Radiused vs a flat finger board which one is better?

[Lord of the Badgers]

either. But it does feel odd going back to flat as my gigging mandos are all radiussed, so I've just gotten that mando to have a compound radius fretboard installed. It needed a new one anyway.

I learnt recently that the english player Simon Mayor won't have anything else but flat. Useless fact, fact fans. But there you go.

Ok Ok, I prefer radius. There.You made me say it.

[Johnny60]

Sorry I'm late to this one, but here are my thoughts on the matter.

I'd say that years ago it wouldn't have bothered me one bit if it was flat or radiussed, wide or narrow. But, with a few niggly tendon issues (kept 90% at bay with regular stretches) I definitely feel comfier and can play longer on a radiussed board with larger frets.

It's a weird one, because I've played both flat and radiussed boards with small frets and my tendons give me hassle. I've tried flat boards with big frets and my tendons give me hassle, but not as much. A radiussed board with big frets (80) is great.

The neck size, fretboard radius and taller frets on my Northfield F5S (standard 1 and 1/8 nut and modern fingerboard) are really comfy.

Also, my wife got a beautiful KM1000 a few months ago. It was really comfy for her, but the flat board and small frets meant I couldn't play it too long. We had it refretted with EVO Gold 80 wire, widened the string spacing to replicate my F5S and also had a compound radius added to the neck. It's now MEGA comfy!

As always, it's horses for courses and your own mileage may vary!