It seems obvious to me, virtuosity has no conection to market share - that ought to be especially obvious to the Mudcat crowd.

Of course I see the virtuosity of Scruggs - and respect his ability to win market share - but the discussion started out with comments on Pete's virtuosity. Nothing to take away from Scruggs or other masters -

Thanks Frank - for the historical context. I guess I am too young to remeber much of that from first hand experience - but my Mom always loved Pete Seeger - so I heard some of thos esongs growing up. I have tpo admit, when I thought of banjo as a kid, I always thought of Pete Seeger first - later, when the Beverly Hill Billies were on TV, I knew there was another kind of banjo - it looked different, and played like wildfire, always seemed to have some fast strumming guitar player and a manso player not too far away - wher Pete would skate on their on the song ice with just a banjo, and his head held high in song.

Didn't seem like the same instrument to me.