2020s Seeders/Twigg-Smith Frankenstein 6-String Banjo

This poor banjo is one owned by my friend Bow Thayer who is (in)famous for playing a 5-string with an extra low G string up in these-here-parts. He travels rough with his instruments (they simply get a lot of play all over the place and in not ideal conditions) and so this one started to become down on its luck in the non-adjusting truss rod way at some point. The neck got stuck in an upbow with a hair of twist and so it needed straightening-out.

That all got done via yanking the board, installing a huge (non-adjustable) carbon fiber rod, fitting the board back on, and a board plane and refret job. It's now tough as heck (and straight under tension from fairly heavy gauges, too) and ready to go. I mucked the back of the neck up, though, just below the 1-2 fret area of the board. I had routed the rod enclosure so close to the back (the rod is massive) and so when I clamped-up, it pushed the grain outwards. I had to pinch a bit of it off and then fill it and buff it up which left an ugly area. Fortunately, Bow is more of a "man of action" rather than a "man of glowing admiration for pretty things," so it's not an issue. The important part is that this now works and he can bring it on an Alaska tour he's going on shortly.

As for the banjo itself -- the neck is a Jason Twigg-Smith creation (sorry for butchering it, Jason!) and the pot is a nice, Seeders-made one with a brass tonering. As you might expect, it sounds excellent. I don't do it justice in the demo video at all.

One more cute note -- his bridge (with a molded-in pickup) had a split on one side so I replaced the leg with a "donor" from my parts-bins. The "rough and ready" aspect of this creature gets better and better.