Do up grades make adifference on Classical guitars?

[EarlBrother]

I was thinking of buying a Cordoba Dolce 7/8 th and doing a nut, bridge, tuners up grade.Would it be worth it?

[Jimmy blue note]

Why? Honestly, anything that makes a guitar feel better to you is worth it. Tuners on classics are of a generally interchangeable spacing (in my experience) so you can always change them back. Nut and saddle can be set up to play to your preferences and feel and you CAN use the existing ones and frankly, I'd be hard pressed to hear a difference, but set to your own action I'm sure you will feel a difference and that won't cost you replacement parts.

On a really high quality classical, they'll likely use real bone or even ivory but ivoroid, or what ever material they use... I'd say, just as good.

Often classical action by default is higher than what steel players are used to, to accomodate the wider range of dynamics a higher action can afford. If you suspect it can play easier for you, you're right. Have someone take the action down but be aware that it's non reversible on flat tops.

Good luck!

[EarlBrother]

I dont think i have the patience/ dicipline to save for a Cordoba C9 parlor.Just wanted if i could improve even a little the sound.But i guess it really is in the wood and bracing lol.I thank you for the responce !!!

[Jimmy blue note]

I dont think i have the patience/ dicipline to save for a Cordoba C9 parlor.Just wanted if i could improve even a little the sound.But i guess it really is in the wood and bracing lol.I thank you for the responce !!!

I dare say that for something as lightly built as a classical, the nature of the wood, especially the body wood, is where you'll hear the greatest improvement. Solid wood vs plywood, biggest difference. There's a lot you can do once you get into solid tops.
I'm not sure what's on the models you're considering but I speak in general as a builder and my apprenticeship was in classical guitar construction. Decent solid wood will put you in a very good place.

[kris]

I was thinking of buying a Cordoba Dolce 7/8 th and doing a nut, bridge, tuners up grade.Would it be worth it?

If you have checked this guitar and it suits you, you can upgrade it.
1 bone-nut and saddle
2 better quality tuners.
3 check if the guitar frets are well made-fret buzzing

[Brian859]

I completely agree with the bone saddle and nut. They are relatively cheap and have had them make a very noticeable improvement in both tone and sustain. Plus, if you learn how to install them youself, you can really get the action dialed in. All you need is something around 90 grit sandpaper and a flat hard surface. Just be mindful not to sand a hole in your thumb. Which I seem to do often.

[spencer096]

Wouldn’t be worth it. The upgrade is in the woods, French polish and workmanship. Most luthier built guitars are much lightly built than factory ones, and a finish like poly or nitro (on the top) won’t let the instrument sing like it’s supposed to.

Personally I wouldn’t buy a cordoba. Just won’t be much of an upgrade from whatever you have now. If you wanna make the jump I’d recommend Stephen Eden’s cadenza model. Around $3k usd but hangs w big boys that cost 2-3x as much. It just doesn’t have the bindings and rosettes that drive costs up due to time.

my 2 cents

[Freeman Keller]

Two comments, sort of conflicting

First, I just looked at the Cordoba Dolce 7/8 at Musician's Friend and it seems to come with bone nut and saddle

Cordoba Dolce 7/8-Size Acoustic Nylon-String Classical Guitar | Musician's Friend (musiciansfriend.com)

Second, I cow bone is my standard nut/saddle material. I will make them out of other materials if the owner brings me a blank, but I keep a stock of bleached and unbleached bone and that is what I use. Bone is reasonably priced, works well with tools and sounds good.

There are lots of good synthetic materials that can be used for nuts/saddles. I recently had occasion to replace a synthetic (melamine) nut on a nice student grade classical guitar with bone at the owner's request. I happened to have some audio spectrum software that lets me compare different waveforms, here is the 1st and 5th strings with both materials



The guitar has the same set of strings, the E and A string are plucked open. The time domain shows the rise and decay of the note (sustain). The frequency domain shows the makeup of partials. Basically there is no difference which is what my ears told me. Of course to the owner there was a big difference, but then she was paying for the change.

As far as tuners, on a 400 dollar guitar the ones that are on it probably aren't great. However unless they are really hard to turn or they bind or don't hold tune (even as strings are stretching) I would probably leave them.

[Freeman Keller]

I was thinking of buying a Cordoba Dolce 7/8 th and doing a nut, bridge, tuners up grade.Would it be worth it?

I dont think i have the patience/ dicipline to save for a Cordoba C9 parlor.Just wanted if i could improve even a little the sound.But i guess it really is in the wood and bracing lol.I thank you for the responce !!!

You do realize that the 7/8 and 9 are different sizes. The 7/8 is a smaller body and shorter scale, and will have a somewhat different sound, Rather than spending money "upgrading" I would suggest "upsizing" to the C9

[EarlBrother]

got a bit of a story.i will try make it brief.Woke up one morning picked up my full size Classical.'69 No.1a Garcia.My finger joints on both hands locked up and would pop.So at my age i figured this was it.So sold it and found a '67 Giannini model tur 4.at a thirft store.i have shortish fingers/hands.Payed $10.00 for it.I think its 3/4.worked on it. and could get around ok.Changed jobs and low and behold i got my hands back close to normal.But i am 72.So decided was looking at 7/8 a little bigger.C9 parlor is out of reach for my income situation.But with out trying the dolce, if its not much better than the Ginnini which doesn't sound bad.anything past 10-12 fret gets a little thin.Thus the recon on that $400.00 Dolce.Anyway There a big Guitar center about an hour and a half away in Alphretta Georgia might check to see what they might have.Anyway thanks everyone!!

[kris]

Short scale classical guitars are specific.
The shorter scale has a big impact on the sound.
I think they are very comfortable in certain situations.
I have a classic guitar with a short scale but with standard nut size (52 mm).

[EarlBrother]

When i can i am going back to the local mom and pop shop that bought the full size and see how it feels now that my fingers seem functional.Will report back.