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Sounds like a plan for a single action rod.
Although on second thoughts, personal I'd probably rather have a threaded anchor.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

A set of sealed gear tuners will run between 9 and 14 ounces; open back tuners are closer to 5-6 ounces, so eschewing the typical Gotoh 510 tuners or Grover Rotomatics in favor of ebony or plastic-button open backs will likely be a weight savings well in excess of moving from the heaviest to lightest adjustable truss rod. That weight savings will occur much further out from the guitar's center of gravity in playing position, so will have significantly more impact on balance than truss rod weight reduction. If the tuner buttons are metal, a shift to wood or plastic will likely cut weight by at least an ounce or two as well.

Moving to a Norman Blake-style 12 fret-to-body neck with a meaningful cutaway will save even more weight and that weight will be removed from the nut end of the neck, further affecting balance.

Reducing fretboard thickness from 0.250" to 0.220" or so and moving from ebony or African blackwood to BRW would also save an ounce or two.

If neck weight reduction is the goal, a tapered peghead like older Gibson and Epiphones would work, as well as sealing is opaque lacquer on the face of the peghead, versus use of an overlay or plate.

Lots of ways to reduce weight besides the truss rod.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Colin, I am perhaps too sensitive. Sorry if I over-reacted. I am also from an engineering background and the first thing I did was go to wikipedia and got ultimate tensile strengths for the two materials. Steel was listed as 400 to 550 MPa, whereas titanium was listed as 246 to 370 MPa. It seemed that titanium was clearly weaker, but I am sure there are other factors to consider. And the strengths for the materials used in specific truss rods is probably unknown as I have never seen a truss rod manufacturer give this level of specifications.

Ha, Excellent Woodie! I think the only thing you missed is getting rid of some of that pesky peghead wood by going slot head. I'm pretty much doing all of that.

If going light is an objective, it's a matter of shaving ounces where it doesn't affect your other must haves.

It is all a balancing act.

Brian

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I am a martin repair center and I can tell you the truss rods on these links ARE NOT WHAT MARTIN IS USING. The ones pictured have a higher failure rate and I would never use one.

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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

I've got to say that I'm with Woodie. Switching to titanium (at 4-6 times the cost) doesn't seem to make sense. I know as a player that I hate a neck heavy guitar, but that usually is easily fixed by not using Rotomatic Imperials. Usually it has more to do with body shape and materials.

I'm not opposed to bling on a guitar. Rather, I understand the desire for bling on other people's guitars. My own aesthetic is VERY austere. But if you aren't going to feature the rainbow colors of titanium I'm not sure I see the advantage to using it in guitar building.

John,
I know that ,I am just trying to figure out what there new one is...
is it the same style except made out of titanium?

some what yes

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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

I'm not even sure Titanium makes good truss rod materials.

The ONLY advantage Titanium has is better corrosion resistance and has a low strength to weight ratio (nearly as strong as steel but weight half as much)

If you're in an application where weight is a serious concern, titanium is a good material to use, but I don't see how guitar necks are weight critical. Given how heavy Martin builds their guitar I don't know if a few gram weight saving makes all that much difference.

Then you got the fact that titanium, even aerospace alloys like 6Al4V is not nearly as strong as steel and threads may strip easier compared to steel, meaning the tech who adjusts it (who will not know there's a titanium rod inside) could possibly strip the threads and cause a costly repair...

You get the same weight saving using thinner rods out of a stronger alloy steel (such as Chrome Moly) and it will be almost impossible to strip out the thread on Chrome moly steel.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

agree If weight is your big concern do an ebony rod and compression fretting

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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