22. March 2013 · Comments Off on New truss rod cover design for Gibson® and Epiphone® guitars · Categories: General, New products · Tags: , ,

New truss rod cover shapes for Gibson and EpiphoneIn early December 2012, we were contacted by the Gibson Corp. about our use of the Gibson bell design for the truss rod covers that were selling.  They asked us to stop producing the truss rod covers and that the bell design was protected by their trademark. We were unaware that the shape of the truss rod cover was protected by a registered trademark.  The protected trademark included the standard Gibson bell shape used on almost all Gibson guitars and the Epiphone truss rod cover with the similar design.

Gibson has no problem with us engraving their own products.  The only problem is that Gibson only sells the Gibson bell shaped truss rod cover(PRTR-010) and none of the Epiphone truss rod covers.  With some help from Gibson, we came up with the above design changes for truss rod covers.   Customers who order a custom engraved Gibson truss rod cover will get a genuine Gibson product engraved by us.  For the full color Gibson and Epiphone truss rod covers we will be using our new truss design.  They still have the same mounting hole locations and share the same bottom edge as the original.  The sides are a little narrower and the top has more pronounced shoulders.

Overall the new design is a good compromise.  This should keep most of our Gibson and Epiphone customers happy.  Because these are our own design, we will allow others to use these on their own guitar builds without worrying about violating any trademark.  If you have any questions please contact us at support.

14. March 2013 · Comments Off on JESCAR Stainless Steel fretwire is now available! · Categories: New products · Tags: , ,

Jescar stainless steel fretwire

We are proud to offer Jescar stainless steel fretwire.  These are pre-cut and pre-radiused to help make installation easier.

Jescar is the leading supplier to the industry of quality fretwire.  You will not find a more consistent wire anywhere.  Many of the top guitar and bass manufactures use Jescar fretwire.

The main benefit of stainless steel fretwire versus nickel silver is the higher wear resistance for greater fret life.  This could very easily be the last fret job you will ever need!  Many players also report that string bending is a lot smoother than traditional nickel silver frets.  Some players have even mentioned that there is a sound difference.   I recently read an article from TONEQUEST where they had a guitar fitted with both nickel silver and stainless fretwire.  The writer and anyone who played the guitar couldn’t hear a hint of difference anywhere on the neck!  Sounds like a very cool experiment to try someday.

The only downside to stainless steel fretwire is that it’s tough on tools.   End nips and cutters will have a very short life.  I used our FastCap heavy duty flush cut pliers for at least 200+ cuts of stainless steel fretwire and they show more nicks now than they ever did cutting nickel silver fretwire.   They still cuts fine but just not as nice as they did prior to the stainless steel fretwire.  I will now designate a set of pliers for cutting stainless and one for nickel silver.   Fret files seem to be holding up very well.  It will absolutely take more time to do a normal fret job and I wouldn’t recommend using stainless steel for beginners.

05. March 2013 · Comments Off on 4 piece Violin nut file set now available · Categories: New products

We are now offering a set of gauged nut/bridge files made specifically for violins.  These come from the same manufacturer (HOSCO) as the other nut file sets that we sell.  The sizes are .020″, .026″, 032″ and .040″.  You can roll the file slightly when making a slot to produce in between sizes. These are an edge cutting file that will produce a rounded bottom slot.

Hosco Violin nut file setViolin nut and bridge file set