Neck relief on a non-truss rod Martin

[Skarsaune]

'71 Martin D-18 on the bench from a friend for evaluation.

Needs frets, a neck reset, the neck relief brought back into spec, and intonation/bridge position checked.

What is the correct way to fix the neck relief? Compression fretting, heat press the neck, plane the fretboard, put a darn truss rod in? I'm not comfortable with any of them so likely won't do the work. Too nice of a guitar for me to learn on.

Second question - if the saddle position / intonation is off. I can see filling the saddle slot and routing a new slot, if there's room to move it back. If there's not, and the bridge has to move, what do you do about the pre-existing bridge pin holes?
I'm not convinced the saddle is out of position. I'd want the neck relief corrected before I moved anything.

[charles Tauber]

The correct way to fix the neck relief is the way that works.

Any of the methods you've mentioned can be employed. Possibly, the best of them is compression fretting.

Heating and pressing the neck is often temporary unless the glue between the fingerboard and neck is heated enough to allow them to reposition to being straight, then allowed to re-harden.

Planing the fingerboard is also possible, though it will thin the fingerboard somewhat, depending upon how much needs to be removed and where.

One can install a truss rod, but it involves the most amount of work of the methods you've mentioned.


If you have to move the bridge pin holes, typically, they will be filled with wooden dowels and re-drilled in the new location. Unless there is a huge amount of relief, the amount of relief won't significantly alter measuring where the saddle is now or where it needs to be. Determining if the saddle is in the right place is a simple measurement with a long straight-edge.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Skarsaune

'71 Martin D-18 on the bench from a friend for evaluation.

Needs frets, a neck reset, the neck relief brought back into spec, and intonation/bridge position checked.

What is the correct way to fix the neck relief? Compression fretting, heat press the neck, plane the fretboard, put a darn truss rod in? I'm not comfortable with any of them so likely won't do the work. Too nice of a guitar for me to learn on.

Second question - if the saddle position / intonation is off. I can see filling the saddle slot and routing a new slot, if there's room to move it back. If there's not, and the bridge has to move, what do you do about the pre-existing bridge pin holes?
I'm not convinced the saddle is out of position. I'd want the neck relief corrected before I moved anything.

Back when I first looked into buying a new Martin I read the hang tag attached to the guitar, which spelled out how Martin suggested you adjust "neck relief".
The tag said to switch to lighter guage strings if the neck bow became excessive and to use heavy guage strings if the strings buzzed when playing the guitar.

Really.

That's when I decided a Martin wouldn't be where I ported my hard-earned dollars.

[Mr. Jelly]

If you mean it has bar frets it's a whole different animal.

[tadol]

Was Martin using bar frets in ‘71?

When did they switch over?

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by tadol

Was Martin using bar frets in ‘71?

When did they switch over?

The year for the switch to T frets for all practical purposes was 1934.

[tadol]

Thanks - I had been pretty sure it was well before my birth, but its harder to remember as we get older -

[redir]

If it needs a refret and the neck doesn't have any serious issues I would just plane it into the surface. If it has way too much relief in it now then compression fretting would be ideal. So it depends. The repair tech will have to make a judgement call.

As for problem intonation on those 70's Martins I usually prefer to just make a new bridge with the saddle slot in the right place. And while you are at it you might consider having the huge oversized rosewood bridge plate replaced too.

Another consideration since you are resetting the neck, which in theory will move the 12th fret further away from the saddles, is to shim the heel. But that's tricky to get right.

I had an old classical guitar in a couple months ago from a very reputable Spanish maker in the 1950's that had terrible intonation and poorly cut frets so I simply replaced he fretbaord and figured out what scale length to cut the new one too so that the compensation at the saddle was on.

I have heard of people solving this problem by making a compensated nut too but I never tried that method.

[Earl49]

When my 1990 custom-shop Martin was in for a neck reset about five years ago, he discovered that the bridge location was too short by about 1.5 mm. In theory this was a problem that the factory fixed some time in the late 70's. The guitar had never intonated well. He plugged and re-drilled the pin holes, and put an oversized bridge in the new correct spot to fix the intonation issue. The neck was also off-center in the dovetail by almost 2 mm too, and he fixed that as well. It came back to me finally being the guitar that it should have been when new.

You already have the answers for the relief question for those far more qualified than me.

[redir]

No need for oversized bridges imo though. Typically you can get it right. Sometimes you can push the boundaries of the bridge footprint to hide finish issues but generally speaking making a bridge that is oversized to get the intonation right is not necessary and can hurt the tone, and the value, of the guitar.

Not always though, and I don't want to rain on your parade, if you like it then that's all that matters.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by redir

I have heard of people solving this problem by making a compensated nut too but I never tried that method.

Yes, compensated nuts are not my idea of fun,