Changing guitar strings, conditioning fretboards, adjusting action and setting intonation… many guitarists and bassists end up attempting at least one of these, and often build confidence to do more as a result. But levelling, crowning and polishing their guitar frets to enhance playability? Much less likely. MusicNomad wants to change that – and we're here for it.
The US company has a well-earned reputation for quality care and maintenance products (as we recently found out for ourselves) and has long been proactive in supplying techs, guitar factories and home players with the means to work on their guitar frets – be that levelling, polishing and isolating trouble spots where frets can be uneven.
This is why MusicNomad's new U File is such an interesting product. The company wants to empower more players to be able to confidently and accurately work on their guitar frets.
Guitars can often have a few frets that are causing issues – so there's no need to level all of the. The U-file is a diamond-coated file fret leveller that can be used while your strings are on, so you can test the results straight away.
"Our unique U-shaped channel design slides under the string for optimal file placement and uses a wide diamond-coated file to quickly and efficiently lower and level the fret height to match adjacent frets," says MusicNomad.
"With strings on or off, lay across three frets with the high fret in the middle and file either up or down or side to side," it adds.
The U-files come in packs of three, measuring 1.25", 2" and 3" frets, suitable for electric and acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins and ukuleles. They will only work on bass guitar frets after the first five closest to the nut.
For $79.99 these could really pay dividends as an investment for players, and we'll be getting to grips with these to try them ourselves as part of our how-to maintenance guides coming up. For now, you can check the MusicNomad site to sign up for an e-mail alert on availability – which is 'soon'.
MusicNomad also has the Tracers Fret Finishing kit being released later in October. It's designed to polish frets to make them shine after any fret crowning, fret beveling, fret dressing or fixing fret sprout. And it uses Micro-Mesh fine polishing cloths – something I'm a big fan of myself for polishing the frets on my own guitars.
"Our custom-designed Micro-Mesh loops are like no other," says MusicNomad. "With 13 square inches (84cm) of polishing area, they are designed to slide onto both Tracer handles and give you a great polishing experience compared to fumbling around with traditional sheets of polishing paper."
The Tracer kit includes four Micro-Mesh grits (1000, 3600, 6000, 12000) with the higher the number, the finer the grit. The company makes it easy to remember by marking them in the order you need to polish: 1, 2, 3, 4. You can find out more in the video below and on musicnomadcare.com
The company is clearly going all-in on its quest to encourage more of us to feel confident with guitar maintenance, and it's now launched a Fret Care Hub to help guide people to the right products and guide them with tutorials, Q&As and a Fret Buzz Tracker for diagnosing , evaluating and tackling one of guitar's most irritating issues.
Check out the MusicNomad Fret Care Hub and follow the first part of our guitar maintenance series.
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“I was thrashing that guitar to pieces, and I don’t play like that anymore”: Prog rock legend Steve Howe of Yes reveals what he’s learned in 60 years of playing
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