Cordoba GK Studio

I'm an intermediate player playing mainly acoustic nylon string guitars for my own fun using different fingerpicking styles, even flamenco. After many years of being inactive on this sector I got an inspiration to start to play again and bought this Cordoba guitar and I'm very satisfied with it. Low action, easy to play, no string buzz. Perfect quality and ready to play without adjustments. However I found some minor issues as the ends of the frets were coarse, but I didn't need to do anything with them as they didn't damage my fingers or didn't affect playing. So that was only a minor inconvenience before I got used to it. Also the sound was at the beginning a little bit "stuck" and dull, but after a longer period of playing the sound "opened". Overall I'm very happy and satisfied with this guitar. Even bought recently a new Cordoba. This time a classical version.

Firstly, a little background... I am a luthier with more than 30 years experience, so if my comments seem like I'm nitpicking, it's only because my job is assessing, building and setting up guitars. Flamenco guitar is a new style for me and it made sense to research and buy a decent intermediate-priced instrument to start with.

The guitar was supplied in Thomann's usual excellent packaging and arrived undamaged. On careful examination, I was able to identify a couple of minor finish flaws and some under-polished lacquer but certainly nothing that was cause for concern. The alignment and fit of the neck was perfect, the tuners properly fitted, frets well seated and for a guitar at this price point I would say that the finish quality was very good - well above average, in fact. Some of the fret ends were a little sharp and several would clearly benefit from some polishing as roughness could be felt where the strings passed over them. The golpeador did have an air-bubble under it, but this was easily sorted out. Anyway, I see none of this as negative and would rate the guitar extremely highly at the price paid.

Naturally, the guitar needed a few days for the strings to settle in and a few hours playing before evaluating the performance. I have to say, the factory setup was very good indeed. For my own purpose, I knew I would set the action a little lower, deepen and polish the nut slots and perfect the string-to-string balance of the transducer, as well as addressing the issues mentioned in my initial assessment. In short, everything would fall into a proper professional setup, which I guess many folks buying a guitar online would expect to have done once they had played the instrument for a few weeks.

I wore out the first set of strings and then setup the guitar as described above, on new Savarez high-tension strings. In summary, it plays superbly and, considering it is an electro-acoustic instrument, it has really respectable purely acoustic tone and volume too. The surprise has been how well the Fishman transducer / mic / preamp work though. Through a decent acoustic amplifier (Fishman Loudbox Artist) it sounds really good, with great dynamics and that dry, raspy flamenco voicing when you dig into the strings. If you are thinking of spending this kind of money on a flamenco guitar to use with an amplifier, you should really check out this model. There are several useful performances on YouTube and I would say that they fairly represent the capabilities of this instrument.

I use the GK Studio for gatherings and small performances (e.g. in bars).

Beside its very nice appearance, this guitar has a very clear, smooth and comfortable sound.

It has a low action, just like how a Flamenco Guitar should be. The low action makes it very nice to play with minimal effort, which makes it also easier to play fast!

I am very satisfied with it, and I felt very comfortable playing it from the first couple of days.

This guitar offers you a professional quality for a budget price!

Ps: I am also very satisfied with the Thomann customer service!

I own this guitar and there is more than meets the eye!
First of all the most important, the acoustic sound: not impressive at all and lacks "the body"/fullness. I have literally played all the chord shapes in in most common positions and solo pulgar/apoyando on each string and have been comparing it to guitars in similar price range(with or without pickup) and this guitar sounded a much much thinner compared to the others (was lucky to get my hands on a few Camps guitars in the similar price range - this compared to them was sounding like a ukulele). Where this guitar shines is the equilibrium between lows/mids/highs in all dynamic ranges volume/"quality" wise. Now ask yourself openly - is that really what you want? I got this guitar for like 98% pure strumming/arpeggio accompaniment, but no way I would be playing flamenco/classical guitar (solo guitar) on this instrument, that would be just completely uninspiring tbh.
Other thing to talk about is the neck - is has very pronounced radius/curvature! It is very different from normal flamenco or classical guitars that have almost no radius there, so your strokes WILL sound quite different! From this standpoint this guitar is an "an acoustic" guitar with nylon strings.
About the overall quality, make no mistake this is a factory product. I have tried two of these guitars(one had flawed electronics), About the frets, I must say they were both very nicely in tune(which is great) but both were buzzing quite a bit(one more than the other) and this will definitely take another hidden expenses to make it not to buzz(not talking about flattening the radius, which I will undergo as well). Also the bridge plate is from some plastic so that will go away as well. Mechanics might be squeeking(the wooden part - I have of course oiled the gears in the mechanics but it did not go away) which I do not mind so much but it is important to mention(at this price I would not expect this.).
Pickup is nothing extra, I would prefer different one or none at all.

So to sum up: I would called this instrument ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC-FLAMENCO FUSION FACTORY GUITAR - good for a simple accompaniment and as a backup guitar/second guitar u do not have to worry about but with hidden costs(you need to fix the buzz + optionally new bridge plate/straightening the neck radius/better pickup), and just unsuitable for solo playing.