Blackbird Guitars Rider

The body and neck of this guitar are one singular piece of carbon fiber. It is hollow throughout - all the way up the neck. I have the electric version of the guitar which has a piezo electric pick up under the bridge. The volume and tone knobs are hidden inside the edge of the sound hole, work well. It comes with a back pack style soft case that has an extra pouch - nice case overall - plush may be the word. The tuners are Gotoh -tight, small and solid - stay in tune even when you are hasty with jamming it in the case.
I gave it an 8 because it doesn't have a ton of features - just good solid features no frills (like the gel coat - clear and hard - one color - carbon fiber.

I play everything from live electronica with many effects to jazz and find this guitar to be fairly amazing. No one can argue with how loud it is - keeps up with my Martin DM - but the quality of the tone and amazing sustain set it solidly apart from other guitars it's size and many that are bigger. I was skeptical at first about any benefit of carbon fiber whatsoever, but it seems to resonate really well (i'm guessing there are similar properties to high end drum heads and such) and the overall tone of the guitar is great. This now takes us into two separate areas though. Plugged in and Unplugged. Unplugged, it's loud, possibly not quite as warm as a full sized, but less tin pan than my friends martin backpacker. The full range, especially sustaining high notes is exceptional.
Plugged in is a whole different story. The piezo electric pick up in there is really responsive and gives the guitar an almost ES 175 jazzy feel. All i can say is there are clearly some principles working towards this little guitars great sound - both plugged and unplugged.

The action is pretty good overall. It takes about a half hour to get used to playing, but once your used to how and where it sits on your lap, it plays great. There were a few areas that looked like they had flaws on the edge of the fret board, but i think they assemble these all by hand so i can't knock it. The feel doesn't reveal any flaws (and the look is as finished or having less flaws than my CS 446 gibson - of which i love for it's aesthetic and tonal individuality).

I could play cricket with this - it never goes out of tune even when i fly without detuning it or when i leave it in the trunk of a car all day in hot colorado sun. The pick up hasn't needed it's batteries changed yet, but that and a fresh set of strings are all i would need to take to a gig - it's carbon fiber.

I've only spoken with Blackbird on the phone during the purchasing process - i was very skeptical that i would be stuck with an expensive gimmick but Joe (i think he is the owner) was very cool about it, told me their return policy and even though i think i got guitar number 25, there haven't been any problems. I'll write back in if something breaks and i have to call him again - but it's really a solid instrument.

I think that overall you'd be hard pressed to spend your money in a better or wiser way on a travel ready guitar. If you are having financial difficulties, forget about it, it's not cheap. However its really an innovative piece of equipment - the shape, the sound, the size and the weight and most of all the efficiency of the body using every square inch as acoustic space to make it louder. There is even a secondary sound hole in the headstock at the end of the hollow neck. Amazing.

I've finaly gotten around to reviewing this guitar. I have the version without electronics because I plan to hike /backpack with this guitar and want to keep the weight down. I use a K&K two spot transducer through a Fishman Platinum pre amp when I need too. Not mant features to talk about, I find the body style likes to slip abit and I've placed some grip tape on the bottom which has solved that problem. I can finger up the neck a bit better than a twelve fret guitar. The "sound scoop" does take a bit to get used too.Fret markers are too dark to see to be practical, no markers would be better I think. Overall, it's comfortable to play with good action.

Sound, I own an early Vagabond deluxe and a 2001 Go guitar walnut grande. both travel guitars which sound great. (although the Vagabond is not as loud as the Go, It's a better sound with abetter neck than the Go.) Comparing the three; The Blackbird has by far the better sound and altought it's size makes it brighter than my Martin HD28, It is the only one of the three that can even be compared to a dreadnaught. It does sound like a full body guitar and as such, I tend to grab it more often than the HD28 when I'm at home! When I first got it the sound was a graphite type sound, very complex but a bit thin in the dynamic range area. (wood is still te best) There were some cosmetic blemishes and I returned it to have these corrected, When I got it back, the cosmetic issues (glue fingerprints/marks/etc. ) were still there but they added two carbon fiber rods in the neck under the fret board. I could be wrong but since then, The sound is more woody and has improved greatly. What a change! The guitar is a smidge heavier, but I'm very happy with the sound. But the sound is NOT why I bought it. How great is it to have a guitar that you can leave in the trunk on a summers day while you go shopping with the wife! This guitar sounds MUCH better and more alive than a Larrivee rosewood parlor guitar I have if that helps.With the rods added, this guitar has gone from nice to very nice It would be better at the $1200. range but these guy's are in the early days of production. The go guitar would be next in volume and there is probably not a huge differance in a travel sense, but the blackbird has this oddity of being a smaller package in the case. The Go and Vagabond in their cases are the same size as the blackbird in it's case. The Vagabond has the least volume but has a stellar sound/action. Overall, If you can afford it, I think the Blackbird is the best travl guitar you can buy, period.I would like to see them make a bass, I would buy one in a second.Not sure if these rods are now stanard or are being retro fit but but what a "vibe" differance they made. P.S. nobody gets a ten on sound.

