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We are down to just two unused bars of fine and one of medium, so when I went to order another couple of each bar from Stewart MacDonald, I was surprised to find that they had closed out their Menzerna dry buffing compounds and substituted Brand X compounds. While there is no issue with ordering P204 and W16 compounds from Jescar (they are about $22/bar at retail in quantity of 3), I'm curious as to whether anyone has tried the new StewMac compounds, and if anyone has been given a reason for their transition to the new compounds?

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

It's about profits.....notice how many tried and true products they have replaced in the past 2 years with their " colortone" brand? No more trans-tint, virtually no more Behlins products, in fact most of the finishing stuff is now generic...

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

There have been major changes at Stew-Mac that I'm not sure that I can take the liberty of disclosing. Nothing terrible mind you, just some changes that I suspect are playing into some of the changes in offerings.

Jescar carries it.

FWIW, I've been informed by one of their suppliers that the ownership has changed.

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I had heard that as well.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

With StewMax, the cost has been a bit less for the bar or two every few months we've been ordering, but with our business account with Jescar and their aggressive pricing on larger orders, we've got enough bars headed our way to keep all three shops going for a couple years. Jescar seems to be getting serious about marketing some good fretting tools as well. The ergonomic fret removal pliers needed some minor dressing before use, but they - along with the fret tang nippers and fret end cutters - are part of the bench sets.

Too bad about the company - we've been seeing these bargain basement sale ads of cheap Asian-sourced components for the last month, and it appears to me that the new owners may not really understand the nature of the company they have acquired or what their customers needs, want, and will not tolerate.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Sad to see things changing. Really been loving the "free" shipping (a la Amazon Prime). Hope that doesn't change.

Woodie, have you used the Jescar nippers on smaller wire like the "Narrow / Low" wire or something close to it? My experience with the Stewmac nippers was not great. The wire didn't seat in the channel and often would tip to one side or the other during the cut which left the tangless ends beat up. I'm talking about this wire: http://img1.stewmac.com/product/images/ ... etwire.jpg


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There are only three inserts for the tang nippers at present (six 'sizes' of wire handled), but we've been finding that larger sized inserts work well for smaller wire, so I will check and see if one of the inserts will work for the smaller sizes of wire. I think we have some wire left from a mandolin refret - will check.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

jescar carries the mezzerna products

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I don't know if they still do, but Woodcraft Supply used to carry Mezzerna polishing compounds in the jar (not sure about the bars).

Grizzly.com carries Menzerna compounds $25-$32

I recently received a disturbing email from StewMac about joining some sort of preferred customer list, to the tune of almost $40 per year membership. Sorry folks, but with a cheapening product line and some insane pricing, I'm reluctant to buy much from them these days. Maybe we will get lucky and someone else will start selling Waverly tuners at a reasonable price...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, I think what you received was an invite for their StewMAX (membership?). I've had that for a year and as far as I know it only gives you free shipping. Well worth it for me as I do 3 or 4 orders a month, usually for small parts needed to repair customer guitars. Probably saved me over $100 in the past year.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

As mentioned, the StewMax membership covers standard shipping, but judging from the cover of the last catalog we received, Stewart MacDonald is also offering a 'StewMax Exclusive' of the month, with September's being their fretting kit at a $30 discount.

Thank you all for your suggestions on sourcing compounds - we received 21 bars each of the medium and fine yesterday, as well as a few bars each of the compounds for polyester finishes. Jescar gives a 40% discount at the 20 bar quantity, so spreading the order out over the three local area shops eased the pain a bit. It's like shopping at Costco...the $600+ bill stings, but who does not need a closet filled with paper towels and large boxes of corn flakes?

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower