great advice here, y'all. It'll take some time to digest it all.

Don I agree that mics are the stages enemy, but I have found that the banjo mics better then the guitar, and i have not found it too bad, so far ... but I have only played a fw indoor gigs with the band - and outdoors is always so much easier.

Mu guitar electronics are excellent, so I am not concerened about the difference in sound quality, and guitars mic so poorly anyway, but at this stage I am hoping I can get by with a banjo mic. It also goves me the added advatage of moving away from the mic when I brush,and in closer when I pick. Since I have mics, I'll probably see if I can ake that work while I consider the electronics issues, and investigate who has what to offer for a picl-up. I believe the guitar market has been so big, over the last decade, that guitar makers had to find a good solution to pick-ups, but banjos, on the other hand, have not had the same supply and demand sort of issue-pushing a solution for electronics. Although I see Nechville (and maybe others) have been particularly innovative with their electric banjo products.

They also solved some of the 5th srtring peg problems by tunneling the fith string into the neck to a peg on the head of the instrument. Looks pretty cool, but I didn;t seriously consider taking the risk on buying one (over the web).