Cordoba C5-CE Iberia Series Acoustic Electric Classical Guitar with Gig Bag

I was inspired by my guitar teacher to purchase an electric classical guitar when he pulled out his handmade classical electric from Peru. I checked this one out at my local guitar shop & I gotta say, I like this Cordoba C5-CE (China made, even) BETTER than the Peru handmade electric classical. I have 2 Cordobas--the entry level C3, and this C5-CE is the second.The C3 is only acoustic classical, no pickups or plug ins or even a button drilled into the body. The C5-CE has the cut-away, the tone control/power panel, the battery cage & pickup plug--no strap button (which I'll probably have added soon). There'll obviously be a sound difference due to the body style and cut-aways on the C5-CE, but I was also surprised at how the play is different, once I had both guitars next to each and I could compare them. I am surprised to say that I still like my C3 better than the C5-CE...but they are guitars for different purposes.The string action on the C5-CE is, well...TAUT...compared to the C3. This can be good or bad, depends on what you're going for. Just know that there is definitely a difference. The C3 has a brighter, louder tone than the C5-CE. The C5-CE has a beautiful warmer, tighter sound. Both guitars handle flamenco strumming/arpeggiating just fine, with the C3 being the more "responsive" of the two. But, don't let my comparison between an AMAZING entry level classical guitar and an AMAZING entry level electric classical guitar dissuade you from the C5-CE! Of all the CEs that I tried (that weren't 4 figures, ha!), the C5-CE had the best tone and action of them all, and I am extremely happy with the sound and performance so far...Like I said, it's much better than the handmade Peruvian guitar that I tried.But, when you've got two performers with two classical guitars & two vocals along with some percussion...you have to make your compromises so that the venue in which you may find yourself (read: SMALL, ha) and the limited sound equipment you can bring with you can handle all the equipment.Shipping was fast and as promised. Bag is NICE, with "Cordoba" written on the front. Light gray, sturdy ballistic nylonmaterial. Great stuff, Amazon, thanks!!UPDATE 7/30/2013So, now that I've had my Cordoba C5-CE for a few months, I would change my review to 4 stars. The sound is still AH-MAZING, warm, lovely. But, as I started breaking in the guitar, I started getting buzzing from the strings. I changed out the saddle for one from a high end classical guitar (in the 4 figure range type of guitar), and that helped for a little while. Then I had the strings raised just a titch, which helped for a while. Then I taped down all the electronics in the body of the guitar...until finally there was just an AWFUL buzzing that could not be corrected. I wrote to Cordoba with the standard 'fix it or replace it' spiel to them; they emailed back with the specs and tolerances for string height, tension, etc...and gave one more piece of advice: check the battery and the battery door. Sometimes that can cause the buzzing. Sure 'nuff, it was the battery being too loose in the battery box, and the door rattling with the string strumming. The quality of the sound is wonderful for the price of the guitar, that still is a 5-star review. The problem is with the string buzzing (reported before by a few other folks, too), and the fitting of the electronics, all of which seem to be corrected now. And, now that I've added the Savaris Cristal S540 high tension strings, this guitar really sings!Oh, one other thing that annoys me with this guitar: the onboard Fishman tuner doesn't tune as well as my Korg tuner. The Fishman seems to tune things just a bit off. I just keep my Korg tuner close.Bottom line is, you'll have to baby the guitar to get it where you want it, but once you do, you'll love it!Peace

I bought a new guitar. It came with a scratch at the lower bout behind the chords close to the bridge and other scratch next to the saddle. Packaged not very secure to avoid hits at the front and back. The bag is OK but seems like used. Cables of amplification are hanging not properly makes some strange sounds when playing. Unsatisfied and annoyed

Great guitar. Too bad that this is the second instrument I have received damaged from Amazon, but could be the shipper's issue. Mine arrived with all the internal wires for the pickup system unsecured, hanging low and swinging freely inside the guitar. Acoustically it's great though! As long as I don't move it enough to clack the internal wires against the body. Sounds very good, so I will fix rather than return.

Due to a poorly designed battery box, this otherwise nice guitar is a disaster waiting to happen. I learned this after hearing a LOUD buzzing coming from the battery box.Much to my dismay, though, I soon found the problem to be MUCH worse than mere buzzing.I eventually found the culprit to be the battery box door - which, because of its basic design, is loose. There's a fair amount of "play" around the door's hinge posts and elsewhere. And that's NUTS. Because guitars are all about producing and managing a wide range of vibrations. So predictably, the loose battery box door buzzes loudly in response to certain vibrations and frequencies (on my guitar, the open G string more than any other got it buzzing).But far worse is the battery box's capacity for self-destruction. The box's wire contact springs have a tendency to hook into the crimping of a 9V battery's negative terminal. Once that happens, simply removing the battery wrecks the box; the hooked spring gets stretched to 5-10 times its proper length - and it can't be re-compressed. Then it's "game over" - permanently - for the battery box. This has happened to me twice now, requiring that new battery boxes be installed both times. Until that's done (by a tech), the guitar obviously has zero electronics.Cordoba clearly knows about the problem, yet keeps selling these defective products anyway. There's even coverage on their website about battery box issues, along with jerry-rigging "solutions." In my case, their "solutions" actually CAUSED the spring hooking catastrophe(s).Cordoba and/or Fishman needs to re-design these battery boxes NOW. I can't begin to imagine how such spectacularly poorly designed units ever made it past those companies' quality control processes. But these things do happen. Companies, like people, make mistakes. In both cases, what one does (or fails to do) to try to rectify one's mistakes speaks volumes about the basic integrity - or lack thereof - of the party in question. So c'mon, Cordoba and Fishman: Show us what you're made of! Do the right thing!There's nothing that would make me happier than to be able to rewrite this review upon learning (1) that Cordoba is installing re-designed, non-defective battery boxes; and (2) that my guitar and others are being retrofitted. If and when those things happen, I'll have nothing but good things to say about Cordoba. But as of today, as far as I know, they've got no plans whatever to fix this guitar-crippling design defect. That is SO wrong.Until those battery boxes are redesigned, do NOT buy this guitar.***REVIEW TAMPERING? A few hours after posting this review, I noticed it had been rated "unhelpful" four separate times. Four? - In a few hours? - In a VERY low-volume product category? That didn't smell right. Then I noticed the same sort of deal with other negative reviews of this guitar. LOTS of "unhelpful" ratings. The positive reviews, though, when rated at all, are rated overwhelmingly "helpful" - even for some that are only a few words long and that say nothing of substance. Why does it matter? Because ratings determine which reviews shoppers are most likely to see - or not see. Have a look for yourself. Then make your own educated guesses about who's really doing the review rating. Are they all legitimate, prospective customers? Or are at least some of them other folks - with very different motives?

I'm a rank beginner, so I'm not able to assess how good the guitar is as well as others might be. It seems fine to me: it produces a rich tone, and I love it. However, the strings that come with the guitar are terrible. The three wound strings (low E, A, and D) all snapped, within a month of getting the guitar. They snapped at different times over the course of the month, and never when I was playing, only overnight. I mostly pluck and use my fingers, and I didn't even play it that often. Still, the included strings leave a lot to be desired. (I replaced them, one at a time, with D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte Nylon Classical Guitar Strings, Normal Tension, which come highly recommended not just here on amazon but also at two local guitar shops. They are fantastic.)