Read that as Electric Banjo!!!!

I have decided to buy a 5 string electric banjo to supplement my acoustics and would be grateful of any help.

I play with 4 bands at the moment and cover traditional Folk, Irish, Bluegrass and Rockabilly 50s/60s Goodtime music.

I have the problem of living in England where Banjo's especially electric are very scarce. At present I have electrified by using transducers on the skin and feeding the output through a zoom effects pedal and I'm reasonably happy with the sound when playing bluegrass and Rockabilly etc. but it does deaden the sound when playing acoustic.

Has anyone converted a standard banjo to a solid bodied banjo by replacing the skin with wood? What pickups would you advise? What's available and which sound the best. Is feed back still a problem with banjo bridge transducers?

So please let me have your ideas, problems you've encountered etc. Any UK builders of banjo's that make or would be willing to build an electric model.

Thanks in advance.

Pete