Was camping in eastern Washington State last week and had a rattler come right in to our camp site. We couldn't run it off so ended up killing it (my kids were not happy). Of course once it was dead I took off the rattle.

Some time later I remembered reading something about Big Mon having a rattle inside his mando. I'm dreaming about some big-time mojo and thinking about dropping it into my MT2. Is that crazy? Anyone else have one in their mando? Is it only legit in a Gibson? I've heard some fiddle players also put one in their fiddles.

I have never heard of that?
HUM, if I thought it would make me play any better I would try it. I have an old skin mounted out in the garage that's starting to fall apart after all these years. But the rattle is still good. 13 and a button, maybe that would be enough magic to help my mando pickin ?

Some players believed in a Mojo by putting it in any stringed instrument.

http://www.fiddlerwoman.com/id75.htm

I think practice helps, too.

skip the rattle. from what i've heard, they create a noxious smell. and if you decide to sell the mando it could be a deal killer (it would be for me).

I was once given a Mojo rattlsnake rattle by Skip Hendershot (sp?) of City Lights in New Brunswick, NJ. He was instrumental in having a headstone placed on Robert Johnson's grave and his store had more Mojo (and old Danelectro parts) than any establishment North of the Mississippi Delta. I had it in my LoPrinzi dread for years and now it resides in my OM3. No noxious smell - just Mojo.

I herad that the reason behind putting a rattle in your instrument was to make sure that spiders wouldn't spin webs inside - the rattle would knock them down before they got too big. I'm sure there could be SOME truth in that.

I have a rattle given to me fifty years ago that I have kept in whatever was my favorite guitar of the moment for the past forty years. An old guy told me years ago this was the thing to do. The rattle has gone from guitar to guitar many times.It now lives in my OM2H Braz. I think the cure for potential smell problem is to use a Vintage rattle. Duck

I thought that rattlesnake rattle was just some old Mexican mojo thing. My Grandfather kept a rattler in his guitar all the time and used to tell me that it made the guitar sound beter. I was just a little papi then, but as the years went by I never noticed any bad smell come from it.
I've never heard anyone else speak of the rattler until now.

part of the mojo in the rattle is you aint supposed to talk about it....thats what i was told....guys used to put em in before a pickin' contest....

old rattles don't smell, but the original post was about a "fresh" rattle. it takes quite a while to get rid of that "new" smell.

Decided to go slow on the Big Mon mojo. The rattle will "cure" on my night stand for a few months.