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  #31  
Old 03-29-2017, 09:17 PM
jjracer jjracer is offline
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I have a 1974 Martin D-35 I bought new in January of 75

When I purchased the guitar, the shop owner advised me the there was not an adjustable truss rod. He had a cutaway section of a neck showing a square truss rod
He advised to keep it in the case when not playing it and this will keep the neck straight. The neck is still good some 40 years later.
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  #32  
Old 03-30-2017, 07:47 AM
kydave kydave is offline
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Originally Posted by jjracer View Post
I... He advised to keep it in the case when not playing it and this will keep the neck straight. The neck is still good some 40 years later.
Can't argue with what seems to have worked, but I doubt that keeping the guitar in the case - per se - had anything to do with keeping the neck straight.

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  #33  
Old 03-30-2017, 08:19 AM
golfnut golfnut is offline
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Originally Posted by zmf View Post
Ah, the adjustable truss rod issue.

I'll add a couple of opinions going in opposite directions.

1) The further along we go in the guitar game, the less we seem to use the adjustable truss rod (maybe too much of a generalization?). If the relief is correct, then it's correct, and if the action and/or playability is off, something else needs to be adjusted. And if anything on the fret board is going through a minor seasonal change, the required adjustment can be done with the fretting fingers.

2) Most guitars have adjustable truss rods, they sure are nice to have if a little tweak is needed, even if, theoretically, it's not the truss rod that needs to be tweaked.

All the guitars in my very small herd sound very good to me, even though they all have adjustable truss rods, and I'm glad they're adjustable.

And none to their truss rods have been adjusted since their last checkups with a knowledgeable luthier.
I had my HD-28V for 7 years and every winter the strings would go so low there'd be lots of buzzing even though I humidifed the room there'd be times when it would dry out enough to affect the action. In the summer with high humidity the action would get so high as to almost be unplayable. So it was great to have the ability to adjust the truss rod.
Now I have 2 authentics and the action doesn't move ever regardless of the humidity.
Regardless of whether I kept the HD-28V or not I imagine someday I might be looking at a neck reset. I'm not sure what that has to do with having an adjustable or non adjustable truss rod.
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  #34  
Old 03-30-2017, 09:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by golfnut View Post
I had my HD-28V for 7 years and every winter the strings would go so low there'd be lots of buzzing even though I humidifed the room there'd be times when it would dry out enough to affect the action. In the summer with high humidity the action would get so high as to almost be unplayable. So it was great to have the ability to adjust the truss rod.
Now I have 2 authentics and the action doesn't move ever regardless of the humidity.
Regardless of whether I kept the HD-28V or not I imagine someday I might be looking at a neck reset. I'm not sure what that has to do with having an adjustable or non adjustable truss rod.
Why would you tweak the truss rod if the curvature of the neck (i.e. relief) was set properly, regardless of the season? Sounds like your guitar top was expanding and contracting with the humidity changes and the proper solution is a tall and short saddle for each season, not tweaking the truss rod.
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  #35  
Old 03-30-2017, 09:34 AM
zmf zmf is offline
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Originally Posted by golfnut View Post
Regardless of whether I kept the HD-28V or not I imagine someday I might be looking at a neck reset. I'm not sure what that has to do with having an adjustable or non adjustable truss rod.
My apologies if you got the impression that I was suggesting that the need for a neck reset had anything to do with making an adjustment with a truss rod. Obviously, the presence of an adjustable truss rod will not prevent the need for a neck reset, nor could an adjustment compensate for neck angle.

Not sure what you were getting at.
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  #36  
Old 03-30-2017, 09:46 AM
golfnut golfnut is offline
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Originally Posted by brencat View Post
Why would you tweak the truss rod if the curvature of the neck (i.e. relief) was set properly, regardless of the season? Sounds like your guitar top was expanding and contracting with the humidity changes and the proper solution is a tall and short saddle for each season, not tweaking the truss rod.
Yes definitely a tall and short saddle would have been the optimal solution and was recommended by my tech. I just never got around to doing it and a tweak of neck relief, right or wrong, usually got me through. Honestly most times I just dealt with either high or low action as I didnt' play acoustic much back then. Now that I've given up electric all together and only play acoustic I'd be doing just that if I had a problem. But as it stands my non-adjustable truss rod necks don't move.
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  #37  
Old 03-30-2017, 11:26 AM
TJNies TJNies is offline
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My 1974 D-28 was originally owned by a bluegrass player. He played the heck out of the guitar but I am told was extremely fussy about wiping it down etc when done playing. I don't think he humidified it over the years (but could be wrong about that; it was never mentioned either way).

After he passed away it sat in its case for several years (maybe 10?), until I had the chance to acquire it. Told the above before I looked at it, I expected cracks, bows and worse. Nope, the pick guard was curled and produced a minor crack along the b-string. But that was all.

Neck angle and relief was not bad at all, confirmed by the luthier that it meets Martin standards.
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  #38  
Old 03-30-2017, 11:58 AM
kydave kydave is offline
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I bought a new D-28 in 1971 & still play it.

