Cordoba Fusion 5

101
JULY 2021 GUITARIST
REVIEW
CÓRDOBA FUSION 5 & AUDEN YORK
9. The Fusion’s controls
are mounted on the bass
side of the soundhole, so
you can easily feel them
to make adjustments.
We simply have volume
and tone control
10. The standard Fishman
output jack also houses
the battery. It’s very
easy to replace
11. The Sonata Burst finish
is one of three colour
options on our Fusion.
Here, the back and sides
have an outer laminate
of flame maple
Positioned this time on the treble side
of the soundhole, the control plate offers
mini-sliders for bass, mid, treble and
volume plus a push switch that can select
four preset voicings. Neither guitar offers
any output-muting tuner or any kind of
feedback suppression, such as a simple
phase switch.
The Córdoba’s plugged-in sound is
adequate, although the actual tone control
seems to slightly pull back both the highs
a little and the midrange. It certainly
benefits from a little outboard EQ to clean
up the lower midrange, which is otherwise
a little thick sounding.
Plugging in the Auden, although we have
reservations about the control interface,
which is rather fiddly to use, we hear quite
a refined studio-quality sound. The top
pickup is evident in the handling noise,
but the EQ is very effective. Those sound
presets provide a little colour, but if we’re
honest we’re never quite sure where we
are. There’s a lot of subtle shade here and,
despite the variations, it still sounds very
much like the guitar itself. Impressive.
Verdict
In picking two random nylon-string
electros such as these, we possibly couldn’t
have illustrated the diversity of the nylon-
string crossover market more vividly. In
fact, about the only thing they have in
common is their nylon strings!
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