Strat neck radius'

[Otis '71]

I have been told that the old guitars have a certain radius that makes bending strings up high difficult... if the string action is low it will fret out...however i see that the '57, '62 and 70's strats all had a radius of 184mm/7.25...when did this change anyways?/...was it in the 80's when eddie van halen and others made mega string bending popular?... thanks for any info - otis

[CocoTone]

Vintage radius is 7.25``. I recently changed my AM 62 RI to 12`` radius SRV spec neck from WD. There was some extra work involved that I was surprised I`d have to do to a neck costing 350 Cdn,(new nut,roll the fretboard edge, dress fret ends) but I`m satisfied with the results. As you can see, the head is thicker than the stock head, and to my ears, the guitar`s sustain has increased quite a bit.

CT.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/CocoTone/WD7.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/CocoTone/st3.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/CocoTone/WD1.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/CocoTone/st2.jpg