Luthiery Laboratories

Stewart MacDonald ( http://stewmac.com ) is a terrific resource for guitar parts and tools. But, hoo-boy, look at those prices! Are they out of their minds? Well, no, not really. Here's why:

If you see at some wrenchy-looking thing at StewMac, and think, this is ten times the price of a similar wrenchy-looking thing at Home Depot, you must first remember that, for the most part, the two are NOT the same. StewMac's tool has probably been modified in some way for the very specific task of building a guitar. Or it may be manufactured from scratch for that purpose. For example, a fret puller looks an awful lot like an end-cutter. But Home Depot sells tens of thousands of end-cutters, while StewMac sells maybe a few hundred fret pullers a year. That is going to drive their production costs through the roof. So, even though their prices are high, they are not unreasonable. And the quality is always first-rate.

Another example is the radius sanding blocks. $16 seems like an awful lot for a small block of wood. But you need to see just how much tooling it takes to make one, and how much labor, and the cost of materials, and all that cost has to be spread across relatively small production runs and inventoried and warehoused and shipped. There is no way I could make sanding blocks and sell them at their price, it would not be worth my time.

Sometimes it is possible to modify or duplicate their tools at a substantial savings. For example, my fret slotting jig. A simpler example, I purchased a small end-cutter at Sears and ground the edge flush to make a fret puller. Sears also sells a nice cheap little plastic-faced hammer that is perfect for whacking frets, you don't need an expensive 'fret hammer'. Often, with a little creativity, you will find that you don't need a specialized tool, you can make do with what you have. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and buy the right tool, and StewMac probably has it. For example, their 'fret press' works far better than any hammer.

An inexpensive bench grinder like this is a terrific investment. Apart from all the guitar-building uses I've mentioned, you can sharpen anything from knives to lawnmower blades, and find a hundred other uses for it.​ It will pay for itself on the first day.

The same goes for their parts and materials. A StewMac fretboard is around $30 plus shipping, but consider all the work that went into it. You're paying for quality and convenience, and the price may be high, but it is fair. Generally, I will not make a part if I can buy it, for example, a standard long-scale bass neck. StewMac sells Mighty-Mite necks, which are as good as any, and for about $100 and a mouse click, I can have one any time I want. It is simply not worth it to make one, I only build the oddball stuff that you can't buy.

All the same arguments are true for AllParts. If you're like me, you can go bargain hunting on eBay.