You can put nylon guitar strings on these. If you want steel strings, I would not call that a banjolele. That would be more like a mini banjo :https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XMZ2G7X/
A couple years back the folks at Gold Tone assured me that their baritone banjo uke could be strung with steel strings. Just need to use lighter gauges and tweak the setup.
Have you thought about a 4string tenor banjo though? The scales a little longer, but you can use baritone tuning. I had a tenor ‘jo with steel string in DGBE, it was a blast.
Maybe I'm being confusing/confused... My plain old Kala baritone uke (20.5" scale) has two wound strings for low D and G, and two nylon for B and E. I want that on a banjo uke... Sounds like I could do that on a Gold Tone?
Maybe I'm being confusing/confused... My plain old Kala baritone uke (20.5" scale) has two wound strings for low D and G, and two nylon for B and E. I want that on a banjo uke... Sounds like I could do that on a Gold Tone?
wound nylon strings are not the same as steel strings that would typically be found on a banjo, electric guitar, etc.. You can certainly use wound nylon on any banjolele.
Considering the scale and physical size, a 17-fret or 19-fret tenor banjo, such as the Deering Goodtime tenors, would appear to fill the desire. Either steel or nylon strings would work (though steel does sound better, to me anyway) and any tuning is possible. Also, the price would not be outrageous and used banjos are usually available. I have a uke-tenor scale banjo-uke (Dukec10) and a 17-fret tenor banjo (Deering Goodtime)and the size difference is quite similar to one feeks going from a tenor uke to a baritone uke.
I put baritone uke strings on a Deering 19 fret Tenor Banjo and it sounded fantastic! Better than steel strings IMO with a wider range of available sounds. Pretty narrow nut though ...