Official Luthiers Forum!

Nothing against Stewmac! They have lots of my money I assure you.

Anyone have any alternatives to this tool?

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Pullers,_nippers,_sizing/Fret_Fitter.html

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

A hammer? LOL

I modified a set of Klein nibblers to be a fret tang remover, but I cant think of a tool that would do what this thing does. Except maybe some pliers.

Tony

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Maybe pliers, and a dress with grinder + dremel?
Sidecutting pliers could have the cutter blade part removed and "serrate" the grip part of the jaws the other way, and use the inner part of the jaws (suitably relieved ) to flatten the barbs, or just 2 pairs of pliers suitably modified, one for each function.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Chris,

I know you don't like jig and tool making, but here is a link to Frets.com that may do it for you.

http://frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Too ... nder1.html

John

.............uhhhhhhhh. I don't have that sander and you are right. I dislike making tools. It's an option though....right?

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I bought one of these from Radio Shack and cut a groove across the face the accommodate the tang.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2289712


Works well enough for me.

I had a cheap one too that I modified, but I kept having nagging little problems with it. I bought the Stew Mac Nipper, and wow it's so much better. I hardly even have to touch up the nip, and on most it's so good I don't bother.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I was thinking maybe a 2 lb. sledge and some dental tools. You got me on that one.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

I made my own tang squasher from a pair of pliers. I bought the tang expander, back when it was a separate unit.

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

Foot in mouth again. Me that is not you....!!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

As you all know fret wire used to have no barbs (some still is made that way) The makers used to strike the upside-down wire with a large half-round file which formed a "barb". I pulled some frets on a guitar from 1900 a few weeks ago and that was how it had been done. I have never done this to widen the tang on modern fret wire but it should work.

John Ray
Granada

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John Ray
Granada, Spain
blog: http://www.granadaexpert.com/johnray/

I tried a couple of homemade tools to expand fret tang. I finally gave up on them and ordered the really expensive tool from Stew-Mac. It worked like a charm.