Jim - on the question of strings breaking, what is the length of the neck / scale length.
I used to tune a fairly long necked tenor banjo to correct CGDA tenor tuning, but found that strings were stretched so close to their breaking point that it didn't take much extra force to snap them.
The two solutions were to either find lighter gauge strings, which will stretch further becoming unstable, or to tune down to the low GDAE tuning as used by "Irish" tenor banjo.
Eventually I made a new shorter neck for the instrument, so I could play it the way I wanted.
Quack!
GtD.