Tim Carter of The Carter Brothers sent along a couple of photos from the Summer NAMM show, being held in Nashville this weekend.

NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) holds two large trade shows each year, where manufacturers and distributors of products aimed at the music industry display their wares.

Tim visited the show and found himself in a banjo jam at the Nechville booth.

“Banjo’s are blasting in Nashville this weekend for the NAMM Show… Here at the Nechville Banjo booth are Ned Luberecki, myself and Rick Sampson… We gathered a pretty nice crowd for this impromptu jam… I think Nechville sold some banjos after this…”

   

You can find some more coverage of Summer NAMM in The Tennessean, Nashville’s hometown paper.

Tomorrow (11/9) banjo builder Tom Nechville will join Carol Beaugard for an interview on WFDU, broadcast in the New York City metro area at 89.1 FM.

Tom will surely discuss his work at Nechville Musical Products, where he has been in the forefront of pushing the boundaries of accepted methods of banjo construction. His solid body electric banjo, The Meteor, has been embraced by prominent progressive banjoist like Bela Fleck, and his Heli-Mount pot assembly design is a radical departure from the head-tensioning systems long employed in the banjo world.

Tom’s interview on WFDU will air at 11:15 a.m. (EST) on Friday, November 9. Folks outside the reach of the station’s broadcast range can listen live online at WFDU.fm.

Carol tells us that she also be interviewing Dolores Edgin on Friday’s show at 10:00 a.m. She was a former cast member on Hee Haw who sang backup on most of Porter Wagoner’s recordings. Dolores will share her memories of the country singer who passed away on October 28 between 10:00 and 11:00 with Carol.

Tom Nechville, owner of Nechville Musical Products, has never been one to shy away from innovation in the banjo world. His Heli-Mount banjo frame (which replaces the brackets and coordinator rods), and the Nechville Meteor solid body electric banjos have won raves from banjo progressives even while drawing the ire of the arch traditionalists.

Tom’s newest design innovation, which he describes as a Hybrid banjo, is powered by what he (seriously) calls the Nechville Flux Capacitor. He chose the name because this apparatus will allow owners of traditional bracket-and-nut banjo pots to take advantage of the quick set up and adjustment capabilities of the Heli-Mount design - and enable what Tom envisions as Banjo Time Travel.

What his Banjo Flux Capacitor actually does is allow the owner of a traditional coordinator rod banjo to make the sort of neck angle adjustments that would have required the removal of the neck and a re-cutting of the heel profile, simply by turning an Allen nut. The device attaches to the outer edge of the banjo pot, connecting with the two coordinator rods, and serving as the coupling mechanism to a Nechville Heli-Mount banjo neck.

These Heli-Mount necks (which are required to use the new coupler) are built with a two-way truss rod, but attach with a cam mount to allow for this immediate adjustment of the neck angle for different bridge heights or string action preferences.

Nechville describes the mounting this way:

The key to the quick-cam is a rounded interface between the end of the neck and the radiused portion of Nechville’s Helimount frame. (more…)