What to buy? Where to buy it?

*January 10, 2026

This sits in my mind a lot because I look around for luthier tools quite often. What to buy? And where to buy it?

Brands/Companies

I think for most people, a well known name would be StewMac or as I am sure a lot of people call them, Disco Stew. Disco Stew has some good products and we all know there is a hefty price tag on Disco Stew products. That’s because of their warranty and I will say, when you have an issue with something. They don’t really question it. They just need some information on what is going on and possibly some pictures to give them a better idea of the issue.

I would always look for something that might be exact tool from somewhere else because I do believe some of their tools are from other manufacturers with a different handle colour or something like that. For example, I am about 100.1% sure that their “precision fret puller” is the exact same as the Hosco fret puller pliers. I have them both and they are identical besides the rubber grips over the handles. Disco Stew’s are red and the Hosco’s are blue-purple.

I purchased the Hoscos from Solo Music Gear. Solo Music is probably the other main place I look for tools. A big reason is because they are here in Ontario – no brokerage, duties and courier fees to pay. Their selection isn’t as extensive as Disco Stew but they are growing in their own line of tools and jigs. They even now have their own version of the diamond crowning file and at the time of writing this article, Solo Music’s version is $65 cheaper than Disco Stew. Solo also has come out with some other files that would be comparable to Disco Stew stuff or Hosco brand.

Hosco is a Japanese manufacturer that I have purchased saws, files, carving knives, gauges and other luthier tools from Solo Music. I have seen their tools on other sites (probably eBay and AliExpress) and sometimes (WAY) more expensive than Solo.

Another place I have ordered tools from is Elmer Tools – it is actually in china and they look like they sell some of the same tools and jigs that Solo Music does – just cheaper. They do have their own version of the diamond crowning file and personally, they aren’t as smooth when crowning frets as compared to the Disco Stew versions. I would use the Elmer version if the fret is pretty squared and then use the Disco Stew ones to clean up a little afterwards. The Elmer diamond crowning files are $102 each and include free shipping (if I remember correctly).

The Music Nomad stuff is pretty good as well. I find their stuff to be on par or even a little better than Disco Stew tools – in terms of them being more ergonomic or that they put some effort into making the tool better. However, I will say Music Nomad tools also carries a hefty price tag. I think that they want Disco Stew to know that there is competition and I feel that some (*not all the tools) from Music Nomad might be the better purchase.

Some things from Music Nomad, I wouldn’t say are better/probably worse or just overpriced to begin with. I have the Keep It Simple Setup kit amd the string height action gauge requires you to have fret 1 capo’d or to use their “special tool” which is really a larger sized guitar pick. I found the difference to be 0.25mm when I have tried it with and without fret 1 capo’d. Not sure why you would need to do the extra work to measure string action height.

certain tools

Here is an example of things being overpriced: feeler gauges. Music Nomad sells a few different feeler gauge sets. One is for the neck relief and there are only 3 leaves on it and it costs $24 on Amazon. You can buy a 26 leaf feeler gauge tool at Craps of Tire for $13. Just note the gauge sizes they have for all of the Music Nomad ones, what they are for and save yourself from buying all of their feeler gauges (I think there are three of them) or any other luthier version of feeler gauges.

One of Music Nomad’s selling points on their feeler gauge sets is that they aren’t covered in the protective coating like when you go buy a set that was meant for mechanics. It’s not like you can’t clean off the coating. I use some generic set in my shop and it works just fine.

I did have not too long ago, a customer guitar and just from looking at the nut, I knew that some of the nut slots were filed too low. This was a boutique guitar and was setup from the builder prior to sending it to the customer. The guitar had never been serviced since new. I measured the string height at the first fret to be 0.008″ on the G string. From the Music Nomad 1st fret feeler gauge instructions, this string should have been 0.018″ and the thinnest feeler on that 6 leaf set is 0.012″. I wouldn’t have been able to measure that gap with the Music Nomad set. Sure, the nut being filed too low is too low but I believe that knowing the actual gap measurement is important as well.

Another tool I would like to talk about is the Fret Kisser that Disco Stew has. I have two of them and for some reason, they won’t file certain high frets down. The first one, I checked with my square and it is arched a little on two of the sides. Unfortunately, the replacement they sent me wasn’t that much better.

