My current live bouzouki setup with Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle is quite complicated. I use my Richard Osborne Guitar-Bouzouki with this set of strings, put together for the instrument by Tad Sargent (Crossharbour). On the instrument itself is an LR Baggs pickup/mic combi, which I tend to have mostly on the mic setting, as well as a separate pickup just for the bass notes. The pickups both send their signals out of a stereo jack output on the zouk, allowing me to split the signal again using a Y cable.
This Y cable plugs into my Presonus Studio 1810c audio interface, and then into my MacBook Pro, where MainStage is running. The bouzouki signal is largely unprocessed, as I quite like the way the pickup sounds, but the bass signal is put through a plugin called Submarine, by Waves. It essentially allows me to add sub-frequencies of either one or two octaves lower than the acoustic sound!
I use a few other things on my Keith McMillen SoftStep 2, such as a kick drum/stompbox, some sub-drops and a whole load of synths (far too many to list here, but if you’re interested, feel free to send me an email!)
My (far simpler) guitar setup is a Faith Jupiter FJCEHG Guitar with Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze strings (13-56), which I use in combination with a Boss OC-3 Super Octave pedal to provide bass below my playing, without the need for the laptop (it tracks much better on guitar than on bouzouki). I occasionally make use of some Mooer Audio pedals for more effects, depending on the project.
My banjo is a flat-top tenor banjo of unknown maker with a Mastertone tone ring and a black Deering banjo head. Over the years, I’ve tried a million different string combinations and eventually settled on D’Addario BW042, BW032, NW020 and PL013, which I buy here. These seem to have the right combination of lifespan and tone, as I prefer my strings to have a ‘played in’ sound on the banjo, as it’s naturally very bright.