I’m thinking that there is a sweet spot to the ideal curvature of the strings. An arch like an upside down “U” would make things like playing cords and string skipping more difficult. But having the strings on a perfectly flat plane would make changing strings (other than economy picking) more difficult.
Most guitars that I have seen have a bit of curvature to the bridge and fingerboard. I came up with the idea because I noticed that 2WPS seemed easier on one of my guitars than the others. While trying to figure out why, I noticed that the curvature of the strings was just a bit more on the guitar that seemed easier to do 2WPS on. I think there is something to that.
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I can’t imagine that a pronounced curve would help at all for 2WPS. It would make it difficult in terms of keeping how much pick hits the string consistent (I imagine that the pick would be completely buried in the middle 2 strings). It would definitely feel strange.
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I don’t think it would make picking easier. Let me explain my thinking. Let’s assume a guitar that is build the way you said, namely:
Now let’s further assume that we’re playing only on the three low strings, E, A and D. The one thing that might change compared to a “normal” guitar, is that you would be able to use a pickslanting-style (that is, the pick moves in a straight line) with the pick moving parallel to the body. The downstroke would still be buried like on a “normal” guitar, but the upstroke would escape the plane of the strings.
So, for instance, if you would be wrist deviation as your motion mechanic, you could now achieve that with a forearm that’s parallel to the guitar body. On a “normal” guitar, you would need to turn the forearm in either direction, otherwise the pick would be buried after both up- and downstrokes.
Back to the “curved” guitar. If we move to the three upper strings, we can still have that parallel path for the pick. But now, the pick would clear the strings after upstrokes.
If I am correct here, this might make things even more difficult in a pickslanting world, because things look different on the low vs. the high three strings. A lick that works on the low strings might not work on the high strings anymore, because on the low strings you clear the strings after upstrokes, whereas on the high strings that’s the case after downstrokes.
It might also make crosspicking more difficult, depending on how much curvature there is to the strings. And that’s because, the amount of curvature that is needed for picking and clearing the strings after every stroke is not the same across the strings and you might need a “very curved” motion to be on the safe side.
Anyway, let me know what you think…
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Having a flat plane means that the amount pick slanting required is uniform for both up and downstrokes for both directions of travel. Having a pronounced curve would mean that on any given string change you would have to adjust the amount of pickslant that was different to the previous - confusing! (Unless I’m totally missing the point?)
I’m not sure if slanting is the technique you would build there.
If your hand position follows the curve there should always be a straight line to the json string that does not need an escape stroke.
Of course that’s totally weird if you’re not used to it but I can imagine that in the end that’s easier to learn motionwise.
I never tried that kind of fretboard, so I might be totally wrong, but my guess is that the removing the need of escape strokes is the idea of the shape. So our arsenal of motions might simply not fit.
I own and play all radii. Flatter radius / more uniform string height is easier for certain kinds of lines. However this will likely be a complete non-issue unless you’re playing guitars with very radiused boards like an old 7.25" Fender. Otherwise, it’s not going to make much difference and I wouldn’t psych yourself out by worrying about it. This is especially true if you’re doing one-way pickslanting lines where the movements already clear the strings by a wide margin. Little noticeable difference there on any neck (to me).
Yes to GuyFromGermany! Thank you for helping me clarify what I’m trying to describe! And, yes, this could make cross picking more difficult, but it may make switching strings easier if you are not using the strict definition of cross picking. Bear with me for a moment. Imagine a bow playing a middle string on a violin. The strings have to be curved because the bow is a flat plane and it has to be able to clear the two adjacent strings to the string you are playing. Now imagine you are using a guitar pick to play a violin. You could do very fast, agressive tremolo picking on a middle string (in the plane of where the bow would be) with little danger of hitting another string. Also, after every stroke your pick would be free and clear and not stuck in between strings. Think of the string you are playing at the top of a triangle and the two adjacent strings form the other two base corners of the triangle.
Now, with an extreme radius of the neck like on a violin, changing strings would be awkward, but with a moderate radius it wouldn’t be that awkward.
I only have 4 guitars (I’m sure that’s skimpy compared to many on this thread) and I’ve noticed the only one that has a flat bridge and radius is my nylon string classical guitar. That’s interesting because that guitar is not made for picking AND I remember seeing elsewhere on CTC that some players who tend to play classical guitars with a pick at high speeds tend to use pick swiping technique. Maybe that’s because the flat bridge and flat fingerboard make it just a little more difficult to change strings??
Now on second thought (and Troy’s post) I’m not sure anymore.
I had the same picture of the top string in mind. but thinking further the easier way would be rotating the instrument when moving in the strings. Of course rotattion the hand would do the same but then, there’s no difference to pickslanting motionwise.
So now I think more for bow instruments it’s simply needed to enable to play a single string at all.
For guitar I’m not sure, my guess actually would be that barring could be slightly easier.
Thanks for your reply, Troy! This forum has helped my playing tremendously!
Not stressed out about the radius issue but I think it MAY be a significant detail. So many things that CTC has uncovered have been significant details that people have overlooked in the past. It also may be a significant detail that an expert like yourself doesn’t consciously recognize, like so many of the things that you have uncovered.
