ErgoPlay Review/Further Blackbird Rider Thoughts

My initial review of the Blackbird Rider Nylon is here. The Rider came with a NeckUp support - and I now now why they did that - but the ErgoPlay works much better for me.

Here's the situation in a nutshell: The NeckUp has a single large suction cup, and it fits on the Rider's shallow sound chamber, while the ErgoPlay has three smaller suction cups, only two of which will adhere due to the shallowness of said sound chamber. Nevertheless, the leather NeckUp is too flexible, and I was not able to hold the guitar securely with it, while the ErgoPlay works fine, despite the fact that the third cup does not adhere to the ax.



As you can see, from the front all looks well with the ErgoPlay.



But if you look at it from the rear view, the third cup will not stick.

This is neither the fault of Blackbird or ErgoPlay, as the Rider is simply not a traditional classical guitar, and the ErgoPlay is obviously designed for a traditional ax. A model with a single cup front and rear would be best, but it isn't strictly speaking necessary.

Since I have the oversized suction cup from the NeckUp, I'll probably just fabricate another slider piece out of sheet metal and put that one on... or not. It works fine, and as I said, it is far more stable than the NeckUp in any event.

These are just the kinds of things you deal with on the bleeding edge of technology. LOL!

*****

Now that I've played through my entire repertoire on the Rider a couple of times, I can definitively say that I love this guitar. I'm already thinking about getting a second with the RMC Triple Source Polydrive - it has the hex pickups, a condenser mic, and a ribbon transducer - and then I could sell the Godin and the Parker. That's right, sell the Godin and the Parker.

Back in the 80's when I got the Steinberger GL2T-GR to use with my Syncalvier, it totally ruined me for traditional wood electric guitars. They just felt very low tech and primitive in comparison. Well, the Rider has done exactly the same thing to me. The Godin feels positively archaic and even the classy Parker is just not in the same universe at all. This is one of those things I didn't see coming, but probably should have.

I'm currently programming my four Lexicon MPX-G2's for the Rider - I have both performance rigs and one recording rig done - and as soon as I have the sounds in the bag, I'll record some test tracks and post links to them here.

One great fringe benefit of the fact that every note on a given string sounds exactly the same with the Rider, and that every string is perfectly in balance, is that any EQ setting will work with it. Think about that, for a second: Any EQ used is purely for tone control with the Rider, since there aren't any quirks to iron out, and no matter how radical you want to get with the EQ, it will work!

This carries over to effects programming too: With the Godin and the Parker, very short delay-based effects, like phasing and flanging, could lead to unfortunate resonance peaks and valleys that the guitar's quirks would accentuate: Not with the Rider. This is great!