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Blackbird Rider carbon fiber guitar is ultralight, physics-defying
Taking your guitar on the road is a daunting proposition. A normal sized guitar is too big, and a travel guitar sounds too small. And a guitar is a delicate instrument. Blackbird Guitars has a solution to that conundrum, offering its $1600 Blackbird Rider travel guitar. It's a compact 2/3 size acoustic steel-string guitar made of carbon fiber, making it a featherweight 2.75 pounds. We were immediately captivated by its gorgeous good looks and rich sound. Continue reading for our hands-on review.
The carbon fiber finish of the Blackbird Rider is unlike anything we've ever seen. It's gorgeous, shiny and smooth, and its futuristic material makes this axe so unusually light that it's astonishing. Beyond that, it's impervious to humidity, letting you play guitar in a sailboat, on a misty mountaintop, or in the rain forest without worries. There's no sound hole underneath the strings like a conventional guitar, but there are two elsewhere — one is toward the bottom of the neck, and the other is up top, between the tuning pegs.
We were amazed at the clean and crisp quality of the sound coming out of this tiny guitar. Its hollow neck lets the sound resonate all the way up to the head, and it delivers clear, resonant bass that belies its small size. At the same time, its normal-sized neck makes it just as playable as a full-size guitar. Our only complaint is that it's slightly awkward to balance it on your knee while you're playing, but there's an optional $30 leather guitar support that solves that problem.
Is it loud enough? The guitar plays almost as loud as our full-sized Martin D-28. If that's not going to fill the room enough for you, you can order Fishman Matrix Infinity electronics for an extra $140, consisting of an internal pickup with volume and tone controls inside the sound hole, and a clever jack that also functions as a peg for a neckstrap.
While comparing this compact travel guitar with a Martin D-28 might not seem fair, we were surprised that how favorably this Blackbird Rider sounded next to it. Amazing. We love it. Listen to it for yourself in the video above.
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By EricZ28 at 3:30 PM ON 11/02/09
So impracticle for serious musicians. A good novelty for beginer to intermediate players though.
By SvenKyUm at 4:37 PM ON 11/02/09
...the images do not match the one in the video... wtf lol
By jluttwak at 5:40 PM ON 11/02/09
Thank you for the review Charlie. While I designed this as the ultimate songwriting tool for the road, touring musicians, (Henry Kaiser, Issa and Rich Armstrong to name a few) are using it for performance and the studio.
By PTRICKY at 7:56 PM ON 11/02/09
Seems pretty cool. And yes, the video does show the same guitar. If you actually watch it.
By sig at 1:04 PM ON 11/03/09
very nice, let me know when you can make it for $400.00
By Hucbald at 5:43 PM ON 11/03/09
I have been trying to get an amplified electric nylon string sound that I liked as well as a good concert classical guitar since I first tried an Ovation Classical back in 1979 - thirty years ago. In that time I've had Gibsin Chet Atkins CE and CEC guitars, Godin Grand Concert Duet and Synth Access guitars, and even a Parker Nylon Fly, which I spent an extra grand on to have an RMC Polydrive pickup installed in. A couple of months ago I tried a Rider Nylon with the optional RMC Polydrive II and finally found the solution: Tone is gorgeous, playing feel is excellent, and the sustain is uncanny due to the carbon fiber and hollow neck. So, I sold all of my other electric nylon string guitars and now have TWO Rider Nylon/RMC guitars: One with the lower Flamenco action, and one with the higher Classical action. They are a major breakthrough, just like the Steinberger GL2 composite guitars were to steel string electrics back in the mid-80's. Most classical guitarists are, unfortunately, probably too brainwashed by the current paradigms of guitar design to appreciate them, but if you want the BEST AMPLIFIED SOUND you can get with a nylon string guitar, the Rider Nylon/RMC is the ultimate choice.
By Anonymous at 1:12 AM ON 11/04/09
It is amazing!
By cdl1701 at 12:49 PM ON 11/04/09
The vid compares an acoustic to this new guitar.. but I can tell a big difference between the two and the acoustic wins hands down in my book
By scoutniagara at 9:24 PM ON 01/02/10
Ok, so my Martin D-41 will (February 2010) sound better than the Blackbird Rider, but I'm not taking the D-41 with me camping or on auto and airline travel. The two guitars D-28 vs Blackbird Rider are close in sound, but if I balance out the cost of a CA Cargo to the Blackbird, the decision still is difficult.
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scoutniagara:
Ok, so my Martin D-41 will (February 2010) sound better than the Blackbird Rider, but I'm not taking the D-41 with ...More »