Truss rod replacement
Why change the truss rod in the Historic Guitars?
We just don't see where a rubber sheath over the truss rod can help with tone transfer.
We remove the old thin truss rod with the rubber sheath with a thicker more 50's correct steel rod:
I expect the rubber is to avoid rod rattle , which , … can occur with a problem neck or more likely a badly fitted fillet . If my memory serves me and i'm getting on a bit now , I think ive seen 60's Fender rods with white masking tape round them at certain points along the length .
The problem Gibson had was in their attempt to speed up production in the late `60's, they sometimes got glue down in the trussrod channel. The glue made the trussrod inoperable once it dried and the guitar would have to go back to Kalamazoo for a warranty neck replacement. When TedMcCarty left in `66, alot of things changed and not really for the better. I do know what you're talking about with the rods on Fenders. Rickenbacker has the same thing with masking tape wrapped around the rod. However, Ric's rods are not in a tight channel like Gibson and can be removed by pulling the neck pickup and taking off the Trussrod nut. It will pull right out. gibson has a very tight channel on the vintage guitars and on the Historics. In the `50's gibson use to coat the rods with Beeswax so if any glue got in there, it wouldn't mess with the rod's abilities.