Big sound, small body acoustic and made of Ekoa®
The new Blackbird Guitars’ Savoy model, as well as the full line of Blackbird’s instruments, were show cased at the recent National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, CA, Jan 19-22, 2017, in booth #1716.
Company press release:
Since its founding, Blackbird Guitars has been pioneering the design of quality small body instruments. Launching today, Savoy has a full size voice and scale length, but fits in a ¾ size case—the culmination of Blackbird’s decade of innovations.
Savoy derives its name from the region in Europe home to the Alps and Alpine Spruce—the same species used by Stradivarius. Savoy is not made of wood, but rather Ekoa—a revolutionary linen and bio resin material benchmarked against Alpine Spruce. Yet the Ekoa soundboard is more resonant than Spruce as it is even lighter. Savoy accordingly outperforms traditional instruments with greater projection, dynamics and a timbre that is pure vintage. So even though Savoy fits in a ¾ guitar case, the tone, expressiveness and scale length (24.5”) are decidedly full-size. Ekoa construction also means Savoy is impervious to temperature and humidity changes that can wreck havoc on conventional guitars. The rugged one-piece, hollow neck chamber construction and traditional arch back makes for a worry-free companion.
Savoy is a 12-fret guitar which is both compact and places the bridge in the ‘sweet spot’ of the lower bout, but generally compromises higher fret access. To overcome this, Savoy features a unique Blackbird ‘dual’ cutaway with the back sculpted away for access up to the highest fret. ‘Like the sound port at the headstock, this is a feature Blackbird pioneered some years ago but with Savoy we’ve seamless blended all our innovations with a vintage guitar tone and feel. The no compromise small body acoustic is finally here.’ says designer and founder Joe Luttwak.
Savoy is lovingly handcrafted by artisans and a couple of robots in San Francisco. Pricing starts at $2500 with a case.
ABOUT BLACKBIRD
Founded in 2005, Blackbird has built a loyal global following crafting uncommonly resonant and resilient Ekoa and carbon fiber composite acoustic guitars and ukuleles. Designed for the most demanding musicians, these performance-grade, travel-ready instruments have weathered everything from packed concert halls to life in Antarctica. All Blackbird instruments are crafted in their San Francisco workshop.
ABOUT EKOA
Ekoa is natural composite produced by Lingrove, LLC. The linen and bio-resin composite has a beautiful designer quality with vibration damping and very high strength. Ekoa is suitable for wherever composites or wood is used.
