Cort G290

made in korea, probably 2001/2002. bought in december 2002
22 fret, quilt maple top, swamp ash body <according to cort>
5 way selector, 1 volume, 2 tone controls with a coil tap in one.
2 seymour duncan vintage single coils 1 seymour duncan jb humbucker,
neck is <lightly bird's eye-d>maple with a rosewood fretboard, modern strat profile with a smooth satin finish. skunk stripe of unknown wood. bridge is a wilkinson vs-50ii which is the "budget" model wilkinson. tuners are sperzel locking. i got it just the guitar with absolutely nothing. which is what i wanted.

I play in church, as well as with a project band and a <really lousy> cover band <which i hopefully never have to play for again>. I like Satriani, Vai, Dream Theater, Tuck & Patti, SRV, Hendrix, L Arc En Ciel, Luna Sea, Incubus and some others. With the project band, we play classic rock <satriani-like stuff> Incubus covers and whatever strikes our fancy <blues and top-40 stuff>. For church I need a cleaner, lighter tone since church elders are not partial to high gain. I find the single coils to provide excellent strat-type clean tone and nice sweet lead sound. the bridge humbucker with coil tap engaged is one of the better ones I've heard. split humbuckers tend to sound thin, but this one holds a good clean sound. Distorted with heavy gain, the single coils have a VERY bad hum which I'm trying to get rid of, and they do not seem to be wired in hum-cancelling for position 4 <neck and mid pickups together>. The humbucker holds very good tone even under high gain, and with the tone rolled back can get a very "round" sound. Humbucker clean is still very good. Altogether very versatile guitar. I am using this guitar with a zoom gfx-4, boss ds-1. at home I have an electar tube-10 <very nice budget home play amp>, rebel 30r <sounds like crap though it gets a good buzzy grunge sound, cheap and nasty>, and in church I use the roland jc-77 <sweeeeeet>. I have some qualms with the tuning stability, it's not as bomb proof as some people would have you imagine, but under light usage it's just fine. Floyd-rose type dive-bombs and Vai-like heavy warbling will throw the tuning off. Sound-wise, the s/s/h combination is my favourite so I'm slightly biased towards it. In terms of variety, I find I can get all the tones I need and want to use. Versatile, and very solid, rich sound.

Setup was probably done by the shop, so I'm not too sure. The top on my guitar was quite a nice quilt, back is 2 piece but very well matched so it's not easy to tell that it's 2 pieces. My guitar had slightly mis-aligned pickups. The 2 single coils did not quite line up with the strings on the high e, b and g strings. However, this did not affect the sound of the guitar. Quality control seems to be slightly dodgy, I tried 2 different guitars, the other one had properly aligned pickups, but actually sounded weak on high e b and g <weird>. The other one also had some neck problems <fretting out, dead notes> which may be solve-able with a good setup. I decided not to take the risk. I also tried out 3 other models of cort, and quality is inconsistent. Some played nice but poor sound/finish, nice finish but bad sound etc.
I would advise to test out as many as possible before buying one.

I've played this guitar out a few times, and taken it to church. Hardware is solid, but i rest my hand on the bridge when i play, so the bridge pins/bolts <the thing that holds the saddle> is starting to show some wear on it already. I play on average 2 hours a day, not counting practice for church, etc. The finish is good <mine's 'antique violin'>, evenly applied and will probably last quite some time, I take good care of my guitars anyway. Strap buttons are abit on the small side, but if you don't jump around too much they're fine. I would gig without backup, because even in the event of string breaks, it is very easy & quick to replace them <t.g. for sperzels> and it's versatile enough that I don't need to bring along several guitars to complete 1 performance.

warranty that i have is from swee lee music themselves and valid for 1 year.

I've been playing for about 5 years, also own a craftsman strat copy. If lost/stolen, I would buy it again, because it's a very good value. I like the sound and feel of this guitar. I had been looking for another guitar for a 2-3 years or so before buying this one and had tried just about everything. Jackson (ps-4, ps-2, ps-1), Charvel, Fender(Mexi Texas special, Mexi std, American std, American deluxe), Ibanez (rg 550, rg 580,rg 350dx, jem555, jem 7, sa-160qm, s-420, js1000), Hamer(satf), Slammer(centaura, diablo), Epiphone(lp std, lp deluxe, sg 400), Squier, Peavey, PRS(std 22, custom 24), Santana SE and I never found something that I really liked withing reasonable pricing. I was considering the sa-160qm, which is a very pretty guitar, but I decided that this one looks just as good and sounds almost infinitely better. Besides which at this price, I would not have been able to buy the sa-160qm and mod it with duncans (which is what I was planning to do). For the money, I think this is one of the best guitars that can be had, but quality control is very poor, so shop around first. The only thing i would change on this guitar would be the bridge bolts, and maybe to better quality saddles as well, but that wuold come later.

Light swamp ash body Quilted maple top
Bird's eye maple neck
25.5" maple neck,
Seymour Duncan TB4 & Seymour Duncan Vintage staggered pickups
Sperzel Trim-Lok tuners
Wilkinson VS50 II Tremolo
Platinum hardware
Beautifly contoured body surface
roller nut
Comes Gig Bag

This is a serious guitar! that comes at a very reasonable price

Cort actully make Ibenez & Fender (Austioucs)

I play play mainly rock & and metal the pickups this baby comes with are unbelivable top notch!

Nice full sound i run this guitar through my Marshall MG DFX 100 Quad Cab. It gives a really full crisp sound

Its great better than any guitar i have played in this price range!!

