7.25 or 9.5

chrisj1602

I love my 7.25” radius Strat. It’s a MIM Classic 60s which also has vintage frets too. It plays great, it’s become my number one sofa guitar, and will be getting gigged when my band kicks back off this month.

HAL9000

BillDL said:

My perfect neck for a Fender style guitar would be compond radius 7.25 to 10mm.  Most of my Fender style guitars have a 9.5 or 10mm radius and I find it to be the most universally pleasing for most styles of playing.

mm? Blimey! Your guitars must be choking out all the time ;-)

Offset

9.5 for me.  I can't get on with 7.25 and wouldn't buy a guitar with that radius.

Blueingreen

I don't think it's all about the set-up.  I'm a set-up tinkerer and extremely fussy about getting the right set-up for me.  No matter how well set up, a 7.25" neck does not play as well for me personally as a well set up 9.5". 

Shaw9

ryanverbena said:

Besides the typical, 7.25 for comfortable chords and 9.5 for less choking on your bends advice, a few things I've observed:

- A well set-up 7.25 will play better higher up the neck than a poorly set up 9.5
- The neck shape itself probably matter more i.e. if you are switching from a C to a V
- The fret height will matter, quite a lot, depending on how much bending you're doing

Are you thinking of buying an AVRI 57 or 62? Necks are hugely different between the two, despite both being available in 7.25 radius.

Yes I am thinking of buying a Vintage ii 62 Strat

Shaw9

jellybelly said:

Therea not much difference tbh, I'm not big into bends, prefer 7.25 if I had to choose but would struggle to tell the difference. A Gibson 12-inch feels very flat compared to either. Set up properly you won't have a problem. 

Jimi coped with 7.25. If you like the guitar (and with an AVRI, no doubt you will, fantastic guitars and genuine value for money if you get a good one!)

I'm planning on getting a reissue

icu81b4

I have far too many guitars, Gibson, Fender,PRS and Musicman mostly Custom shop stuff but my current fave go to is an AVRI Strat with 7.25 maple neck. 

I have no problem with choking anywhere and I have a low action on it, it’s very comfortable to play.

go and try one.

jellybelly

TeleMaster said:

jellybelly said:

Therea not much difference tbh, I'm not big into bends, prefer 7.25 if I had to choose but would struggle to tell the difference. A Gibson 12-inch feels very flat compared to either. Set up properly you won't have a problem. 

Jimi coped with 7.25. If you like the guitar (and with an AVRI, no doubt you will, fantastic guitars and genuine value for money if you get a good one!)

I'd say there is a difference. Bending on a 9.5 will be easier and won't choke out easily. 7.25 radius can be hard to get under to bend and really dig in, playing live when it's hot and you can easily slip off the string so I' much prefer 9.5.

I dunno, using one of the greatest of all time isn't a marker that I feel I can live up to. Find someone shit who done it and we'll all feel like we can do it  

Sorry, assumed everyone reads comments on here as 'in my opinion/experience'. 

To clarify, owning and gigging both 7.25 and 9.5 radii Jazzmasters interchangeably for a decade, they're essentially the same in operation and I personally don't feel there's a huge difference. I don't adjust the way I play in any way. I don't notice bends fretting out but then I don't have ultra low action nor bend over two notes sharp very often if ever. 

Am certain some with a more refined playing style will notice but it's not a night and day thing. If the biggest issue is bends fretting out then it's not a huge issue imo (and hence the Hendrix comparison - any of the great Strat players who uses bends could have been cited!)

Shaw9

Cheers everyone

steveh

I used to obsess over these sorts of things. Convinced myself I liked compound radius necks etc. etc. 
Then I played a core Silver Sky and fell in love with it; I only "remembered" about the vintage radius after about 10 minutes of playing. Felt fine from the off.

I have it set up to PRS standard specs and it doesn't choke at all, including those big Gilmour bends (TM). I love it.

Agree 100% with those that have said it's those skinny, tiny vintage frets that are responsible for much of the beef. I had a Tokai strat back in the day that I thought was very comfortable because I could barely feel the frets. However, once I got a bit better, trying to "get under" the string and bend on that was a nightmare, which was solved by higher frets.  

Pon53

My favourite neck ever was a 90s Japan Squier with 7.25 inch radius, U shape and vintage tall frets.  The taller frets seem to suit that radius.

Neilybob

I just play guitar. 

What is neck radius anyway, necks aren't circles?! 

mo6020

I don’t really care. Both my favourite Fenders are 7.25”, but that isn’t high up on the list of why they’re my favourites. It makes practically zero difference to my ability to play them. 

guitarfishbay

I’d love to try a compound from 7.25 - 9.5”. I like both for Fenders. 

distressed

Until you try it out for yourself and find out what suits you, you'll get tons of different personal experiences and preferences.

Shaw9

distressed said:

Until you try it out for yourself and find out what suits you, you'll get tons of different personal experiences and preferences.

Yes, I think you're right mate. Thanks to everyone for their comment though. Its certainly given me some good idea. Great group to ask questions of

distressed

Shaw9 said:

distressed said:

Until you try it out for yourself and find out what suits you, you'll get tons of different personal experiences and preferences.

Yes, I think you're right mate. Thanks to everyone for their comment though. Its certainly given me some good idea. Great group to ask questions of

Don't get me wrong, it's ok to ask questions. But I'm not sure my preferences for 9,5 and 7,25 (I don't really like flat radii) would suit your playing style.

noisepolluter

My previous Strat had a 7.25” radius - I got used to it, and had a reasonably slinky setup without choking, but I just couldn’t get used to having the truss rod adjustment at the body end meaning I had to unscrew the neck, and that was one of the reasons I ended up moving it on. 

fretfinder

If you like a low’ish action and do a lot of string bending then a 9.5” radius is likely to suit your needs better. On these threads you always get people saying that their guitar has a 7.25” radius and a low action and doesn’t choke out on bends, and that’s great. But the laws of physics apply and if you have two guitars with exactly the same features, frets and spec other than the fretboard radius, then you can get a lower choke-free action on the 9.5” radius board than you can on the 7.25” board. 

In the late 1980s I was in Roger Giffin Guitars in Kew Bridge and either Roger or Stuart Monks told me that before a Pink Floyd tour around then Dave Gilmour’s tech had brought in half a dozen brand new AVRI Strats to have the neck radiuses flattened and bigger frets fitted. If you’re regularly doing three and four step bends like DG and want an acceptable playing action, it is always going to be more achievable with a 9.5” rather than a 7.25” radius, and of course bigger frets.  

CHRISB50

I've got 2 guitars, a 7.25" radius Strat, and a 12" radius Strat.

They feel very different but both are great.

As others have said, the 7.25 will choke out on big bends but other than that, it's lovely.

I had a 9.5" radius Strat in the past and it was a pretty happy medium. It will feel different to 7.25" though.