Art - my banjo is a drum. It just happens to have a wooden head instead of a skin head. I got the moral authority to build it that way from an article on banjo makers of the Appalachians in a book named "Foxfire 3." While the vast majority of banjos are made with skin heads, some are from wood and some are from metal (cookie tins being preferred). Actually, the truth is I just didn't want to spring for the expensive hardware it takes to tighten a skin or plastic head, nor did I have confidence in my ability to properly stretch and shrink a rawhide head. Maybe next time.

Bert - seems to me a fiddle also has to have a bow. Otherwise a mandolin would be a fiddle.

Jon W, also picking nits.