Official Luthiers Forum!

If you want something for through the sound hole adjustment, you can cut the 90 degree off of a variety of Allen key sizes, and epoxy them into pieces of 3/4" hardwood dowels for handles, with a couple of flats carved for finger holds. You can make the handles as short or long as needed.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I might suggest that you turn your own dowel stock, Filippo. Some nice padauk or rosewood would look better beside your tools and jigs than crappy ramin dowels!

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I cut the straight portion off and CA it into a 1/4" drive socket of the same size and then use a small breaker bar as a handle.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

For working in the soundhole I like to use a 1/4 drive flex handle stubby ratchet similar to this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Powerbuilt-640200 ... B004QO99JY
and the appropriate extensions and ends (sockets and hex sockets).
Once I find the hole I like to keep it in the hole. The ratchet handle gives me a little more leverage when I need it, but flexes out of the way when I don't.

That actually looks like a pretty complete and useful set to me if you just wanted to quickly have everything you needed.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

I don't drill a hole in the UTB which necessitates the use of ball end allen wrenches. Since the ball is on the long side, if extra torque is required I use a small length of pipe.

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

I use clays method using a swivel headed allen socket with a small swivelling ratchet

SCGC doesn't put a hole in its transverse brace making the nut a bit harder to get to. I personally like the hex nut better than what everyone else is using. I also not having to drill a hole in the transverse brace.
SCGC does use a flex shaft driver extension that used to be available at Sears. Won't turn a right angle but will certainly reach around lots of obstacles.
There is a German Company that makes it in longer sections if that's what you want. I have brought it up through a Google search when they wanted to include an extension with every guitar.

Tim

The last Larrivee guitar I owned ( about 10 years ago) came with with a one piece cranked wrench shaped a bit like the Plough (or "Big Dipper" ) constellation. This was because they didn't drill a hole in the UTB to accommodate a straight hex wrench.

Stewmac offer a somewhat similar type of wrench, but IIRC the "trench" in the Larrivee wrench was much, much deeper.

Does anybody else remember these wrenches ? For all I know Larrivee may still supply them as a stock item.

I would like to add another thumbs up to Brian Howard's method above ...very clever indeed.

Yeah Murray it is the standard truss wrench supplied with all Larrivees and one of the poorest engineered systems for adjusting a truss rod ever in my view. You can't see the rod adjuster that the wrench is inserted on.... I understand the idea behind not wanting to weaken the UTB with an access hole but sheesh there is the headstock end of the neck too for adjustment... I'm a fan of Larrivees but not their rod adjustment method or wrench...

You can get these wrenches from Larrivee directly and most shops have their own, we do.

When I was just starting out I bought the Stew-Mac complete set and it's a decent value in my view and the individual tools are well made. I do have two beefs though. First the size for Fender necks should not be a ball end.... Fenders and ball end wrenches are well known for not getting along well together and although you can get away with it for a while the ball end wrench is much more likely to ruin the truss rod nut than a well fitting non-ball-end allen wrench.

Second the set from Stew-Mac did not come with about 5 other sizes and types of truss rod wrenches that I had to make or source elsewhere. Price wise tools are very much a you get what you pay for thing in my view and since I use my wrenches many times a day I'm happy with my Stew-Mac set. The Martin sized wrenches, old style and new style are a joy to use as well.

Thanks for that very informative post, Hesh.

I had actually been contemplating buying the full Stewmac set ..

IYO, if you were starting out from fresh today, with the benefit of hindsight, what would you recommend as the ultimate set of trussrod wrenches, (bearing in mind that the Stewmac wrenches can also be bought as individual items) ...?

Are there wrenches from other suppliers that you would recommend , or are Stewmac the only game in town ?

I find the ball end allen wrenches the best for use in all adjustment scenarios. Once I got a good set of t-handle wrenches I never used anything else.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#ball-point-t-h ... ys/=qmebex

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

The issue with Fender adjustment nuts is that they strip easily with ball-end wrenches so the non-ball-end ones preserve the nut with far less chance of damage.

Murray I'm happy with the SM truss rod set but would only recommend it to folks who want at least a partial path to having all available truss wrenches in the least amount of time. Again some of the things needed are not included and you have to source or make them yourself.

Not sure that I could recommend anything as the "ultimate" since I can't know all of the possibilities. But I can tell you that the SM stuff works as billed, fits the hands well, etc.

Other individual wrenches are available from places such as AllParts and a number of other smaller outfits and you can also get brand specific stuff from the instrument manufacturers but sourcing can be time consuming and expensive too with shipping and the opportunity cost of sourcing tools over doing billable hours.

So yes you can find these elsewhere, many of them that is, and as you know well too lots of this stuff is best shop-made.

We are a busy repair shop so we have to have them all. For say an acoustic guitar builder who does not do much in the way of repair work the SM set is overkill and I went years not needing it.

IIRC correctly too I think that SM has this set available as individual wrenches too. Some of the small, right-angle socket type wrenches from SM for say Gibson rods do not always fit in the cavity well and the similar AllParts wrenches can be a better fit. Would have been nice if Gibson had a bit more consistency with there adjustment cavities....

Hope this helps Murray.