I bought a piccolo banjo last year from Hobgoblin at Bristol UK - Zither style, it arrived and was originally tune to octave G. however when I tried it with light gauge strings they were too "tight" for me, I tried extra light which were ok but I wasn't over keen on the plinky sound and the George Formby comments! and as a lot of the stuff we do is in "D" ish I restrung it and tuned it to "D" even adding a 5th string capo!!!!!

It made a great back packer and a nice novelty item when I played bluegrass instrumentals on what people presumed to be a uke/banjo!!! even working out a routine with "Ain't she sweet" ala uke to start then going into a bluegrass instrumental of the tune...

It's a great little instrument and I'm sure they sounded great in the banjo orchestras of the day - but I wasn't around to hear them (Honest)

Have fun

Pete