Nechville Meteor

About this banjo

The new Meteor acoustic / electric banjo is just what you would expect from us. Our dual pickup electric design preserves the banjo shape and sound while making a bold artistic statement. The cut-away circular body in combination with the protective and handy outer ring says “banjo” in a unique and stylish way. The 12 1/2″ body is made from select hardwoods and precision carved for the proper depth of tone and weight balance. The instrument’s soundboard is an original design made from a hybrid of exotic solid hardwood and our own adjustable 6″ head mounting system. The resulting tone is unmistakably “banjo” yet contains the woody warmth and depth of a powerful acoustic/electric. The head of the Meteor is fully free and non-dampened, so it sounds great unplugged as well as plugged in. The small head reduces or eliminates feedback, yet allows a full and natural banjo sound because of the synergy between the top’s wood and our head mounting design.
The dual pickup electric Meteor was developed in conjunction with Bela Fleck. Both a powerful, active EMG magnetic pickup and a balanced Piezo pickup are employed and separately controlled on the Meteor. Two separate volume knobs and one overall tone knob in sturdy black metal are positioned conveniently on the top. The head pickup is a specially made Piezo element that is designed to accurately reproduce its high quality banjo sound. Electronics inside the Meteor process and match both pickups’ impedance while balancing their output. A single quarter inch jack carrying a blended signal appears in the side of the instrument below the tailpiece.

The hard maple neck has a 7-12″ compound radius for easy playability. The ebony fingerboard features 2 full octaves, (24 frets) and is ornamented with stylish Hexagon inlays. The frets are wide and smooth for solid feel and long life. The peghead is our sleek new Geometric in-line shape with finely inlaid pearl script Nechville logo. Our in-line style tailpiece is fully adjustable and is precision machined from solid stainless steel for quick string changes. The outer frame is polished and black hardcoated for durability. It is carefully made to carry and disperse the string tension and the distinctive rounded extending portion acts as a handle as well as a knee rest. The Meteor is also available with the “Galaxy” inlay pattern carved from solid abalone and mother of pearl. The neck is hard maple stained with a rich cherry brown color.

Several options exist for customizing your Meteor, exotic wood like Zebrawood, Brazilian Rosewood, Cocobolo, Quilted Maple, Curly Bubinga, Curly Quilted Redwood, Zircote, and others are available to choose from. Custom finishes with our unique “Northern Lights” finish transform our highly figured woods into “other worldly” materials like you have never seen. Other options like custom electronics, MIDI-Synth pickups, built in tuners, and more are available by special request.

The Meteor comes in a custom fitted sturdy, but light weight road case. Our warranty and money back 10 day offer apply to this model.

The options that Bela chose were a mahogany neck and body with Hexagon inlay, and EMG 81 neck pickup.

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