Cordoba Ukuleles - Worth Considering?

I'm considering selling my vintage Harmony Baritone ukulele and replacing it with an inexpensive "modern" Baritone. My uke budget has taken a major hit this year with the purchase of my Jupiter Tenor, so I'm looking for something under $250-$300 at the most. I don't play Baritone a lot, but it's fun to occasionally pick it up and noodle a bit. The Harmony Bari never really bonded with me.

I'd like to at least get a solid-top instrument. In my price range are Kala, Ohana, and Cordoba. I've had experience with the Kala and Ohana lines but Cordoba seems to have some decent models that would meet my specs. If you have any opinions or experiences with the Cordoba products, I would appreciate hearing about them! Any other recommendations for a baritone would also be appreciated. I am open to used instruments.

Finally, if anyone is interested in a solid mahogany 1950's Harmony Baritone in great condition, drop me a note!

I've heard good things about the Cordoba 24B baritone: solid cedar top, ebony fretboard, 1.5" nut width. I have the tenor version, and like it a lot. The cedar offers a great tone, and sounds great right out of the gate, no extended "opening-up" period needed. Some members here have the 24B, and I expect they'll jump in to offer their opinions.

Ukecaster said:

I've heard good things about the Cordoba 24B baritone: solid cedar top, ebony fretboard, 1.5" nut width. I have the tenor version, and like it a lot. The cedar offers a great tone, and sounds great right out of the gate, no extended "opening-up" period needed. Some members here have the 24B, and I expect they'll jump in to offer their opinions.

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The listings I see now for the Cordoba 24B show it having a Spruce top. Is that a recent change? Actually, I'm more inclined to Spruce right now as I have at least three ukes with softwood tops (Cedar & Redwood). I like the idea of a 1.5" nut width. One of the things I don't like about the Harmony is the very narrow nut width.

I own a spruce top tenor (32T) which is claimed to be "Hechos a mano" in a Chinese factory. It is a fine instrument, lightly built, with a very nice voice and excellent intonation. I would certainly look at a Cordoba baritone if I was in the market for another bari.

I'd e-mail Mike at Mainland and see what he could sell you (factory second) at that price range.

I've got a 24B and am quite happy with it. You're right, they did switch from Cedar to Spruce recently. Not sure why, since I think their 22B/21B is spruce. The body is a bit shallower than a Kala, but I prefer that. I find the neck shape quite comfortable, but the fret ends on the particular one I got weren't up to my standards for smoothness so I had to go over them a bit with a fret file.

For baritone and guitars I love spruce and cedar tops even though I don't care for spruce or cedar on smaller instruments.

glennerd said:

I've got a 24B and am quite happy with it. You're right, they did switch from Cedar to Spruce recently. Not sure why, since I think their 22B/21B is spruce. The body is a bit shallower than a Kala, but I prefer that. I find the neck shape quite comfortable, but the fret ends on the particular one I got weren't up to my standards for smoothness so I had to go over them a bit with a fret file.

For baritone and guitars I love spruce and cedar tops even though I don't care for spruce or cedar on smaller instruments.

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My gut instinct is that Cordoba suffered from having too many of their cedar top ukuleles returned for cosmetic issues. The ultralight matte finish on the old 24 series did very little to protect the soft cedar tops so lots of ukes came out of the box to the retailers with scratches on top.

Last year there were dozens of 24 series ukes for sale on Reverb as B stock items with slight scratches on the tops.

I think Cordoba might have taken a bath on what are actually some wonderful ukuleles.

Funny story here... I had a Cordoba 24B until very recently when I sold it to a UU member. It was a fine uke but I guess I just don’t like baritones.... so I hardly ever played it.
The other day, as I was cleaning it up for shipping, my wife wandered in and picked it up and started playing it. Despite the fact that the 24B has been sitting around our house for a year during which my wife tried it once.. all of a sudden, upon seeing it leaving the house, she decides she needs a baritone to replace it.

So I bought her the Harmony baritone the OP, Snargle, listed the other day... the very baritone he’s considering finding a Cordoba 24B to replace

All things considered, I’d look for a Kala KA-ABP-CTG if I was in the market for a new bari..

Well, it looks like everything I'm remotely interested in seems to either be discontinued, out-of-stock, or out of my price range. I think I'm going to wait until after the holidays and see what the market looks like then. I'm in no rush. That being said, if something nice showed up on the Marketplace, I could be tempted.

Snargle said:

Well, it looks like everything I'm remotely interested in seems to either be discontinued, out-of-stock, or out of my price range. I think I'm going to wait until after the holidays and see what the market looks like then. I'm in no rush. That being said, if something nice showed up on the Marketplace, I could be tempted.

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Well, that didn't take long.
I found an Ohana BK-70M Baritone on Reverb at a great price (supposedly a "B" stock blemished uke) that was too tempting. It's a solid spruce top with laminate mahogany back and sides. It came in last night and I'm quite pleased. If there's a flaw or blemish on it, my aged eyes weren't able to find it. I've already switched out the Aquila strings for a set of Martin 630 Fluorocarbons and it's settling in nicely.

I'll do a proper NUD post in a few days with pics and more details. I think this is going to be a nice addition to the stable.

Swamp Yankee said:

All things considered, I’d look for a Kala KA-ABP-CTG if I was in the market for a new bari..

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I've got one one of those that I really like and I just noticed that Kala has discontinued the model. Seems odd as I read it was popular.