Would you sell a mandolin & state the t

[Greenmando]

Gibson Flatiron A5 Artist on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3752375412)

"(there is a truss rod cover that was temporarily off when the photo was taken)"

Why would you even say this? much less show a photo of it?
I have never had to remove a cover, what issues can this Gibson have?

Did he think he could "fix' it? Some people think this is where you can adjust the "action".

[s1m0n]

There's a nice vintage Vega banjo mandolin on ebay right now, which contains the following hair-raising sentence: The neck has a slight bow in it, but there is an adjustment on this instrument to accommodate the repositioning of the angle of the neck to the pot.

[jim bevins]

They should never have combined a Mandolin with a Banjo anyway! Did they think there wouldn't be trouble! Someone should have stopped them before they started! Apparently they never saw a Banjo Player constantly tuning!

[ourgang]

I guess that I am one of those people who believe that you can adjust the action with the truss rod. I do know that there is a "sweet spot" on the madolin when you get the truss rod adjustment and bridge height just right that the mandolin comes alive. The playability is great and the tone and volume just explode to life. I have found that a mandolin or guitar with thin, low profile, necks are very susceptable to seasonal changes and require adjustments. I know that my guitar (1989 Taylor 710) needs to be tweeked from season to season. The folks at Taylor even recommend truss rod adjustment if the action seems too high. So, I guess that I am a believer in truss rod adjustments.

[frogbiscuit]

Perhaps he was setting it up so the next owner wouldn't have to? To give them the benefit of the doubt of course.

[JiminRussia]

I can think of a few reasons that the truss rod cover might be off. To let you see that the truss rod is actually in there (There are mandolins out there with a truss rod cover and nothing under it!). To let you see that there is stiil some adjustment left to it. So that he could clean the headstock at he very edges of the truss rod cover. because he was trying to get the bow out of the neck (It DOES take at least a few hours for that bow to come completely out of the neck after the adjustment is made). By the way, there IS an adjustment on most banjolins that adjusts the neck angle. It isn't the truss rod, but there is one inside the pot that will adjust the neck angle and the shape of the pot. This may be what he was referring to, not the truss rod. And then again, he may just not know beans about how to adjust a banjolin and was screwing around with a very delicate adjustment, thinking that he was dong the right thing.

[Jim Garber]

Ben (http://www.banjoben.com/default.htm) is a friend of mine and a prominent bluegrass player in our area. I don't think he is trying to fool anyone and I am sure that this is a nice mandolin. I emailed him about this thread and maybe he can chime in here.

Jim