7.25/vintage to 9.5/6105

[dapa78]

Curious if anyone has experience with this: my main player for years has been a CS 60's strat with the slimmer C neck, 7.25 radius and vintage wire. I grew up playing various Fenders with that style neck so that's all I knew. Last year, I picked up a King Bee T-style with a baseball bat neck and 6105s. At first, the frets felt like speed bumps and I was having a hard time bonding with the neck. But, alas, it grew on me and over the holidays I picked up a CS '56 strat with a chunky V, 9.5 radius neck with 6105s. The neck on the '56 plays beautifully, and the frets just feel good when squeezing chords or bending notes. I like the taller wires so much that when I pick up the '60, everything feels mushy and lost under my fretting fingers.

My tech told me he could re-wire my '60 with 6105s and shave off a little of the rosewood board to make it a 7.25 - 9.5 compound radius neck. I did some digging around on here and the web looking for insight on 7.25 necks with 6105 wire, but didn't get too many first hand accounts - mostly 9.5 with the taller frets. Anyone have experiences/wisdom to share? Do rounder, slimmer necks still work with taller frets?

Thanks in advance.

 

[teleamp]

7.25" radius with 6105's work well.

 

[benito]

My Roadworn Tele has a 7.5 radius and 6105 frets, and most people, including myself think that it has a great neck.

 

[monty]

My RW Strat neck has that, and it just feels awesome.

 

[dapa78]

Thanks for the tips on the road worn necks - i'll try to get my hands on them to see if i'll welcome the change to my 60.

 

[thesjkexperienc]

I put 6105s on my #1 Strat a '00 '56 RI Relic. I left it 7.25 and couldnt be happier. My two other main strats have 9.5 and 6105 frets. I dont have any problems switching between them, but find my '56 the easiest to play.

As you know you will need a bit higher action on the e and B strings than you would on a 9.5, but I run the same medium action an all my guitars for better tone. I do find string height to be a bigger factor is easy switching between guitars than radius.

 

[campfirehero]

I have the srv with 12" radius and 6105's. I couldn't go back to vintage frets. I don't think I could bend notes as easily, but a smaller radius would be fine.

I've never tried the road worn and I think it's the only 7.25 with 6105's that fender makes..

 

[joesnewmatch]

My issue is the vintage specs. My first good guitar was a 52 Tele RI. Sounded wonderful, but a bear to play. Too mch fighting on bends, etc. I had a re-fret to 6105. Fixed the bending issue. Liked the taller frets so much that I refretted my 12" EJ strat with 6100. 2-3 years later, still have those guitars. Must add that, if I did it all over again, I would get a hot rod tele and be done. I just don't like the 7.25 radius, at all. Guess it depends on your style and what you learned to play on, cuz some people love em. All of my other guitars are 10" to 12" and I love them all, whether short, tall, wide or thn frets.

 

[davess23]

I'm very happy with the 7.25" neck on my AV62RI Strat. But I'm not crazy about the vintage frets and one of these days I'm going to replace them with 6105's.

 

[Doug Brown]

I have had a luthier friend compound radius the frets as opposed to changing the radius of the board. I have had this done with 6150 frets as I am not a fan of 6105's. This preserved the originality of the board with the same end result. Yes, the frets got less tall as you worked your way up the neck, but it was gradual and to me worth not altering the fretboard.

Doug