Cortley Les Paul Copy

Vintage Tobacco Sun burst Cortley LP Copy from the 70's or early 80's. It has the tune-o-matic bridge two humbuckers and a rose wood neck. The tuners suck beyond belief but I will replace them soon. For being a dated guitar, it looks pretty damn fine. It has the 3 tone controls and volume knob. The 3way selector switch works fine although it has been replaced with a wooden knob like handle that looks like a miniature globe (can't think of any other way to describe it). It's obviously made in japan and has a funny smell to it.

sounds really damn good! I'm am very very surprised. It has a dated sound that you would probably hear on Alice Coopers earlier stuff like on "18" The cleans sound bright when flipped to clean tone.

the action is great! Med-frets...the only drawback are the tuning pegs. I hate them. They don't go out of tune (as far as I know but I just bought it. They look cheap and I don't particularly like they way they turn. They go from super flimsy to holding the string well (so far). The other problem this guitar has which is probably because I purchased it at a pawn shop is the ivory neck piece (can't think of the name of it right now) sits at the top of the neck and holds the strings apart...on the e major side it's fine but it descends and when I try to really put some vibrato in my leads, it pops off and moves over to the next string...this only happens on the g and b strings and it only happens when I'm really gettin' down but I need to fix that. This seems like something the previous jacked up though and not the manufacturers fault.

this guitar seems reliable, hell it's over 20yrs old!

I would replace it if it were stolen. She's an oldy but a goody.

This is my second entry regarding a Cortley LP guitar. Curiously, a friend took this one on trade and knew I had one, and offered it to me. I have a trade value of about $300 in it. This Lp copy is similiar to its Ibanez factory born brethern. Shallow dish '70's Lp copy in tobacco burst. Maple sandwich body. Maple top. Nice figuring in top. Like most veneered top Lp's it has hollow chambers beneath the top giving it a thinline like acoustic strum sound. Back is finished in a dark brown stain. Gibson copy ABR bridge and tailpiece. Humbuckers are cream exposed coil Gotoh's. I believe them to be Super Distortion copies. The pull about 7-8 ohms, typical for PAF copies? I believe this guitar to be late 70's or early '80's model. Tuners were crappy Tulip copy originals changed out to Grovers. Thin neck profile. No volute. 22 fets. Plastic parellelogram inlays. (Odd to see LP standard copy - usually Jap copies of LP's are of the Custom model variety). Bolt neck. Two humbucker three way switch. Two volume, two tone.

Running this pup through my Blues Junior. Versatile sound. It does blues,Rock or Country, without the extra weight of a real LP.

This was obviously designed to fill the entry - intermidiate market. Nice top, decent pups, poor tuning pegs as with the majority of other Jap copies.

Standing tall after 20-30 years of life. I'm having to re-dowel the neck bolt holes due to loose condition. Should be dependale for another 30 years.
Always bring a back up to a gig.

Good luck finding any info on this long ago forgotten company. I've only seen three listings on eBay over the last 6 months.

I've played for 20 years. Blah,blah,blah owned one of everything,blah blah, blah..Open your mind to something besides the big name brands. If it'll stay in tune I'll play it..Bolt neck Lp copies are starting to be really collectable..Wonder why?

I picked up this gem at a local Pawnshop for $300. Some one had changed out the tuners(great)to Grovers. Typical Les Paul configuration. Two pickup, two volume two tone controls. Tune-o-,atic bridge for easy set-up. Bolt on neck. Very similar to mid-'70s Ibanez or "fill in the blank" name brand out of Fuji Gen Gakki. Two piece mahogony pancake body. Typical 8 -10 lb weight range. 70's LP shallow dish top. Routes under top for pickups and wiring harness are rather large, just like mid-seventies Ibanez LP's. This lends to a somewhat hollow body sound, especially unplugged. The really neat thing about the guitar is the gold flake finish. Custom finish on a budget guitar.
Pickups are ok. Possibly same vintage as "Super seventies",-I hope. No markings. Control cavity has some kind of weird PCB film board on top of 500k volume and tone pots. Lends to scratchy sounds upon pickup switching. Will probably change all controls out as soon as I can afford to. Serial number is 17373 Early '70's?

