TOM NECHVILLE: This is Tom Nechville and Nechville Musical Products in Minneapolis, and we’re selling banjos here at the NAMM Show. Our standard products involve some banjos that look traditional such as this one. It’s got a gold-plated frame, the Helimount system including the two-piece tightening mechanism. You can learn more about it on Nechville.com, or go to the dealer which is in Chicago where it is Old Town Music. And this is a classic. It’s called a Vintage banjo, and it has a time-tested look of an old banjo but with the playability of sort of like a new style kind of a Bela Fleck inspired neck dimensions. And so this is a beautiful piece.

I’m going to grab another one. This is a Phantom. A Phantom banjo has a hidden fifth string, and we have several innovations involved in this one including a rolling nut on the fifth string, and that gives the fifth string the ability to be tuned very easily.

[TOM NECHVILLE PLAYING THE NECHVILLE PHANTOM BANJO]

I’ll show you the beauty of this wood. This is a burl walnut wood and a straight walnut neck with curly maple binding, and so it’s got some deluxe materials in it, and I call this the galaxy inlay, and it’s very inspiring. A player would pick this up and feel the comfort of the neck, the high quality of the finish, and I think it creates music almost by itself because of the inspiration of the design is lending to the creativity of the musician. And the combination, it’s hard to know what is going to come out. So, I would encourage anyone listening to go and look at Nechville.com, because we’re always coming out with new ideas, and we’re pioneers in the electric banjo as well. And so the Dixie chicks have used our instruments and Bela and Alison, a lot of performers all over the world are making their living with the Meteor electric banjo as well.