Incoming Cordoba Fusion 12 Maple

[jazzrat]

These are the seller's pics, my own when it arrives. To his credit he took a lot of good photos showing a lot of saddle left and an immaculate guitar

I've played nylon strings for years and have been wanting another one for some time.
I considered all the various Cordoba models as well as the Yamaha, La Patries
and others.

In the the end with the help of you all's comments, I think this will be a fine choice for what I want it for.

I'm not a classical player but I do dabble. Primarily I play jazz and latin instrumental stuff, often with a sax player.
I think it will also be a great toss in the car guitar for family trips etc.

I'm a little tired of playing archtops and can see myself moving in a more acoustic direction. I know there is a thread about going all nylon. I can see that for myself.

Anyway more pics and review to come. I've got a couple sets of EJ45's on the way as well so it will be fun to set it up.
Cross your fingers that there are no neck issues or anything.

[The Old Anglo]

WOW!!!!,Very Nice looking guitar!. Let us know how it plays and sounds. Looks like a Winner from here.

[jazzrat]

Arrived and an update...

Such a great buying experience. Best ever from E-bay. The seller communicated every day of the process
and called me to confirm info for Fedex.

The guitar is perfect and very impressive at this price point.
It needed a truss rod tweak and the saddle taken down as well as a little work at the nut.
As a low action freak, that was expected and no problem of the guitar.

Now...I will say this, for anyone deciding on a Cordoba model.
This guitar has the typical classical guitar neck angle which means the geometry will not allow for as low an action as a Flamenco guitar which has a different neck angle. I knew this going in and strongly considered the GK Negra or other Flamenco model. Those all had a 50 or 52mm nut width and I was set on a 48mm.

The neck profile is absolutely superb, a very nice size C rather than the D shape most nylon strings have.
With a little radius and the ebony board it feels excellent.

I took the action down to 4/64ths at the 12th fret. The fretwork is excellent on this one and it would go lower but
I've taken as much saddle as I can so it's good where it is.
The bridge is nice in that there is still very solid down pressure on the saddle, even with this low action.
Typical classical is 3mm or so and Flamenco is 1.7-2.5. At 4/64ths this equates to about 1.5mm.

I won't use the butter analogy but it plays beautifully, buzz free and fast.

The guitar is very light and resonant, not overly bright considering the spruce top and maple body.

I LOVE the aesthetics. The maple and spruce give that little bit of archtop'y, jazz guitar look that seems to set it apart from a typical nylon string.

My favorite strings are D'Addario EJ45C's. The composites last a long time and I use the alternate coffee colored G string.

The electronics are good but do have the typical piezo thing going on. You can blend in a little mic but you have to be careful how much you use. The notch and phase controls offer some great feedback control and the onboard tuner is handy.

All in all, for what I want it for, which is to toss in the car, sit on the couch and to cover the occasional duo gig, it's fantastic.

I could easily see going all nylon string except for those louder gigs with a drummer and larger band.

[Rudy4]

Very nice review of a great guitar.

I love my Fusion Orchestra and continue to be impressed with its sound and quality of build. The small details are great, an example is the saddle slot which is purposefully set at an angle that somewhat equalizes the break angle of the strings going down to the tie block. I haven't observed that on any other classical I've seen. The body binding is the most beautifully executed example of wood binding that I've seen.

It's interesting that for all of the great attention to detail that the fret board extension on mine looks like they did the cutout as an afterthought, with the fret tang ends exposed in the slots where the cutout is done. A small minor complaint to an otherwise near-perfect guitar.

[ZippyChip]

Concerning high or low action:
You may already know this but sometime the higher action makes a guitar more responsive and lower action less responsive.

As an example, I recently raised the action on my old Alvarez Yairi cy140 from
2.5mm (3/32--. 094) to 4mm (5/32--.156) and there was a noticeable difference. It just seemed to spring back to life with better resonance and tone from where I had set it years ago (bought it new in '76).

I prefer the lower action but the improvement was enough to make me try to adjust.
Just store this info away and sometime down the road try it as an experiment.

Very nice looking guitar BTW.

[jazzrat]

Concerning high or low action:
You may already know this but sometime the higher action makes a guitar more responsive and lower action less responsive.

Thanks...agreed. The additional personal factor for me is a primary immune system issue that causes arthritis and connective tissue disorders.

For me playability trumps tone and response so I can continue to play.
Fortunately, this particular guitar seems to have been minimally affected by my setup.
I played it with the factory setup enough to get a good feel for it and within a short time made my revisions. I did not hear or feel much difference in the way of acoustic volume or resonance.

Again, I think it may be the bridge geometry. Even with my low action there is a very strong break angle behind the bridge.

[jazzrat]

I thought this might be a help to someone....you can see here that there is a nice strong string break over the bridge even at my super low action.
Neither my Tak or Godin had this same geometry.

[Paikon]

Congratulations...enjoy it!!!!

[arktrav]

Great guitar!! Great review, review!!
I have one on its way and look forward to receiving it.

[jazzrat]

Originally Posted by arktrav

Great guitar!! Great review, review!!
I have one on its way and look forward to receiving it.

If mine is any indication you are in for a treat.

Most of what I have to say in the way of a review I said above.

I will say a couple new things I've learned: This neck profile, width and fretboard
radius make for a very playable guitar. Without sounding fluffy, it's downright inspiring to play.

I do need to understand how to blend the mic in. Might need to adjust the trim.
Right now it introduces more body noise than I like but I had the same issue with my Godin.

Congrats you are going to enjoy it.

[alvinjismyl]

Hi, Don't mean to hijack a great review thread. Just a thought that crossed my mind. Are there 2 cordoba C12? - one fusion and the other regular classical? I thought there are two but I might have been confused. Thanks

[jazzrat]

The C12 is in their "Luthier " series and I believe made I Spain.
The Fusion guitars are in a different line. The Fusion 12's and 14's don't
have a "C" designation.

[Dogsnax]

Originally Posted by jazzrat

The C12 is in their "Luthier " series and I believe made I Spain.
The Fusion guitars are in a different line. The Fusion 12's and 14's don't
have a "C" designation.

The C12 is not a "fusion" design - standard classical guitar dimensions with lattice bracing and solid-wood construction, top/back/sides. The Luthier series guitars are all made in China - fantastic guitars.

[guitar4fun]

I believe Cordoba's Espana line is their series made in Spain. A Solista is an example from their Spanish made line.