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#1
07-30-2011, 01:04 AM
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any blackbird nylon rider(non electric) players out there
would love to have you tell me your experiences and thoughts of it.
i am a member of the macnichol forum-looking for outside reviews. thanks d 
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#2
08-08-2011, 08:11 PM
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Quote:
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#3
08-08-2011, 09:16 PM
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thanks andy
how was the tone-much different from an all wood? d
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#4
08-15-2011, 12:16 PM
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I just ordered mine so I will be one in 8 weeks or so.
Would love to hear other experiences. I find that this is the best option for portability and dry winters in Canada.
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#5
08-15-2011, 11:46 PM
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Quote:
http://www.laguitarsales.com/pages/3...Nylon_W/PU.htm
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#6
08-16-2011, 12:51 AM
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Quote:
Also I just checked LA Guitars website and I think someone must have snatched up the nylon rider already. 
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#7
11-08-2011, 08:06 AM
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Blackbird Rider Nylon
I have had one since July and love it. I had three weeks to demo it and made up my mind the first day I had it. It's portability and durability are just one of it's attributes. The sound and playability are wonderful. I wrote a review on it at harmony central: http://www.harmonycentral.com/reviews/347129. I also put up some demos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rti4Aa0H6dE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWl8fVNMKvU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G41Fs...eature=related Chris Screven
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#8
11-15-2011, 05:26 PM
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NGD Blackbird Rider Nylon
I got my Blackbird Rider Nylon in today. I feel certain this guitar is not for everyone, but my initial impressions are quite positive. A bit muted compared to my Martin nylons (not too much), but very good tonal quality overall. Better than I expected from a non-organic instrument. Nice deep bass resonance. I got the RMC pickups, but do not have a MIDI system at this time, so I do not know how it performs in terms of those capabilities. However, it sounds great through my Fishman Loudbox just running it in standard mode with a cable converter. It certainly meets the "unique instrument" test if there is one. So far, very fun to play. I didn't know what to expect with the non-wood fingerboard, but it feels quite nice. If you are near a store that carries these, you might want to take a look and feel if you do not consider is blasphemous to own a carbon fiber guitar. I'm sure purists will feel ill at ease with instrument (no wood whatsoever), but "that's what makes the world go around"...as they say. To each his own. I'll get to know it a little better and do a demo video in the near future if anyone wants to hear it.
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#9
11-19-2011, 02:17 PM
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#10
11-28-2011, 10:29 AM
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Quote:
The workmanship is outstanding on these guitars. They are incredibly light (unbelievably actually) and the portability is great. I'm going to try these in a small plane's overhead next week. The tone is different than a classical guitar, it is more precise and with less complex overtones (that's not a bad thing). I was able to pull of some haunting tremolo sounds in some more traditional pieces. Trills worked well too. The cutaway let me play some interesting Celtic tunes that take me up the neck. The volume was fantastic. Unlike my CA Cargo, I did not find the bass overwhelming, the trebles and bass were very balanced. Stay tuned....
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#11
11-28-2011, 03:05 PM
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Blackbird Experience...So Far.
This Blackbird Nylon continues to grow on me after a couple of weeks. Here are some of my observations (pro and con) for anyone thinking of trying one:
Be sure and arrange for a trial period if you buy one. I personally like this guitar a lot, but I can see how people would either love it or hate it depending upon their personal preferences (of course, that is true for any guitar) This is a bit strange, but if you play it "properly", that is, fret it with good technique...the tone is very unique. If not, it will sound tinny or "plasticy" (to use a technical term). When you get it right, the bass resonates deeply and the trebles ring. Therefore, it is making me improve in terms of my technique and playing skills. The bottom edge of the nut protrudes somewhat and is noticeable at times. You might feel it on the inside of your index finger more than you would with other guitars. Not a big deal, but noticeable at first. Love the smooth feel of the carbon fiber fingerboard. And I am usually a big ebony fingerboard fan, even some rosewoods bother me because they do not feel smooth enough. I really like what you can do with this guitar electronically (I am using an Fishman SA-220). Very versatile and I like the sounds you can get out of this instrument. Although some of my guitar friends (you know who you are) think it is ugly, the look of the guitar has grown on me (probably since I own it now and rationalize that it looks very unique). The gig bag that comes with it is totally unimpressive. I would have expected better or at least a branded bag with a $2000+ guitar. The tuners are "way cool" and work quite nicely. I can really "zero this guitar in" when tuning with my Snark. You will have to play with a strap or with the suction cup leg-prop device (they call it a neck-up support). Otherwise, it will slide around on your leg. You will also have to get a converter cable to covert the 7-pin jack to a regular phone jack guitar cable. I bought mine from Ted at L.A. Guitars and he made sure I was aware of these two items and provided them to me. I have not experimented with strings yet. That is next. I think it comes with D'addarios high tensions. I did not buy it for the travel capabilities, but if that is important to you, I can't