I have thought about the radius issue quite a bit, because the guitars I play most often are 7.25" and have uneven string heights from the factory. The stock bridge on the Mustang, the E saddles are disproportionately lower than the others. String height changes are unecessarily dramatic between those strings. This is why I replace the bridges on those guitars, so I can dial in a truer radius.
Now that I’ve done that, the radius “issue” is greatly reduced. With any picking movement that clears the strings by a reasonable margin, there is almost no issue. This is especially true when that movement is mostly not changing from string to string, as is the case in one-way pickslanting.
So to recap:
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If you have uneven string heights, that don’t track the actual radius of the board, you can expect problems with certain movements, and you’d be better off smoothing out the string height radius if your bridge allows it.
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Any radius in the teens, the radius is so flat as to be (in my experience) negligible. Again, provided there isn’t anything wrong with the bridge.
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Picking motions which (mostly) don’t change from string to string, as in one-way pickslanting, are less of an issue for any radius neck, especially when the picking motions are large.
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@Troy: Do you know the reason for rounding up the neck/stringset?
Pickingwise there seems to be no (noticable) difference and even in theory it should rather more complex than easier (unless you dont’t rotate the instrument).
Is there any advantage for the fretting hand?
… just curious, and you know with almighty knowledge comes endless respo … ahhm bothering 
Troy, as usual your depth of knowledge is impressive. I don’t why it seems to me that one guitar is easier to pick and change strings than the other. Maybe it’s the space between the strings, maybe it’s my imagination. I don’t one-way pick slant. I only change the slant of the pick when I go to change strings, and I simply slant the pick based on where I need it to go next. Otherwise my picking is kind of a movement that’s perpendicular to the string, with the pick turned at an angle so that the pick’s edge is what hits the string.
I’ll keep looking at this (my) issue and if I come up with anything new that may be useful to the group I will share it.
Thanks again.
Are you asking why are guitar necks radiused? I always thought it was because it was easier for chording, for the left hand. I’m sure others on here know more about this than I do.
A couple people on here have stated that they play this way, but when you look up close at what they’re actually doing, they are basically upward pickslanters using a parallel arm type setup and calling it “no pickslant”. Remember, it’s the path the pick traces as it moves, not how your arm is positioned or what the pick looks like in your grip.
There is probably a reason none of the players we have interviewed use the “pickslant only at string changes” formula. Off the top of my head, I would think you would need three picking motions for this. The “no pickslant” picking motion, the “downstroke string change” picking motion, and the “upstroke string change” picking motion. That would be… three-way pickslanting? As if we don’t have enough terminology already!
If you feel like uploading shots of what this looks like I’d be interested in seeing it. If you are having issues playing certain kinds of lines, you can then kill two birds with that one stone.
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Yeah that was what I meant, sorry for the terminlogy.
Fretting is my guess too, and I am first class excited I spotted something that at least makes you ‘just’ guess 
… he’s only human Rock.
Yes! That is exactly what I’m trying to do when you describe 3 way pick slanting. And having just now noddled around after reading your last post, I realize it may not be as 3 way as I was feeling.
I also did some more comparisons of the two guitars and I swear I feel like I have more inadvertent pick swiping with the flater neck. Of course, there’s that word “feel” again.
Please send me a link for a discussion of the best way to film oneself. As soon as I have some time I’ll do it.
Also, the guitar that I prefer has a scalloped neck BUT I can’t see how that could possibly affect my picking hand.
Thanks!
There are a number of posts on the forum about filming yourself including a recent one a few days - the search button, upper right, is your friend!
I’m not sure what you’re shooting for in trying this, but it’s not clear to me how feasible this really is, or even how optimal it really is. As usual, if someone does it, and it works, then I render no judgement other than to place it in the “thing that exists” box!
Yes—all else being equal, a smaller radius feels more comfortable for chords and a bigger radius allows for big bends that don’t fret out.
Forward-thinking builders are now doing compound radii where it’s a smaller radius for the lower frets but flattens out to a larger radius further up the neck.
That said, if you get a full setup from a good guitar tech (with a “level, crown, & polish”—should cost you $75-100), there’s no reason you can’t do big step-and-a-half bends on a comfy vintage-ish 9.5 radius board.
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Well, I think there is a misconception. String changes mean going from one string to another, one could also say “a string-pair”. This string pair is lying in a plane, just not the same plane as the other string-pairs. The string-pair-strings are not affected by the strings that are not played, so it shouldn’t make a difference.
As has already been mentioned, string-skipping could be harder, as the string-to-skip is getting more in the way. Sweeping is another topic, might be affected to, I don’t know.
If those little differences make a difference, your picking technique might be error prone anyway. Mine is 
Violins are a whole different beast. They have to be rounded, because you couldn’t bow one single string if it was flat.
Tom
Could be. And what is true with radius might as well also be true with string action. e.g. if you have an open string to skip on a guitar set up with higher action it’s more in the way, even with a flat radius.