I’m reading that the up picking style adapted by Pete was also use in the time of Minstrel Shows. The Minstrel banjo was in C tuning in intervals of gCGBD however it was actually in fBbFDBb, a whole step below. It was gut strung and unfretted. Sometimes it was referred to when playing down-picked or clawhammer as “knocking” the banjo. I get the notion that Pete might have preferred the clawhammer style although he used it sparingly.

Pete took me to the L.A. County Museum to see Joe Sweeney’s original five string banjo. Sweeney was reputed to have put the fifth peg on the neck of the fifth string but he may have actually been responsible for the low fourth string being added.

It has come a long way from the African E-konting, Banjar, Bania, Halaam or any other predecessor. I defer any real information to Michael Miles in Chicago who is a great five-string player and scholar of the instrument.