The guitar showed-up yesterday. I bought it as a Level 3 blem from Musician's Friend, which is referred to as a "scratch & dent". I've always had great luck with them before when taking a chance on a less-than-perfect instrument. This time, I noticed a 3 inch crack radiating out along the wood grain, from the input jack at the rear. This in itself isn't a big deal, as my last/second GK Pro blanca also had this going-on when I received it. In fact, once I released the tension on the nut that holds the jack in place... the crack mostly went away. It hadn't gone all the way through the finish. It would be a very easy fix to fully repair it and I may do it eventually, but haven't needed to thus far.
Anyways, this crack was all the way through the finish, so backing the nut out a ways didn't make the crack seem to mostly disappear. No biggie... I can live with that (and repair it down the road). So I tuned the instrument up and played it for a short time. After playing for a while, I noticed a crack in the top, running from the bridge all the way to the lower-bout of the guitar. BUMMER! That is much harder to live with. It didn't affect the playability or tone of the instrument, but is of much greater concern to me... considering how lightly braced and built flamenco guitars are. So I called MF and told them that I'd like to return it. As I was chatting with the rep, I did mention that if they were to discount the instrument further, I might elect to just keep it and have the crack(s) repaired by a local luthier. He asked me to take pictures of the cracks and send them to him, and then he'd discuss that with a supervisor. That was later yesterday afternoon and I haven't yet heard back from him on that.
Last night I decided to go ahead and play the guitar for a while, in case I elect to keep it. It's got very robust tone, like my blancas, but with a slight added depth and fullness that my blancas do not have. I attribute this to the rosewood back/sides versus their cypress. It's a wonderful instrument (like they are) and if the discount is agreeable to me, I'll go ahead and keep it and eventually, have it repaired. For a true A/B comparison between my blancas, I'd have to string it up with the same strings that I have on them (Luthier Popular Supreme 20). I didn't want to do that last night, in case I end-up returning this instrument. But if I end-up choosing to keep it, I'll go ahead and put the Luthier strings on it and then post a comparison of the negra vs. blanca GK Pro here in this thread. Suffice it to say that (outside the crack issue) I am as impressed with the negra as I have been the blancas (and indeed, all other of the Cordoba Luthier series instruments). The rosewood back and sides are beautiful by the way.
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