I also have the Music Nomad U-File fret files. Again, some of the Muisc Nomad items feel like they put some thought into. These are essentially under string spot files and they work pretty good. But they also have that same problem of not being able to file certain frets.

Now, this goes onto the next problem: are you tools actually straight? I have actually researched into this one a little and somebody wrote it on reddit or something like that and he stated that the sellers of the products do not guarantee that the ruler, square, fret level beam etc, etc is perfectly flat. If you read the description, he is absolutely correct. There is nothing in writing that states that the product is perfectly flat. Just something to think about when buying tools.

There is another part of the equation when you put a ruler or notched ruler to the fingerboard. Is your fingerboard actually straight? The guitar might have ski jump or double ski jump. I have seen some fingerboards on low end classical guitars where the fingerboard was concaved instead of being flat as it should be. Well…concaved is a little different from not being straight from end to end but it is still not correct.

Sanding blocks – specifically radiused sanding blocks for fingerboards. I have the set of Hosco 6″ radiused sanding blocks and when you try to radius a fingerboard, it won’t be straight. There is a bias because of many factors when you are going at it. And for a long time, I knew that going with something longer is the way to go. There are plans online to make special jigs but that is just space for a table sized jig that gets used once a guitar.

I ended up buying an R16 18″ aluminium sanding block from Guitar Tool International. This place is in Texas but screams of Chinese made tools but this sanding block was less than half the price from Disco Stew. I think I did see some known brands like Hosco and Wilkinson parts. It was certainly a gamble and I feel it was a good purchase. I think at writing of this article, I have only sanded one fingerboard and it is much more even than previous fingerboards. I found it the cheapest on Amazon as there was a coupon code at the time.

I do recall purchasing a set of micro chisels and they came in from the East coast. It wasn’t something on luthier tool sites but on wood working sites. Price shopping is always a must for anything nowadays. Amazon is convenient but it doesn’t mean they have the best prices for anything.

My Wen 9″ bandsaw was purchased through Ebay from a vendor in the USA. It was the cheapest price I could find it at. Even after shipping. Speaking of the Wen bandsaw, don’t buy the 9″ and buy the 10″ bandsaw instead. The one with the higher cut capacity.

I just bought some white rags (for French polishing) from Craps of Tire. A three pound bag is $14.99 while a four pound box of rags at Home Depot is $23. A 4 pound bag from Amazon is regularly $38. See. Amazon isn’t the best – it’s most likely because of shipping.

Amazon is a good place to keep an eye on for guitar strings though. Sometimes, they can be cheaper than buying it at the local store and it’s also shipped to you. That means, you don’t even need to go to the local store – unless you are in desperate need for a new pack of strings.

things to consider

Something that us Canadians need to consider is shipping costs and the cross border shipping. It costs a lot more for us on cross border and if it is coming through a courier, we need to expect brokerage, duties, and/or fees on top of those taxes. It is something to factor into your price shopping and might make that item coming in from the US more expensive and longer to show up in the end of it all.

One of the last few times I ordered from Disco Stew, it was something only they had. Long sound hole clamps. With doing these offset sound holes now, the distance to clamp the bridges are further than a sound hole in the traditional location. I needed clamps and they are $70-$80 each. I didn’t have a choice.

Chinese stuff again…

It was going to come into the article at some point…the Chinese stuff. They have flooded Amazon, and eBay as well. Be very careful of what you are buying. See who the seller is and where they are shipping from. Some vendor/usernames scream Chinese all over them and some are made from practically every letter in the alphabet and then some. They are getting bigger and have warehouses in USA and/or Europe.

Something I have noticed over time that almost all item listings on AliExpress will have certain words like “professional”, “retro”, “vintage”, and other shit like that. Some listings now are tagged, “certified original”…whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

The counterfeit stuff is getting really good. The packaging is very close. It is always interesting to compare real and fake packages of guitar strings. There are differences, of course – some more obvious than others. The fake guitar strings don’t shine like real ones. They look unpolished.

I will admit on trying to save some money and having to spend more money in the end because I tried to cheap out. There have only been a few times that the gamble paid off.

Iluiz brand on Amazon is not bad. I have a decent crowning file from this brand. It isn’t a diamond file but I find non-diamond files better to recrown frets that are squared. The last time I looked up this crowning file, it was double the price I paid in 2022. I believe it was $35.

