I wanted to know who else purchased from Stew Mac and what your opinions of their stuff are.

I worked at a luthiery shop for a *day* (story for another time) and they said that the only two things from Stew Mac in the shop was a straight edge and an apron. The luthier I worked under agreed with my opinion that Stew Mac was sub-par in quality and not to buy from them.

In my own personal opinion, I have purchased small strat parts - Volume/Tone knobs, pickup covers, and parts for building pickups - 42AWG magnet wire, pole pieces, bobbins.

The volume/tone knobs looked of extremely low quality.
The knobs and covers, which were their shade of aged white, was a sickly beige color that I didn't want anywhere close to my guitar.
The pole pieces and the respective holes in the bobbins were not the same size as the actual fender poles, they were a bit larger.
The magnet wire was not vintage correct, though that might not be something to fault them on (it wasn't formvar insulation)

So yeah the quality of these small parts has scared me from buying from Stew Mac again, although I have known people who refin'd guitars using their nitro and said it turned out good.

Anyone else with a Stew Mac experience to share?

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life is too short for bad tone.

I've only bought a few tools (primarily measuring tools used in setup) from them and had no problems, the tools were decent as was their service. I will say, though, their prices seem a bit high, at least on some items.

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'08 Fender Am. Std. Jazz bass, maple fretboard, charcoal frost metallic finish
'10 Squier VM Jazz bass, maple fretboard, natural finish
Ampeg BA115
'09 MIM standard Strat, maple fretboard, sunburst finish
Fender Super Champ XD

Hi supah: for starters, a lot of the parts and tools Stew-Mac sell are made by other companies, even some of the things that carry Stew-Mac's own branding.

I can make a long list if you want. Just for example, their fret arbor press is a generic item available from tool suppliers at a quarter of the price: and that goes for many of their other tools too. And specialised items such as the bending iron; the precision router base; the go-bar clamping system; and many others - are made by others and merely sold with the Stew-Mac logo stuck on them. Shopping around often finds the identical items elsewhere cheaper.

Sometimes their pricing is good and sometimes not. You have to shop around and you have to know what you're looking at. For instance, their fret tang nippers are the best I've ever come across and no more expensive than at the local hardware store - so that's one in their favor. I have no idea why your luthier friend doesn't have that Stew-Mac tool at the very least. (On the other hand, I know far better sources for aprons... )

And they are one of the few authorised suppliers of Schaller parts too, so I'd be going to Stew-Mac for those if I lived where you do.

Some of their in-house tools have the flavor of unnecessary gizmos. I'd be fascinated to know if and why anyone has ever bought their nut slotting gauge, for example. Yet there are others that are invaluable. To my own complete surprise I found I just couldn't do without their bushing puller recently - something I never dreamed I'd ever find myself buying!

Where they do score is on their service. I have never known them to be out of stock on an item and their despatching is extremely efficient. More than once I have placed an order Friday afternoon and received my items first thing Monday - and I live the far side of the Atlantic Ocean. Not bad!

All in all, it's swings and roundabouts. Shop around and you often find the same items elsewhere, sometimes significantly cheaper. On the other hand, I think your luthier contact is giving them an unfair rap. Their next nearest competitor is amateur by comparison, and there's a fair amount of stuff they simply do better than anyone else.

Get their free catalog and do a bit of window shopping, why not?

Cheers - C

I agree with you on their parts, I bought a rewiring kit from them, The switch and pots were junk, I didn't use them. I've never bought anything else from them.

dan made me several guitar necks back in the 80's.
loved them. im not so sure dan has as much influence on stew mac as he once did.

I can say from experience that their Service is not good.

I ordered a small fret tool to sand with. It comes with 4 or so different grits of sandpaper. I could not find identifying marks on the sandpaper to tell me what grit they were. I called them up and asked. I was told it was impossible for them to be shipped out without identifying marks on them. I told the person I could not find any marks on them. I was told that I needed to use a better light source to see the "color banding" that indicated what grade they were. I told the person I was outside my house in broad daylight and still couldn't see the color bands. He refused to send me new ones and kept repeating I needed better light to see them!

With the same order I had purchased some replacement tuner knobs for a acoustic I had bought for $5 at a yard sale. The replacements cost me just under $10 and were junk! Smaller knobs than were with the guitar.

Unless it's a real need in the future and I can't find it anywhere else, I won't be going back to them.

-T

Hi Tyronne: we talking about the "detail sanding sticks" by any chance?

If so, that's a case in point of what I was talking about above regarding shopping around. I bought the ones in this picture from my local tool supplier for the same price as Stew-Mac - and without the cost of shipping:



To be fair, the guy on the phone is right about the color coding. The blue one is 80 grit, green 180, orange 320 and yellow 400. As shown by the key in the middle of the front of the packet (see pic, above).

BTW: if it's for dressing fret ends I'd strongly recommend this inexpensive tool in preference:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... _File.html

That one you can't get from an ordinary tool supplier...

Cheers - C

EDIT: to fix the hyperlink.

That's it Ceri, except StewMac only ships the "green" tool and supplies you with the other grit sandpapers individually without the same matching colored tool. So you have to change the individual strips depending on grit wanted.

Not a huge deal to change the strips and one can easily tell the grit by feel from coarse to fine but still...the attitude that there must be something wrong with me and not them, left a bad taste.

Interesting to see the tool in this configuration though! I would much rather have it in your configuration. Ah well. Live and learn.

For some reason I cannot pull up the link you included but it could be on my side..I'll try later.

Thanks,
-T

Ha - how odd; it's not working for me either. I checked it when I posted it and it seemed OK then...

Anyhow, I've edited my post and done the link again. I think it works now?

Cheers - C

Ah, OK..I see the fret end dressing tool.
I had looked at that too but wasn't sure about it.

Not sure I want to give StewMac my money anymore but I'll keep it in mind.

Thank you,
-T