Spindle Mill / Wood Shaper

[dingfelder]

Has anyone used a wood shaper (aka a spindle moulder in commonwealth countries) for making a compound radius for the fingerboard?

I have a friend of a friend who owns one and can cut me a steel plate for a 12" radius, I'm just wondering if there are any downsides to cutting it this way.

Cheers,

Ding

[westhemann]

it won't be a compound radius at all

[dingfelder]

sorry, I think I got my terms mixed up.

I meant Cylindrical instead of Compound.

Here is what I am thinking...

on a guitar, I understand that one might prefer a different radius on each end, to facilitate chords on one extreme, and soloing on the other... but for a bass, especially a 5 or 6 string monster, I am assuming a Cylindrical approach might be better, perhaps something closer to flat, such as 15"-20".

Having said that, I am not actually very good at playing bass and I have no clue if a large radius like that would in practice be ideal.

I would love feedback from any bass players who could advise me on what type of radius would be ideal for bass. I am assuming that the preference would change based upon what types of things one typically does on the bass (bass chords vs fast soloing, vs generic walking bass lines, vs slapping, etc)

My intent is to make a 5 string that is a good all-around bass for me to play on, and plays better than the generic crap you can pick up for 2 or 3 hundred bucks. I don't mind spending on quality parts to do so, but it is my perception that if the neck is not right, I will be wasting my time throwing good hardware at it... I enjoy woodworking and want to learn to play better so I thought this project would be a good combination.

FYI, here is a description I found of the various radius terms that I think is nice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerboard

Thoughts?