I posted a review few days ago about the “Music Nomad Premium Work Station”. While setting up a few additonal guitars on it, I realized I was pretty tired of using a 6″ steel rule for the job, not to mention it’s fairly easy to scratch your fret board and pickups with one of those if you’re not careful. They’re also a bit clumsy, and hard to work with in tight areas (if not impossible).
So, I proceeded to search for the best alternative I could find.
After checking out about a dozen gauges, this one caught my eye:
“SIREN String Action Gauge – Guitar Setup Ruler – Luthier Tool”
For only around $7, I thought I’d give it a try.
Wow, what an excellent product!
A few highlights:
- Being black with silver markings, it allows you to easily to distinguish the strings from the tool. For these old eyes of mine, that’s a real blessing.
- Stainless steel construction, with all markings laser-engraved.
- Measures in both inches and millimeters, and there’s also a nice little conversion chart on the back to boot (In-to-Dec-to-mm).
- Gradients seem to be dead-on per my calipers, very accurate.
- Rounded corners: As I’d previously mentioned, sharp corners on a gauge can cause scratched fret boards and pickups, as well as fingers!
- You can use either the short or long ends for similar types of measurements, so there’s no problem whatsoever in getting into tight spaces.
- Extremely thin (0.30 mm) and lightweight, yet surprisingly rigid and sturdy.
SIREN also seems to have great customer service, as they immediately followed up with me via email after I received it to ensure I was satisfied with the gauge. Now, that’s a rarity in this day and age, especially for a product this inexpensive.
For the money, you can’t go wrong with this tool. I’m absolutely delighted with it, and in my opinion it’s easily worth twice the price.
As a side note, for some reason it only has five reviews on Amazon, but they’re all 5-star (including mine). My guess is because it’s probably a new product.
If interested in further information and/or ordering one for yourself…
