Cordoba Mini II, Nylon String - Striped Ebony Review

Travel Case for Mini II

I've had this guitar for a while and still love it. Of my three "travel" guitars, this gets the most use. When I bought it I'd wanted a nice case, but found it hard to fit in what was available, so I got the Cordoba 1/4 size gig bag. Nice enough,OK, but... I just found and bought the SKB SC300 Baby Taylor case (from Sweetwater, of course!) and it works GREAT for the Cordoba Mini… read more II. And a BIG shout out to Sweetwater for sponsoring the latest Leonid and Friends tour. THANK YOU!! Saw them in Northfield, Ohio last month (October 2021). Awesome band. No fancy lights, special effects, backup dancers; just world-class musicians practicing their craft.

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Finally the size I actually need!

I have the original Mini-M for a few years now, and been so curious and excited about the Mini II since it came out. I also have a big Cordoba GK Studio and it's fantastic, but ever since switching to the uke as my main stringed instrument, the GK Studio feels humongous. So i've been wanting a scaled down nylon stringed guitar WITH a cutaway, AND a solid top AND plug in capability.… read more As far as I've searched, this Cordoba Mini II is the only guitar of this size for the specs I need and after a couple years of holding off, and a few months of waiting for stock to arrive at SweetWater...I finally have one! And it's everything I hoped it to be. Very comfortable size to play, looks really classy with the spruce top contrasting with the really beautiful striped ebony grain on the sides and back. Now that i have the original Mini-M and the GK Studio to compare to the new Mini II...I can definitely say THIS sounds like a guitar. Even stringing the original Mini to E-E tuning, it was still very thin plonky sounding, but THIS mini II EB-CE sounds pretty darn deep and full for a guitar of this size! The strings it comes with sounds very mellow and round (probably due to the combination of Spruce and Ebony), which i like! BUT...as the other reviewers mentioned, there's still some floppiness and intonation issues with this short scale and not quite enough tension, so I am experiencing some buzzing and off notes. But I love this instrument so much, that i'm willing to see if a simple string swap would fix it. So thank you other reviewers for recommendations of strings. I will try on it next the Savarez Cantiga high tensions as well as the D'Addario polished bases and HT strings. I hope this will solve the issue. I have not tested the electronics yet in an amp. One other thing, i also got the Cordoba 1/4 size deluxe gig bag, and it fits the Mini II perfectly. Very good padded bag with straps. Cordoba should make this bag come with the Mini II, like they did give a bag with the original Mini-M. But anyway this is my 2nd Cordoba deluxe padded bag in my arsenal as the tenor ukulele one is also fantastic. Anyway, 4 stars for the instrument for size, comfort, uniqueness, coolness, sound. Knock 1 star off for intonation and buzzing. But still a tremendously fun instrument that i hope to keep for years and years. Cordoba if you're listening...good job! Now please make a solid cedar top, rosewood back and sides version of this plus some gloss options! thank you! and 5 stars go to Sweetwater for a very good deal, good service as always, and the BEST packing job of any large music retailer store. Came in a nice thick box with molded foam protection! Even guitar center doesn't pack like this. kudos SweetWater!

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Fills a Need for the $$$

I already own a Cordoba Gypsy Kings Studio Negra and a Mini R, both from Sweetwater. The Mini R was my primary travel guitar until I got the Striped Ebony Mini II. It's a good guitar for the $$$; in my opinion MUCH better than the Martin Backpacker Nylon. I had one of those and ended up giving it to my Uncle who does a lot of camping. I like this Cordoba Mini II much better. The… read more truss rod and standard classical tie block bridge are nice upgrades on the Mini II over the Mini R. Nu-Bone saddle, that's nice. The MINI II, at least mine, was not without some minor issues, which on mine were easily dealt with. Out of the box it was 'playable' and I played it that way for months. Finally I pulled off the strings, sanded down the saddle a bit, tweaked the truss rod and put on new hard tension strings. Even better now. There were a couple of rough spots on the top finish. I could 'feel' them, but they weren't visible unless one really looked. But I do like the look of the Spruce top and the striped ebony back and sides, and it gives good projection and warmth for a smaller nylon string guitar. As good as my full size GK Negra? No, of course not, but good enough to sit around and play some Bossa Nova, Flamenco or So What or Nuages? Yea. Electronics/tuner and tuning machines work as advertised, no problem after months of use. And this guitar gets played a lot! It's a great couch guitar. I do wish it had a Golpeador; I play some Flamenco and I will order one from Cordoba and put it on at my next string change; I did the same with my Mini R. In my opinion, this guitar, with its shorter scale length and nylon strings, really benefits from hard tension strings. Right now I'm using Hard Tension Martin M160s (88.9 lbs.), just to play it in with the new adjustments to the saddle and truss rod. Once I get the action where I like it I will go with my favorite, and more expensive string choice, the D'Addario EJ51s (89.94 lbs.) with the polished basses (I hate string squeak!). D'Addario even has some "extra" hard tension strings (93 lbs) I might consider for this guitar. I bought the small Cordoba gig bag, from Sweetwater, and it works fine. But for my Mini R I have the gig bag and also one of the Cordoba hard foam baritone uke cases. That works great for traveling. I've had that thing on airplane overheads, cruise ships, cars, all over with NO problems. I'd really like to find a similar case like that for this Mini II. (Cordoba...hint, hint.) There have been NO problems with the standard Cordoba gig bag for the Mini II, but a hard foam case would be even better. So Now I have two nylon string travel guitars and like and use them both when traveling, depending on where I'm going and the situation. Is it worth the money? The one that I got? Yea, works for me.

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Ultimate travel instrument

wood quality is beautiful, but varies greatly easy to play, saddle too tall, easy fix with sand paper sounds phenomenal, but the default savarez strings kinda suck, easy fix aswell.

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Worth the Wait!

My Mini II Spruce/Striped Ebony w/Electronics finally arrived after a 6 mo wait (I ordered one as soon as they showed up on Sweetwater's site). It was well worth the wait. I play mostly flamenco and Spanish guitar, and own a few Cordobas including a GK Pro. I have a top of the line mini that I use as a travel guitar, but even with my preferred Bela 2001 hard tension Flamenco strings… read more it doesn't really sound like a flamenco or classical guitar. It sounds more like a guilele. This new Mini II is a completely different story. THIS is a guitar! It sounds like a really nice classical guitar with Savarez strings ,and with the Bela strings on it, it plays flamenco like a dream. The action and the neck are both extremely comfortable and the 14 frets to the body along with the cutaway make playing melodies way down the neck even easier than with my GK Pro. What a great travel nylon string guitar! At any price really. I cannot recommend it enough.

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