Radius question

[ansil]

ok this is quite weird to ask perhaps i wont' say it corretly but here goes.

i want to know what the difference between say a completely flat radius and a classical that has the dip in the middle of the fretboard that makes it look like an inverted radius?

probally not the correct terms

but heres why.

what i have been told is that the classicals were "poorly constructed and the fretboard fell" this is what i was told by someone who was a very experienced lutier and started a well liked brand, however due to a 50 ton dumptruck of crap i will not list his name. now i am unsure as if this is true or not.personally i think it is total and utter crap that he is spewing and i will tell you why.

i have played well over250 classical guitars all ranging in price from 50usd to 5000usd. and nearly every one had the "fallen fretboard" and i have yet to figure why except that even in the book found at my school library stated that the fretboaqrd should be constructed with that "reverse radius" and even gave a template for it.

so my other question is. this i had an electric guitar that had this same type of radius but i think it was too steep could that be why it choked out on certain notes. it was a very nice guitar it was called a joiner and was made by one of the people who did the guitar for Gloria Estefans guitar player in the miami sound machine.

anyway it would choke out so i figured i woudl get rid of it.

i was thinking of applying this to my board but i wanted to ask a few questions about it first.

personally i say the flatter the better and scallop that thing baby..

[Lex Luthier]

I don't see how the fretboard call 'fall'...I have a turn of the century neopalitan mandolin and it's fingerboard is concave...it must have been made that way. The fingerboard could cup, but I would think you would then see a gap around the edges where it meets the neck.

I was once told by a bass player that fretless players prefer the fingerboards to be slightly concave, because it follows the shape of the finger better, I then told this to a professional luthier friend of mine, and he had no idea what I was talking about.

[ansil]

thanks i thought it sounded like crap to me. i was thinking of using it. on a design. thanks again lex and remember there is no good without evil