Evertune / 7.25 radius and other hardware changes that complicate playing?

[Xkjacob]

I received some great advice about 3 weeks ago, bumping speed from a struggling 110 up to 220 in a very short time period.

Not saying 220 is Fear factory tight rapid fire, but at least I’m swinging at it now instead of stressing out at 110. Thank you everyone for the help.

I’ve had a couple of issues popup that I was curious about.

First, I’ve been switching between a Marr Jaguar (7.25 radius) and ESP LTD (350mm or 14" radius) guitars.

When I did the initial switch to 14" radius it was like starting all over again. It got better, but there a definitely different playing positions between the 2. I was wondering if there were other hardware configurations people have encountered that added difficulty or ease in playing rapidly?

Secondly, I do practice on an evertune guitar. I’ve heard them be described as “spongey” and my former lead guitar player he cannot stand the feel difference. Maybe because I’m learning on the evertune, for fast playing it’s not sticking out, but I was wondering if there’s a there, there I should be aware of for Evertune. It’s a little tougher to coax speed out of, but it’s not impossible.

[Drew]

@Xkjacob

When I did the initial switch to 14" radius it was like starting all over again. It got better, but there a definitely different playing positions between the 2. I was wondering if there were other hardware configurations people have encountered that added difficulty or ease in playing rapidly?

I can’t weigh in on Evertune, but here - there are definite “pros” and “cons,” but hands down the biggest is familiarity, I think.

Flatter radiuses allow for much lower action when bending before notes start to choke out. Rounder radiuses are more comfortable for chordal playing, which - let’s be honest - for most guitarists that’s most of their playing time. Which you prefer comes down to a lot of things, playing style and vocabulary, musical “role,” etc - but, also, what you’re used to is a BIG one.

My first good guitar was a 9.5" Strat, which is bigger picture still pretty “round,” if significantly less so than a 7.5" vintage radius (since this is the radius of the circle the curve of the fretboard would make, the “flatness” isn’t really linear with change in radius, so going from 7.5" to 9.5" is a much bigger flattening than 9.5" to 11.5"0. For me this is probably a floor, and not entirely because it does get rounder more quickly below this point, so much as probably a good 75% of my woodfshedding over the 30 years or so I’ve played has been on this neck.

My “custom ordering a guitar, sky’s the limit” spec would be a 10-14" multiradius for whatever it’s worth - that’s a really good all around compromise.