Custom Baldwin (Serial #BP-596) by Renée Karnes

This banjo was completely custom (assembled ?) and restored by Renée Karnes (see banjosbyrenee.com) for a Bay Area banjo player a few years ago. It is probably built from a Baldwin B pot and metal parts with an unknown but probably also style B model neck (Renée wrote to me that the peghead was plain aside from “Baldwin” banner logo). She designed and did all the inlay work, engraved the metal parts and then gold-plated it. It is beautiful, sounds great and I really love it but like all Baldwins or Baldwin-Odes, it weighs a ton and at my age is way too heavy!