Custom engraved truss rod covers?

[pdlstl]

Who's doing them?

I want one for a Flatiron Festival F.

Thanks,

Earl

[Dennis Schubert]

www.fqms.com

[pdlstl]

Thanks!

[evanreilly]

Here is a beautiful little piece of mandolin jewelery.
It is a silver-ivory-silver laminate, with an MOP insert in the top. John Zeidler engraved my name in it.

[Scotti Adams]

Thats nice Evan..looks real good..Im fixin to order one from First Quality here soon...

[JimRichter]

I almost always use First Quality to do my banjo and mandolin truss rod covers. However, recently I went back to playing a '50's Gibson RB250 banjo. Those banjos--in accordance with Gibson's backward's thinking at the time--used a full Les Paul/guitar size truss rod cover. I called First Quality about making me a personalized truss rod cover and they gave me the biggest runaround--I have no idea why. Used to be able to get any size you need by either giving them the original cover to make a template from or sending them a drawing of it.

Any case, I contacted www.custominlay.com and had guitar size truss rod covers done for my RB250 and my Advanced Jumbo flattop. I have no connection to www.custominlay.com, but they offer a much greater variety of truss rod covers for guitar/banjo/mandolin, as well as engraving options. I actually got an engraved pre-ban elephant ivory truss cover for the banjo. The ivory is pretty sharp. Turnaround is very quick.

I'll probably continue to use FQMS in the future, since I do most of my business through them, but will use custom inlay for anything that's not run of the mill for First Quality.

Jim

[pdlstl]

Great link Jim!

Evan, If you don't mind me asking...how much and where?

Thanks,

Earl

[evanreilly]

That truss rod cover was custom made for me about 18 years ago. #It cost probably $75.00 back then. #John Brehm of Cambridge, MA made it for me; he is, to the best of my knowledge, out of the luthierie business now. #
BTW: it is a silver-ebony-silver laminate, not ivory in the middle as I previously stated

[pdlstl]

Looks great!

[Big Joe]

Ed Weber, who builds banjo necks for us is one of the finest scrimshaw artists I have seen. He has a web site though I don't know what it is off hand. He does some of the most intricate and beautiful covers I've seen. I have one and he is making two more for me. You might give him a try.

[mikeh]

Custom inlay, Brian Englands site. They were having trouble with their website when I ordered mine, so I couldn't show them the exact size. Based on our conversation, they priority mailed me a truss rod cover example that we thought would be the one. When it arrived I verified that it was the correct one, they engraved and shipped mine before payment cleared. Service like that is hard to find. I highly reccomend them.

[Ken Sager]

I recently had www.custominlay.com do an engraved pearl truss rod cover for me. It's a beautiful piece of pearl, but the engraving didn't look quite right - the script font is a little disjointed. I'm not complaining, since it was pretty inexpensive to begin with. It's fun thinking that no one else knows what is engraved on my truss rod cover.

They were great to work with, though, and fast.

All the best,
Ken

[DrewM]

You should contact Bill Nichols:

NicholsGuitars.com (http://www.nicholsguitars.com)

He does great work.

[pdlstl]

Thanks Drew.

I've emailed Bill.

[jim_n_virginia]

Bill Nichols does nice work. I have had a TRC made by him that came out awesome for my 810 Taylor. I have him doing something else right now fot my Flatiron.

The way it works for him is that you place the order and in 6 weeks or so it is ready and at that time you pay for whatever it is you had him inlay.

[DrewM]

Bill Nichols does nice work. I have had a TRC made by him that came out awesome for my 810 Taylor. I have him doing something else right now fot my Flatiron.

The way it works for him is that you place the order and in 6 weeks or so it is ready and at that time you pay for whatever it is you had him inlay.
Jim...what's he doing for your Flatiron? I'd like to have him do something for my Yellowstone when it comes in...

[Yellowmandolin]

I have thought about a custom truss rod cover, but am unsure if a whiteish truss rod cover would look good on a black headstock. Could folks with such a cover post pics or comments about the overall look?