Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello guys - thought it might be good to have a thread showing some good suppliers as we all know the cost of US imports/shipping. Absolutely anything - tools, wood, finishing supplies - whatever...

DICK in Germany was good for clamps...

UK
Tone Tech
David Dyke
Axminster

I'm absolutely not affiliated with any company....

Jim,

Where are you based?

Others in the UK:

Touchtone Tonewoods
Timberline
Keystone Guitar Tonewoods for Luthiers

and Madinter in Spain, Rivolta in Italy, Karin Rost in Germany for purflings etc.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

For me, in the UK, first stop for tools is always Axminster.

For supplies, well David Dyke, Timberline and Touchstone in the UK, with a lot of stuff bought from Madinter in Spain. There are a number of other specialists in Europe I buy from.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hello guys - I'm in Manchester. -should really get my profile sorted out.

Must agree about Axminster Tools, have been to both shops. There warehouse in Axminster is most impressive.
I live not far from Dave Dyke and have used him for 24 years ,also some nice wood at Timberline.
If you need pearl inlay ,also some really nice rope purfing try Mike at
http://www.smallwondermusic.co.uk , Mike is usually there for phone calls in the afternoons.

Greetings from Sunny Sussex

For wood:
Martin Guhl (Germany) at http://www.best-eurospruce.com/index.html
A great guy and a great supplier.

Yo Jim,
Craft Supplies are also worth a look, i think they're the only uk supplier of radius dishes - even though i bought the last one, and i arrived broken and they have no idea when they'll get anymore in....but apart from that...

they seem to have lots of useable tools, I've not had cause to use them much yet tho. worth a look and very friendly. they have the sort of stuff that can be altered to be useful to us lot.

i used to find lots of good tools that i could make useful with a bit of imagination at old fashioned iron-mongers, bit of a dieing breed now though, thanks to b&q etc....who i still get loads of tools from if need be (turnbuckles etc).

screwfix also for jig making bits and bobs.

si' thee at the marble

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

I order from the following,

Axminster- their speed of delivery and value for money is absolutely exceptional for a British company.

David Dykes- because sometimes I just can't face that customs bill that arrived two months after the Stewmac order!

Craft Supplies for Aliphatic resin and a particular binding I like of theirs.

Madinter for the odd bit of tonewood; but the shipping seems very expensive when I ordered from them last year.

Local hardwood suppliers for the odd chunk of quartersawn

Car boot sales for old but good quality tools.

dick and fine-tools.com for tools, as well as Axminster (check various sites, price differences for some tools can be a bit crazy, in both directions).

Madinter for hardwoods/back/side sets, Rivolta for spruce (I drop by once per 1.5 years or so), tonewood.ch and Koebl Tonewood in Austria I know by reputation (positive). Other than that, what the guys mentioned, and lets not forget our new Sponsor tonewood-supplies.co.uk (Joel), who sent me some really wonderful Malaysian Blackwood sets that were advertised during the swap meet.

Other than that, with the dollar as low as it is, American stores have rarely been more tempting.

Oh yes, I forgot Joel. How is the guy?!

I'll have a snoop around his website and see if there's anything tempting.

I had just recently been searching the web for a UK supplier of 24" sandiing discs and found them at Axminster. They`re for the Rojek CB600/1 600mm Disc Sander and come in 60, 100, and 150 grit. I ordered 3 x 60 grit for my radius dish at £8.94 each.

Some sources in Germany:
Dick or course, and also Dieter Schmit has some nice tools.

Theodor Nagel in Hamburg, I believe LMI get much wood from them. Great place.

I have gotten some nice wood at a good prices from Woodland Tonholz, but they were difficult to deal and the transactions were not the smoothest.

All my other European sources have been mentioned, I think. I also shop at the local lumberyards for mahogany, some spruce, maple and birch, and the hardware stores, paint shops etc. Don't forget to check out flea markets, antique shops and garage sales for old tools and odds and ends.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

the skip outside my local shopfitters.......

I got a parcel from MAdinter this week, I'm pretty happy with it....

other than that I get most of my stuff from the states. the ecxhange rate helps alot at the minute

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Tonewoods suppliers, if you understand french:

Jura's montains spruce:
http://www.boisbuis.com/
Swiss Alpin spruce:
http://www.bois-de-resonance.com/

See you later.

Two more Wood-Suppliers from Germany:

Holz-Faszination
(http://www.holz-faszination.de/home/node/7): Beautiful Tops, especially Maple

Drechselholzversand (http://www.drechselholzversand.de/asset ... ersand.de/): Mostly for Turning, but also some nice Tonewood.

Both are great Guys to deal with

Peter

Like Mattia said, with the dollar doing so badly against the pound the USA is a good place to buy from. If you want to lessen your chances of getting a bill for import duty and VAT then get the stuff sent by airmail parcel post. The UK post office don't check all of the parcels that come in (last I heard it was only 20 percent of them) so as long as your parcel isn't an unusual size or shape you may well get away without paying. At least, that's been my experience, apart from parcels from Luthiers Mercantile which always seem to get caught for some reason I can't fathom.

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Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com

Ever Stewmac order I have made from the States ends up with a hefty customs bill.

Parcels delivered by DHL and UPS SEEM (to me) to be affected by customs and the dreaded handling fee every time.

Parcelforce (carries USPS parcels) is more like 20%, although their handling fee is rather excessive.

I only now get stuff from the US that I can't get in the UK, and I have a few local sources I can reach by car.

Love to get down to David Dykes one day and have a nose around the warehouse though....

Should any of you ever require a "gift" (wink, wink, nod, nod) from one of the US suppliers, please don't hesitate to let me know. I have done this in the past and would love to help my brothers and sisters in any way I could. I'm sure others here in the US would also be willing to help as well.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

"Parcels delivered by DHL and UPS SEEM (to me) to be affected by customs and the dreaded handling fee every time."

That's right, Sam, the couriers will charge you every time, which is why I will only deal with US and Canadian suppliers who use their regular postal service. Incidentally I got a StewMac parcel yesterday and didn't have to pay any duty on it - it must be a couple of years since I last paid duty on a StewMac parcel.

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Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com