I've played an old long neck Vega Folk Ranger for years and for old time music or any waltz it's great. I've used a guitar tuning D-G-B-E with the capo on the third fret and an extra long Shubb 5th string capo also on the third fret of the 5th string. That way when I drop the capo to the 1st fret(G to F) or to the nut (E) I can drop the capo down the same number of frets on the 5th string side, or go up a whole octive (E to E)leaving the rail with just enough to catch the first fret of the 5th string - not the nut of the 5th string - and twelve little frets up, it's Hello Doll(E).

Most people don't use the three frets south of the G/C position, but I do frequently, since I back up a lot of singers, and sometimes you have to read the chords off their guitars in order to get your chops in. Over the years I have also dropped my fifth string into the bridge, so that from the side it is a quarter inch down from the plane of the other strings. It allows a truer set to the string, since it doesn't rise to the bridge as quickly from its capo'd position and allows me to use a tenor banjo strum to add texture to the music without the drone of the fifth. "Drone of the Fifth"...sounds like a lament in the making..., or a song about a useless piper.

As for those who are trying to transition from guitar to banjo, the former tuning works great, or try a six string banjo. Believe it or not, my Goldtone (a GT-500, $550 thru Elderly's) sounds great, when I've had several opportunities to play very expensive six string Deerings, which sucked. Try some Travis picking on one of those babies, while rolling up the E string, and the Bluegrassers will end up picking your bugs off of their windshield.

Or put them sneakers up in a ditch by using a Keyser Drop D Capo two frets up from a regular capo anywhere on the neck. It's "Drop D In Any Key", and instead of a high pitched drone string, you get a bass drone that hurts wooden things at twelve yards. The GT-500 has a pick-up, but it sounds like something from the late sixties Telstars, and is good only for country riffs. Good luck, and don't let the banjo nazis get you down.