Cordoba 20BM Mahogany Baritone Ukulele

I am a long time guitar player and have a collection of guitars. I own electric, acoustic, classical, bass but have never gotten into ukulele until recently. After doing a bit of research I decided on the Cordoba 20 TM-CE Acoustic Electric Tenor for my first ukulele. I am very happy with it. First off, it is a very nice looking ukulele, with a very solid feel to it. Nothing on this looks cheaply made. I was very pleasantly surprised with how nice it looks. I was really worried because this was the first time I have purchased an instrument online and without having spent some real time playing with it. Plus, I realized I would be getting an instrument right out of the box without any kind of "setup" which is not the ideal way of making a perfect match. I would recommend always playing an instrument before buying it but I will say that I was lucky and it worked out for me this time. Admittedly, I am new to the ukulele and there is an adjustment to make from the guitar but so far it has been a pretty easy transition. I am loving this thing. The tone is nice and I couldn't be happier. There is a learning curve with the different tuning/fret size/action and I will probably switch out to a low G string but I am having a blast learning this thing. There are no strap buttons on this ukulele so if you are one to play with a strap you will have to improvise with that or install one. There are kits and they are easy to install if you want to wear a strap. If you are looking for a mid range ukulele, this to me feels like a great bang for your buck.

This little tenor has a very nice build quality. The finish is that of a much more expensive instrument. It has no binding, so the solid mahogany top just blends smoothly into the sides. The action is perfect right out of the box. The intonation is quite accurate. And, with the cutaway, you can play all the cool chords anywhere on the fret board. Plugged in, it has a lot of presence and is very balanced. I'm using it with a Fishman Loudbox Mini amp, and when you dial in a little reverb and chorus, you have an amazing sound. I was considering some tenors that cost twice as much and I was a little concerned about the OEM electronics on such an inexpensive unit. I needn't have worried. This guy sounds terrific. The battery compartment is right on top next to the controls, so changing a battery is a ten second deal. Unplugged, it has nice volume and a very sweet and balanced uke sound. The warmth of the mahogany really comes through. It's amazing what you get for the price.

This is, all things considered, a very nice baritone uke for the money. I already play a Cordoba Tenor (electric/acoustic) that I really quite like, so when I went looking for a bari, I was happy to find that Cordoba had started building one in its 20 series. This instrument has a solid mahogany top and mahogany laminate back and sides, and when strung as set up with Aquila strings (two nylgut, two wound), it sounds sweet and warm. A little setup tweaking might improve the action a little, and I can imagine someone wanting to switch out the tuners at some point for something a little nicer, but the instrument's pretty well ready to go out of the box. It's got the kind of mellow classical guitar tone typical of Cordoba's 20 series, and it projects fairly nicely, although players who prefer a bolder, bigger steel-string guitar-like sound might find it a bit mushy. It has a lot of ring in the low end, so recording requires some EQ work to keep it from getting wolfy. I really love the way Cordoba necks are cut, and this uke is extraordinarily easy and comfortable to play. I play it tuned DGBE, so I can't speak to alternate tunings, but I imagine it will sound good in any number of configurations.I play both Cordobas and Lanikais (I'm on a budget! :) ), and here's what I see as the difference: the Lanikais in the comparable price range are simple little workhorses -- they sound pretty good and pretty loud for the price, they stand up well to abuse, and they aren't terribly fancy. The Cordobas in this series are a lot more stylish and are more attractively built -- they're less sturdy (often not as deep in the body as the Lanikais) and not as loud, but the sound is richer and more complex.

I have been playing this model professionally for 10 years. Replacement instruments purchased a few times. The newest one in 2024 was lower quality, slightly different shape, bridge etc and not as good as older ones. Cordoba is shipping in Yamaha box so I suspect the brand was sold or just lower quality over time.

I don't think this product was tested at all after it was assembled. I've gotten a guitar and a ukulele off of Amazon in the past and had issues with those, but they were minor things that I could DIY, like the bridge coming unglued or the nut having a double course of strings spaced so far apart that they were unplayable together. But this baritone ukulele was astonishingly defective. The strings buzzed really badly, especially the D string. Holding it down on the first and second fret, it played the exact same note as it played on the third, only the string buzzed horribly. So, like all three notes were an F. I thought maybe it was the nut. Then I thought maybe it was the third fret was sticking out more than the first two. But then I discovered the same issue on some of the other strings higher up the neck and didn't know what to think. The neck didn't look warped. The nut looked fine. The bridge looked fine. Maybe it was some of the frets themselves, but I couldn't tell for sure. Whatever it was, I didn't have the ability to diagnose the issue and suspect that it's more than a minor fix. Disappointing. I didn't expect anything super great for the price, but I paid enough to expect something functional that could play notes. Hopefully this isn't a problem you can expect to have if you buy this - like maybe I'm just unlucky. I thought Cordoba was an established brand. Not sure why someone would take the time to build an instrument like this only to not even tune it up and check that it worked.