Here's a tip for the luthiers out there...

[Steve A.]

I've gotten a lot of really great tips from the luthiers here. I hate to take, take, take without giving anything back so I think that this trick might prove to be useful.

I've been making my own emery boards/sanding boards by gluing sandpaper onto tongue depressors- you know, those huge popsicle stick-lookings things that you swipe from the glass jar while waiting in that little room for the doctor...



Medline Tongue Depressors Non-Sterile | Walgreens

I use rubber cement as the adhesive since it can be applied very evenly. My first batch had the sandpaper on just one side. For my second batch I folded the sandpaper over to make them two-sided. That did give me one good edge but otherwise wasn't much better than the original. However with my latest design I fold the sandpaper over on both edges but do not cover the whole back of the tongue depressor so I can write down the grit and other information there.

It was getting expensive going to the doctor strictly to steal more tongue depressors so I got 1000 from a local medical supply house for about $7.00.

Steve Ahola

EDIT (8/21/14) I've found that the fret dressing stick from StewMac (with the 1/4" wide sanding belts) are more versatile than my tongue depressor sanding boards which I have been using mainly on the fretboard itself, adding "little brothers" like popsicle sticks and those skinny sticks in corn dogs. (I still do use my 600 and 1500 sanding boards for polishing the tops of frets.)
I see that Rockler sells a 1/2" wide version of the StewMac fret dressing stick which could be handy between the frets on a fretboard.

[in a vacuum]

Here is another tip that is useful for both instrument repair and cabinet repair. I picked this up from a violin restorer. To get glue in to cracks on instruments or open seams in guitar amp cabinets, use one of the 75 cent plastic suction cups. Spread a line of glue, and then use the suction cup to force the glue into the crack. I had a Super Reverb cabinet that had set on a damp floor with three joints open in the bottom cabinet board. Took every bit of three minutes to force titebond into three seams the entire length of the bottom board with the glue dripping out the other side.
With instrument cracks, this method allows the use of hot-hide glue, which, when dried looks in color like an annular ring--hard to get the glue into the crack fast enough, before it sets up, without the suction cup.

[Tom Phillips]

They sell Non-Sterile tongue depressors? Funny terminology. I wonder how non-sterile they are allowed to be.

[Steve A.]

The sterile ones come inside a wrapper. For smaller sandsticks you could use Popsicle sticks- even smaller are the leftover bones from corn dogs.

[Mick Bailey]

They sell Non-Sterile tongue depressors? Funny terminology. I wonder how non-sterile they are allowed to be.

Maybe someone licks every one to make sure they confirm to their description of being non-sterile.

[Steve A.]

I seem to recall the doctor always grabbing one of the non-sterile tongue depressors and placing it in my mouth. I do not recall a doctor ever removing it from a hermetically sealed package...

[Paleo Pete]

I use foam board fingernail files. Available in several grits at any dollar or department store. I found a bunch for a dime each at a resale shop years ago, bought about $3 worth and still have some of them...the older style cardboard fingernail files work well too. Also...

Cratex - Abrasives

The extra fine grit green is excellent. I found out about it in machine shops, got a couple of the 1/2 inch round sticks and still keep one in my gig bag. Nothing beats it for removing burrs on bridge saddles. Sharpen it to a point with a knife, it will get into the saddle notches.

One thing I rarely see mentioned in set up tips, I always try to put a drop of 3 in 1 oil in the tuner gears about once a year, and on the nut of the truss rod. One drop is usually plenty, you don't need much. Use a straight pin to put a tiny drop on bridge adjustment screws too, all those places will probably never seize up and if you happen to have to adjust a truss rod, it's good to have it already lightly oiled so it won't bind up due to rust over time. If I work on one for someone else, first thing I do is a drop of oil on the truss rod nut, whether I need to adjust it or not. If I do, I usually wait till the next day to let the oil do its thing.

Another one...any time I have to remove a pickguard, I replace the springs on the back side of the pickups with some surgical tubing. Works great, and usually gives you more adjustment room if you need it. I think the only guitar I haven't done is my hollow body Cort CL 1500. (thanks goes to PG Guitars in Monroe LA, now closed, for that one)

Wiggly strap pegs - This should be an old and moldy, but put a little wood glue on a toothpick or match stick and poke it in the hole, break it off flush, replace the screw and let it set overnight. Tight again and will stay put for a while. Ditto for pickguard screws.

Annoying guitar jack that works loose occasionally? Next time you have to tighten it take it off, add a small drop of fingernail polish, (any color you like), snug it down. It'll stay put for a while.

I'm sure I have others but can't think of any more right now...30 years of doing setups on my guitars and for other people you pick up some nice tricks...

[David Schwab]

I save popsicle sticks and wrap sandpaper around them.

Mostly use these things:

Sanding Sticks, Finishing Kit - Sanding Blocks - Amazon.com



I've had them since the 80s.

[Steve A.]

Yeah- I just got those dressing sticks from Stew-Mac and have been using them to sharpen my teeth. (I haven't figured out how to use them on frets yet...)
Having the sandboards in multiple grits is very handy for all sorts of miscellaneous tasks- even filing your fingernails! IMO they do work better than the foam backed emery boards for most tasks since they aren't s-p-o-n-g-y...

[David Schwab]

Here's how I use them; I filed a notch in the tip. This allows them to contour around the fret crown:



I crown my frets with a triangular file. I use these more for sanding put the file marks when polishing the frets.

I have another one with one notch on one side, and two notches on the other. That way you don't waste sandpaper. If I want to use them for general sanding I use the opposite side of this one.

These are the original Glit-Stiks. The new ones are a little different.

[Steve A.]

So do you color-code your left thumb with a black Sharpie so you don't get it confused with your right thumb?

[John_H]

I use a few different triangular files for fret crowning. If you start with a good true fingerboard, it goes quickly. Here's one I completed last week. stewmac wire, medium/tall. 10" fretboard radius.

[big_teee]

Steve, do you reckon that is the black fingernail Gothic Look?

[tedmich]

good company!

Funny story about "non-sterile" tongue depressors, I work with sensitive DNA tests and a few years back there was a case in Germany where the authorities thought they had a very rare criminal in their midst; a highly mobile female serial killer that killed by a wide variety of methods.

This woman's DNA came up on testing samples from cop killings and multiple other unsolved murders, she was known as the Phantom of Heilbronn, or the woman without a face, as no one ever saw her. She was fictionalized on Law and Order; turned out it was a woman at the cotton swab company who dropped a little DNA on every swab...probably via skin flakes not licking...

Phantom of Heilbronn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Steve A.]

So far all I have done regarding frets is level them on new (or practically new) guitars. Using the fret rocker I mark the high spots with a Sharpie and tap them in lightly with a brass tipped hammer. That has worked on almost all of them but when a little metal has to be removed I do use the sandboards I've made up.

I just did my $199 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster last night which had a strange pattern of high spots on the upper frets- it almost looked like Morse code! After tapping them down I was able to lower the bridge quite a bit without getting fret buzz.

Here's another tip: I'm always grabbing the wrong hex key for adjusting bridges and saddles so I decided to color code them with heat shrink tubing. I put red on the one for Squier saddles and PRS wraparound bridges.

Steve