I had the opportunity this weekend to visit with Bob about his Radio Tone, and here is what I would do-
Bob's is marked on the fingerboard for open E tuning. A regular set of medium acoustic guitar strings is really gonna be stressed at open E, so try the following gauges-
.013 .017 .023W .032W .042W .056W
This should give you a jumping off point, hopefully without serious string breakage problems. You may want to adjust these a bit until you find what feels right, depending on the scale length. AFAIK, nobody will sell you a pre-packed set in these gauges, so you'll need individuals-try www.juststrings.com. Flatwounds will give you a smoother slide sound, but there will be a price to pay in brightness-again a personal thing. Flatwounds are also going to be a bit harder to track down.
Part two-the baby banjo.
Bob's small banjo is built by Goldtone, a Florida importer of Asian instruments(I own a Goldtone banjo myself and find the quality astounding for the price). The model name was simply "Mini", but they've expanded and now the closest thing would be the BG-Mini. In the "Golden Era" of banjo making, this would have been called a "pony" banjo, and it would have been tuned to a C chord. Bob's is set up with very heavy strings, and he keeps it tuned to standard open G. It's quite amusing to play, but it's a bit cramped. Every once in a while you'll see a vintage pony banjo, usually made by S.S. Stewart.
Hope this helps-
Josh
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