Parlez-vous francais? How bout Thai, Croatian or Greek? Well, you can now read Cordobaguitars.com all of those languages (and more!) using the Google translation tool found in the footer of our website!

In addition, a new Support section is slated for Summer 2012.

This last weekend, Cordoba Guitars teamed up with the legendary Gipsy Kings to give away a signed GK Studio to a lucky contest winner in the Chicago, IL area. The giveaway was promoted through NBC 5 Chicago and numerous entries were collected over the month of April.

Celso Giles and his wife won tickets to the sold out Gipsy King show and, of course, the signed GK Studio. He and his wife have been loyal Gipsy King fans since the 80s. Olé!

We had the pleasure of meeting up with the gentlemen of Neutral Uke Hotel and Golden Bloom last week. They are on the tail end of touring the West Coast and if you are in Seattle or Portland, you are in luck because they are hitting your cities next!

Neutral Uke Hotel is Shawn Fogel’s personal dedication to Neutral Milk Hotel’s critically-acclaimed “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”. Accompanied by members of Golden Bloom and the Motion Sick, the entire set is an energetic fun-loving, sing-a-long through the entire record from start to finish. To add to the quirkiness of the whole set, only small instruments such as ukuleles, a pocket trumpet, a single snare drum and a melodica were played.

We raffled off a Cordoba ukulele at the Echo last Friday, but we’ll also be raffling off another uke to a lucky Neutral Uke Hotel fan at the end of their tour. Just hit up one of their remaining shows and enter the free raffle!

Neutral Uke Hotel Website // Facebook

His single, “Holocene” was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

image source: Huffington Post

As our next Customer Service and Sales Assistant, some of your day-to-day tasks will include:
• Customer Service support in the form of answering phone calls and emails
• Assisting the National Sales Team when needed (including but not limited to order entry and dealer returns)
• Processing and managing all return authorizations under our warranty program
• Coordination and communication with Quality Control, Operations, and Product and Brand Marketing teams

This position requires meticulous attention to detail, excellent time management and multi-tasking skills, and ability to follow up. We are seeking a candidate who will represent our company in a professional and friendly manner on the phone and via email.

Some other preferences include:
• Bachelors Degree
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to multitask
• Ability to follow instructions, prioritize, and willingness to assume responsibility
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Background knowledge in guitars and general interest in music is a major plus.

Other divisions of the company include distribution for brands such as HumiCase and Jose Ramirez Guitars. We are looking to hire immediately. We’re a talented and driven group of people to work with and we make sure to keep the work environment relaxed and fun. We offer health insurance, 401K, paid vacation and sick time. If you think that you fit the bill, please submit both a cover letter and resume (Please title your documents with your first and last name and include the keyword Esteso in the subject line) to cordobajobs@gmail.com. No phone calls, in-person submissions, or third party recruiters please.

Congrats to our four Facebook fans who won shopping sprees on Cordobaguitars.com, just in time for the holidays. Treat yourself, friends!

Kina Grannis has been a busy bee all year. In-between international flights & tour dates, TV appearances and award shows, we were able to sneak in a few questions about the release of her SCP (secret crazy project, of course) which ended up being a music video illustrated in jelly beans. What’s next Kina?! We’re excited to find out.

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C: It’s been a few days since you launched your SCP & we’re still amazed at what you were able to pull off with JELLY BEANS. What sparked this idea of doing a music video with candy?

K: I went into this knowing that I wanted to make a really special and unique music video that had a hand-made feel to it… but beyond that, I had no ideas.  When the director, Greg Jardin, proposed the jelly bean stop-motion idea to me, I was sold in a second.  He had seen jelly bean art online–giant pictures made of jelly beans–and that was part of his inspiration. 

C: What does your song-writing process look like?

K: Songwriting is still a very mysterious process to me.  I can’t do it on command and I rarely feel like I even have much control of it.  It hits me when I least expect it and out pours a song–usually in about an hour.  When I’m writing, I’m more inspired my the feelings evoked by playing my guitar and singing melodies than any concrete themes.

C: If you were given the chance to do a duet with anyone, who would it be (and why)?

K: Perhaps Bon Iver… or Sigur Ros…. or Imogen Heap… or… ok, I’ll stop.  Working with any of them would be a dream… I find them all to be musical geniuses in their own right. 

C: What or who inspired you to pick up the guitar? Are you self-taught?

K: I’ve always been drawn to music, and actually played piano and violin long before guitar crossed my mind, but I think what really drew me to guitar was that it was new and exciting and most importantly, it was an excuse to sing.  I basically locked myself away in my room for a few months in high school and played and played until it finally made sense.  

Although classical and flamencos share the same background, their modern incarnations have some important differences!

Classical guitars require a buzz-free tone that is only achieved by slightly higher action and some relief in the neck. Some concert players even prefer a much higher set-up to accommodate this buzz-free tone at the expense of easy playability. Classical guitars generally have either a cedar or spruce top, with practically any type of back/side combination.

On the other hand, flamenco guitars emphasize a much easier and faster playability, which is made possible by lowered action with almost no neck relief. This set-up leads to a buzz that classical players abhor, but which flamenco players adore! In fact, a strong “growl” from a flamenco guitar is often essential to replicating the blistering strumming patterns called “rasgueados” and rapid fire finger-picking called “picados” characteristic of the flamenco sound. Traditionally, flamenco guitars are built with a spruce top and cypress back and sides to achieve bright and vibrant tones. “Negra” guitars (i.e. a flamenco using non-cypress/sycamore back sides) have become more popular in recent years as well, and the choice between a great “blanca” and “negra” is largely up to a player’s tone preferences.

Did this inspire more questions? Feel free to ask us and we’ll post your answers in upcoming posts.

Live. Play. Play.