imagine how it would get much better than this guitar. As an unexpected side benefit, this guitar is very easy on your back, arm and shoulder muscles (a problem for me at time with heavy instruments). This is the "Les Paul opposite" in terms of comfort on your back. Having said all of this, this is a unique instrument for the person who loves nylons and wants to experiment with something highly unique. To me, it is an extra guitar and I would not buy it as my sole instrument. All and all, even with the "cons" mentioned, I am pleased to own this instrument. I am naturally an introvert and that makes this guitar a bit of an inconvenience for me if I am playing outside the house and around others. It attracts those with GAS like moths to a flame. As I read back over this, I am not sure why I like this guitar so much. I have been accused of being an "out-of-the-box" thinker in my business life. Perhaps I am an "out-of-the-box" guitar player. This guitar is for the adventurous among you. If you love nylon guitars, you owe it to yourself to get your hands on one of these and try it (of course, not affiliated with any seller in any way). Beware, you might end up with a lighter guitar and bank account balance...but less back issues. I'll rationalize some of the cost of this instrument by visiting my chiropractor less often. They say you have a quick review of your life when you pass from this world. I suspect the Blackbird will be a noticeable memory flash...more so than having an extra 2 grand in the bank. Ted was great to work with, talk to him if you are interested at L.A. Guitars. http://www.laguitarsales.com/
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#12
11-28-2011, 05:48 PM
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limnephilidae and CCfingerstyle
would love a youtube or soundclip from you guys thanks for the updates d
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#13
11-28-2011, 08:51 PM
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I've included two links below from a simple olympus LS-10 recorder. I just pulled a small practice sample from a piece I just started to work on. Excuse tempo and dynamics, I was tired and it's a new piece.
Blackbird Ryder Nylon Taylor NS72ce The quality sucks so I'm not sure it will tell you anything. You let me know if you can here anything qualitative from that. It's certainly a lot different in person.
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#14
12-17-2011, 04:49 PM
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More Blackbird Rider Recoding
Quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEXW9...BmpKg5wHrLyEkY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CktfQ...C4WUd5aetZJQBZ I have to say I really love this guitar even for recording etc. The bass response is cleaner and more balanced than most guitars I have played and the playability is much better with the neck up strap. The more I play it the more I like it. This is not a portable guitar...it's a great guitar that happens to be portable. All that said, like most good guitars it has it's own unique characteristics that some may not like. The biggest con for me is that the HF response (>10KHz) is strong and can emphasize playing errors such as finger nail click and buzz due to miss-fingering. This is not too noticeable in a live room but can come out in recordings with good mics. Using a -18db roll off at 10KHz minimizes this issue. Chris
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#15
12-20-2011, 09:59 PM
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I picked up a nylon Rider last winter, with RMCs and Gotoh tuners. I also spec'd a non-standard Neutrik plug which I'm really glad I used. I also picked up the hex pre-amp from Richard McClish. It definitely makes a difference; I almost never use my summing cable. I had to literally file the PCB in the pre-amp to make room for the same custom plug on that end. Again, glad I did. I do NOT like the stock bayo plug at all. I used pretty much the same cable Richard supplies -- not cheap. I also wet-sand the neck for a satin finish, and the result is incredible. It doesn't take a lot of rubbing with 1200 to do the trick. It needs a touch up every few months.
I smiled while reading this thread -- a lot of familiar observations about the guitar ("a great guitar that happens to be portable", "the trebles and bass were very balanced", etc.) I always use a strap (the lightest, cheapest nylon I found), to ensure consistent playing position whether during long practices sitting or time standing in church. I'm pretty disciplined about that. The lightness is a plus -- but as with a light gun it moves around a bit more. This challenges discipline, and so does that high end response. Especially with the excellent RMCs -- which are utterly unforgiving -- this guitar rewards good technique and punishes bad. I think of it as my principal workstation (it's interesting with a Zoom multi-effects pedal modeling a Martin). If there was one thing I'd prefer different, it's that I'd like a flat fingerboard. The original demo I had was flat. Blackbird suggested I do the 16" for reasons that led me to infer they had tooled up for radius after the prototypes (I could be wrong about that). I also had to send it back to increase the string spacing, which was much narrower than the demo unit. That was difficult to do because the production neck was, to my mind, narrower than the demo unit. They had to rework the bridgework (RMC positioning) as well, as a consequence. Blackbird did excellent work on this and a couple other issues. I had a close escape when I spec'd the Gotoh tuners. I got the ones with the bearings, without considering how the unique head design (hollow, not solid) might make for weird dimensions with a tuner that presumes plenty of wood mount to. The Rider's head worked, but on a couple of the bearings the margin of error was less than a mm. Scary. ;-) I've only used hard strings to date, but I picked up some normal tension and I'll try that for the fun of it on my next change. I suspect I'm not going to like them on the Rider (I have a classical wood with normal, and while I love that guitar these are very different beasts), but I need to find out. I'm a relatively fresh guitarist (just recently stopped calling myself a "dufus who mucks about with one"), and this purchase was a measure of how serious I am about all this. It's a pleasure to work with this instrument. I discovered the guitar through macnichol, and dropped a review up there early this year. The road trips are fantastic over there.
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