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I was hoping to gather some info before buying. For nut making a fret dressing, what tool do you find most valuable? I ahve John Watkin's fret press, but for dressing and nipping for bound fret boards, which do you like best.
Theres lots of differet tools and files etc, but there not cheap and I'd hate to buy items to have them sit on the bench.

Her is my favorites

Michael, who makes/sells that stuff?

Nevermind I just found it at SMacs. I use the other diamond file they sell but it doesn't really have a long enough flat area on it. I may have to get one of those. Also don't do a bound fret board till you get one of these.
John How38994.6347569444

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for what its worth, as a player, I really don't love bound fretboards because of cutting the tang out. My high E string always used to get stuck under that little piece of fret end.

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StewMac

[QUOTE=nickton]   for what its worth, as a player, I really don't love bound fretboards because of cutting the tang out. My high E string always used to get stuck under that little piece of fret end.[/QUOTE]

If this is the case then the fret end got pulled up and exposed this area. On a well fretted bound board this would not normally happen unless the fret end some how got damaged.

I like the Ibanez nut files from Allied



They work well for me. I've never used a different set so I don't know what I may be missing.

John, I just got me one of those fret tang nippers and can't wait to give it a try.

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I have to vote for the Stew Mac nut files and diamond fret file... I haven't bought the diamond fret file yet because I don't do enough fret dresses to warrant having one, however, I do quite a few nuts and saddles, mainly for myself and for family friends (you know-- the ones who really are trying to play the guitar but are limited in progress because the folks at the guitar store don't take the time to set the action at the nut and saddle correctly). That said, I'm gonna try to paste in a picture of the nut I just finished for a 1979 HD-28. Clearance over the first fret is actually 2/1000" and the action at the 12th is 1/16" low E and 3/64" high E. Not good for an extremely heavy strummer, but for my tastes, it's perfect. This type of setup takes me approximately 3 hours to achieve, however, the effort is *absolutely* worth it. The strings are buried halfway in the nut on all the wound strings and the plain strings are just buried in the nut. Not trying to be boastful here, just trying to show how much it is possible for an individual to learn from a great group of folks like this. I can't wait to put it all to use building an entire instrument.

tonk/smack/wack

Hesh--I think it's supposed to be smack/tonk/wack, in that order.
Nelson

i think my favourite is s-m's string spacing rule. i don't think there is another nut/fret tool i would miss as much if i were to lose it.