Non ADA Gear > Guitars

Tools Every Guitarist Should Have?

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McLeanAB:
Hey all!

I'll never be a luthier or a guitar tech for someone famous... however, after having my Charvel worked on and set up, I'm dying to know what tools and instruments are a must have for those of you that take the time and appropriate techniques to properly set up your axe...

I can adjust a truss rod, raise/lower saddles on hardtails and Floyds, I can tune, string, and pretty much anything else (install pickups, etc), that cover the basics... HOWEVER... the neck on my Dreamsicle seems for the first time to be adjusted evenly across the length from the nut to the bridge... so, I've been adjusting truss rods and saddles with my eyes and hands (feel) only rather than 'real' measurements...

What's a list of things you tinker-ers think of as a must have to keep the guitars running along smoothly without taking her into the shop to get set up, but to do it on your own?

Thanks!

herbyguitar:
Depends on how involved you want to get. Truss rod and intonation are simple things. Harder things require different tools and techniques. Shaping the neck can require sand paper and maybe a Dremel tool. I've had to do this on all my bolt on necks. Re-shaping the neck joint to fit smoothly and seamlessly into the socket requires patience. I've also done fret jobs which require heat to remove frets and looooong files to shape them and small files to work stubborn cases. It can get pretty involved and tedious but rewarding if done with patience and care. Then there's scalloping the fret board. A whole other process. What are you wanting to attempt?

rnolan:
Hey Adam, as herbyguitat says, it depends on how deep you want to get but also what you want to spend.  I bought some stuff from stewmac a while ago, they send you a catalogue of tools and other bits they sell (and also spam me regularly with various products to drool over LoL).  These days there are so many helpful things people have developed/invented you can buy (so many more than when I learnt to build guitars.  They sell some basic setup "kits" collection of tools and are worth checking out. (http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/StewMac_Tool_Sets/)
On a sad note, the guy who taught me, Jim Williams, passed away last week  :facepalm: after a 6 year battle with cancer.

I gave up measuring set up parameters ages ago and do it all by feel, though experience helps of course.  But a 6" steel rule with 64ths is a must if you want to measure. These are harder to buy in Australia as we went metric ages ago.  You also need a good 36" straight edge and a smaller one 10 or 12" is also useful.  So many things are useful but you don't tend to use them allot so hard to justify the purchase. A word of warning should you decide to do fret work, it wrecks your hands.  I avoid it these days unless I need to.  Most guitar builders can play guitar a bit but if you want to keep your hands supple to play at a higher level, careful how deep you go.

You need a good vice, I have one of these (http://www.willburtversavise.com/) and it's great.  It's hard to buy a decent vice for guitar work, there are/were none available in Australia so I imported the versa vice many years ago.
A dremel is very handy but you need a decent router base attachment for guitar work
A plunge router is a must for PU cavities etc and neck pockets

I could go on (and happy to do so if you want) but it's a big rabbit hole  :lol: .  I stay away from hardware stores, I just want to buy everything...

McLeanAB:
Thanks for the replies!

Rnolan:  sorry to hear about your teacher...

The most I've ever done is routed out a pickup cavity or drill/expand a hole to run some wires... the routing job was a complete hack job, but it works...  beyond that, not sure about the fret work... I do have an acoustic that is getting some fret edges, but jobs like that, or shaving the neck or neck pocket, scalloping, I'll leave to the professionals...

Mainly interested in being able to measure the amount of bow/curve/straightness of my necks as they need to be adjusted every once in a while...  they are all bolt ons, so the feel it out process is fine, but with the right tool, might go a little quicker or at least be more precise.

So I guess, mostly about set up... setting intonation is a pain because all my screw drivers are a little short and I don't want to ding up the body...

vansinn:
As others have said it, depends on where you want to be..
Some examples.

Setup and fretworks:
Tool to remove/pull frets, fret hammer, fret press clamps, fret groove trimming/cleaning files, fret shaping files, sanding blocks with various needed radii, completely level sanding block, file to finish fret ends, nut files, fret glue, superglue
Neck/fretboard setup rig with calipers

Neck reshaping:
Spoke shave, wood files, sanding blocks

Body reshaping:
As above, chisels, dremel, maybe a router, bits

Electronics:
Soldering station, rolls of copper foil, conductive paint, multi meter

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