Tsai/Stewart 5-string banjo Circa 2004/1890
Antonio Tsai (
www.inlaidartist.com) is a Taiwan-based luthier who has been offering pre-inlaid peghead veneers and fingerboards on Ebay for the last two years or so. His inlay work is very interesting in that it combines elements from both Western and Eastern inlay traditions. Lately he has been offering complete banjo necks through Ebay, and I purchased one to mate up with an old Stewart rim that I have had for some time. The resulting banjo, shown below, plays and sounds like a dream, and Antonio's workmanship is really first rate.