Early Broadcaster

Anyone ever play an early broadcaster with no truss rod?
Me neither!

yeah a buddy has one but unfortunately the neck has a twist in it!

The first good guitar that I ever got to play was a Broadcaster. It belonged to my Mom's cousin. I learned to play on it. He died a few years ago and the guitar was sold before I had a chance to buy it. I really wanted that guitar. It has a JM brand on the back of the headstock. My cousin was a rancher.

Lentz and I have a no rod neck we made up. The idea has been kicked around to use it with the pine body to see what it sounds like. I found some great pine also.
I wouldn't worry about the twisting. The board can be leveled to acomodate for the tension. somthing they probably didn't have down well in the '40s!

they made any Broadcasters without trussrods ? The fisrt ones were Esquire's , they didn't have the trussrod route. Fender bought the truss rod routing plate ooctober 3rd 1950 , before they made the first Broadcaster. Tonefiend was this some kind of trick question? lol.

I've got a '27 Martin 0-18K, and a '41 Gibson L-50, both with big-assed necks without truss rods... BOTH play and sound wonderful, and are a treat to play. No truss rod also makes the guitars balance a bit better, IMO...

I've played a couple of early Broadcasters, they both had Truss rods. I think qtipburst is right 2 pickup esquire = no truss rod. Ever notice how thin the necks are on some of the Broadcasters, not at all like the ones they did even 6 months later.

they had black painted body that were a little bit thicker than standard issue.
The necks were huge with no rod. I don't know how many they made , but they were $$$. You see them from time to time for sale for under $2K. The pups might be custom wound , and they came with all kinds of goodies and two cases too boot. A big package.

You are correct, qtipburst. The earliest Esquires had no truss rods, because Leo Fender felt that the massive necks (~1" thick) would be able to handle the string tension with no problem.

The Custom Shop pine body reissue guitars are Esquires, too.

I wonder if anyone has ever ordered a Broadcaster RI without a truss rod from the Custom Shop. Hmm...

Professor, my 1939 Gibson L50 has a truss rod, what's up with your 41?