natural fiber composites come to blackbird’s full sized guitars 
all images courtesy of blackbird guitars

 

 

californian musical instrument company blackbird, launches ‘el capitan’, a guitar made of flax linen fabric. this small jumbo model has the tone and vibe of a vintage wood instrument but is actually crafted of ekoa, a natural fiber composite made of linen and bio-resin. ‘el capitan’ is the only guitar constructed of the high-performance, ecological composite, which may well be the future of guitars as rainforest wood becomes increasingly scarce. for the last decade, blackbird founder joe luttwak has focused on building non-wood acoustics to take on the road. that effort culminated in the development of ekoa as the first material designed to be better for instrument-making than wood.  

 

video courtesy of blackbird guitars 

 

 

linen was the fabric of choice given that it is the stiffest natural fiber available, but creating a composite that is actually fit for instrument craft required years of research and development. blackbird’s patented hollow neck unibody construction contributes to the world-class resonance and is also unaffected by temperature and humidity changes staying in tune much longer and remaining easy to play. this in contrast to wood which warps and cracks with changes in temperature and humidity while also being highly fragile. ‘with ekoa we wanted to create a naturally derived material that for the first time offers more dynamic range than rainforest wood as well as a better player’s experience with significantly stronger and more stable construction’, says luttwak.

natural fiber composites come to blackbird's full sized guitars
the guitar on the rolled bio-resin

 

video courtesy of blackbird guitars