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This my first time using the Martin style truss rod and have a couple questions before I dig in with a router. 1. I am going to have the adjustment nut at the headstock end. Where does the adjustment nut end, end of fingerboard, headstock side of the nut or somewhere else? 2. It appears that I have to rout out a slot in the neck block and the top to accept the other end of the rod. Am I right? Thanx, Vic.

no your martin rod shouldn't be more than 14 in long if you are doing a 12 fret they are just a tad over 12 inches

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John- Thanx- Either I ordered the wrong rod or they sent the wrong one. Pals, Vic.

I just received and installed a 12 fret truss rod from Martin and it's 14" long to the adjustment nut, then another 1 1/8" (approx.) to the end of the adjustment nut. Maybe they sent the wrong one? There's no real way to tell as there is no information on the Martin site about length etc.

I have no idea how they are suppose to be installed nor how long they should be and, again, can find no information on the Martin site but this one was installed today and I'll deal with any future problems if I have to.

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when you order truss rods from them you must specify 12 or 14 fret. I am a Martin repair center and I use a lot of the rods from them. Depending on the supplier they will be blue or black and a 14 fret rod is between 14 and 14 1/2 inches long the 12 frets I think are about 12 1/2 but I haven't measured them for a while.
the rod would run between the nut and first fret and protrude about 1/4 in from the neck tenon.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John, should I use the 12 fret or 14 fret truss rod for a 25.4" scale 13 fret L-00?

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Ordered 12 fret and the shipping info said 12 fret

Quantity Name SKU Price Subtotal
1 Truss Rods - Adjustable Truss rod-12 Fret 13BAR12 $12.50 $12.50

The rod they sent was 14" long not including the adjusting nut so I dunno, but wish I knew more. My 12 fret neck breaks at approx. 12.7" (long 25.4" scale) so it seems a 12" truss rod would be a bit short but a 14" too long. Sigh. I'm using a butt joint so the 14" truss rod sticks out of the heel 1 1/2" and most of that will set in the neck block extension leaving the 1 1/4" adjusting nut fully exposed under the fretboard extension.

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The Stew Mac hotrod is 12 1/4" for 12 fret necks and 14 1/4" for 14 fret necks. I'd say you got the wrong rod.

agree with Todd
use the 14 fret for that .

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Yeah it looks that way, I hope there's no long term bad consequences.

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Larry, if you're doing a laminated neck or a scarf joint, there is no worries IMO with using a headstock adjustable truss rod. The rout for the truss rod is just extended right through to the headstock and is much smaller than the cavernous area carved out for the old style Gibson truss rod that requires a 5/16" socket. A one piece neck complete with short grain at the headstock transition will be weaker regardless if that's the way you're going.

Wanted to follow up with this 12 fret truss rod. It was agreed it should have been too long but seems to have worked out just fine. I did route the channel all the way to the nut but if this rod was supposed to only be 12" long instead of 14" I'm not sure where that needed 2" would have come from. Anyway hope that helps someone in the future.

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Thank You and Best To All