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Joined:
April 2011
Posts: 97
Location: Marlton, NJ | Has anyone every adjusted the truss rod on an Ovation MCS148 Celebrity Mandolin? I'm quite familiar with adjusting truss rods and regularly do so on most of my guitars (usually to adjust for seasonal changes, so generally twice a year), but this little bugger seems impossible. There is too much relief in the neck and when I've tried adjusting it but it would not turn at all. I know it's generally not good to force a truss rod - if it won't turn, there's a problem - but I'm wondering if it even turns at all. There is a bullet on the end, inside the body, that accepts an allen wrench.
My wife bought me this mandolin as a Christmas present years ago (she liked it because it matches the guitar I had at the time), and though it has a good sound, it's a flawed instrument due to:
- the seeming inability to adjust the truss-rod
- the inability to move the bridge to adjust intonation
- the required ball-end strings are a PITA, and to make it worse, Ovation only sells one gauge with ball-ends (but they sell other gauges without the ball-ends, seemingly for other brand mandolins!) And if you try to use different gauge strings by reusing the ball-ends, the intonation goes haywire because the relief in the neck changes and I'm unable to adjust it.
The first one I got had very high action and the intonation was way off, so my wife exchanged it for one that was better. Still the action was high so I brought it as low as I could by filing the nut sluts a little. Still, I wish I could to more to adjust the instrument to my liking more. As it is now, it serves more as a decoration than an instrument.
It's a maddening instrument.
Mark | |
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Joined:
August 2009
Posts: 1137
Location: Germany, where delicious wine is growing (Rheinh) | Hi, Mark,
keep cool, man. I've bought a 12-string 5858-ASW Elite a few years ago which was "unplayable", because the action was so high (1/2"). The truss rod can't be adjusted. So I got the guitar ultra cheap. One day I decided to loosen the screw, before I always want to tighten. After a loud "clock" the screw was to turning off, but still not very easy. After I have removed it I was looking at the thread and saw that it was extremly rusty. I've put a little grease to the thread and since that day it worked perfectly.
Maybe you have success in the same way...
Sometimes the instruments are stored away in a moistly cellar, because a lot of people don't know it better...
Good luck!!
Bernie | |
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Ovation MCS148 Mandolin Truss Rod Adjustment?