tenor banjo

The popularity of tenor banjos was at its peak during the early jazz era. Acoustic guitars were simply not loud enough to compete with a jazz band line-up consisting of saxophone trumpet,clarinet,drums etc.
The only stringed instrument that would do the job was a banjo. The jazz tenor was generally a 19 fret instrument but there were other options of plectrum and 17 fret sometimes referred to as a piccolo.