Ratings and reviews

In an effort to save a few bucks, I picked up a copycat version of the nipper from an online retailer. It worked well enough on medium size wire, but it chewed up the crown on jumbo wire (there were no alternate sizes - it was billed as a one-size-fits-all tool). So I ended up picking up the Stew-Mac version for jumbo wire and was reminded of why I buy almost all of my tools from them. It's high-quality, compact, simple, durable and precise. I'll be buying the medium version as well and tossing my eBay bargain in the recycle bin.
I would second the other reviewer's suggestion that a version for mando/banjo wire would be a great addition to the catalog.

When you get this thing installed correctly and properly grounded you don't get the awkward volume decrease in the middle position that you get with some cheaper blend pots. I also didn't loose any tone quality with these.

I did a custom build with a tone pot for each pickup and used these caps they made for a tone pot with a great level of control. Very sturdy leads didn't break in the cramped casing I put them into.

These pots are much better than the stock pots and are some of the best I've used.

I used this on my steampunk rebuild of an SX bass and it worked great. Holds as secure as the original.

It required some filing to fit right but that's to be expected. Good quality and it sounds fine.

This is a fairly large bottle of glue. Larger than I was expecting. Used it to glue a bridge onto an acoustic. So far so good. Check back with me in 20 years but it seems to be good stuff.

These files work great!
The one nit I have is that each size needs to be labeled individually.
This would make them more convenient.

I installed these in my Epi Les Paul. Excellent tuner. It keeps the original look but with better fine tuning.

worked like a charm. I built a martin style guitar a few months ago and it sounded great but the neck angle was not right. I knew it had to be fixed but I was scared to death to try and take it apart. I bought a pressure cooker from Wal-mart for 19.95 and the hose connected with no problem

I use these to tint lacquer all the time.

These tuners are great. I really enjoy installing these tuners. They weigh less than modern tuners, they stay in tune, you can easily grease them, and they never poke you in the fingers with their split post design.

They can be pretty stiff when knew, but wear in nicely and become smooth pretty quickly.

Well made. Debated for while about getting them because they're not cheap- BUT DEFINTELY WORTH THE INVESTMENT. Make short work of the job. You get a clean centered hole that you will not get if you try to use a drill bit to enlarge an existing hole.

What can I say, great quality, easy to install, works great!

Great product.
I use these to layout all my custom guitars. They are outstanding because they are clear acrylic with center lines running both directions. Makes it super easy to layout pup locations on a guitar.
I use the SM template to make working templates from MDF. Anyone who has done any routing knows its not good to use your master templates as working templates.

I build my own truss rods, but the nut is much easier to buy than to make. I haven't had any issues with these nuts. Great product!

The milling and dimensions on the board I received were flawless. Much easier than making my own.

I wish the portion above the nut was longer, and I wish SW had oiled the boards a bit better. I received mine very dry.

I haven't had any issues with SM binding.

My CA glue will weld the binding to itself making nice seamless binding.

These are nice files, but they do have a few draw backs.
If they are slightly bent, they don't work as well. Since they are pretty hard, you don't want to try to bend them straight, they will snap.
Rust very easily, so keep em up and dry. Nothing worse than rusty files.
When the saws are new, make sure to take a marker and designate which side is what size. After some use the numbers wear off, and it gets tougher to distinguish which side is larger than the other.

Just finished a custom jazz bass project and this switch is a big part of it! The instructions supplied were great. As an unexperienced builder, had no trouble figuring out the poles/positions.

These bits along with the Stew Mac templates I now have much cleaner cavity and pickup routing.

I use Vintage bone nut blanks for all of my custom made guitars. I find these blanks to be of super high quality and very consistent. They are machined well, and produce that velvety bone tone that I try to achieve with each of my instruments

I waited for a while to give my opinion in case it changed after the honeymoon was over. It's been a long road but I've finally got a whammy that stays in tune. This one's a 'floater'. No more flush or blocked whammys on a Strat if you have everything else set up as it should be. Don't expect ANY whammy bar to fix the rest of your guitar's problems because they WON'T! The simple small locking screws are the secret with this unit because they keep the little wiggliy bridge height adjustment screws from rocking back/forth/sideways. And they didn't make the unit look like a Sherman tank either. Just a nice looking, un-obtrusive, working, and floating vibrato that doesn't need a lot of gimmick to come back to 0 tuning position. I say GET ONE (with the short -'Gilmour' style - bar option)!

This is a must for anyone doing guitar set-up, and even if it is your only tool, you are off to a good start, as you can not measure your guitar's action without it.
Get one!!

The tuner fits the tuning knobs really well. Even on a tight fitting 12 string, you never hit the adjoining tuner buttons when cranking.This makes for very quick and efficient re-stringing.
However, the self tapping screw that holds the handle to the crank, will turn and tighten up as it is rotated, to a point where the handle will no longer turn freely. I had to loosen the screw up and apply glue to stop this from happening. Rectify this, and I will rate the Turbo Tune 5 stars. Far better than the commonly available "universal" tuners available.