Starting with their first guitars in 1948 or '49 (I have seen sources that claim each as the introduction of the original Esquires) Fender used a 7.25" radius. In the '80s they went to 9.5", which remains their standard. 9.5" remains their most common radius, used on about 66% of their current instruments, followed by 7.25"(over 30%), though a dozen or so models are 12", and one sub-species of Tele is at 15.75". There are about 36 sub-models with compound radii; these vary between 7.25"-12", 9.5"-14", and 12'-16".
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I started on a '66 Tele, so 7.25" on a medium-shallow C profile just feels like home to me - but shorter-scale things like Gibsons & Epiphones, oddly enough, the flatter 'board the better, and I want a shallow D.
Of course, all that is electrics; even though I am mostly an acoustic player, I have no known preference betwixt the common 16", 14", & 12", but do prefer a little more of a handful.
Peter
