<b>For years many of the world's top luthiers have been hounding us to make more of these.</b> <p>The original Ultimate Fret End File was just something I developed for my personal workbench many years ago, as there was nothing else available that was capable of the detail and accuracy I was looking for. <b>The "problems" all started when I decided to make an extra one for a luthier friend - who was blown away by how well it worked, and could no longer do fretwork without it.</b> </p> <p>He then shared it with another luthier - who immediately asked me if I could make 5 of them for the guys in his shop... and it just snowballed from there. </p> <p><b>Since then I've made and shipped thousands of the original Ultimate Fret End file all over the world - personally modifying each file by hand... until it became physically impossible to do it anymore... </b>my hands ache just thinking about it. </p> <p>Over the past 5 years we've tried and tried to find a file manufacturer who was capable (and willing) to create a file like this for us and our fellow guitar geeks. </p> <p>China was out of the question. We actually tried, and their attempts to create a Swiss quality file were... laughable. </p> <p>The only way to make this happen was to go to the source. The only challenge? Two of them actually: <br>The first was the expense of having a custom file made by old-world craftsman. <br>The second was, one look at the level of detail and precision in our file design, and they passed on it. We even got as far as prototype samples, but they were just too complicated and costly to make. </p> <p><b>But we finally stumbled upon a craftsman from one of Europe's oldest and most respected file makers who was willing to take on the challenge.</b> </p> <p>The design and prototype process has taken years and many revisions. </p> <p>They tell me these are the most detailed and complicated files they've ever made.</p>