Rattling truss rod and stuck tuner

Chiefbigeasy

I own an Alves de Puga petite bouche. Trying to get the luthier Jean Louis to return my email, with no luck ( I even sent him the email in French; maybe he's on vacation). Anybody know the wrench size for the truss rod? I think it's 4 mm. The truss rod tends to rattle when it gets loose and it sets up a harmonic distortion on the "G" note in various places on the fretboard. Adjusting it occasionally does the trick. I just want to get the right size wrench with a handle to make the job easier.

Saw a YouTube video for a fix, but it's a little scary and radical. The luthier suggested lifting one of the dots on the fret board, drilling a hole through the fretboard to just in the channel where the truss rod sets, then piping in some silicone caulk or wax. He favored caulk because it really never dries entirely, but sets up a bedding that can dampen the rattle.

Not willing to go that far at this point I have been happy with just tightening up the truss rod every now and then.

Also, I'm having a problem with one of my Miller tuners. The D string tuner tends to tighten up and loosen up during tuning. It's a sealed tuner, and all the other tuners work fine. Any thoughts on how to diagnosis or lubricate it?

ChrisMartin

Many French folks close their businesses during August, nearly everything shuts down, possibly even small volume luthiers, but the last weekend in August is what they refer to as 'le rentrée', time to go back. So maybe he will get back to you this week. Anyway, although I do not have one of his guitars, I do have other French guitars and as these would always be metric sizes I would guess the truss rod adjuster would probably be 4 or 5mm. Maybe in America it is not so common but in Europe and here in Australia any hardware store would have sets of Allen keys in metric sizes for a few dollars preferably with the swivel type ball ends which are easier to use on truss rods as they do not need to have a straight line of entry.

ChrisMartin

Also, if it keeps coming loose maybe a drop of threadlocker would help? Get the lightest use one though (anti-vibration), you are not torqueing up your cylinder head bolts!