What are the MUST have tools that a guitar or pro guitarist must have?

[carnada]

I recently moved to Poland and I am having an extremely difficult time finding tools and so on. I used to fix guitars back in Canada for a few years and I can't remember which tools I had, let alone finding the names in polish. Turns out there are no guitar fixers in my city and I think I found myself a small business opportunity.

I am buying: sandpaper, hex wrench, screwdriver, allen keys, steel wool, some files, compressed air, and in the future I will get myself a soldering iron.

What am I missing?

 

[PelliX]

Depends on what you're doing. If you fixed guitars for a few years, I would reckon this would be easy to work out. How about a huge workbench and clamps and vices for holding it in place?

 

[StrummerJoe]

I recently moved to Poland and I am having an extremely difficult time finding tools and so on. I used to fix guitars back in Canada for a few years and I can't remember which tools I had, let alone finding the names in polish. Turns out there are no guitar fixers in my city and I think I found myself a small business opportunity.

I am buying: sandpaper, hex wrench, screwdriver, allen keys, steel wool, some files, compressed air, and in the future I will get myself a soldering iron.

What am I missing?

Flat files for fret leveling, flush ground end nippers for fret pulling and cutting (small for pulling - large for cutting), jewelers files for rounding fret ends, radius gauges to match the fingerboard radius on the saddles, a strobe tuner, fret bender or at least fret bender pliers, wood glue, super glue, naptha for cleaning, polish, micro fiber cloths, bean bags (you never know when a round back Ovation will come through the door and the bean bags will stabilize the guitar), neck rest, wire cutters, string winder, peg puller for acoustics, Formby's Lemon Oil or just plain mineral oil for conditioning rosewood, ebony, pao ferro etc fretboarsds (Formby's Lemon Oil is just mineral oil with lemon scent added - I've been using the same 18oz. bottle of generic mineral oil for over a decade and it is still over half full, combination belt/disk sander, nut files, nut blanks (brass, bone, micarta, etc...), drill press, drill, all the drill bits, a Dremel tool and all the bits that go with it (a flex shaft is nice too along with a router base for it), router, wood dowels, clamps of all kind...

I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but this would get you off to a good start if you want to make a business out of it.

Good luck!

 

[PaulHikeS2]

I would add a good precision string action ruler/straight edge fret rocker for setups, but StrummerJoe got most everything else.

 

[anitoli]

Nut spacing ruler.

 

[StrummerJoe]

CROWNING FILES! Can't believe I forgot that! I prefer a triangle file with the corners sanded smooth, I get a tighter crown - but crowning files are faster.

Fret tang nippers...acetone for various things - cleaning residue...also great for meltin binding material if you need to replace or build up the nubs on some necks or repair bindings...

I know I'm still leaving stuff out....

 

[PaulHikeS2]

CROWNING FILES! Can't believe I forgot that!

I know I'm still leaving stuff out....

There's just so much stuff. Heck - so many different types of files.

 

[StrummerJoe]

There's just so much stuff. Heck - so many different types of files.

Truth!

I modify a lot of tools rather than order them through Stew-Mac. Fret pullers and flush cutters? Just end nippers ground flush. Leveling files? Just a flat file with the tang cut off and a peice of wood for the handle epoxied on. I have a long one and a couple of short ones.

Saves me money in the first place and cheaper to replace after doing an SS fret job.

But yeah...it's mind boggling all the stuff I have...

 

[Dogs of Doom]

a set of nice, rough, round files for scalloping fingerboards... ...

 

[scott6762]

They need talent!

 

[XTRXTR]

Graphite powder for the nut and the whammy pivot points and string grooves for the bridge, and the whammy bar socket.

 

[Chris-in-LA]

I recently moved to Poland and I am having an extremely difficult time finding tools and so on. I used to fix guitars back in Canada for a few years and I can't remember which tools I had, let alone finding the names in polish. Turns out there are no guitar fixers in my city and I think I found myself a small business opportunity.

I am buying: sandpaper, hex wrench, screwdriver, allen keys, steel wool, some files, compressed air, and in the future I will get myself a soldering iron.

What am I missing?

I would browse Stew-Mac for ideas…

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/

 

[LPMarshall hack]

Yo Carnada! In Poland now? That’s awesome. Have you returned to metal yet?

hope all is well

 

[carnada]

Yo Carnada! In Poland now? That’s awesome. Have you returned to metal yet?

hope all is well

I have! And I have moved quite a bit in the last few years.

I just got myself a Schecter Traditional Stratocaster Diamond Series. It's not the best guitar ever but it's actually pretty good for the price. I finally figured out how to make use of all the plugin amp simulators and they sound frigging amazing. The only bad thing is that guitarists now are frigging good on the internet.

 

[carnada]

a set of nice, rough, round files for scalloping fingerboards... ...

Scalloping my new guitar in a week or so

 

[carnada]

CROWNING FILES! Can't believe I forgot that! I prefer a triangle file with the corners sanded smooth, I get a tighter crown - but crowning files are faster.

Fret tang nippers...acetone for various things - cleaning residue...also great for meltin binding material if you need to replace or build up the nubs on some necks or repair bindings...

I know I'm still leaving stuff out....

I forgot to mention that I will not be doing any intense fret dressing or changing frets or anything like that. People here live in small apartments and nobody has a work bench or anything like this. I am getting myself the most basic tools to do a bit of saddle sanding on classical guitars and stuff like that. But hopefully in the future I will get into the real guitar set-up once I have the tools. In Poland it was even difficult to find steel wool! I was going crazy at the store trying to make myself understood in Polish and they kept sending me to the kitchen section where they had metal sponges to clean dishes. There was a small section with steel wool and the store only had two packages.

 

[StrummerJoe]

I forgot to mention that I will not be doing any intense fret dressing or changing frets or anything like that. People here live in small apartments and nobody has a work bench or anything like this. I am getting myself the most basic tools to do a bit of saddle sanding on classical guitars and stuff like that. But hopefully in the future I will get into the real guitar set-up once I have the tools. In Poland it was even difficult to find steel wool! I was going crazy at the store trying to make myself understood in Polish and they kept sending me to the kitchen section where they had metal sponges to clean dishes. There was a small section with steel wool and the store only had two packages.

Wow. Well good luck with your endevors!

 

[LPMarshall hack]

I have! And I have moved quite a bit in the last few years.

I just got myself a Schecter Traditional Stratocaster Diamond Series. It's not the best guitar ever but it's actually pretty good for the price. I finally figured out how to make use of all the plugin amp simulators and they sound frigging amazing. The only bad thing is that guitarists now are frigging good on the internet.

You’re prob better than 98% of these internet guitarists