A plectrum banjo is played with a flatpick (or plectrum) only. Not with the fingers,

It has 22 frets---the same length as a non-Seeger 5-string banjo.

Plectrum banjos are the LEAD INSTRUMENT in the banjo band.

It is tuned to the normal c-tuning on a 5-string. Chords are formed all up and down the neck. The main melody note is carried on the FIRST STRING, not inside the chord usually. That makes it easier to accentuate the melody with the flat plectrum pick while playing complex chord structures and progressions.

The TENOR BANJO has a shorter neck--20 frets. It's tuned differently and ALMOST ALWAYS plays a HARMONY to the plectrum banjo in the banjo band.

These bands were VERY poular in the 1960s in "BANJO BARS" like Your Father's Mustache---a bar chain all over urban America then. The bands wore 1920's period clothes and so did the waitresses.

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