Stewart-MacDonald String Spreaders Review

Aloha!

We are looking at a product today that is so simple that I wish I had thought of it. These are string spreaders that are sold through the Stewart-MacDonald guitar supply company.

Stewart-MacDonald of Athens, Ohio has been selling guitar parts and luthier tools for over 40 years, and is the best company in the business. 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. They also have 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.

Their string spreaders were the brainchild of a real-life ace repairman, David Lynch (no, not that one). These tools might look hokey and seem like a waste of money to you, but believe me when I say that they easily pay for themselves in the time they save and the frustration they avoid.

There are a lot of jobs on the guitar where you just need to get the strings out of the way, such as cleaning the fretboard, working on a nut slot, touching up frets or adjusting pickup pole pieces. It is a hassle to unwind the strings all the way, so often times guys will tape them back or use Velcro to hold the loosened strings so they do not get in the way. My old favorite was to hook a wooden pencil behind them.

But the string spreaders make this a lot easier. You get a pair in the set, and they are about 3 ½ inches long and are made of brass coated with rubber so they do not scratch the neck. They are nice and springy and have hooked ends to hold the strings in place while you work. They install in a jiffy and help you get down to what you are supposed to be doing a lot quicker.

Anyway, the Stewart-MacDonald string spreaders are a peach, and if you do any work on your own instruments I recommend that you pick up a set. They are only $9.95 for a pair, or $8.95 is you buy 3 or more sets.

How can you go wrong?

Mahalo!

Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Basic Set-up Kit Review

Sugoi!

A few days ago I wrote about Dan Erlewine’s “Guitar Player Repair Guide” and mentioned that many of the tools needed for basic set-ups can probably be found in your home tool box. But there are a few things you will need for a quality guitar set-up that you probably do not have lying around your shop. But have no fear, the guys from Stewart-MacDonald have put together the things you will need in their basic set-up kit.

This kit includes:

A beveled 18” precision straight edge that is machined to be accurate to within 0.0015”. This will help you check neck relief and verify truss rod adjustment changes.

A string action gauge that is designed to quickly measure string height, but is also good for checking the height of nuts, saddles and pickup pole pieces.

A set of eight under string radius gauges so you can match bridge saddle heights to the curvature of the fretboard.

They also throw a set of set-up instructions into the box too, and of course Stew-Mac has an abundance of helpful hints on their web site. By the way, you can get the basic set-up kit in standard or metric sizes (of course the metric system will never catch on).

The metric or standard kit will set you back $89.11 (which is $5 off the price of these items separately), but you will save at least that much money after you do you first couple of set-ups. They are well-made tools and are certainly worth the money. You can find the basic set-up kit and most any other repair tool you can imagine at stewmac.com

Mahalo!