I also have two notched/straight edge rulers from Iluiz – both the same. One side is notched to use on both 24.75″ and 25.5″ scale lengths and the other side is flat. At one point, when I was questioning the straightness of my straight edge rulers and notched rulers. Especially these ones because they were Chinese. My milling guy took them and checked them out. They were 0.001″ off and he told me that it won’t get any better than that. These rulers are currently $28 on Amazon.

Another brand that I find to be pretty decent on Amazon is Baroque. I have one of their diamond crowning files and fret erasers. The diamond file can work four different fret sizes and they come in two shapes; I have the square version of it and they also have a round version.

I haven’t used fret erasers for a very long time now. Why? Because it is just easier and faster to use sandpaper. My teacher, Jeremy, also has had good experience with Baroque tools. I know he has a couple of their diamond crowning files.

Vevor – better to make an account and purchase off their website than buying off Amazon. They do make hard shell guitar cases and I can vouch for the quality on them. I have a customer with two of them. I have a pottery wheel I am using as a record player but I have only tried it once so I can’t really give feedback on it at this time.

Guitar Tools International – I don’t know but this site screams “Chinese” all over it. I do suggest to price shop when you are looking at their stuff in general. I haven’t been on there for a long time but I do recall some stuff being more expensive than other places.

The cork guitar neck rests on Amazon have been good purchases as well. Like anything else, they are getting more and more expensive.

MicroJig knock off products are good purchases. The price tag on the MicroJig brand stuff is excessively overpriced for what they are – plastic.

Sandpaper – I buy sandpaper from many different brands. The one I use for the drum sander is SunGold. I have been happy with using this brand so far. I buy 20 pack sheets of sandpaper from Home Depot.

Things not to buy?

Some Chinese things that I would say not to gamble on purchasing are planes, chisels…maybe clamps if you need strong clamps. Anything that requires precision – I have “L” brackets that are 91 degrees instead of 90 degrees. They are not good for anything – money down the drain.

I have some violin bridge template tools. The string distance measurement from the Chinese ones and the brand names ones were off from each other. I had the Chinese ones first and tried setting up a violin bridge. The strings are too close to each other. Then I had to buy the brand names ones. The price difference is 4 times more for a brand name bridge template. Money down the drain and it all adds up.

This is more of a general thing – router bit sets. As a luthier, I only need certain types of router bits. Buying sets may seem like good value for the money when you buy cheaper priced sets but they usually don’t last long. I do purchase Freud router bits but will moving on to some more expensive bits in the future.

JobMate brand from Craps of Tire. It wouldn’t be any different if you just set your money on fire if you decided to buy JobMate. About 25 years ago, I bought a JobMate tool box. It came with some tools and a convenient little tool box. I thought it was a good deal at the time and I didn’t know any better. I’ve never had a screw driver separate from use. And that was the first use, not from repeated abuse on the tool – the plastic handle separated from the metal shaft. This is probably made for those people that need some tools handy but wouldn’t use them anyways.

Rikon 8″ low speed buffer – I purchased this from seeing it on Solo Music. Disco Stew’s buffer simply wasn’t in the budget and for the most part right now, it still isn’t. Even though this says low speed, it’s more than double the rpms of the Disco Stew buffer at 1750rpms vs 750 rpms. I have installed larger wheels to try to reduce the rpms but the major issue with this buffer is that the arms are simply too short. You would have to buff guitars in sections as the reach is limited.

reviews

One factor I use is the reviews on products. Sadly, there are a ton of fake reviews or just 5 star ratings with no reviews that help boost your confidence in seeing on there.

Look for the 1 star reviews first. See what the biggest complaints are. Some 1 star reviews are probably people that don’t know how to read to begin with. They will blast the product for a sizing issue or wrong information that when dimensions or instructions are clearly given in the description or package. I see this one a lot on Amazon.

I have had a wrong item sent to me from Amazon before. It was a matter of size on the item – I forget exactly what it was at this moment but it wasn’t that I couldn’t send it back It just took longer to get the correct item because of the mix up.

Sketchy 5 star reviews would be something that looks like some English major wrote. It has words that you have to look up to understand but overall, the review has a ton of ass kissing descriptions about the seller or item. Most likely AI generated.