What wrench is needed for a Martin truss rod?

[Wade Hampton]

What truss rod wrench do you Martin guitar owners use to reach in through the soundhole and tweak your guitar's truss rod when needed? I have one that I bought from Stewart-MacDonald years ago, but it's been misplaced and now I need to tweak my D-18's neck relief.

I thought I could just go back to Stew-Mac's website and order another one, but I got there I found that they added a whole bunch of other wrench sizes to that page:

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool..._Wrenches.html

I think it's the 1/8" wrench, and on Monday I can call and ask the folks at Stew-Mac. But if any of you happen to know for certain, I'd like to know.

Thanks in advance.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Brucebubs]

Looks like Martin went metric Wade - 5 mm

They do sell a 4 mm but it's for DSS, OMSS and Modern Deluxe models.

https://www.martinguitar.com/1833-sh...nch/c-24/p-476

[steelvibe]

I use this one on Amazon- 5mm. and a good deal with the gauge ruler

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Wade Hampton]

Thanks, guys. I just double checked and, yep, Martin has a 5 mm wrench on their website, too.

Thanks again for your help.


whm

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Thanks, guys. I just double checked and, yep, Martin has a 5 mm wrench on their website, too.

Thanks again for your help.


whm

As do Collings and Larrivee.
I doubt these folks make their own truss rods - perhaps they all come from the same source?

[leew3]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Thanks, guys. I just double checked and, yep, Martin has a 5 mm wrench on their website, too.

Thanks again for your help.


whm

yep, and I've found the ball end model is a bit easier to get seated than a regular end. Happy adjusting!

[Slothead56]

But how long ago did they go metric?

[L20A]

You may need a long wrench.
Newer Martin guitars have the adjustment end deeper inside the neck now.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by L20A

You may need a long wrench.
Newer Martin guitars have the adjustment end deeper inside the neck now.

Yes, they do require a long neck, which I knew, having owned and used one.

The truss rod wrench in the middle is the one I misplaced:

˙˙˙

And here is the one I bought off Amazon after y'all told me I needed a 5 mm wrench and I couldn't find my other one:

˙˙˙

Ironically, after I'd gotten that information and ordered an additional truss rod wrench from Amazon, I poked around some more and found the one I'd misplaced.

Which is okay. Now I'll have one each for the Martins I own - one in each case. I do own another Martin but it has a non-adjustable neck, so I guess I'll have to use my Jedi mind tricks on that one if the neck relief ever needs to be adjusted...

Getting back to the Martin that needed to be tweaked, about a month ago I decided to switch from using John Pearse 80/20 mediums on my D-18 to using Bluegrass gauge strings instead (.012, .016, .024, .035, .045, .056.) The neck didn't react to the slightly lower tension immediately, but when you're dealing with wood sometimes these things happen in slow motion.

So when I took the guitar out of the case last night there wasn't enough neck relief and I was getting rattling and other extraneous string noise when I played, especially when I capoed at the third fret.

That's always been one of my little setup tricks: to check whether the neck relief is where it should be, not only do I play the guitar uncapoed but I also check how it's doing when capoed, especially at the third fret. I don't know specifically why third fret capoing can tell you so much, but it does.

Anyway, thanks for the help that you provided.


Wade Hampton Miller

PS: The D-18 sounded great in church today, but I'm not convinced that I'll be using Bluegrass gauge on this guitar from now on. There isn't quite the same punch with these strings as there is with the mediums.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Thanks, guys. I just double checked and, yep, Martin has a 5 mm wrench on their website, too.

Thanks again for your help.


whm

Martin shipped me one for free for my D-35.

I just complained to customer service that every other reputable manufacturer (Larrivee, Breedlove, Taylor) ships their instruments with a tool.

Admittedly there is a good chance they just shipped me one to make me go away.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

Martin shipped me one for free for my D-35.

I just complained to customer service that every other reputable manufacturer (Larrivee, Breedlove, Taylor) ships their instruments with a tool.

Admittedly there is a good chance they just shipped me one to make me go away.

Yeah, I would have done that....

"Hey, there's this guy in Tucson being a pain in the patootie - can I just sent him a truss rod wrench and get him off the phone?"

"Yeah, go ahead - we need you to go schlep some stuff in the warehouse now."


whm

[phcorrigan]

This:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

This:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's what I got, only I bought the wrench by itself, not with the string action gauge.


whm