Warmoth's compound radius isn't right for me because of chords up high, but I still think there's room for improvement over a straight radius. Being 51 & having had disc surgery with some nerve damage, and playing 6 hours a day, I can definitely see the reason to work towards ideal action. Everything is a compromise, but this is still a neat idea. I know a few of the hardcore luthiers that the Nashville & LA guys use, I'm going to run this by them. I kind of guess that some people are already doing it just in the way they level frets, but I'd never heard it articulated before in this way.
If you play the length of the neck, not just cowboy chords, frets wear in kind of a long crescent pattern, with the wear starting low on the high string, extending over to the A & D string around the 10th to 12th fret - the same pattern you see on maple-neck guitars with the varnish worn off. When you re-level frets in the conventional way by inking them and leveling out the divots, you actually grind in a setup that's almost the opposite of what this is proposing - which is, of course, the origin of the compound radius to begin with. If you visualize this the way I see it, then tilt it to conform with what already exists on a 12" straight radius, it's almost like you'd just want to retain the radius when you relevel the frets - but not quite.
It might not seem like much, but shred guitar setups are extremely finicky. I don't even like action that low, but I am acutely aware of how a guitar is setup - as I mentioned above, Warmoth's compound radius isn't right for me because of chords up high, but I still think there's room for improvement over a straight radius. Being 51 & having had disc surgery with some nerve damage, and playing 6 hours a day, I can definitely see the reason to work towards ideal action. Everything is a compromise, but this is still a neat idea. I know a few of the hardcore luthiers that the Nashville & LA guys use, I'm going to run this by them. I kind of guess that some people are already doing it just in the way they level frets, but I'd never heard it articulated before in this way.
