Cordoba C7 CD Iberia

The Cordoba C7 has a lot of very positive reviews around the net and it was partly due to this that I bought one. Thomann are also consistently good as a supplier and their price was super competitive. Straight out of the box there is little to complain about with the guitar being fully playable and it was cosmetically fine. The sound is pretty good also with a good depth of bass and good separation between the bass, mid and treble tones. It's supplied with Savarez Cristal strings and I've never been a fan of this set from Savarez, much preferring the Alliance trebles which hold their tuning well. The nut had a raised area on the treble side that caught the left hand when moving into first position and the nut slots where on the high side. The action was okay and also a little on the high side but there's sufficient adjustment on the bridge saddle to allow a lower action. The fret finishing wasn't great and there were lumps and bumps here and there with the fret height across the fingerboard. For the money though this is a good guitar and spending £100 on a professional setup to iron out the issues with the nut and the frets and get a really great action still brings it in well under £500 so it's good value in that respect. As a beginner guitar it would be fine as is, but intermediate/experienced players would need a pro setup to get a decent action and the frets dressed properly.

I think the C7 is a much better choice than the common cheap beginner guitars, like the Yamaha C40. Yes, its more expensive, but at least you won't waste time with the C40 which is at best good for making a fire.

Overall the C7 is well built, good sound. In terms of features I think this might be the best guitar in the price range.

I would also recommend this as a beater, if you have another, more expensive guitar that you don't want to drag around.

The only issue is playability. The action is way too high, I suspect Cordoba does this in order to get a better volume out-of-the-box. However, its so high its almost unplayable. You can loosen the strings and easily slide of saddle off, then sand the bottom of it to get a lower action, so its an easy fix.

Overall, a good guitar that needs a bit of setting up.