Blackbird Release New Natural Composites Guitar

California-based instrument company Blackbird has launched a guitar made of flax linen fabric.

The guitar named ‘el capitan’ has been crafted from ekoa, a natural fibre composite made from flax linen and bio-resins. It’s currently the only guitar made using ecologically sourced composite materials and as rainforest wood becomes increasingly scarce could be the material of choice going forward.

Blackbird’s patented unibody construction and hollow neck developed over years of research and development allows the natural fibre guitar to be unaffected by temperature and humidity whilst also staying in tune much longer says the company.

Over the last 10 years, blackbird’s 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.

With ekoa the company wanted to create a naturally derived material that for the first time offers a more dynamic range than the traditional rainforest wood as well as a better player’s experience with significantly stronger and more stable construction.