Originally Posted by: aschlemanIf you've ever seen pictures of Stevie Ray Vaughans Number One guitar... you'll notice that the action is set reeeeeeaaaaaaaaally high. Not only because he used heavy strings (.13's most of the time) but because the fretboard radius that he used was the same as a '62 stratocaster... long before the modern day 12" radius fretboards and compound radius's (I don't think radii would be an acceptable word to describe this term??? Who knows...?) He used a 9" radius which without high action would fret out any bend.

Actually, Number 1 had about a 12" radius - it may have started out in the standard 9.5", but from all the fretwear, fret leveling, etc., it ended up at about 12". which is why the SRV Signature Model has a 12" radius...