San Francisco, January 12th 2010-  On tour from Hawaii, the Ukulele first gained widespread recognition among stateside music fans at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Expo in San Francisco. Down-the-road and nearly a century later Blackbird Guitars is giving the Ukulele a 2010 reinvention with their proprietary hollow-neck, all-carbon fiber construction. This exceptionally loud and tonally rich instrument is as responsive as it is resilient and will inspire ukulele players to bring their music places no nice wood instrument should ever go—like the beach. The Blackbird Ukulele sets a new bar for a compact, lightweight, and tonally-satisfying travel instrument that is durable and immune to the humidity problems which impact its wooden counterparts.

The novel design of the Blackbird Ukulele was inspired by Blackbird's Super OM, a small-body sonic cannon launched at the 2009 NAMM show. The iconic asymmetric form is evocative of a traditional Double-O design but in fact has a deceptively larger sound box complete with an off-set sound hole—a nod to tradition but which also serves to produce more bass and mid-range frequencies and volume particularly for a tenor-sized ukulele. Like all Blackbird instruments, it sports uni-body construction with a hollow neck and sound port at the headstock. This signature Blackbird feature allows the whole instrument to resonant for increased frequency response while solving the neck-heavy issues common among Ukuleles by reducing weight. 

While carbon fiber is more acoustically efficient than wood, it is also much stronger and resistant to humidity. "We made our name initially with the Rider travel guitars and in some sense the ukulele is the ultimate travel instrument. So as amusing as a composite ukulele may be, we wanted players to have a professional-grade instrument without ever having to worry about it.", says Blackbird founder Joe Luttwak. The highly sculpted form is accented by a beautiful weave with a high gloss finish that undulates around various body cutaways for improved ergonomics and ultralight weight. The Blackbird ukulele will be available in Spring 2010 for a street price of $999 with electronics optional. The 2010 editions of world's best travel guitars, the Rider steel and Rider Nylon start at $1499 and the ultralight full-size Blackbird Super-OM at $1899. 

Blackbird guitars was founded in 2005 to create a satisfying but durable travel guitar for taking out in the world. Non-traditional product design and development resulted in radically new directions and the resulting Rider travel guitar is now widely considered the best available. To date, Blackbird releases a new instrument annually with their trademark 'Big Sound, Small body' treatment. Blackbird Guitars are made by small team of guitar-makers in San Francisco in their workshop overlooking the bay. Advanced technology is employed to ensure the highest performance along-side traditional craftsmanship. Every instrument is professionally assembled and set-up by a master luthier.