What's up guys?

I recently acquired a Shawn Lane Viger....absolutely amazing guitar. I am in love with this guitar. It is the easiest playing guitar I have ever played.The neck is flat radius, which is quite different from normal neck shapes. It has taken a bit of getting used to, but I love it. I was wondering what you guys thought about them?

I am jealous of that Vigier! I have heard nothing but great things about them! I think one of Pebber's students (Eric) has a black one.

Anyway, I LOVE flat radius necks! Naturally, my Classical Guitar has one, but so does my new baby, the Gibson Buckethead Signature Les Paul!

My purple ESP (M-II deluxe) has a really flat fingerboard. But there is a little chunk in the back of the neck. I had an old Ibanez RG550 and a Ibanez custom shop Prestige both which had the original Wizard 1 neck which had a really flat board and was paper thin in the back. I think Ibanez quit making it because it was so thin they were having problems with warping and such. It always felt really weird to me and I couldn't get very comfortable with it.

The ESP neck I like because it's similar to the Wizard, but with a little more girth to it.

My green ESP (mirage) has more of a strat C chape type neck with more of a rounded fingerboard.

In general, I prefer the flatter boards

So what radius length would make it "Flat"?

14in-12in?

Thanks

The original Ibanez Wizard 1 neck, which by my experiences is the flattest neck I have ever played, has a 17" radius.

I believe the Holdsworth Carvin model has a 20" radius, but is much thicker in the back.

I have been told Holdsworth had some custom guitars built with a 25" radius...however, keep in mind Holdsworth doesn't do much bending.

The flatter the neck, the "easier" legato playing is, but the "harder" string bending is....notice the quotation marks..."easy" and "hard" being relative terms.

The Shawn Lane Vigier is entirely flat and has no radius...it also has a shorter scale length.

Sometimes these numbers can be misleading. Most professional guitar techs and luthiers can set up your guitar one way and it will feel like the board is "more rounded" and depending on your preferences, they can also make it feel "more flat" or "more compound." (flatter in some areas...rounded in others.

I believe 15" to 20" would be considered flat by most people's standards.

I would take exception to the statement that the flatter the neck the harder to bend.
It's quite the opposite at least up to 12" radius. I'm not sure what happens after that but a 9.5" radius is much easier to bend strings than a 7.25". This not only holds true for my guitars but it's what I've read in every article on the subject out there.

Yeah, that's why I said, it's all relative.

Yeah, it's like this:

The flatter the neck, the EASIER it is to bend.

Necks with a smaller radius make it easier for BARRE CHORDS.

Also, the HIGHER the radius, the FLATTER the neck.

Right....the higher the number, the flatter the board. But most blues guys that do a lot of bending prefer more rounded fretboards. Most classical guitars have a flat or zero radius cuz classical guitarists don't bend strings like BB King and they add vibrato in different ways.

My favorite guitar has a 24 3/4 " scale - I checked out the vigier site and the shawn lane also has a 24.8" scale.

http://www.vigierguitars.com/page/fiche_...php?id_prod=233

Holy cow... Egberto Gismonti!?! This guy is pretty frickin amazing!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI4uZ9J402U&feature=related

Here is a clip of Gismonti and McLaughlin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RGnKZY_Z_0&feature=related

I've always loved watching Mclaughlin live. Watch how he looks at Gismonti when they start playing. He's smiling and looking at him as if to say, "Let's do this man! I'm really feeling it!"

Being on stage with McLaughlin has to be pretty scary.

There is an old video of McLaughlin, Paco, and Larry Coryell (before Al was in the trio). Now, Larry Coryell is no slouch! But I remember on that video, he was sweating his ass off! You could literally see sweat pouring off the guy! I always wondered if that was from trying to keep up with McLaughlin or maybe Larry had too much to drink.

OH MY! That video was HOT! WHOO! Say, what was that,,,some Bossa Nova, or what?

Now, I'm not familiar with the 2nd vid you mentioned, however, from your description, I would guess that Coryell was sweating from the stage lights or alcohol; pretty sure that dude can keep up with ANYBODY!

By the way,,,,I think we may have gotten a tad bit "off Topic," so I'll say this: "Did y'all check out that flat radius neck on that Brazillian dude's gee-tar?"

I had the VIGIER LANE Loved it..BEST neck on earth..But had to sell it to pay the bills! UGGH!

So would a neck that has a 12in radius with 27'' scale length be a "flat radius" neck?

Radius has to do with curvature of the fretboard. While I myself don't consider a 12" radius flat, some may. Scale length and radius are two different things.

My ESP's are in the 16" to 17" radius spectrum and to me, that's fairly flat. But of course, there are MUCH flatter boards out there...like Blayze's Vigier that has no radius and is totally flat.

However, I do have another ESP that is more in the 12" realm and I like it very much.

BB King plays a Gibson with a 12" Radius.
Thus easier to bend. Classical Guitars bending issues come from the width of the neck.
Adam is correct that a 7.25" neck is easier for chording and a 12" radius neck is easier for bending.
Relative to Electric Guitars I suppose you could say if you like. That being said I can bend the heck out of either one.
Without fretting out too.

Oh gees, no telling what he'd have to say about Willie Nelson. That sucker has a lot of soul in his country jazz licks.

Who? Who could criticize Willie? Red Headed Stranger is one of the greatest country albums ever!!!!

That was a great movie too.