Cordoba C10 S - European Spruce Top Reviews

Beautiful guitar with a sweet tone. Perfect intonation from the factory. The action on the treble was pretty high (4mm) out of box, so I had to lower that to 3 or so. After that it was perfect.

I've owned Kohno Professional J and Ramirez 1A, but I'm still thrilled with the my Cordoba 10S guitar!

I'm a first time buyer here at Sweetwater, but have been playing guitar for 17 years. These guys have excellent service and really do ensure the care of your instrument in transit.

But now, the guitar. She is absolutely beautiful! Everything I expected and more. And I still haven't even installed a support or my preferred strings yet! Great setup skills at Sweetwater for sure.

I wanted to wait a bit before really reviewing it given that the spruce took a few days to really wake up and open up the sound. The bass is rich and surprisingly wide and the treble is bright, clean, and focused. Cordoba really does the heritage of the classical guitar well.

Bought a demo at a very agreeable price with a nice polyfoam very lightweight case.
I had to perform the standard nylon guitar setup which I'm very familiar with and with the truss rod everyone avoids , one can get a buzz free /very low action playing experience.
Hayden Flack , my rep, response is fantastic, be it text, phone call or email.
If you buy somewhere other than Sweetwater, you're being foolish.
40 yr experience as guitarist, performer teacher

This is a beautiful guitar. I love the nice spruce top, the grain of the rosewood back and sides, nice tuners.
Sounds balanced with good lows, mid and sparkling highs. I can't put it down for long before I pick it up and play classical music. I highly recommend it.

Bright dreamy sounding solid spruce sparkling off of deep brownish red riverlets of solid rosewood. Craftsmanship second to none. This is that classical guitar you will be happy to grow old with, having no wandering thought nor eye or itchy ear.

First guitar I"ve ever bought new and was well worth it. Very fun and easy to play. Sweetwater guys were awesome as always!

This is a great guitar. Except for the Cordoba C12, I doubt you can get anything noticeably better for less than twice the price. I don't know how Cordoba does it.

The instrument is exquisitely finished with great attention to detail. Everything is near perfect.

The intonation is dead on with the Savarez 500CJ strings as shipped by Cordoba. The typical issues with the G-string, and sometimes the D-string, are non-existent. I presume Cordoba got this right and Sweetwater, as they do in their setup and checkout, ensured it was right.

The voice is really good. The trebles are clear and consistent up the neck. There is no "plastic" timber to them at all until you get up above the 10th to 12th fret, and even then, it takes an experienced discriminating ear to notice it. They are clear, focused, and the voice as I would expect from a spruce top.

The basses have wonderful overtones without making the basses muddy. The overtones have clarity. I expect this from a spruce-top/rosewood back/sides instrument. The basses retain good overtones until you get up above the 10th to 12th fret and, even then, the overtone rolloff is consistent and smooth. The voice consistency is smooth up the fret board on each string and there are no jarring transitions between strings.

The attack is crisp without quack. I expect this from a spruce top instrument.

The sustain is marvelous. The instrument fully resonates and playing it without resting the back against the body, but leaving a bit of an air gap, helps the projection. You can feel the instrument projecting sound. There are no note-specific resonances that would create unevenness, muddiness, or booming voice on certain notes.

The dynamic range is responsive. One does not have to work hard to get a differential between pp and ff passages. The instrument is capable of a good range. Also, there is good voice responsiveness to right-hand position between the sound hole and the bridge.

I have a Yamaha NCX1200R, a cutaway with electronics, all solids rosewood back/sides, spruce top, ebony fingerboard and bridge. Very similar in materials compared to this Cordoba C10 S and in the same price category.

The NCX1200R is a good instrument. This Cordoba C10 S is noticeably superior in some ways. There are voice differences, the Yamaha has a softer voice and that is not unexpected. In my opinion the Cordoba superiority comes from the Cordoba's greater use of the back and sides for projection, the better fuller overtones, a larger dynamic and voice range, and the Yamaha's slightly more "plastic" voice in the upper end of the fret board on the trebles. The Yamaha is a good instrument, especially with its pickup system, but if I wanted to use a mic for reinforcement instead of a pickup, the Cordoba would be my choice between the two.

I want to thank Sweetwater, Bart Good, my representative, and his associates, who helped me in acquiring this wonderful instrument.

As always, the instrument came well packaged, in it's protective hard-foam case (a really good guitar case too), in it's factory well cushioned box, and then in an outer box with a good air layer between it and the inner factory box. The air layer insulation kept a consistent temperature and humidity environment that would not change rapidly during shipping. This is the third guitar I've received from Sweetwater, and they were all shipped similarly.

