Cordoba C5 good news bad news

[Tony Done]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I can't look at that type of damage without thinking there must be serious structural damage to the end block and bracing. Sometimes a bargain ain't.

I agree it's a risk, but at that price..... I recently glued up a requinto that was in much worse condition than that. If you use super glue, it will seep into the cracks and repair them - I found that this seepage glued a couple of loose braces in mine. It took a while, but eventually got all the open joints and cracks filled up, and it now seems to be stable aout four months in.

[Tony Done]

Originally Posted by Christine1988

Is super glue strong enough though?

Sure is, but I also use slow setting epoxy depending on the situtation - ie big gaps where I don't need/expect it to seep into small cracks.

[Christine1988]

Originally Posted by harpon

Yeah Cordoba pushes the edge of "minimal" , but that's what gives them their great sound- that thin cedar top-

when I was shopping them online before Christmas- I noticed a lot of them being sold as B stock or labled "used" that had cracks.
Most of them say they play normal-

I'm not sure I'd buy one that way, but if I had one that cracked, I'd probably try to repair it and evaluate it carefully, before anything else.

I'd start by removing the strings and feeling it from the inside-

there is an A shaped fan bracing inside- I'm really not that familiar with them yet- but find it's realionship to the crack-
if I could I might glue a small thin splice over it INSIDE after filling the crack with glue oitherwise- if there's room for it

keeping in mind that anything beyond the norm will cut the tone at least a little

I think the breach on the end may actually be more the structural problem- so fill it carefully- I might use wood glue or paint or a combination or paint over glue to make the binding look good.
I might try to match paint to the exterior face and just use that , but maybe over glue at the worst spot-

there's the option then of clearcoating the guitar after the repair which would give it strength definitely at an undetermined cut in timber overtones-

so I'd determine that when the repair was otherwise finished- it may or may not be necessary

I've also toyed with the idea lately of using clearcoat ion the neck and fretboard only to shore up a bending neck-
but haven't tried it on anything yet- maye my old Takamine I'm nursing along with lighter strings and plans to detune, since I won't play it much now

fortunately the new Cordobas have a truss rod

good luck if you buy it

maybe if you can get the money together, it might be good to think of a guitar as an investment you can get some kind of return on if you take care of it- truss rods would help

I hate to see overly inflated prices on used studf, but there is a good market for used Cordobas I think- so you have to make sure it has a truss rod

Oh I did buy it actually. I just glued a thin strip of wood over the crack and super glued the back crack. I'll tighten up the strings tomorrow and see if the back crack doesn't open up. If it does then I'll glue a strip of wood there too.