Cort Earth 600

Spruce top (solid), dreadnought style, with rosewood sides and back (laminated), and a mahogany neck define the basic materials list for this Cort acoustic. No pickup, but beautiful abalone inlay around sound hole and snowflake diamonds on the fretboard make this 2004 Korean model very nice looking. It also sports real chrome Grover tuners with black buttons--not ebony, I think they are some kind of matte plastic--nice though. The headstock logo is abalone. Upon close inspection you'll notice that the Cort company saved some "inlay" dollars here and used wafer thin "slices" of shapes abalone and they are floating under the finish. Looks ok, I guess. There are nice cream bindings all around and up the neck and over the headstock too. It is a pretty guitar. Mine has an unusually dark top for spruce and lots of silk in the grain. I thought it might be a violin or vintage finish color, but after removing the pepperoni colored pickguard, I found that it must regular darkening from the light as it had a pretty good suntan. The area beneath the original pickguard was light, but still not as light as normal spruce. I replaced the red plastic with a perfectly colored brown tortoise pickguard from StewMac that blended well with the natural colors in the woods of the guitar. Also, this guitars rosewood bridge looks like it was cut from the same stripy rosewood the back and sides were. Bracing is Cort's modified X bracing that looks very well done. The only thing I don't like is the "C" badge branded onto light colored wood and glued to the heel of the neck. This would have been better left alone or just plastic to match the binding.

I have parlor, cowboy, jumbo, travel, and orchestra type acoustic guitars. I have been playing for 30+ years and can you believe this is my first dreadnought? WoW--I have been missing out for a long time. I play a percussive sort of blues as well as melodic lines using all the fret board, but I don't noodle or play the fast stuff. Bluegrass comes out occasionally, too. This Cort 600 can handle just about anything. Its full, rich, even tone has projection. It sings with unusual overtones when playing leads with incredible sustain. I use D'Addario's and they are a bit bright for the first two hours, but melt into a perfect match for this guitar. I went through 4 or 5 others before with no real satisfaction. Just remember here folks, strings are just as important as the bracing for good sound from an acoustic. The same D'Addario's don't do as well on my Taylor. Elixir's excel on that guitar. My Gibson MK81 modified jumbo acoustic sounds good with either! And that's only my opinion.

OK, every guitar has to be set up to one's preference. I do my own. The compensated bone saddle had to be filed a bit not only to lower the action some, but more to make it match the string fall to the fretboard. Huge improvement. The bone nut was perfect! The frets were polished and level. The pins were junk soft plastic, so I replaced them with bone to match the factory nut and saddle. Good improvement. Action could not be better for my playing style now.
The fit and finish are impeccable. Not a single flaw. Bookmatching was as even as mother nature allows.
The bridge has a scoop design that functions like Yairi's direct coupled design, but not as emphasized.

No foreseeable problems or issues. I think that with standard care, one could play this one for a lifetime.
I do not take any of my guitars outside when its raining, nor do I leave it on a stand next to a furnace register. I put it in its case for travel. I wipe it off when I'm done playing. Standard care.

Customer care is for one year and I am way past that and haven't even thought to call Cort. Probably won't need to, either.

Acoustic guitars are kind of magical in a way. (I'm trying not to be goofy even if it sounds like goofy). Every one of them is different. I have a 1959 Old Kraftsman Prarie Rambler that is one of the sweetest sounding guitars I have ever played. Brass frets and cheap plywood and paint didn't keep it from producing a very musical sound. I have played VERY expensive guitars that don't have any character or body. This Cort has what I was looking for. A big surprise to me.
The reason I even looked at Cort to begin with is that they manufactured my G&L Tribute ASAT Special---which is awesome. But acoustic guitars have personalities. Look at a bunch of them to make sure you find one that matches your own.