If my playing ability gets to the point where I want a noticeable improvement on this instrument, I suspect it will be to one at least three times the price. This one will keep me for a very, very long time.

Thanks Cordoba and Sweetwater for the wonderful experience with this instrument!

I can't say enough good things about this guitar. From bass to treble, everything seems to pop. Someone described the tone of the higher notes sounding like bells and I couldn't describe it any better. The sustain is excellent and the intonation is perfect along the entire fretboard, both contributing to the overall sound and playability of this guitar. I can't lie and say this sounds as good as a $6k-$7k single luthier made guitar, but it's close enough for me. In relation to one of those, I would expect this guitar to cost more.

I kept going back and forth between the C9 and C10 and between the cedar and spruce tops. The choice between the C9 and C10 was easy for me. I just preferred the look of the rosewood sides and back as well the ebony fingerboard on the C10. I didn't want to have buyers remorse by trying to save a "little" extra money, especially since I plan on keeping it for many years. Ironically, I never actually saw or played the C10 in person before purchasing it. I was only able to find a C9 locally and loved the way it sounded and played. Honestly, in my opinion the C9 plays and sounds just as good as my C10, so the choice was strictly for the look of the fretboard, back and sides. Regarding the spruce versus cedar debate, I know I made the right choice for me. The finish is near flawless all around, and the spruce top looks SO MUCH better in person. The photos can't capture this. You really need to see it in person, or a video of it to see how the light moves on it. (Look at some of the YouTube reviews and you can kind of get the idea.) They say the spruce will open up over time and it will sound better; well it sounds great now so it's nice to know it will only get better!

My only complaint is with the case. Overall it's a really nice case, but the zipper keeps getting caught on the little cloth strap that keeps the top from folding all the way back. I had to glue and sew it tighter towards the inside the case to keep it out of the zipper's way. I'm here to review the guitar and not the case so I'm not taking any stars off.

One last note. This was the first time purchasing from Sweetwater and it won't be the last. They have the best customer service and really stand by the products they sell. My sales engineer (Nick) and tech support engineer (Dakota) were great to work with. Thanks!

I am TRULY stunned at how well the Cordoba C10 (spruce top) plays and sounds. In all candor, I have owned 3 Ramirez's, an Otto Vowhinkle, 2 Pavans and even an Ovation classical guitar: all of them made in Europe or the U.S. Every one of them had a glitch, something I did not like tonally or mechanically (buzzes, intonation problems, problems staying in tune), and I kid you not, this Cordoba C10 is the better than all of them for tone, playability, intonation, and remaining in tune while playing. Really, the intonation is impressive ... it sounds perfect up and down the fretboard.

I made one adjustment, and that's about 30 seconds of sanding the bottom of the saddle (probably less than 1mm sanded off with 400 grit fine sandpaper) to make the action slightly lower. The highs are clear (not plasticy), the mids are just fine and the lows are clear, loud and as bold as you wish to hit them. The finish is flawless and wood grains are nice too.

If you want to buy a guitar to keep and are not worried about any stigma of manufacturing location, this is the guitar to purchase. I'd say this guitar really shakes off any such stigma for me. Save yourself a lot of money, get a very top-notch instrument at a super reasonable price and then use the money you did not spend to go to Spain! With Sweetwater's service and return policy, you really can't go wrong. This guitar is a true keeper.

This has been amazing guitar. The quality of solid wood top and sides are awesome. Beautiful guitar.

It sounded good and sweetwater did a great job checking it out. I was leary buying off the internet. Was completely impressed.

I have had the guitar for a year now and people that say a solid top and sides open up over time were right.

It is a beautiful sounding guitar and would recommend it.

I love this guitar more now than when I first bought it.

Sweetwater is incredible to work with.

Very impressed with the quality that the guitar was built. All details from the finish until the optimal audio performance. I am very pleased.

Very happy with my purchase. The guitar is beautiful and a joy to play. My only complaint is that a seam on the case was not glued down completely, so I had to glue it back on, other wise I am very satisfied.

I am a guitar aficionado who has struggled with playing nylon guitars for over 50 years.
After careful consideration, it was about time I upgraded to an intermediate guitar.
I chose the "Cordoba C10 S - European Spruce Top" and have no regrets.

As classical instruments go this is a really nice mid range guitar. If you are not a true classical player and like to play some classical songs for the price it doesn't get any better than this.