It never had relief issues and did not need a neck reset until about 9 years ago.



Quote:
Originally Posted by TJNies View Post
My 1974 D-28 was originally owned by a bluegrass player. He played the heck out of the guitar but I am told was extremely fussy about wiping it down etc when done playing. I don't think he humidified it over the years (but could be wrong about that; it was never mentioned either way).

After he passed away it sat in its case for several years (maybe 10?), until I had the chance to acquire it. Told the above before I looked at it, I expected cracks, bows and worse. Nope, the pick guard was curled and produced a minor crack along the b-string. But that was all.

Neck angle and relief was not bad at all, confirmed by the luthier that it meets Martin standards.
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  #39  
Old 03-30-2017, 02:07 PM
Malcolm Kindnes Malcolm Kindnes is online now
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I've been playing guitar for over 50 years and I don't think I ever adjusted a truss rod. I've recently bought a Martin authentic and I don't expect it to give me any trouble.
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  #40  
Old 03-30-2017, 02:54 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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If the guitar is well maintained with regards to humidity and temperature, it's not likely to be an issue. Excess relief can be corrected with compression frets, if absolutely necessary. Since I have chosen to keep one Martin Dread, I decided it should be adjustable. If the neck is straight now, and you take care of it, it should be straight later.


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  #41  
Old 03-30-2017, 05:31 PM
drgroovinmind drgroovinmind is offline
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Originally Posted by Zeo828 View Post
Hi

So for the Martin's made before 1985 that do not have adjustable tuss rods.... what does that mean for the player?

The action can be lowered with the saddle right? Ok fine.

One thing I know is that guitars can get out of whack due to temperature changes etc.... all my guitars need a setup eventually.

So why if one of these Martins gets a bad buzz at the high e string, 15th fret for example. How would a guitar technician fix that? I always assumed that they would use the adjustable truss rod of the guitar?

I want to buy an older Martin, but I feel that it will cost extra money to service because the guitar tech would have to use other (expensive) means to adjust the guitar.

Forgive my ignorance... I am just curious. Thanks.
My experience is that non adjustable necks are not any trouble. Most of the tricks have been covered here for people that live in weather areas that affect the neck relief. IE. summer/winter saddles etc....
A heat press at an experienced shop is not a big deal if the necks do acquire a bend to them over time but the Frets are still in good shape.

Have had several non-Adjustable Martins over the years. The Most Current is a 77' M38 which was in need of a neck set when I purchased it in 2014. Few years later, Just this last winter, it was getting some Buzzing issues around the 12 fret area. The neck had too much relief in it and ended up needing a heat press. Took it to a visit to elderly instruments. They did the Neck press then dressed the frets, was like an hour labor total. I have a separate luthier that had done the Neck reset for me. I remember him commenting, when he had done that reset, that eventually it will need the heat press for the Neck relief. But, it was good enough at the time and got a couple more years or so out of it before that. Now it's playing better than it ever has since I've owned it.
Cheers!
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  #42  
Old 03-31-2017, 07:20 PM
baimo baimo is offline
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I did not read the whole thread but I assume the OP was speaking of having an adjustable neck. I owned a McPherson that had some sort of non-adjustable truss rod (I was never comfortable with that on a new guitar) but I did not think Martin did this. Does Martin make or made a guitar with a truss rod that was non-adjustable?
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  #43  
Old 03-31-2017, 07:24 PM
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Originally Posted by baimo View Post
Does Martin make or made a guitar with a truss rod that was non-adjustable?
Every acoustic before 1985 and every Authentic Series guitar, so "a few".
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  #44  
Old 03-31-2017, 07:27 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Originally Posted by drgroovinmind View Post
My experience is that non adjustable necks are not any trouble. Most of the tricks have been covered here for people that live in weather areas that affect the neck relief. IE. summer/winter saddles etc....

A heat press at an experienced shop is not a big deal if the necks do acquire a bend to them over time but the Frets are still in good shape.



Have had several non-Adjustable Martins over the years. The Most Current is a 77' M38 which was in need of a neck set when I purchased it in 2014. Few years later, Just this last winter, it was getting some Buzzing issues around the 12 fret area. The neck had too much relief in it and ended up needing a heat press. Took it to a visit to elderly instruments. They did the Neck press then dressed the frets, was like an hour labor total. I have a separate luthier that had done the Neck reset for me. I remember him commenting, when he had done that reset, that eventually it will need the heat press for the Neck relief. But, it was good enough at the time and got a couple more years or so out of it before that. Now it's playing better than it ever has since I've owned it.

Cheers!


I think this demonstrates that non adjustable rods can be navigated around if necessary. I suppose the biggest advantage of the adjustable rod is that the adjustment can be made by the player with relative ease.


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  #45  
Old 03-31-2017, 08:05 PM
kydave kydave is offline
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Quote:
I suppose the biggest advantage of the adjustable rod is that the adjustment can be made by the player with relative ease.
On the flip side, the biggest advantage of the Martin stiff rigid reinforcement neck is that you don't need to mess with it.



(and it sounds better!)

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