Tenor banjos are versatile. They can play Irish, Chinese or trad jazz, even contemporary or modern jazz. I like the Ome banjos the best because they maintain their sound at different volume levels. I like Bacon and Days although they are often more cumbersome than the Omes because of their set-up. They are older banjos and don't play as smoothly as the Omes. The old Paramounts, Orpheums and earlier banjos have their own distinctive sounds. The plectrum banjos tuned like a five-string in C tuning without the fifth string have closer voicings in the chords so they have a different musical characteristic than the tenor which is open-voiced and emanated from the violins and viola players of the early
Twenties for jazz bands. (the tuning was the same).

Irish tenor banjo is a recent development obviously taken from American trad jazz single-string players such as Harry Reser or Elmer Snowden and applied to the reels, jigs, etc.
Its use is usually as a monophonic relationship to other single-line playing and not used as a chordal instrument in most cases as is the octave mandolin or Irish bouzouki.