A 4-string banjo sounds like a guy in a straw hat and arm garters playing in a pizza joint. Or at best like an Irish band who couldn't get the guitar player to show up that night.

A 5-string banjo sounds like an Appalachian ballad, an old-time dance band, a bluegrass breakdown, or in the most expert and beautiful of hands, like Doc Boggs on a full moonlit night.

;-)
- Sean