The Advantages of the Nechville Acoustic Banjo

The Nechville Banjo is built in a manner that is different from any other banjo being made today.  This page explains why Nechville banjos play and sound better, are easy to customize and maintain, and represent a value in banjos that simply can not be beat.

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Heli-Mount Design

Nechville Musical Products' revolutionary one-piece cast metal Heli-Mount banjo frame replaces over seventy miscellaneous pieces of hardware used in the construction of conventional hook-and-nut style banjos. Tightening or loosening the Heli-Mount banjo head is accomplished by turning a single threaded tensioning ring, which fits inside the Heli-Mount frame. Adjustments are made by rotating two Heli-Mount tensioning wrenches that plug into the back side of the tensioning ring.

Similar in operation to a jar lid, the Heli-Mount system produces perfectly even tension throughout the banjo head - in a matter of moments rather than in an all-day project!

The patented Heli-Mount frame is also the primary structural component for the Heli-Mount banjo, eliminating the need for coordinator rods within the banjo's resonating chamber. String action is easily adjusted by changing the neck’s angle of orientation to the body.

The Heli-Mount neck has been designed to make a solid connection with the Heli-Mount frame, and loosening the neck enables it to slide up or down along the radius of the frame - thereby raising or lowering string action. When the proper action is achieved, the neck is simply tightened into position.

Your Heli-Mount banjo’s tone is full, balanced, and musical, due to the absence of vibrations caused by loose metallic parts and coordinator rods interfering with the inherent clarity of the banjo's tone ring. The bell brass Nechville Heli-Mount tone ring is "freely suspended" within the Heli-Mount banjo's acoustic chamber, giving you unparalleled purity of banjo sound and projection.

Choose the Eclipse (black) Heli-Mount frame, a Corona (polished nickel) frame, or polished gold. The USA made patented Heli-Mount head-tensioning system creates a beautifully smooth tone that is a pleasure to both play and listen to.

Comfort and Playability

You’ll love the beautiful and exotic wood Comfort Bevel armrest, another unique advantage of Nechville banjos. It orients your arm at the exact right angle for playing and makes playing for long periods comfortable and pain free.

Nechville is known for their easy-to-play necks. Choose from a slightly wider feel to spread out your left hand comfortably, or a narrower profile to fit your hand. Our compound 7 to 12” radius provides a playability that will make you a believer. You’ll notice easy accessibility to each string with fewer mistakes while targeting strings representing this conical radius.

Cyclotronic Tone Ring

In our quest for uncommonly great sound and function, we have incorporated the time-tested bell-bronze, pre-war style tone ring and three-ply rock maple steam bent rim. Nechville coaxes every bit of tone from its own proprietary ring by machining the rim to acoustically superior dimensions and capping it with a stainless steel mounting ring. Unique "Cyclotronic tone spheres," roll on top of this ring, beneath the tone ring, allowing easy,quick head adjustment and mounting the tone ring without the dampening effect inherent in other designs, allowing for unrestricted resonance and beauty of tone.

Solid Neck Interface

A solid connection between the neck and the body of the banjo is crucial to the sound of a banjo. A regular hook style banjo has a narrow heel and only connected in 2 relatively small areas, the Nechville neck heel is wider and intimately mated to the body of the instrument for a more solid feel. This translates into a banjo that stays in tune, can be played harder without overdriving it and has plenty of sustain.

Adjustable Action

While regular banjos do not have effective neck angle adjustments, Nechville Necks are easily adjustable for low or high bridges, without the need to remove resonator, and without any stress to the tone components, (tone ring, rim and head ) of the banjo.

Separation of Structure from Tonal Elements

In contrast to a regular banjo, the Heli-Mount mounts the tone ring, rim and head in perfect concentricity and roundness without any direct connection to the metal parts comprising the structural part of the banjo.  This results in less sonic interference from any loose or resonating hardware, and metal parts attached to the rim. This means purity of tone.

Perfectly Even Head Tensioning

A major advantage to a Heli-Mount system is the automatic even head tension that is applied when you snug up the Head of a Nechville. It is well documented that even head tension results in more balanced tone and the ease of adjustment is also a huge time saver.

Top Quality Components

Super premium woods, Hand crafted precision castings, Stainless Steel Heavy Gauge Tailpieces, Two way adjustable Stainless Steel Truss rod, 3 Ply maple Rims, Bone Nut, Enterprise Compensated bridge, Protective beautiful hard shell cases.

Custom Options Available

You come first at Nechville. We will make your custom dreams come true, often with no extra cost. Special colors, exotic woods, special dimensions, various tone ring and rim options, gold plating, chrome plating, special inlay and custom neck options are all available to our customers. You’ll want to be aware of our new Light weight tone ring option with Cyclotronic tone spheres in combination with a Cocobolo Tone ring.