Nut files are expensive, and those of us who only need them occasionally are always on the lookout for a cheaper alternative. I'd really like the Crimson multi tool, but as I don't have £90 to spend I took a punt on a cheap kit from ebay.
Firstly, there are lots of sellers flogging the same kit from about £12 to about £20. I paid just under £14 inc delivery, but the price varies almost daily. Delivery times were quoted as being between 1st-16th September when I ordered on 14th August but they actually arrived a few days ago. 5 days from ordering to deliver direct from China isn't bad in my book. This particular seller kept me updated with a despatch email too. Musn't grumble.
Secondly, my first impressions are that it seems like decent kit for the money. It arrived boxed with the usual badly translated Chinglish blurb, but the pouch itself is fair quality and doesn't feel flimsy. It contains 3 double sided files, each one colour coded and each side numbered from 1-6. There's also a string winder, a steel rule for string spacing and a card string action gauge that I'll be replacing in the pouch with my steel one. A couple of pics below:
The colour coding is unnecessary imo, and it makes the files look even cheaper than they are. Saying that, they have a decent weight behind them and the plastic handles feel sturdy and well-attached. They also arrived with a coating of protective oil in a plastic sheath, which I wasn't expecting. I bought this kit exclusively for the files, but actually the steel rule will come in handy too. It's marked for lots of different spacings and it's designed to sit next to the nut as a guard to protect the fretboard when you're filing.
I'm planning on using them today to sort the plastic nut on my tele kit guitar, and once that's done I'll probably go ahead and cut new bone nuts for it and a Squier strat I have. I'll update this review once I've used them.
Comments
If these are workable I'm in for a set.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
I had a suspicion that Mr M.D. Philips the serial guitar butcher was using these
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1