3Peaks DS-115TZ Screw Removal Pliers Review

Aloha!

Over the years I have stripped the heads of plenty of screws, mostly in household and automotive applications. In these cases it is usually easy enough to drill it out or get a pair of vise-grips on the head of the screw to twist it out (or break it off). The situation changes drastically when working on a pretty guitar, though. A pair of flat-jaw pliers or a poorly used drill bit is a recipe for disaster when working around soft wood.

This is where the 3Peaks DS-115TZ screw removal pliers come into play. These purpose-built pliers have a circular grab area with little teeth that help grab the screw head better to prevent slipping and unplanned damage. These pliers are made in Japan, where they still know how to machine quality tools to good tolerances.

The pliers are about 4 ½ inches long and have comfortable handles that let you get a good grip on what you are doing. They can handle screws with heads up to ½-inch in diameter, though you will probably not find screws this big very often in guitar work. They have a nice smooth action, which might help you not mess things up too badly as you nervously try to get your guitar back to normal.

I have used these pliers a few times for both guitar and household tasks, and they work great! They grip very well, and provide enough leverage to get the job done right. I would recommend putting a bit of tape around the end of the jaws to protect the guitar’s finish, as it is very easy to get close to the wood if the screw is fully seated when it gets stripped out.

3Peaks pliers have not been the easiest to find, but these tools are now being sold through Stewart MacDonald, so luthiers everywhere can get their hands on them more readily. They are not cheap ($29.95), but if you need them you really need them, and it will be well worth your money to pick up a pair before you need them!

Mahalo!

Stewart MacDonald Thread Detective for Guitars Review

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When you work on guitars that come from the North America, Asia, and Europe, chances are good that you are going to want to replace a fastener and you will have no idea what size to buy, or even if it is metric or standard thread. Thread Detective has been in the business of making thread checking tools for years, and they are popular in craft and repair industries. The folks at Stewart MacDonald saw this tool and liked it, and asked Thread Detective to put together a set of these tools that is specifically tailored to the fastener sizes that are encountered in luthier work.

When you by this set you get two sets of tools, blue for metric and red for standard threads. These chrome-plated steel nuggets are designed so that they can measure both male and female thread dimensions, and the individual bits are held together by cables so they do not get scattered in your toolbox. They will let you measure 11 metric thread sizes and 13 standard sizes.

There is not too much else going on here, and the tools work exactly as they are designed. These are not tools that you will use very often, so they will probably never wear out, but they are a definite time and frustration saver.

If you want to pick up a set of Thread Detective for guitar tools, there is only one place in town to get them ,and that is Stewart MacDonald, The powerhouse luthier supply company. They are not cheap, at $49.98, but they are truly awesome.

Mahalo!

Stewart MacDonald Guitar Strap Button Review

Howdy!

Not everything that shows up this blog has to be complicated, and today we are looking at a product I wish I had found a few years ago – Stewart MacDonald strap buttons. But, these are not the plain old conical ones that have been on electric guitars since the beginning of time, but are deluxe pieces that will match the end pin on your beautiful acoustic guitar.

I am as guilty as the next guy for installing strap pins on the neck heels of my acoustics. I hate typing a strap to the nut end of the neck, and I think the guitar balances better with the strap at both ends of the body. I know it may be considered heresy, but both of my Martins have strap buttons on the heel now -- but these Stew-Mac buttons make this modification a lot more tasteful.

The buttons are available in white, fake ivory, ebony and snakewood, and they measure 17/32” across by 7/16” tall. The white and ivory models are made machined from some sort of high-zoot plastic, and the others are real wood, or so I have been told. All of them are machined, so there are no seams, and they have brass bushings inside so they will not crack if over-tightened. Thinking about it, I would much rather crack a strap button instead of my guitar, so maybe this is not a great selling point. They come with your choice of gold or chrome screws (no black, sorry), and they range in price from $4.80 to $5.60, with discounts if you buy ten or more.

Installation is pretty easy, and Stewart MacDonald even has a tech tip on how to install one. If you are not sure what you are doing, your local guitar shop can put one on in a minute or two. Also, these parts do not come with a felt washer, so you will have to order them separately (10 for $3.50).

I think they look sharp, and will keep these in mind the next time a new acoustic guitar comes into the studio.

Mahalo!

Stewart MacDonald Fret Erasers Review

Buenos dias, amigos!

There is nothing better in life than shiny and new-looking frets. Well, maybe there are a few better things, but clean frets have to be up there. And doing fret polishing is usually neglected by guitarists, or left up to professional repair shops that are willing to do the painstaking work and deal with the mess for a hefty price (and rightly so). Ordinarily there is some steel wool involved in the process, which makes a terrific mess, and loves to stick to magnetic things. Like guitar pickups, for example…

So, I was happy to get a set of Stewart MacDonald’s new fret erasers. These are flexible rubber blocks that are impregnated with different grades of abrasive grits (five grits, from coarse to extra-fine – all of them color-coded). They are not a cure-all or a replacement for a top and crown, but are super for taking care of fine file marks, scratches, and tarnishing.

If I ever had freshly-crowned frets (something I don’t deal with too much), I would use them in sequence as a final polish, but mostly I use them on used guitars I pick up to make tarnished or corroded frets perk up a bit. As with other polishing methods, I make sure that I mask the fretboard so it does not show any wear or grunge as a result of the process.

And I have found that the fret erasers work pretty well as a shortcut. They will not remove most heavier scratches or wear, and do not get things quite a shiny as a traditional polishing with sandpaper and steel wool. But they get it pretty close, and in quite a bit less time and with easier clean-up too.

They seem a little spendy at $6.79 each, or $30.95 for a set of all five (a $3 savings), but after doing half a dozen sets of frets, there is still plenty of material left to work with even though they are not as big as I figured they would be, coming in at just 2-1/2" x 3/4" x 3/8". I think it is worth picking up a set just to have a set around to keep your frets cleaned up between major services.

Check out stewmac.com for fret erasers or for anything else you may crave for your guitar set-up and repair needs.

Mahalo!

Stewart MacDonald Guitar Supply

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If you like working on guitars, or if you just enjoy woodworking, you have check out Stewart-MacDonald of Athens, Ohio. They have been selling guitar parts and luthier’s tools for over 40 years, and are the best in the business.

I first found about Stew-Mac when I needed to find some grabber strap buttons for a Kubicki bass, and The Man recommended that I check with them. They had them, and pretty much every part I have needed since then. They carry OEM parts for both electric and acoustic guitars, as well as a panoply of bodies, necks, pickups, bridges and tuners in case you want to build your own guitar.

Stewart-MacDonald also has every tool you will need to build or set-up your own guitar, rewind your pickups or replace worn out frets. For example, they carry files for every application, including ones for nut work and cleaning up sharp fret edges. If you need it, they have it.

If you are still learning guitar repair or set-up, they also have sell plenty of how-to books. My favorite is Dan Erlewine’s How to Make your Electric Guitar Play Great!. Every guitarist should have a copy of this, even if they don’t ever plan on working on an instrument. It gives a lot of insight into why guitars play the way they do, and how minor adjustments can change the way they play. It is $20 well spent.

There are also juicy repair hints on the stewmac.com website in the “Trade Secrets” section. I am on their mailing list so I get the Trade Secrets newsletter via e-mail, and there are lots of clever tips on improvising tools and repair solutions.

Go to stewmac.com and see what they have to offer!

Mahalo!