I do not think so, there are lessons that include bends and Brian tells how to play them, there is old legacy lesson leg032 dedicated to bends.
But lesson do not really focus on materials.
At least, this is the way I fell them.

Let’s say your fretboard was round, like a dowel. That would make it very hard to bend notes. If it was flat, it would be much easier, but maybe wouldn’t fit the shape of your hand as well. So somewhere between round and flat is the answer, and that comes down to personal preference.

Hi Nick,
Most modern guitars have a fretboard radius anywhere from 9.5 to 14″. Vintage guitars like old strats and teles had a 7.5″ radius. When you were doing a big bend up on the higher frets it was possible to “fret out” the bend. 7.5″ is very comfortable for chording but flatter fretboards are renowned for speed playing and bends. Some guitars even have compound radii, ie. 7.5 to 9.5 near the headstock and 9.5 up to 14 at the 12th fret to try and give the best of both worlds.
John

Hi Nick Fretting out is sometimes called choking and happens more on small tight radius like say 7.5 inches,if you were bending the B string at say the 9th fret there is more chance the B string will choke on the 10th fret the more you bend it.
The flatter the radius the less chance of fretting out or choking the string on the next fret up when bending.

Oh my gosh, you’ll have me ordering calipers now! I kid, I kid. Just get a guitar with 9’s on it and bend those strings like Gumby. 😉

Yikes! No preview!

CT wrote:

Oh my gosh, you’ll have me ordering calipers now! I kid, I kid. Just get a guitar with 9’s on it and bend those strings like Gumby.

CT

As Charjo mentioned, radius range from 7.25″ to 16″ on steel string guitars. You don’t see 7.25″ very much anymore but many of early Tele’s had that radius, those necks were very narrow and if your hand were very big, you might find those guitars hard to play.

Some typical radius used are
Gibson 12″
Ibanez 12″ On their semi-hollow guitars
D’Angelico 14″
PRS 10″
Martin 16″ Many other acoustic builders use 16″ also

Calipers aren’t necessary to determine this; gauge sets are readily available, I prefer the ones in the 1st link but many other use the type in the 2nd link

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/luthier-tools/measuring-tools/understring-radius-gauge-for-guitar-and-bass-setup-set-of-9/

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/luthier-tools/measuring-tools/notched-guitar-radius-gauges-set-of-4/

GnLguy wrote:

CT wrote:

Oh my gosh, you’ll have me ordering calipers now! I kid, I kid. Just get a guitar with 9’s on it and bend those strings like Gumby.

CT

As Charjo mentioned, radius range from 7.25″ to 16″ on steel string guitars. You don’t see 7.25″ very much anymore but many of early Tele’s had that radius, those necks were very narrow and if your hand were very big, you might find those guitars hard to play.

Some typical radius used are
Gibson 12″
Ibanez 12″ On their semi-hollow guitars
D’Angelico 14″
PRS 10″
Martin 16″ Many other acoustic builders use 16″ also

Calipers aren’t necessary to determine this; gauge sets are readily available, I prefer the ones in the 1st link but many other use the type in the 2nd link

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/luthier-tools/measuring-tools/understring-radius-gauge-for-guitar-and-bass-setup-set-of-9/

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/luthier-tools/measuring-tools/notched-guitar-radius-gauges-set-of-4/

Thank you for that! I was after a LOL, but I’m new here and will take what I can get. I still think 9’s are a good idea when first learning to bend. Carry on. 🙂