guykerGuitar Fretwire Bender - Fret Wire Bending and Straightening Luthier Tool for Guitar & Bass Radian Adjusters, Repair & Maintenance, Chrome

Worth it.No question.If you're trying to decide between this or the $160ish version, or even one of the $40-$50 versions, this is definitely the one you should choose, in my opinion of course.Look, I love St*wMac. I've shopped with them for years and will continue to do so, because they're extremely reliable, efficient, friendly, knowledgable, and just everything else you'd want in an independent online seller.They carry more than a few original products that no one else does (For instance, I'm super happy with their "Safe Slot Nut Guard" system).That said, however, there are also many products they carry, a fret bender a lot like this one being one of those many products, that are not exclusive to them, and/or have clones/knock-offs, and a few of those products are just wildly overpriced, in my opinion.Many of the knock-offs and clones are junk.I've bought a few of them myself.There are definitely a lot of good ones too though.This fret bender is absolutely one of "the good ones", and an outstanding *example* of the one St*wMac sells.You'll be stoked you dropped the 60 quid.

I am in agreement with another reviewer concerning the tool and pricing with a certain Luthier and general stringed instrument supplier. I too have purchased quite a lot from them, and like their wares and service a lot, and will continue to do so. I ran across this knock-off fret radius tool, and bought it based on my very intermittent needs for such a tool, and could not justify paying a lot more for it. I find this tool functional, does the job. I did not expect graduations or markings to show actual bend radius on the tool, but a little trial and error, sneaking up on the fret radius desired works OK. One could use straightened copper wire, bend it, and compare to a drawn radius on a template as well. One of the guide bearings rotation is a little on the rough side, the surface finish of the “main body” of the tool is rough. But, for less than half the cost, it does the job I need it to do very well. I couldn’t give it a five star due to one sort of chunky feeling bearing and rough body surface, but functionally it does the trick. I like the “flip down” handle, saves a bit of room in the overcrowded tool box. It arrived well packaged, quickly! Overall a good value.

High quality! Foldable handle for easy storage. I needed to get a .043 profile fret to a 6" radius. My old SM bender wouldn't get there. This will get you to 3" if you want. The bottom bearings could be aligned better with the grooved bearing but it was not an issue. If I get tired of that I'll add slip washers to push them out. No big deal. Great bender, great price!

The groove that the fret tang rides in was not deep enough. I used a standard hack saw blade with some oil to lubricate and turned the handle to cut the groove to the appropriate depth. A friend purchased this as well and had a the same problem. If not corrected the fret wire will twist and make it unuseable. Other than that it's a great tool.

This is perfect in quality and price for the occasional fret bending activities. Would buy the brand name benders for a high volume shop but if you're a high volume shop you wouldn't balk at the price of those. For everyone else, this'll do.

Works once you get it tuned up and learn how to use it. I had to replace the plastic washers behind the two small rollers. One was too thin and the bearing was binding against the body of the machine. Both rollers needed to be a bit further out from the body in order to center them under the groove in the big roller.Update: The device works much better with larger bottom rollers. They make it easier to feed the wire in. I used two bearings from an inline skate wheel, which fit perfectly. See photo. An original bearing is sitting below the new ones

Like so many items bought here, you don't know what you're really getting until it arrives. I've used it on pre-cut frets and had no problems. Other than because they were cut ahead of time it was a little harder to bend them. I think it would be better on longer pieces of fret wire.

muy buena calidad y muy oportuna la entregalo recomiendo.

Hay que aprender a ajustarlo ya que me variaba el radio en los frets en la misma posición

If you’ve been looking for a cost effective fretwire bending tool then look no further! Amazing quality and price point. Simple and effective. Does exactly what you need over and over again.

It’s ok, and you can use it as is, but it’s much better if you double up the small bearings. You’ll need loner bolts and you’ll have to pack out the larger roller so the channel lines up with the middle of the doubled up bearings but once done it’s much much better.

Used this to bend some stainless steel wire, its really easy to use and I got a nice consistant radius on the wire.Wish I got one ages ago.

Don't be put off by the low price. The design matches that of a well-known luthier supply company, is less than half of the price, and bends fret wire with minimal effort.