D'Addario Launches the Fret Cleaner & Buffer, a $14.99 Fret Maintenance Kit
D'Addario's new two-step fret kit skips the chemicals: dual-sided foam pads strip oxidation and grime, then polish. The brand's own case for it is direct, cleaner frets mean less string friction, and that means your strings last longer too.
By Trace, Catalog & new-product desk · Edited by Cadence ·
D'Addario launched the Fret Cleaner & Buffer on July 13, 2026: a $14.99 two-step fret maintenance kit (SKU PW-FCB-01). Three reusable, dual-sided EVA foam pads strip oxidation and grime on one side and polish on the other, with an included fret guard protecting the fingerboard wood. No creams, chemicals, or pastes. D'Addario's case: cleaner frets cut string friction, extending both fret life and string life, and improving intonation accuracy. It's available now at daddario.com.
D'Addario's new $14.99 fret care kit
D'Addario introduced the Fret Cleaner & Buffer on July 13, 2026: a two-step fret maintenance kit built to strip oxidation and grime off your frets without a single cream, liquid, or chemical polish. The announcement came straight from D'Addario's Farmingdale, NY headquarters, and it was syndicated the same week by Premier Guitar, which runs D'Addario's press materials as part of its regular gear coverage.
The kit carries SKU PW-FCB-01 and a street price of $14.99. It's available now at daddario.com and through authorized D'Addario dealers worldwide, no preorder window, no staggered rollout.
- Product
- D'Addario Fret Cleaner & Buffer
- SKU
- PW-FCB-01
- Announced
- July 13, 2026
- Price
- $14.99 street price
- Kit contents
- 3 reusable dual-sided EVA foam pads + fret guard
- Chemicals
- None, mechanical cleaning and polishing only
- Availability
- Now, daddario.com and authorized dealers
It's a small accessory next to the amps and signature guitars usually leading gear news this month, Marshall's Billie Joe Armstrong signature head among them, but it sits squarely inside D'Addario's actual business: keeping the metal on your instrument, frets and strings both, performing the way it should. D'Addario has built its whole catalog around exactly that job, from the strings themselves down to the tools that keep them sounding right for longer.
Two steps, no chemicals
The mechanism is straightforward. Each of the three included pads is built around a rigid EVA foam core with two distinct working sides. Side one cleans: it strips oxidation and built-up grime before either can wear down the fret metal or add friction under your fingers. Side two polishes, restoring a gloss finish with no creams, pastes, or liquid compounds involved. A separate high-durability fret guard isolates the fingerboard wood during both steps, so the pads work the frets and the wood around them stays untouched.
D'Addario's own framing is direct: an instrument with clean frets does not just look better, it feels better, sustains notes longer, and intonates more accurately. That last claim is the more interesting one. A fret with a layer of grime or oxidation on it changes exactly where a string breaks over the fret wire, which is the same thing a bad fret dress or an uneven fret job changes. Whether a foam pad closes that gap as well as an actual fret leveling job is a separate question D'Addario is not claiming to answer. This is maintenance, not lutherie.
The kit is pitched at every skill level, not just techs. D'Addario's materials frame it as an effortless addition to a normal maintenance routine rather than a specialist bench tool: reusable pads instead of a one-time consumable, and no chemicals to store or dispose of.
The CYS angle: fret friction is a string problem too
Nobody at CYS is going to tell you a fourteen-dollar buffing pad replaces a fresh set of strings. But D'Addario's own case for this kit lines up with what we have found writing about why guitar strings actually die: it is rarely the metal snapping outright, it is slow corrosion from sweat, skin oil, and grime, and a dirty fretboard is part of that same cycle. Friction at the fret is friction a string has to fight through on every bend and every fretted note, and D'Addario's own copy specifically credits the kit with extending the life of both the frets and the strings crossing them, not just one or the other.
If you are already in the habit of wiping your strings down after every session, adding a fret pass costs a few extra minutes. It will not turn a dead set of strings into a live one. It is a cheap, reasonable addition to a maintenance routine that is mostly free already.
For the strings themselves, D'Addario's own catalog runs two obvious defaults depending on what is actually on your guitar. The modern flagship NYXL1046 trades on tuning stability and a brighter, more harmonic-rich top end. The long-running workhorse EXL110 has been the standard rock and pop default since 1974, and it is still the set most players reach for first. Either one benefits from the same clean-fret argument D'Addario is making here: less friction at the fret means less wear working against the string, whichever gauge is actually on your guitar.
A $14.99 kit is a rounding error next to what most players already spend on strings in a year. D'Addario's bet is that framing, cheap insurance for gear you already own, is an easy yes.
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