rlrhett wrote:
What makes them special? I don’t worry too much about the welds in Martin rods, or the welds of Stew Mac hot rod truss rods. Should I? Is there something else that makes these special?
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Yes. Mark engineered the rods to use two different threads (TPI) creating a "gear like" action to adjustments. Very clever! You can or you could when I put 50 or so of them in my guitars turn them by hand with no wrench when inspecting them making for a very smooth action.
What I did not feel is resistance, resistance and then it breaks loose and moves too far. These rods won't do that..... These are smooth.
I'll add that these looked very much like the LMI rods back about 10 years go but not only did they work differently they're stainless too. I can't tell you how much truss rod corrosion I see on a daily basis often seizing up the rod. It's even standard fare on G*bsons when ever I work on one to remove the adjuster nut and lube it up to maintain serviceability into the future.
I'll also add that having used the similar looking LMI rods back in the day they had "weld globs" that were proud of the 1/4" dimension of the rods requiring anyone with a 1/4" truss rod slot like I used to file the weld globs off before use. No biggie but I never had to do this with Mark's rods.
And I'll also add one last thing. Luthiers, the working the trade ones are a community and we tend to try to support each other at times when we can. At least I do and have always done and will always do so. This is a superior product developed by one of us and as such I'm very inclined to support the innovation and my own community.
And really lastly Mark is a very nice guy and I consider him a friend.
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
PS: The Martin two way rod is superior too and if I was still building I would be using either of these two rods.