Pau ferro is a South American tonewood that has been used in guitar making for many years. It is known to have a smooth feel and shares many sonic qualities with rosewood. With a tight wood grain in-between ebony and rosewood, pau ferro is hard and slightly snappy like ebony while maintaining a nice level of warmth similar to rosewood. Visually, pau ferro tends to be lighter in color than traditional rosewood though it may be stained to appear like rosewood.
CITES (Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species) is a global organization that maintains the health of our plant’s species and ecosystems by regulating international trade of wildlife (both flora and fauna). As of January 2017, CITES determined that rosewood will be protected, requiring new certification for any product that contains rosewood. This new legislation adds complexity to manufacturing guitars that contain rosewood, increasing costs to manufacturers and consumers. So in response, we have joined many other guitar manufacturers in switching out rosewood as much as possible. We selected pau ferro as the best replacement for many of our instruments because it shares many properties with rosewood.
We guarantee that all Cordoba guitars are imported legally, complying to all CITES regulations. You don’t have to worry about CITES unless you decide to sell or trade your guitar abroad. The proper CITES certification will be your responsibility and failure to comply may lead to forfeiture and sometimes destruction of the item. You may still travel with your guitar without certification as long as it has less than 22lbs of regulated materials.
We are dedicated to providing instruments of great quality while maintaining materials that are both acceptable to the guitar market and in compliance with all CITES regulations.
Expect these changes to show up in the market in the summer of 2018 (varies by model).