Radius Fretboard..opinions, pros, cons, info..

is this the same as fretboard radius like the arc of the fretboard....the larger the number, the flatter the fretboard i believe...or is this a brand??
 
is this the same as fretboard radius like the arc of the fretboard....the larger the number, the flatter the fretboard i believe...or is this a brand??

Ukulelechef is referring to the arc of the fretboard - and it sounds interesting. Does the sound differ in any way? If anyone knows.
 
Ukulelechef is referring to the arc of the fretboard - and it sounds interesting. Does the sound differ in any way? If anyone knows.

Sound doesn't really differ. The action, however, surely does. The idea is that you can chord up the neck much easier.
 
On uke I'd like a slight fretboard radius. It does help on instruments where one might want to play a lot of barre chords. I've never tried a uke with radius, but I reckon it could work well.

On guitar I always found radius a mixed blessing. I never really like totally flat fretboards like that on my old classical guitar. I prefer a moderate radius. Too small a radius (too much curvature) can make things awkward higher up the neck, especially if you do a lot of string bending and tapping. It also means that bridge saddle radius can become a factor in set-up.

On electric guitar I liked the compound radius on friends' guitars. (Compund version flattens out as one goes higher up the board.) That seemed to work well, but at the time I could never afford a decent guitar that had a compound radius option.

On mandolin I prefer a traditional flat fretboard. Much easier to do a good DIY set-up, and I don't play bar chords on mandolin anyhoo.

Yup. I think it could be good on uke.


EDIT: On elec guitars I prefer the shallower curve of the Gibson fretboard radius to the tighter Fender curve. My friend's Ibanez also has a nice, shallow radius. Strat fretboards are just a tad too curved for my preference.

Moral: everything in moderation, including fretboard radius.
 
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It's one of the things that has me wanting to get the cheapest of the Ibanez ukes, just to see if I like radius fretboard.
 
Kind of a follow up question.

I know of Ibenez, are there any other brands that have radius as an option? Outside of custom ukes. I think it is an option on Kanilea ukes.
 
Kala's ukes appear (to me) to have a very slight radius to their fretboards.

I play a Flea which has a rosewood fretboard as flat as Kanasas (now someone is going to tell me Kansas isn't really flat...). When I recently test drove a Kala laminate I looked at the fretboard profile. To me it had a slight radius which does not exist on the Flea.

Uke fretboards come in different widths depending on the brand. With the uke I find that the width of a fretboard has a larger impact upon ability to barre chords.

The Kala's fretboard is narrower than the Flea's. Overall I found the Kala's fretboard to be easier to work with than the Flea due to the length of my finger joints. When I played the Kala barred chords were cleaner sounding because strings didn't fall on the joints of my knuckles.

This is one reason that test driving different ukes is a good idea. But if you can't...

If you know a brand that seems to work well for you, then get the measurements of the fretboard. This may help serve as a guide to other brands that may be comfortable to play.
 
Kind of a follow up question.

I know of Ibenez, are there any other brands that have radius as an option? Outside of custom ukes. I think it is an option on Kanilea ukes.

Collings ukuleles have a radius fretboard. :)

Kiwaya - highly recommended too!

I think with Kiwaya models, the model number needs an "R" tagged onto the end for it to have a radius. e.g. KTS-4R
Otherwise, it's likely flat or "virtually" flat.
 
Kalas??? :eek:

Never occurred to me to even look to see if my Kala tenor has a radiused FB! I've just assumed it was flat.

I'll have to see when I get home from the office...
 
Buddhuu,

I would be very interested to hear what you find with your Kala.

I was surprised by what I saw so asked my friend (who own the Kala) to compare it to my Flea (a second set of eyes). He also thought he saw a slight radius on the Kala compared to the Flea.
 
Radiused FBs are usually an option on customs and there's not too many production models that have them as previously stated. I believe Dave Sigman (Little River Ukes) uses them on his builds.
 
I have 3 ukes with radiused fretboards (all betwee 16-18", which is considered pretty gentle) and I like the option. However, it's a very subtle difference. It has not caused me to have any problems with flat fretboards, so for me it's a nice option to have, but not a very noticeable one.
 
I don't know about that. It looks pretty flat to me. Side note: Aldrine's Kanile'a looks flat too.

I think that a radius fretboard would make it just a tad harder to get an even pattern for certain strums. (Ten Finger Roll comes to mind)

This is just an assumption though.
 
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