I was taught to play mostly in open G tuning but have of late experimented with some other tunings as well. Given that my banjo has frets and the fact that you say the gut strings are NOT cheap will probably preclude me from trying them just now. Uncle Jaque if you would be so kind, I would much appreciate your looking up the nylon replacement strings which you say you wrote in one of your banjo books...Thanks for the help...Banjer