The Nechville Midnight Phantom 5-string banjo offers all of the quality and technical advances of Tom Nechville’s designs, with subtle decoration. “Standard” isn’t really an official Nechville designation; we use it as many of the instruments we receive from them have custom features. You can read our post on the Midnight Phantom Custom here.
Built with a 3-ply Maple rim, Curly Maple for the neck and resonator and ebony for the fingerboard, the Midnight Phantom also uses the Heli-Mount system, Cyclotronic head system and 20 hole cast bronze Bluegrass tone ring.
Other standard Nechville features include the tunneled 5th string and compound radius fingerboard, 7 inch radius at the nut to 12 inch at the body. We order the optional rolling 5th string nut for tuning stability.
The finish used on the Nechville Midnight Phantom is a walnut tinted clear gloss with subtle shading that really brings out the figuring of the wood. The tuners are 14:1 conventional sealed models and work very smoothly. Nechville also uses a stainless steel double-action truss rod, so it’s much easier to keep these instruments in top playing form. A compensated bridge and the Nechville ‘Comfort Armrest’ are factory stock.
DETAILS:
- Neck Wood: Maple.
- Resonator Wood: Curly maple.
- Approx. Weight: 10.6 lbs.
- Neck profile: 1.28 inches at nut.
- Bridge spacing: J.D. Crowe.
- Scale Length: 26 3/8 inches.
- Binding: Black.
- 5th String: Tunneled.
- 5th String Roller: Optional.
- Tuner Ratio: 14:1.
- Peghead: Geo 5.
- Tone Ring: 20 Hole Pro Pre-War Alloy.
- Radiused: Yes.
- Inlay: None OR dot.
- Head: White.
- Finish: Nechville Clear.
- Stain: Medium Brown.
- Truss Rod: 2-Way Stainless.
- Frets: Nickel.
- Case: Premium Hard Shell.
- String Gauge: .010″, .012″, .014″, .022″, .010″.
