c.2006 Cordoba Koa CE Cutaway Classical Guitar

January 02, 2014

c.2006 Cordoba Koa CE Cutaway Classical Guitar

It was pretty chill today so I took these photos really quickly. I just prefer natural light to indoors -- it's a sickness, I know.

This is a near-mint Cordoba "Koa CE" model classical guitar that a customer of mine is selling on consignment. Just before the pics I gave the ends of the frets a light dressing and set it up to play at "standard classical" string height, which for me is 3/32" at the 12th fret on both sides. You can get this one down to 1/16" at the treble end via shaving the saddle of this if you're planning to do buzzy flamenco work, but I think 3/32" is a good compromise between high (concert classical) string height and slick comfort that a fingerstyle folk player might like.

Anyhow, I've liked most of the modern Cordoba product range when I try them out in stores. They tend to be a little more interesting than other similarly-priced makes. I think this one retailed for about $800-900 when it was bought new and it's one of the models made in Portugal. It's also got solid koa throughout, fancy trim, a sturdy build, a cutaway, and a B-Band active preamp and undersaddle transducer pickup installed. Pretty flashy!

Cordoba instruments from Portugal tend towards the heavier side of classical makes and the hardwood (koa) body certainly adds to that. The guitar is warm, sweet, and balanced in character but it's not as loud as their cedar or spruce-topped instruments. This gives it an intimate sort of tone that I'm assuming would record pretty easily as it doesn't have the throbbing floppy bass that many classicals can have. It's also got plenty of clarity for fingerstyle work.

Dark-stained headstock veneer (not sure if it's rosewood). The neck appears to be Spanish cedar.

The board is ebony.

This has pretty deluxe trim all over. The soundhole rosette is pearl-inlaid ebony, there's a profuse amount of wood binding and purfling (just check out all that "rope" purfling), and the gloss finish shows it all off. The guitar itself is really clean except for some minor playing-wear in the expected near-soundhole area. Still -- polished up and you don't notice it unless you're a few inches away.

The rosewood bridge has a bone saddle.

There's a B-Band preamp and electronic tuner installed right in the side of the guitar and the "hatch" near the heel is for swapping your 9-volt battery out.

Fancy-looking tuners with faux-pearl buttons. The nut is synthetic and has (now) been properly setup for good action.

Typical Spanish heel design -- but check out the cool carving for the cutaway! That's some cool looks. You can also get a sense of the fancy level of rosewood binding throughout this guitar, too.