Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? We’ve got answers!
General
Excellent question! We put together this handy dandy chart to help you figure out what tonewood combination will get you the sound you want.
If you need tuning machines, we ask that you send in photographs detailing the problem, as well as the date and place you purchased your instrument. If the electronics on your guitar are malfunctioning, please return to the dealer you purchased your instrument from, and have them give us a call. This is only to insure that you are within your window for warranty service. We also sell replacement tuning machines online at our shop. Please note that depending on the age of your instrument, specific parts that you request may or may not be available.
We recommend that you keep your guitar within a temperature range of 60 F to 85 F, and a relative humidity of 45% to 65%. Please see our section on How to Care for Your Guitar.
Yes, this is normal and it’s called telegraphing! Read more about it here.
We strongly advise against using steel strings on any nylon string guitar. Doing so will cause irreparable damage to the guitar’s bridge, soundboard, neck and tuning machines, and will void the original warranty.
You are referring to our arches logo, a design that we incorporated onto the headstock of some of our non-traditional and cutaway-electric models. This logo was inspired by the famous red and white double arches in the Mezquita Catedral in Cordoba, Spain. These arches are renowned as the city of Cordoba’s greatest structural achievement, and we wanted to pay homage to that.
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Córdoba Dealers & Buying a Córdoba
Unfortunately, we do not sell directly to customers at this time. We can put you in contact with your closest dealer so that you can play the guitar before purchasing. Please use our Dealer Map to find the dealer nearest you.
As dealer inventory constantly changes, it is difficult for us to determine whether or not a specific dealer has a particular item in their store. You can visit our Dealer Map to find your local dealer, and contact them for more information regarding the model you’re looking for.
As we do not sell directly to customers, please contact your nearest Cordoba dealer for pricing and availability information.
A list of our international distributors is available online on our Dealer Map. Although you may not see a dealer in your particular area or country, many of these dealers distribute our products to other music stores. We recommend that you contact the nearest dealer or distributor to see if they can help you. If you are unable to find what you are looking for, we can also refer you to Guitar Salon International. They ship internationally and carry most of our products. Feel free to contact us if you are still unable to locate a dealer, or if the dealer does not have the model you’d like.
Please contact us with your company’s website (if you have one) and the Regional Brand Manager for your area will contact you as soon as possible.
Replacement Parts
Since each Cordoba guitar is fitted with an individually crafted, custom made nut and saddle, we do not stock a standard size that can be simply dropped in any guitar. Because our guitars are each built by hand, each guitar has its own unique requirements for a perfect saddle size and shape. If a new nut or saddle is needed for your guitar, we recommend visiting one of our authorized dealers or a local repair shop where they will be happy to fit a new saddle that is perfect for your specific guitar!
Specs & Country of Origin
Sure do! Click here to download it: Cordoba Spec Chart
All of our wood is sustainably harvested and sourced. We are fully compliant with CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which is an international agreement between governments that ensures that our use of certain plants does not threaten their survival. We are also Lacey act compliant which prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold.
Your serial number will be located inside the soundhole, up towards the headstock. Please note that serial numbers for the following models are not logged in our system: Protege by Córdoba, UP100, GP100, CP100, CP110, C3M, C3M Cadete, Requinto Cadete, Dolce, C5, C5-CE, C5-CET, C5-CEBK, C5-CETBK, La Playa Travel, La Playa Travel SS, La Playa Ukulele, Minis, and all ukuleles except for the 25 series and 30 series.
You can find out what strings come with your guitar by visiting your model’s specific page on our website. Under the Full Specs category, the strings and their tensions will be listed. The bridges of our guitars are built to withstand normal or hard tension strings. We do not recommend using extra hard tension, and we definitely do not recommend putting steel strings on a nylon string guitar.
All guitars in our Iberia, Luthier, Fusion, España and Master Series have truss rods! The Iberia series guitars have been built with truss rods since 2007, and the Fusion & España series have been built with them since 2010. Our ukuleles and Minis do not have truss rods.
Pau ferro is a South American tonewood that has been used in guitar making for many years. It is known to have a smooth feel and shares many sonic qualities with rosewood. With a tight wood grain in-between ebony and rosewood, pau ferro is hard and slightly snappy like ebony while maintaining a nice level of warmth similar to rosewood. Visually, pau ferro tends to be lighter in color than traditional rosewood though it may be stained to appear like rosewood.
CITES (Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species) is a global organization that maintains the health of our plant’s species and ecosystems by regulating international trade of wildlife (both flora and fauna). As of January 2017, CITES determined that rosewood will be protected, requiring new certification for any product that contains rosewood. This new legislation adds complexity to manufacturing guitars that contain rosewood, increasing costs to manufacturers and consumers. So in response, we have joined many other guitar manufacturers in switching out rosewood as much as possible. We selected pau ferro as the best replacement for many of our instruments because it shares many properties with rosewood.
We guarantee that all Cordoba guitars are imported legally, complying to all CITES regulations. You don’t have to worry about CITES unless you decide to sell or trade your guitar abroad. The proper CITES certification will be your responsibility and failure to comply may lead to forfeiture and sometimes destruction of the item. You may still travel with your guitar without certification as long as it has less than 22lbs of regulated materials.
We are dedicated to providing instruments of great quality while maintaining materials that are both acceptable to the guitar market and in compliance with all CITES regulations.
Expect these changes to show up in the market in the summer of 2018 (varies by model).
Córdoba Webstore
If you are unsatisfied with your purchase on Cordobaguitars.com, you may return or exchange your order within 30 days of the original online purchase date. We can only exchange or return unworn/unused products and will assess the items when they arrive at our facilities. For more detailed information, please download our return card. Thanks!
The coupon codes are CAPS sensitive. Please try copying the coupon code exactly how it was given to you. If you still are having difficulties, please call 310-586-1180 or Contact Us. Unfortunately we are unable to retro-actively apply coupon codes to your order.
We do not share nor sell information collected through our webstore.
We ship to addresses in the United States using USPS and FedEx. At the moment, this is the only shipping method that we offer.