It’s certainly easy enough to try.
I’ve been playing guitar-banjo since 1980, and have owned one since 1985 (I was borrowing a friend’s no-name guitar-banjo for a few years and he finally sold it to me for next to nothing in ‘85...) In the late 1990’s I scored a Deering B6 in a trade, and have used it ever since.
Anyway, I think trying lighter gauge strings tuned an octave higher on those strings is an interesting idea, and experimenting with it on a guitar-banjo is definitely worth trying. You might have some intonation problems if you use the original bridge without modifying it, but if it’s something you decide to do from now on it’s certainly easy enough to dial in the intonation, either by carving on the original bridge or by getting a new one dedicated specifically to this tuning.
If you do take that approach you can give yourself more flexibility: keep one bridge for regular tuning, and another for your modified partial octave tuning. That way you can switch between both stringings, depending on your musical needs of the moment.
Hope this helps.
Wade Hampton Miller
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