Thanks, Josh - I knew you'd have the answers! As far as my Goldtone Mini (which is, in fact, a BG-Mini) I bought that so that I could carry a banjo on the road. When we traveled we were allowed 2 pieces of luggage on most airlines. George quite often was required to pay for his third piece (guitar, banjo + suitcase). As I didn't play a lot of banjo in the show and could usually use George's if he wasn't playing it, it really didn't make sense to carry another full-sized banjo. The mini was the perfect solution, as it was my second carry-on (we were also allowed 2 carry-on pieces on most airlines). I wanted to have a banjo with me to play in my room, but when we developed "Worried Man" into a 2-banjo and sometimes 3-banjo number it worked its way into the show. It doesn't have a great sound, but it works. I do keep it tuned to standard tuning for the sake of having something that I can rehearse with in the real keys. It would be fun sometime to try tuning it up to "C" (like capoing at the 5th fret on a standard banjo) but I've just never gotten around to it.