Blackbird Clara Concert Electro Ukulele Sunburst Satin MiSi Radius Top dots

Wow. Wow again, and again and again and again.

The Blackbird Clara concert ukulele is a very clever instrument indeed. The body is made entirely of a material called Ekoa, which is compressed natural fibres and resin. Ekoa is very hard, and very stiff, and retains the tonal properties of wood, so you get a lovely warm chiming sound, which is extremely loud when required! Blackbird developed Ekoa to offer all the modern benefits of carbon fibre such as super reliability and resistance to moisture and temperature, whilst retaining a proper authentic ukulele sound. Boy, what a job they did.

It is not just the materials used that are clever: the design of this little pocket rocket is groundbreaking too. The soundhole is offset to the top, which allows a greater proportion of the soundboard to reverberate for longer, but probably the most revolutionary feature is the hollow neck and the soundhole at the headstock, which allows the neck to be a resonating chamber, adding more volume and tone shaping.

The back is arched, which along with the pineapple style body shape fills the bass out even more, which works wonderfully well with the Low G string which is fitted. And in the hand, it feels so balanced, so capable, so well made and damnably clever. I guarantee that you will not have played or heard anything like it! We have been blown away.

All of this clever technology makes this the ultimate go anywhere ukulele. It's impervious to temperature and humidity variations as well as any of the wear and tear an instrument should expect to take. One word of caution: as this is a composite material, there is some variation in the look and feel in the Ekoa. There are parts where some fibres display in different colours and angles, and like wood there are different patterns in the top which make each instrument unique. Also, you may find what loo like scratches, but are actually the natural fibres which after being pressed to form the Ekoa, are visible beneath the finish.

The Richlite fretboard is super smooth, and very hard and resonant as well, just stacking up the excellence. It also comes with a Blackbird branded Gator gigbag, which is about the best we have ever seen.

This one features all of the cost option upgrades! The Sunburst Satin finish, MiSi rechargeable active pickup, Radiused fretboard, aluminium fretboard Top Dots and second strap button are all included

Specification:

Ekoa composite body, and neck
Micarta nut and saddle
Sunburst Satin finish
Gotoh tuning machines
Hollow neck leading to headstock soundport
35mm nut width
Side markers at 5, 7, 10, 12
12 frets to body, 17 frets in total
Richlite fretboard
Aluminium fretboard top dots (cost upgrade, included)
Active rechargeable MiSi pickup with soundhole mounted tone and volume controls (cost upgrade incuded)
Radiused fretboard (cost upgrade, included)
Top bout strap button
Endpin jack socket
Clear Fluorocarbon strings, with Wound Low G

Pictures show actual instrument you will receive.