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One thing I love about this genre is that so many of the best players use the cheapest guitars. You don't really see that many Gypsies playing Selmers, Favinos, or Duponts anymore.
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From page 124 Leo Eimers writes in regards to Stochelo's set-up:
Stochelo plays with a relatively high action. The distance between the low e string and the 12-th fret measures 4.5 mm. Stochelo prefers a medium high bridge with 0.11 'Silk and steel' strings.
Later on page 127 when Stochelo is asked "What is the thickness of the strings you play with?" he responds:
I play on Silk and Steel strings, size 0.11. When I was 15 year of age, I played on 0.12 and a high action (distance between strings and top of the body), but then you have to work a much harder. When I grew older I started to play a little lighter, because that suited me better, and I switched to 0.11. A 0.10 string set is too thin, because you loose much of the attack.
On page 125 he is asked, "Did you use a guitar pick from the start, and what kind of material was it made off? He replies:
Yes, although we had to make our picks ourselves. We made them from plastic electrical pipe material. We heated the plastic pipe over a fire and banged it until it was flat and then we would use a pair of pliers or tweezers to cut out the shape of a pick. After that we would smooth the edges by rubbing it over street tiles. These picks were rather thin.
The following question is "What kind of guitar pick do you prefer, thick or thin?" His response:
As I explained earlier, I started with thin self-made picks. Later we heard that Django always played with a button, because that would give a better sound. We therefore stepped over to thick picks (3.5 mm and thicker). At the moment I am back to using a thin pick. I feel more comfortable with that, because I have more feeling and control over the strings. Moreover, I think a thick pick is inconvenient if you regularly have to switch to a nylon string guitar or an electric guitar. There is just too great a difference. From experience I know that I cannot perform well enough using a thick pick on an electric jazz guitar.
By the way, the book comes with one of his picks which appears to be about 1.5 mm. thick. It looks to be about the same thickness as the triangular Wegen picks that Michael Dunn uses.
Ahh..."aspect volontairement vieilli" -- now I understand. Yeah, I don't get this pre-aged thing either. I think Fender started this ridiculous trend and now it's spread to acoustics.
Anyway, I would love to hear some feedback on how the Cordobas (especially) the oval hole, sound. The price sure is great, but do they sound selmerish, or like a toy box guitar?
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
-It comes out of the box in much better shape then a Gitane. Decent set up and has argentine strings on it.
-Sound is very good for a $400 guitar. I don't have Gitane on hand to compare it to (but I will soon start carrying them.) But from memory, the Cordoba seemed to be at least as good as the Gitane in terms of volume and tone. The tone seemed less harsh then a lot of gitanes I've played. But I'd really need put them side by side to say for sure.
-workmanship seemed much cleaner then the Gitane. I've seen a lot of Gitanes with crummy looking finish work and a general lack of regard for details. The Cordoba seems much cleaner.
-Bridge and hardware seem much better on the Cordoba then the Gitane.
-I felt that the higher strings weren't as snappy as I'd like. For lead work it could get a little drowned out. But I'd raise the action and I'm sure that would bring some of the high end back. Also, the shorter scale D-holes cut less in general. I should have the 14 fret oval hole in about a month. I'm curious to see what that's like!
All in all...it seems like they've out done Saga. But it will take some time and more detailed comparison to say for sure. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised when I took it out of the box. It definitely passed my test....
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Whenever you get the chance to do a side-by-side comparison I'd curious to know whether you still think that Cordoba has out-Sagaed Saga.
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