It might be of interest to those with an interest ...

The Stewart-MacDonald Catalog that I lifted^* from the mailbox across the street today has an exceptionally rich offering of tools and instructional materials on (as usual) guitar making and repair. The unusual part of it is that they include a bunch of "special purpose" tools that I'd always understood most luthiers had to pretty much build for themselves.

While it would be nice to be able to buy them all, for most of us just knowing - even in very general terms - what processes and procedures might benefit from a specialized "aid" quite probably would be a lot of help. A few of these items are rather specifically intended for "repair" operations like fret dressing, replacement, truss rod repairs, neck adjustments, nut making (& removal/replacement) etc., with mention of "purposes" that I'd never have expected to encounter - but that could be much more common than one might expect.

(It has been some time since I've looked seriously at a printed catalog, so the items that impressed me may be fairly generally available; but they'd be scattered about in the "big book" catalogs.)

The catalog (#125, prices good to 01 JAN 2011, stewmac.com) is about 70 pages of guitar stuff, and another 20 pp (approx) of "everything that's not a guitar."

Of interest to some, perhaps, the last 3 or 4 pages pages offer kits:

F5 Mandolin $538, A5 Mandolin $428, Campfire Mandolin $148, Acoustic Guitar kits - 8 choices from $427 to $482, Fiddle $156 ($135 ea if you order 3 or more), Ukulele $104 to $162, and Lap Dulcimers $147 (teardrop) and $161 (hourglass).

I'd hate to see a reputable seller inundated by frivolous requests for catalogs, but almost all of us probably know someone who gets the stewmac stuff regularly, and might be willing to pass one around. And besides, none of us are all that frivolous about our IAS.

Obligatory disclaimer: I haven't actually bought anything from Stew-Mac in the past 10 years, so I can't really tout them. This was just an unusually interesting piece of junk mail.

^* The kid across the street has been out of town for a little over a week, so I've been picking up his mail. If he catches me with it, I'll probably give it back to him.

John