Review of the Blackbird Savoy

[Kindness]

This is an extremely well written review! I like how they compare the tone qualities to familiar wood guitars. Have a look!

https://www.premierguitar.com/articl...d-savoy-review

[Bax Burgess]

Quote from review: "...Other practical byproducts of Ekoa’s potential include a hollow neck that significantly enhances the guitar’s resonance..."

A hollow neck adds resonance?

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by Bax Burgess

Quote from review: "...Other practical byproducts of Ekoa’s potential include a hollow neck that significantly enhances the guitar’s resonance..."

A hollow neck adds resonance?

Pretty sure there is a sound port on the headstock on the Savoy.

[Bax Burgess]

Know of anyone who has played with the headstock soundport open and closed? What I've read, every writeup mentions "...proprietary hollow neck and head sound chamber..." and then doesn't go into the difference. Woo hoo?

[gr81dorn]

I can honestly say I never noticed it at all. If I made a special effort, I could hear something coming through there, but I wouldn't think it is a significant feature, just a differentiator from other things in the market, dare I say a "marketing" ploy. In theory, a truss rod would tend to deaden the sound of a neck...certainly in a wood guitar. They've not only removed that but it's a hollow tube of sorts, making it lighter and literally airier, so I suppose that would make it more resonant, but as far as the sound transfer, i would suggest that it's a nothing feature to me.

[JimCA]

Originally Posted by Bax Burgess

Know of anyone who has played with the headstock soundport open and closed? What I've read, every writeup mentions "...proprietary hollow neck and head sound chamber..." and then doesn't go into the difference. Woo hoo?

I agree with you Bax, in this case should be a simple thing to test. In a lot of cases, not so simple.

[Frettingflyer]

With my Lucky13 if someone covers the soundhole it does make a difference, although it seems more to the audience than the player. I am inferring that by what my family said being in front of it as I had no one else available to play it the day I tried that.

[Bax Burgess]

Did you cover the body's side soundhole to isolate the headstock effect for the player?

[Earl49]

I've tried listening to the head stock port on my Lucky 13 by putting my ear right next to it when someone else is playing. I can barely hear anything relative to the overall sound coming off the guitar.

If you are covering ports, it is important to use something with a little weight to it. Just covering the port with tape is not enough to make a real difference. Tape is too lightweight to be a sound barrier.

In the past, I placed a mic at the headstock hole and the primary. As you would expect, there is quite a difference in tonal and projection qualities. In making guitars I would place a suction pickup at different places on the guitar and was always amazed at how such placement revealed different sound.

I've sometimes thought about making a guitar with a pickup at the headstock and one at the primary sound hole and having the ability to trigger one or the other, or both.

[Deft Tungsman]

Originally Posted by Bax Burgess

Quote from review: "...Other practical byproducts of Ekoa’s potential include a hollow neck that significantly enhances the guitar’s resonance..."

A hollow neck adds resonance?

I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that the hollow neck was originally incorporated into the design of the Blackbird Rider (the company's first production instrument) in order to make the entire length of the neck available for longer sound waves (i.e. lower frequencies) to develop within the instrument. The headstock soundport is essential to this design, as it enables those lower frequencies to escape into the air instead of being trapped inside and forming standing waves that would diminish low end response. As anyone who has played the Rider will tell you, it has an unbelievable amount of low-end thump and presence given its compact size!

[ethanay]

Good review but most of the benefits it ascribes to eKoa apply to carbon, and many of the positive attributes described in the guitar specifically apply generally to any well-designed and well-built composite instrument.

Really the two unique things I see about eKoa are:
1. Aesthetic natural grain vs carbon fiber weave
2. Potential to make composite instruments from mostly-renewable materials (depending on the building process requirements and agricultural practices used for the flax...i am involved in and have studied regenerative agriculture for my entire adult life and have a lot to say about that OT)

I was considering the Savoy but higher $price$ and lack of truss rod and 24.5" scale made my decision to go with an X7 much easier

Bax;

I believe that just removing the weight from the neck would add to the resonance of the instrument.