Blackbird carbon nylon string tops are different

A potential client informed me that Ovation/Adamas does not make nylon string guitars because even with high tension nylon strings they cannot drive their tops. We do a number of things differently from the Adamas folks. Adamas make their composite tops with a layer of birch as a core material between two carbon skins. This method of construction creates a very stiff and efficient structural sheet allowing for very thin tops with a high stiffness-to-weight ratio. The core increases the stiffness exponentially based on the distance of the carbon skins from each other- same concept as an I-beam. So the issue with Adamas is that their core tops are too stiff for nylon strings and I guess they can't or won't acquire thinner birch to make them less stiff- as its already .035" with total thickness around .045" according to their website. The Blackbird nylon string top is a hair thinner- .04" and does not utilize a core structure which enables us to reinforce only where needed with our proprietary carbon hollow bracing which keeps the instrument loud and open sounding with strong bass and mid-range response. Incidentally these are the elements often missing from an over-braced top. We tried the Adamas approach with some early prototypes and simply found it over-braced.

The other reason they do not make an Adamas nylon string guitars is their construction is simply too heavy- particularly their bowl-back. A great nylon string must be very light to be as resonant as possible. The Blackbird nylon string is 3.5 lbs and every aspect has been considered to reduce weight- notably the hollow neck. As John Gilbert, the great luthier and maker of the ultra-light tuners we use on the nylon noted every aspect of the instrument must have maximum stiffness-to-weight.