"Pete always had his strap loosely draped over
his right shoulder allowing more mobility. Earl Scruggs does
this as well."

Yes, but Earl did it because of the cowboy hats they wore. He couldn't slip the strap over the head onto the left shoulder 'cause there was no one to hold the bloody hat! I find the one-shoulder sling method tiring -- I tend to lift the shoulder to make sure there's no slippage, and I typically develop multiple muscle problems in short order from such a technique.

I regularly get at least one banjo string jammed into a finger -- usually the bursa around a knuckle -- whenever I change strings. It's almost like the banjo demands a blood sacrifice. One reason I play old-style minstrel banjo (with nyl-gut strings) so much these days.

Most of my guitar/banjo/fiddle/mandolin injuries are minor knocks, bumps and such, but the most painfulest ones come from harmonicas catching beard hairs in mid-song. And I can't stop playing to cry, either.

I do take care to fold the cut-off string ends back on guitar and mandolin, though -- the "let 'em fly about" school of string-changing results in sharp, pointy things near eye-level, and I've come too close to chance it for myself or anyone nearby. That kind of injury would be most unfortunate.

Bob