Affiliate commission funds this site. Here is exactly how that works, and what it does not affect.
The short version. Some of the links on this site earn us a commission if you buy. It never costs you anything extra, and it never changes the order things appear in. The cheapest shop is whichever shop is cheapest. We are a Scan affiliate. We don't run adverts yet; when we do, they will be clearly labelled and limited to electric guitars and the gear that goes with them.
The String Gauge is free to use and currently carries no advertising. It is funded by affiliate commission: when you click through to certain retailers and go on to buy something, that retailer pays us a small percentage of the sale. It is at no extra cost to you — you pay the same price you would have paid going direct.
That is the whole business model today. Nobody pays us for coverage, for a better position in the comparison, or for a kinder write-up, and there is no arrangement under which they could.
At some point we will add sponsored adverts to help fund the site. When we do:
Commission never affects ranking. When we tell you a shop is cheapest, that is arithmetic on the prices we captured that night — nothing else is in the calculation. A retailer that pays us nothing will be shown above one that pays us well, every time, if their price is lower.
We track six UK retailers. We hold affiliate relationships with some of them and not others, and we show all six on identical terms. If that were not true the site would be worthless, and so would we.
We are a Scan affiliate: we have a live affiliate relationship with Scan through the Awin network, so we may earn commission when you buy from Scan after clicking through from here. That is a commercial arrangement only — The String Gauge is run independently and is not owned by, run by or employed by Scan or any other retailer. Applications with other retailers we track are in progress. Where no relationship exists, your click goes straight through to the shop and we earn nothing from it — the listing appears anyway, because leaving it out would make the comparison a lie.
This page is updated when that changes.
Every product link and shop button on this site — commission-earning or not
— passes through our own /go/ redirect so we can count the click. You will see that
in your browser's status bar as you hover. Pages carrying commission-earning links also
carry a visible notice near the listings, not just this page in the footer.
Prices here are captured by an automated sweep, usually overnight. They move, and they occasionally go wrong. Always check the price on the retailer's own page before you buy — that price, not ours, is the one you will pay. Our terms cover this in more detail.
The String Gauge is run independently by Paul Flett, a sole trader, from 32 Lumley Street, Garston, Liverpool L19 1QY, United Kingdom.
If anything here looks less than straight, say so: info@thestringgauge.co.uk.