I used to own a cheap Baroque action gauge but threw it away pretty much as soon as I got it because it was printed wonky.
So I bought a D'addario one thinking the quality of this seemingly reputable brand would be better. How wrong I was.
The scales are not "zeroed" properly against the edges of the tool making it unusable as a tool whose purpose is to measure fractions of millimetres.
Any recommendations for a good one in the UK? Stew Mac aren't an option due to the extortionate shipping rates for such a small purchase.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/18409060@N00/albums/72177720307663704
Comments
Dunlop Maintenance Tools Action Gauge at Gear4music
I can't quite tell but it looks like that suffers from the same problem from the image?
Having said that, I do check the heights and have both D'Addario and Stewmac gauges. Of the two I use the D'Addario one as it's more readable.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Is there a point to having one? Absolutely! Having an exact measurement and keeping records of it is very useful and saves guesswork. Most of the time you can just say "Yep, that feels about right" and not measure, but every so often it is good to ground-truth it.
I did use a steel rule but found it hard to read 0.5 mm increments. The string gauges with a series of increasingly tall rectangles are good because you just move it along until the top of the block appears/disappears under the bottom of the string.
Wiz's all round!