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View Full Version : Neck Radius on Michael Kelly Guitars



@nthony
February 22nd, 2010, 10:40 AM
Hi

I'm hoping one of you kind fretters could let me know what the neck radius is on a Michael Kelly Patriot style guitar.

If any of you owners of one could photograph the back of the neck to get a feel for how chunky and rounded the necks are that would be awesome.

I'm hoping to buy one in the next 6 months and am unfortunately unable to find a local stockist to try before I buy, so I'm going to have to take the reviewers word for it and try a mail order internet delivered option instead. A bit of a shame as I'd like to see the guitars finish before I buy.

I'm specifically going for a Patriot Limited (possibly Burbinga finish for the ebony fingerboard) as I love the strings through the body sound my current Fender made in Mexico Tele has.

Cheers

@nthony

Bloozcat
February 23rd, 2010, 07:57 AM
I've read that it's 14", but I can't confirm that. Could be a 13.7" (35mm) like some other import guitars.

E-mail them, I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you.

Katastrophe
February 23rd, 2010, 02:40 PM
Keep in mind @nthony, that "radius" is determined by the measurement of the curvature of the fretboard, and does not include the shape of the back of the neck. The larger the radius measurement, the flatter the fretboard. 9" radius is more curved than a 12" radius, which is flatter.

Some manufacturers use letters like "D shape," "C shape", "U shape", and so on because the shape of the letter roughly approximates the shape of the back of the neck.

I'm with Blooz. Send Michael Kelly an email, and they could give you the specs as to fretboard radius, neck width and thickness, as well as neck shape.

Duff
February 27th, 2010, 08:48 PM
You may want to check out the reviews of the Patriots at harmony-central.com, as this site has a great section on equipment reviews that go into great detail. One of the sections provides an area where people often mention what the fretboard radius and overall neck shape are and scores are given in several areas and an overall scores. All overall scores for each reviewer are combined and the overall score for the guitar in each area and an overall guitar score is provided at the top of each guitar review. Very useful resource but you have to take it with a grain of salt because one or two disgruntled customers can rate a guitar really low in an attempt to bring down the overall rating and if only a few have rated the guitar this effect can be effective in bringing the guitar's rating down significantly, while with a guitar with hundreds of reviews, one bad review isn't going to have much effect.

But the site is also useful because people like yourself can find out a lot of specific information within the detailed reviews of each individual reviewer, aside from just looking at the individual ratings.

Hope this info helps you research your neck spec info on the MK.