Tang Nipper

[low end fuzz]

so i got a bound fingerboard here, and was about to hammer in some frets,

so i cut them to size and marked where i wanted to remove the tang on the bottom;

i tested cutting it off w/ flush cutters on a spare piece; keep in mind this was a straight cutoff from some old stew mac wire; now im using lmii wire that aleady has a radius; which i think is the problem; cause when i went to cut it off, even in lil bites at a time, it bent the wire up and slid down the tang because of those lil triangle teeth;

pissed;

so i cut the bulk off and used a grinder to get them down, not very clean, but it worked; but; its way to much work to do 48 times; for me at least ; and i can hear you , the answer is 'yes' im lazy.......extremely;

now my question

stew macs tang nipper; am i gonna have the same problem cutting bent wire? or should i go and get more straight wire which i know works with my regular flush cuts?

the problem i have; besides the board already been bound and glued and, basically a neck w/o frets, is that i dont like the straight wire cut into lengths, theres too much waste as opose to a continouis loop;

and i dont wanna spend 43$ on something thats not gonna solve anything

thanks for reading; im sure your family misses you!

[Mod edit: moved to Tools and Shop Talk forum]

Edited April 25, 2008 by Rick500

[ihocky2]

I've cut wire twice for bound necks with the tang nipper and never had a problem, and it is already radiused. I won't even cut frets for non-bound boards anymore without using it. By eliminating the tang it really seems to get rid of a lot of the twisting or hard cutting problems I used to have. There are few tools I don't try and save money on, but those are definitely worth the money.

[erikbojerik]

I use the StewMac nipper on coiled wire from Allied Lutherie with no problems; it still leaves an ever-so-slightly visible burr underneath, I grind it flush with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I press them in, with a tiny dab of CA under the ends.

Yeah...it usually takes me a couple of hours to fret a neck while I'm watching a movie or something.

[MiKro]

I use the StewMac nipper on coiled wire from Allied Lutherie with no problems; it still leaves an ever-so-slightly visible burr underneath, I grind it flush with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I press them in, with a tiny dab of CA under the ends.

Yeah...it usually takes me a couple of hours to fret a neck while I'm watching a movie or something.

+1 on what Erik said!

[Mattia]

I've never really felt the need to grind the tiny nub flush; it's invisible when done, and if pressed into the binding it won't let the fret rise up.

[low end fuzz]

is the left over barb sharp enouh to grip into maple? (soft binding)

[Jon]

I use the StewMac nipper on coiled wire from Allied Lutherie with no problems; it still leaves an ever-so-slightly visible burr underneath, I grind it flush with a sanding drum on a Dremel. I press them in, with a tiny dab of CA under the ends.

Yeah...it usually takes me a couple of hours to fret a neck while I'm watching a movie or something.

Same here, except I use a fine file to take off the remainder. This way works incredibly way and has produced amazing results. 2-3 passes on the file takes off the burr.

Is it worth the $43? Well, I don't know of any other tool that can pull this task off easily. But most importantly there are consistent results, so I say yes!

[Mattia]

Most of my binding is maple, and I have no complaints. It doesn't 'grip' anything, though.

[SwedishLuthier]

I use the SM fret tang nipper on both bound and unbound boards. For unbound boards I make the tang just slightly slightly under cut. That means I don’t have to get near the finish on the side of the neck with files to grind of the tang. Only filing the 35-40 deg bevels on the crown. I have used the tang nipper on straight and bent wire. No problemo.

A complete press in fret job takes me less than an hour and a half. I actually clocked the last refret I did.. 2 minutes to bend the wire, 20 minutes to cut the wire and cut away the tang, 15 minutes to press the frets in (if it isn’t a set neck) 5 minutes to cut the crow over hang and filing the fret end bevel, 10 minutes to level the frets “Rick Turner style”, and 30 minutes to crown and polish the frets to super high shine with a polishing felt wheel in the dremel. This doesn’t include pulling the old frets, sanding and oiling the fret board, removing the neck from the guitar and stringing up the old strings for the Turner level routine.

An ordinary sheet metal hand nibbler can easily be modified to do the same job. So is the tool worth the price? It’s up to you. My time is more valuable then trying to make a ready made tool myself, especially when it cost “only” 43$.