The first model, the Rider is an acoustic guitar with a full-bodied sound in a highly portable package, is nearly indestructible not to mention super light and easy to play. Put another way, it will remind you of that fancy steel-string you leave at home except you can easily bring it everywhere.

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The Blackbird Rider's proportions, materials, and hollow unibody construction result in a strong, clear and distinctive voice a bit remincent of a Dobro only with unparalleled sustain.

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The guitar is made of carbon fiber, which is generally used as the structural skin of the most advanced planes, bikes, race cars and even fishing rods. We chose it because it sounds great, is bomb-proof and allows us to break out of the two-dimensional constraints of designing out of wood.

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The main benefit of the hollow body, neck and head design is that the entire guitar becomes the sound box contributing to its loud and full-bodied tone. Secondary benefits are that it is light, around 3 lbs, and is not neck-heavy- a problem with conventional small-bodied guitars.

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The short answer is tone, and playability. We have acoustic tone: a satisfying full frequency range and full-size guitar volume. Other small guitars do not. Theirs are miniaturized interpretation of a full-size for easy travel with the tone diminished accordingly. They also have shorter scale lengths (22.5" versus ours of 24.5") which further diminishes playability and tone. Ours is the reinvention the guitar: small body instrument for easy travel without compromise.

Here is the long list of how we get a big sound from a small body (and they do not):

    * Innovative, synergistic and patented design features to maximize resonance including: hollow neck and holllow head (kills sound deadening neck/lowers weight/increases resonance chamber), body extension with back cutaway for access to higher frets, curve-less design (no sound robbing double-O where its unnecessary with a narrower guitar), asymmetrical sound hole (larger soundboard resonance area), secondary sound hole (no standing waves from hollow neck and additional sound projection). For more info check out: http://blackbirdguitar.com/specifications.html
    * We use only carbon fiber (verses some fiberglass and foam we suspect others use) which means a lighter, high-strength to-weight ratio and therefore more resonant instrument.
    * 1mm thick soundboard- solid carbon. That is the thinnest and therefore most resonant in the industry because we make it differently and out of a higher grade of carbon (pre-preg)  than all other competitors.
    * Blackbird body length is 18.5 in. (same as a full-size) verses others which are around 15 in. which affects the size of the resonance chamber. Body cutaway means you still have access to higher frets.

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Our thinking is that folks buy high performance laptops, bikes, and cameras to enhance their lives so guitarists should have the same option available to them. The rider may look small but it sounds almost as full as a standard steel string with a beautiful voice- that puts it in a category of its own. The hand-built all carbon fiber construction results in a bomb-proof and beautiful instrument ready to ride with you anywhere. Most anything made from carbon fiber costs more because the materials and processes have been nearly monopolized by the military/aviation industries for use in their most critical applications. Other folks make composite guitars with some carbon fiber but they sound more like our fiberglass prototypes which is to say like a Baby Taylor but with more bass. Fiberglass is alot cheaper than carbon and the tone suffers accordingly.

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You can play in a tropical rain storm and Rider will be fine (you'll need new strings and maybe tuners though)'). It can withstand a fall on a concrete floor without breaking (not recommended of course). The finish is much more durable and scratch resistant than a standard guitar which means it can lay around the house without a worry and taken on day trips without a case, (depends on how protective you are!) but you will want to keep it in the gig bag when bush-whacking.

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Because the carbon fiber hollow neck is super stable and stiff none is needed.

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The airlines all tend to have different policies regarding carry-on luggage and policies are in constant flux. It does fit easily in the overhead bin due to its diminutive size so you should able to get it on in most instances.

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We are just starting to sell to the public and one guitar at a time which means it will be available only at a few dealers and directly online see the Sales page.

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We guarantee our craftsmanship for one year. Also if you buy direct, you can try out the instrument for two weeks and return it if you are not satisfied for a full refund.

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The Nylon model was designed for use specifically with nylon strings, and the hardware is specifically tailored to nylon stringing. And the steel string is set up and designed for steel strings. The skinnier fretboard and tuners aren't really meant to accomodate the higher flexibility of nylon strings like the wider fretboard on the Nylon is.

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The Blackbird name was partly inspired by the song, usually one of the first songs learned on guitar, and also by the bird that inspired the song. Blackbirds are common here in San Francisco (as elsewhere) though they are as overlooked as pigeons. They are beautiful singers- despite their diminutive size.

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The guitar has been optimized for light, phosphor bronze acoustic strings.

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Absolutely. It's a guitar to learn on and be great on. Small hands, big hands, beginner or expert; the Blackbird is meant for all of them. It's portability means people on the go without the sit-down time of usual guitarists get to play a guitar whenever they want. It means practicing at your convenience and being able to pick up a guitar when inspiration strikes, be it home, the office, the skies, the seas and the outdoors. With a blackbird, you never have to be an arms length from a great guitar for practice or performance again.

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We would describe the string action as low enough to be great for fingerpicking., but not so low as to lessen the full sound from chords or create buzz when some serious strumming is going on. We can accomodate specific action requests to some degree.

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Our electronics do not use a 13 Pin connector.

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Absolutely. Wherever this guitar needs to be, we'll get it there.

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Yes. It's the beauty of the Blackbird guitar. It has been designed to be perfect for portability, but still sound like a serious instrument when performing. The specially made electronics coupled with the sustain and resonance of the guitars make Blackbird guitars excellent amplified instruments, plugged in or with a microphone in front of it. Plugged or unplugged, the Blackbird is ready for everything.

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