FastCap PLIER-FRET Stainless Steel 7-inch Fret Nippers with Comfort Grip Handle

Part of me feels like I should mark this down more because I didn't receive the fret pliers pictured in this item listing.Not only is the design clearly different, the handles of the pliers I received are stamped steel plate instead of the solid handles pictured in the listing for this item.HOWEVER..I would have given them 5 stars if not for this so I'll only ding them down to 4 for being too lazy to update the product listing. They really should fix this though.. truth in advertising and all that.About what I actually received.. (see attached photo).Solid jaws attached to stamped handles. Though each side isn't a single piece of solid steel, this design does have the advantage of providing increased cutting force because the compound hinge allows for increased handle travel for the 1/4" cutting edge travel.FOR FRET PULLING..The face of the jaws are fairly flat (compared to generic end-cutters). Without digging out my fretboard radius templates, I'd *guess* they've got maybe a ~7" radius (more curved than any fretboard I've seen). They provide a good balance between fretboard contact and rocking/lifting leverage for fret pulling though.. and that's the reason I purchased these.The back-bevel on the cutting edge is also shallow enough to allow them to slip under frets fairly easily (again, much easier than generic small end-cut pliers).I just pulled a fret out of a 30+ year old rosewood fretboard (recently oiled with Teak oil).. and I only had one tiny chip-out.. far too small to ever show under a new fret.They're a huge improvement over what I've used in the past for fret pulling.. namely generic small end-cutters, ..even those that I've modified by flattening the face and reducing the cut angle. I think the wider cutting edge also makes them work better than generic end-cutters.. even though the longer cutting edge means they conform to the radius of seated frets less than a smaller cutter.FOR FRET CUTTING..So far I've only tried them on some wire I pulled from a cheap import Kramer I'm working on.It slices them much cleaner and it requires less force than my StewMac fret cutters even though these have shorter handles. This is both due to the sharper & more acute edge and the force multiplying handle mechanism. It cuts through them like I'm cutting small-gauge copper wire with smaller end-cutters.Best of all.. crushing of the wire is minimal compared to my StewMac fret-end cutters so less work is going to be required to clean up my cut ends with these.I also expect the shape of the face and edge will make these much more useful at trimming back fret tang from fret ends than the stewmacs (yes, stewmac fret-end cutters aren't designed for this). These look like they'll at least be able to remove the bulk of a fret-tang without bending the fret ends up.I haven't tried them with Stainless yet but I don't expect any issues with the hardness of the jaws with nickel/silver fret wire. If I see any signs that they're not up to Stainless wire, I'll still be super happy with the purchase.Overall, solid addition to my toolbox. Super happy with them.. even though not getting what I ordered does still rub me the wrong way.Edit..General Use: I'm also finding they do a good job of pulling small nails that would be otherwise hard to get under.Probably shouldn't risk dimpling my cutting edge by grabbing nails with this, but I needed something to pull out nails that had their heads hammered flush into some HVAC plenum panels. I didn't want to mangle the panels by sliding a prybar between them and the joists they were nailed to, and this did the trick.

Purchased this mainly on the reviews on here, guy saying these are better than Stewmac $50 clippers and I must day these did the job with ease and left a nice flat edge on the fret ends so I was real happy with the out come of this product, it was my first fret job and it turned out awesome!

Looks pretty good so far

Serves my needs well!

The steel is a little too soft and the cutterheads or too small