The Gold-Tone Mini Cripple Creek at 4 pounds weight may be an option . It still has a 19+ inch scale, so the reach may be an issue.
The most "banjo sounding" banjo-ukes I've found have been the Deering series and The Duke 10. The reason has been the drum size. Deering uses the same drums as their tenor banjos and The Duke 10 has a ten-inch drum. The drum size really makes a big difference. There are other banjo-ukes using comparzbke sized drum, but I haven't tried them.
Going to a steel-string 17-fret tenor banjo still has one using four strings, but the scale length may be more manageable. Weight may be a concern. If one has tried the Deering banjo-ukes and found them too heavy, then so will be the tenor banjo.
Another option, if scale length and weight are problems, is to change the banjo-uke tuning to DgBd or some other banjo-centric tuning for a different sound.
...SteveZ
Ukuleles: Oscar Schmidt OU28T (T8), Lanikai LU-6 (T6), RISA Solid (C), Effin UkeStart (C), Rukin (SN)*
Banjo-Ukes: Duke 10 (T)*, Lanikai LB6-S (S)*
Tenor Guitars: Martin TEN515, Blueridge BR-40T
Tenor Banjo: Deering Goodtime 17-Fret
Mandolin: Burgess (#7)***
* CGDA reentrant, ***GDAE, The rest are CGDA
The inventory is always in some flux, but that's part of the fun.
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