I love my Gold Tone banjola - great idea, great sound. I beefed up the string gauge and low tuned to E.

I also played a very nice Gold Tone 5 string at a Civil War music/history gathering in the Catskills last summer. It was a great banjo.

Notice the guy in th background of the pic ... on a Gold Tone 4 string. I don;t know his tuning, but he played mostly tunes, plectrum style.