Quote Originally Posted by Richard500 View Post
Mick, not grain painting, but an effect of aging on the varnish (or whatever), so that the lumps in the brush strokes eventually had more shrinkage than the thin parts, causing them to lift and show a pattern, of air gaps.
Oh...I see. Thanks for clarifying.

I've had these one piece with cover type tuners on and off of a number of mandolins. Don't recall seeing mfg. information inside.
Lubrication of the gears would indeed be more involved, but with the covered gears, not so readily required.

The ones I referred to on '20s / '30s Calaces have an array of rivets and mounting screws for the gearing in addition to the basic mounting screws for the whole assembly. Seems like both systems coexisted.

In Vega / L+H level of production the removable cover plates would obviously allow for a variety of options of engraving, etc. separate from the tuner assembly installation.

Mick