[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

My understanding is the usual cause of this is the adjustment nut sinking into the wood it’s seated on. Eventually, it’s far enough in that you run out of threads to tighten the nut, and can’t go any farther. Adding washers moves the nut out (and often reinforces the seating area) allowing you to go further. This is a problem of single action truss rods, as double-action truss rods seat against their own metal end block.

I think when this happens it’s caused by someone accidentally over-tightening when they meant to loosen, a truss rod with really short threads, or maybe weak or damaged wood at the adjustment nut seating area.

There’s probably more to it than that, but that’s what I know.

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

Thanks a lot, Gerry. I figured that I was probably overthinking, so it’s nice to get some more practical thoughts on the matter. After posting I wondered if I weren’t more likely to encounter musty instruments that were put away in a damp shed for ages than dried-out ones. Sounds like there’s not an epidemic of too-moist guitars either, so I guess I’ll just do what I did in the US, which is basically what you do here. Mind the temperature up to a point, and try to keep the humidity in a reasonable zone.

In case you were wondering, though, at 20C you could keep the shop at 52% RH and be spot-on, according to the Dew Point calculations. Save a little runtime on your dehumidifier, maybe.

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

I don’t know about warranty work and how much value there is in it. I wanted to become Taylor certified because of Taylor service training I got in school (not so I could do warranty work), and they wouldn’t let me in the program because I didn’t have a standalone shop with a dedicated reception area, street entrance, etc. They said they are trying to be more careful about the customer experience and staying with more professional-looking shops.

But even without certification, they’ve been very responsive to me when I approach them professionally as a luthier with specific questions. They’ve been willing to send shims in a small range of sizes based on my needs (I have two full sets already) and have been very generous with guidance and “this is how we handle that in the shop here” kind of advice. I’ve never once been given any trouble about not being a certified tech.

So for Taylor, you definitely don’t need a certification to get technical assistance if you approach them as a fellow professional. But you can’t put up that nice Taylor Certified sign.

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

Thanks for that. In this case I don’t think modifying the preamp is possible. At least not for me, as I’m certain the circuit board fills the case. I could potentially 3D print a new case for it, but that’s starting to sound crazy for what was supposed to be a quick (and therefore low-priced) job.

I suspect LR Baggs already knows that the Martin R guitars don’t fit, which is why they offer a stripped down version of the same pickup system for guitars “where the bracing interferes with fitting the preamp.”

Thanks for weighing in.

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

I can second D’addario. They’ve been easy to work with for sure. They have also been really great about my move to Ireland from the US, with everything happening smoothly. The team over here is really nice and very accommodating.

I’ve felt like I got really good treatment from them, even though I probably spent under $2000 a year with them.

[Mark Eberman EireCraft Guitars]

I definitely intend to follow up to see how much a problem over-humidity even is here. I’m mostly just interested to know if anybody thinks I’m way off base with using a target dewpoint to figure optimal temperature or RH. It makes sense to me, but then if that were the only measure of truth the world would be VERY different.