Action is low and I had some fret buzz issues which were corrected. The glue marks/smudges I was able to remove with some fine compound so it was more of a "who's doing quality control?" issue and should not prevent any one from buying one, but, at this price, there should be perfection. I had the same cosmetic issues at the fretboard/ neck area as the other review.

Again, the main reason for buying this guitar was the durability and weather/humidity stability. Finish/frets/hardware are all high quality. This is not a cheezy guitar. Joe at Blackbird has been great and I hope these guy's do well. OK a 10 this time even with the blemishes which were easy to correct.

Great. Hey Joe, I really like my Blackbird, Tried to do a critical review here. Hope sales are good! I want a rider size long scale bass!

Playing since 1977, I have owned everything. I always wanted a small 0 size guitar that I didn't have to worry about and was a high quality guitar with a great sound. Here it is. If it were lost or stolen I think I would replace it. Everyday it gets more use. If you had to gig with it because your dreadnaught was not available, it would do the job. Just a geat guitar and I'm very happy with it. Give it try, you can always return it, although I can't see why you woould. It's not a Martin, it's not a Taylor. It is a great guitar that is small, sounds great, won't crack, looks cool,has a nice voice and and gets played more than my dreadnaught because it's comfortable!

When I met these guys at NAMM (If you walked by the booth, you noticed them), they said that I should play it there for awhile and then post a review online to start some discussion. It was a Carbon fiber guitar that looked cool, and caught my eye at the show. When I picked it up, the first thing that I noticed was how insanely light it was. The guys there handed me one and told me it was 3 pounds, but it didn't actually feel that heavy. I sat down in a chair and played for awhile. It had a relatively thick neck, more towards a 50's Les Paul side with a slightly more squared off profile. Medium looking frets, little red wood (bloodwood, so said the website) neck inlays, an offset sound hole, Gotoh tuners. It was pretty well set up, and it played pretty well.

I am more of a rock and roll type of guy, but I enjoy my acoustic moments. And this guitar seemed to catch my eye over a lot of the more ornate things around, so I played a few things. Despite the fact that this thing is a heck of a lot smaller than a normal acoustic, it sounded almost as loud as the guitars i'd played a few rows over, which is a lot to say considering I was attempting to hear this thing over 2 electric drum sets. And for something this small, it seemed to play the range pretty well. Maybe a little low on the mids, but bass and treble rang out pretty well. I was told by the people in the booth to note the sustain (Pun intended, I suppose) and I did. For something like that, the notes were clear as a bell. And the sound was like a Grand auditorium acoustic with a little hint of acoustic twang to it. The only difference is that is doesn't sit in your lap like an acoustic usually does, so you tend to strum differently and rest your arm differently, but after a few minutes, I kind of got used to it.

The guitar I played was well set up, each note rang well (again, as much as I could hear at the show) and it looked pretty good. The overall body looked awesome because of the shine of the carbon fiber and the look of high end race cars. There were some flaws in the aesthetic that I noticed, and the big one was where the fretboard was glued to the body, and it seemed that the finish on the fretboard looked like it might have been chipped or something. I only noticed it on the side closest to me while playing, and I didn't check the other. Otherwise this thing looked like it could survive a barrage of gunfire.

Again, it's a carbon fiber guitar, something they drove home when they told me to stand on one to show how strong the thing was. Gotoh and other name brand hardware (can't remember. Graphtech possibly?) sound good to me. I could probably have gotten into a fight, used it as a weapon, and then kept playing, well...i'd probably have to tune it a bit. But since it's not made of wood, it doesn't react with humidity or climate changes. I'd probably take it anywhere.

Considering that when I called the company to ask them more questions about the guitar (after sorting out the hundreds of cards) I got to talk to the owner himself. He was a nice guy who was open to talking about the guitar and about my concerns, so it's nice to hear they were open to criticism and ideas.

I've been playing for about 9 years now, and in a sea of guitars from numerous companies, it's now the weird and cool looking stuff that catches my eye. The price is a little steep for almost any guitar, but I feel i'd get my money's worth not having to deal with the normal gripes of an acoustic guitar. Overall it's somewhere between an 8 and 9 (I gave it a 8 just because I don't feel I'd spent enough time with it to give it such a high rating) because of some of the aesthetic flaws and the price.