They had a different tone color. Eddie Peabody used them. Actually, they probably were made to blend with other accoustic instruments. The plectrum banjo could overpower a guitarist or a violinist. They were never used much or if at all on tenor banjos since this was the instrument of choice for the early loud jazz bands. In the very early days of recordings with the spindle and the horn, the banjo was one of the few instruments that could cut through. When the recording industry became more sophisticated, the guitar took over. Eddie Lang (Salvatore Mansano) was probably responsible single-handedly for the demise of the tenor banjo. Lang was the original innovator of the jazz guitar. There was no one playing quite like him in those days. Listen to what he did with making the Paul Whiteman band swing or the Dorsey brothers or Bix Beiderbecke in the way that Freddie Greene was to do later with Count Basie or Allen Ruess with Benny Goodman.   Django listened to Lang and developed his style with Grapelli after Venuti and Lang. Django's first instrument was the banjo...but not the tenor. It was a six-string ala Johnny St. Cyr.

Frank