NUD - Blackbird Clara Concert

bedweazel

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During a trip to Massachusetts and Maine I stopped in the Music Emporium in Lexington, MA. As soon as I walked through the door I was impressed by the overwhelming number of beautiful instruments. They have a decent selection of high end ukuleles. Probably, 15 or so. I tried Kamaka and Kanile'a for the first time. Looooved the Kamakas! However, I decided not to get another solid wood ukulele (yet)... :)

I purchased a Blackbird Clara. I can't believe the quality of sound that the instrument produces with the man made material. Very light and easy to play also. I will love that I'll be able to leave it out all winter while its solid wood friends are being humidified in their cases.

I'm giving the low G strings a chance, but expect that I will end up changing it to high G. Any string suggestions? Now back to playing it!
 
Good one indeed! I've gone the CF route for guitars, but not yet for ukes. Hope you continue to love it!
 
Congrats!!

I had my first generation Clara strung reentrant with Aquila Reds and at two different festivals a total of about 50 people tried it and most were very impressed. Strong opinions for and against these strings but I have had positive experiences on quite a variety of ukes with them. YMMV. ;-)

Definitely plan to add another one back to my stable at some point.
 
Congratulations on your new Clara! I have one and I love it. (I also happen to like Lexington MA and the Music Emporium -- I grew up in south suburban Boston.) As I've kept my Clara tuned low G, I'm not much help on suggestions for a re-entrant G string.


Good one indeed! I've gone the CF route for guitars, but not yet for ukes. Hope you continue to love it!

Actually, the Clara is not a carbon fiber ukulele (if that's what was meant by CF). The Clara is made of a linen-based material called ekoa. Blackbird has since developed an ekoa guitar called "El Capitan" and an ekoa tenor ukulele called "Farallon." Here's a link to an interesting blog post on the Blackbird website discussing the differences between carbon fiber and ekoa.

https://www.blackbirdguitar.com/blogs/news/93442822-ekoa-versus-carbon-fiber
 
I have to chime in to say that I had a very similar experience to you at the Music Emporium. They have great ukes at the ready and they have very helpful friendly sales people. (The best uke store in the upper East coast imo) You think you'll fall for a high end Hawaiian - but then they bring out the Clara... It sounds so incredibly resonant. I unfortunately couldn't afford to buy one that day, but I've been plotting ever since.
I'm a low g fan and think the Clara does it justice, so give it some time.
 
Congrats on the Clara.........a fine choice. The Music Emporium is quite the place. Years ago, I played my first Moore Bettah there. Believe it or not, they were at the time, the mainland distributers of MBU.
 
Thanks, Everyone. It is a great instrument! The low g tuning might be growing on me. I've been leaning Dream A Little Dream and it is working for me.
 
On my Clara I've been playing Oasis High G warm strings. I've done both high and low G and prefer high for my style of playing. The only other strings I've tried are the Oasis brights - which mostly seemed to reduce the Clara's depth of tone.
 
During a trip to Massachusetts and Maine I stopped in the Music Emporium in Lexington, MA. As soon as I walked through the door I was impressed by the overwhelming number of beautiful instruments. They have a decent selection of high end ukuleles. Probably, 15 or so. I tried Kamaka and Kanile'a for the first time. Looooved the Kamakas! However, I decided not to get another solid wood ukulele (yet)... :)

I purchased a Blackbird Clara. I can't believe the quality of sound that the instrument produces with the man made material. Very light and easy to play also. I will love that I'll be able to leave it out all winter while its solid wood friends are being humidified in their cases.

I'm giving the low G strings a chance, but expect that I will end up changing it to high G. Any string suggestions? Now back to playing it!
Yup Id go with Oasis re entrant non wound strings.. either warm or bright.. I bought from music emporium before, they are real nice.. the k brands are nice and even the blackbird carbon fiber tenor
 
Congrats on your new Blackbird Clara. And +1 on the Music Emporium. Like Steve I played, and bought, my first Moore Bettah there.
 
Wow. It would have been great to try a Moore Bettah! Maybe it would have been too tempting though... And thanks for the string suggestions, Everyone.
 
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