LIVERMORE — Jim Bottorff settles into a chair in his living room and a pack of his fellow four-string banjo aficionados pile in with him. Some, like John Green, travel from as far away as Fiddletown, ...

Most people would say, "A banjo is a banjo," but there are two separate worlds of banjo lovers separated by one thin string. Five-string pickers play bluegrass and folk music, and four-string ...