Action is great! nice fast neck. factory set up is fine!

Pickups sit nicly.

Really nice finish.... very sexy guitar!!

IT DOES NOT GO OUT OF TUNE!! haha

Its great i play with this guitar live! Have had no problems very safe to use during a live show!

Very safe to use in the studio!

This guitar is great no need for back up when u use it live! its very reliable!

Have not had to use. so i'm not too sure :)

But Mark Morris at morris brothers music is a great guy! very helpful!!!

This really is a fantasic axe! great value for money! i strongly recommend this guitar for any serious musio.
I've been playing guitar for 8 years i own a Yamahaa pacifica 112(Brillint guita as well! with custmised Dimazio pic-ups and customised action)and a Jeff skunk backster epipiphone. I love my guitars this guitar will not let u down!! its unreal

Korean made as all Cort are.
Beautiful maple top ( coulour old violin sunbust)
3 ORIGINAL Seymor Duncan PU's. H/S/S with 5 way swith
Light Swamp Ash body
Wilkinson Trem
nice Spezel locking Tuners
Look at their webiste for more detail.
Expert guitar setup (including dressing of the frets, set up of PU, etc, included by guitar retailer)

I have seldom heard a guitar which is this versatile in terms of sound. My first thought was that it may be able to do a lot of things but none right, but I soon had to realize that this baby can really do whatever you want it to. Given that I play in a band where we use evrything from clean sounds to heavily distorted sounds, that was quite important for me.

I can't say too much about the factory set up because the shop included an expert set up.
However the finish is absolutely flawless, in fact the quality of the built must be unique in this price range!
The neck is nice smooth and reasonably fast.
The guitar is well balanced as well, so there really is nothing to complain about:-)

The guitar appears to be very solid, though I have only aquired it quite recently. The tuning is immaculate though. It's just that overall build quality which makes it very hard to imagine anything "going wrong" with this guitar.

Only dealt with the guitar shop.

I have been playing guitar for sevral year now and among others I have played on A Charvel, Gretsch and a Epi LP. This guitar beats the sh*t out of any of these. I think it would be very difficult to find greater guitars in this price range. It can surely withstand competition from a number of more expensive guitars and ends up being a very serious piece of kit.
This guitar is a great buy, and if it was lost I would certainly get one again.

For the price of the guitar, you can't ask for more.
The pickups alone costs about a couple of hundred dollars, if purchased separately. The tuners and bridge are from famous brands.
The wood and finish of the guitar is also great!

It sounds awsome. It comes from good pickups, high quality tuner/bridge, and great craftmanship. Everything fits perfectly,
and it can only sound good.

I bought this guitar out of rack. No adjustments was needed.
I take a good care of my instruments. No flaws have been found.

This is the top of the line model from their "G" line of models.
The guitar is rock solid.

I haven't had any problem with this guitar.
So, no opinion on this.

Buy this guitar. It's versatile, high quality guitar.

Cort is Korean brand. Many people don't know that Korean companies
make more guitars than any other countries, and that many mid range
guitars of famous brands are OEM manufactured here.
Cort used to OEM manufacture Ibanes, etc.
Their guitars have high qualtiy. And you get the most bang for the buck because the company doesn't spend a lot of money on advertising.
I also have Gibson, BC Rich, and Washburn guitars. I've been playing guitar for more than 10 years. I really think that Cort guitars are the best for the money. Buy the top of the line, though. Still, you will agree that you saved hundreds of dollars, compared to buying from other famous brands..

22 frets and Wilkinson VS 50II Tremelo System works wonders! The thing just WON'T go outa tune! unless less of course you make it. Its got Sperzel Trim-lock tuners making it easy to put strings in in a flash! The only downer is if u break just 1 string the rest will go outa tune cause of the trem's spring. The pickups rule, Seymour Duncans JB and Vintage staggard and coil tap giving you a huge range of sound turning the humbuck into a single coil! Take your time to explore!

The Duncan pickups give it the edge! I can use it for jazz/blues style with ease and then max out the humbuck for some real heavy sounds for my heavy HEAVY metal playing! Through my Line6 Flextone theres not a sound i can't do it seems! The pickups are quiet and don't hiss, and with the trem system and the strings not going outa tune i can bend the strings time and time again and it keeps coming back to perfect settings! The sound is rich and full of tone and with distortion not scratchy...i can actually hear the tone above the distortion!!

I bought this guitar straight of the rack in perfect condition. It didn't need any re-adjusting or anything. I take very good care of it though and keep it in a good hard case.

I bought this guitar FOR live playing! The sound of it just kicks the hell outa everyone elses sound! it lets you rule on stage! Its a new addition and havn't had problems yet, but still very dependable. I always have a second guiat on stage though for when moving between tunings rather than wasting time trying to tune...that can kill a psyched crowd!

I got a great deal from the store I bought it at and they're heaps friendly...bought an accoustic recently too and they thru in a free case and heaps of free strings! The help out heaps!

Sound is the best i've heard yet! Been playing for 8yrs now and this one will last me long i'm sure. As well as thru a Line6 amp i also use for other effects a 10bank stereoEQ thru the fx loop, various BOSS pedels and a CryBaby Wah. So i can pretty much get any sound I want and the G290 really makes it stand out! Best guitar i've got yet...totally craps all over Ibanez and other big name brands...seriously DON'T BE FOOLED BY BRAND 'NAMES' Play around and go for what you think sounds good! Thats how I found this guitar.