What fretboard is right for you? Are you a rosewood or maple man (woman)? How about radius neck? Do you want any 'curvature' at your nut? Or do you want a fretboard that's relatively flat (from High E to low E)? I had a Charvel which I tried for a while, with a beautiful birdseye maple neck, and a compound radius neck... this means it had a curvature that was more round (like a baseball bat) on top of the fretboard, near the nut, and a more flat curvature near the body end of the neck. Set up like this, the top of the neck is more suited to rhythm and chording, while the bottom of the neck is more suited to bending or lead playing... it's sort of like having your cake and also eating it too. I still prefer the traditional neck that is the same radius all the way along the fretboard... like my Jeff Beck Esquire, which has a curvature of 9.5" along the whole fretboard... remember, from my earlier posts, that the higher the radius number is, the 'flatter' the fretboard will be.
