Not a bad question Charcloth. I've been playing five string banjo professionally since 1967, and HAVE had situations where I had to flatpick it. As Russ says, it isn't the way the instrument is played.....BUT....on a number of occasions when doing commercial and recording sessions, I've worked with producers who didn't have a clue about the differences between Five string, Tenor, and Plectrum banjos.....they simply hear a "sound" in their head and they expect you to replicate it. As a hired studio player, my options are to tell the producer he's hired the wrong kind of banjo player, ask him to re-book the session later, and I'll come back with a plectrum...or improvise a bit and give him the sound he's after.(and get paid)

In the world of studio work, if you wanna get called, you'd better not say "can't be done", even if the producer hasn't done his homework.....so I usually removed the fifth string and played it AS a plectrum.

On one session, the producer asked for a "Duelling Banjos" sound.....but neglected to tell me that the song was in Eb(!!) and had a "tango" beat!! I shit bricks during that one but came up with a weird roll in D tuning (capoed up one)....

Generally I think most arrangers and producers listen to a lot more Henry Mancini than Earl Scruggs!

Cheers

Rick