I can get most sounds I want from my two Frakenstrats. However, whenever I want to get a warm humbucker sound, this fits the bill. I play through a Peavey classic 410 and a Fender Blues junior.

For a thirty year old pawnshop relic, everything was good. I did shim the pocket 0.14" to kick the neck back a little. Maybe a long time ago neck repair. Curiously, no volute to back of neck even though it shares other '70's LP attributes.
Beautiful gold sparkle top 10 +
Bolt on neck is sturdy. If you can get past the psychological barrier, you owe it to yourself to try a bolt on LP.
All other items look good; frets, nut etc. alll look great.

All items on this guitar look sturdy enough to gig with. However, with the scratchy pots, I would bring a backup.

The reason I decided to submit a review was the scarcity of info on the net, as other post have noted, about Cortley guitars. I have read the reviews on HC for years and never felt like I coud say anything that hadn't already been said, till now. You know, "It rocks" or "it sucks".
Please contact me if you've ever had any experience with this brand.

I have played for over 20 years. I have cycled through about 150 guitars. Currently I have a couple of mix and match strats along with a Peavy classic 410, and a Fender Blues junior. I am to the point where if it sounds good, I'll play it. (Just passed the brand name snob stage). If it were stolen, I would probably file on my homeowners and set out to find another bargain guitar on the local trade scene or e-bay.

Its a 1984 japanese solid top les paul copy. It has a simmie skinny neck with 22 frets on rosewood fretboard. The neck is bolted onto a a solid tabacco burst finish body. It is a mahogony body that was a ton.. and has a tune o matic bridge, which sets pretty well and gives it real good resonation. The stock tuners suck ass! But the standard pick ups get a real versatile tone. You can have a a real twang (kinda funk) tone or a real smooth chunk sound for metal or hard rock. Its a real good guitar stock.. just with new tuners.

It suits rock very well. That is what i play mostly and when i am playing with the band or alone it sounds real nice. I play it through a Crate gx-65 and it sounds real good with that and a fuzz face peddle for distorted sound. very full sound.. with a lot of chunk. If you move the pick up selecter you get a real bad crackling noise which is annoying, but isnt horrible. Like i said it is very versatile.. practically the same as a gibson. My only dislike about it is the sound you get from the pick up selector.. other wise it is great!

The action was a little low on the lower end, but it was real easy to fix with the tune o matic bridge. the pick ups were in very good position, but the neck p/u was a little high. Once again the p/u selecter is a little messed up but that is easy to forget about.

The guitar is great i trust it fully live..and at all times. The hardware isnt that great but is okay, i will replace it though. The finish is verygood ..looks like it wont chip to easily. I can dpend on the this instrument very easily .. the strap holders are very good.. but when i play gigs. I will have a back up guitar. But that is just because that is standard and anyone should always have one.

The company is out of business. You will not find any information anywhere about this guitar because ther are not very many of them.

i have been playing about a year . I chose this guitar cuz it is very close to the original (gibson) and i really do not care about it's history. I love it! it is so warm and verstile, It is a good for everything type of guitar. When i played other lp copies, they didnt compare to theis one's sound. For its price it is unbeatable. If you ever get a chance to buy one of these babies...TAKE IT. they are great. I will never get rid of mine!

I can only guess that this guitar was made sometime in either the early or mid-nineties, though I know for sure it was made in Japan. Its got your standard Les Paul features: dual humbuckers with corresponding volume and tone controls, a tobacco sunburst finish over a solid mahogany body with *gasp* cream binding. Its also got some shitty tuners and a lackluster tune-o-matic style bridge. I've replaced the original covered humbuckers with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck and a JB in the bridge.

With the Seymour Duncan 'buckers, this guitar can fit any style. The '59 brings an amazing depth and richness to the tone that trully captures the sound of the guitar when its played unplugged. The neck setting could cover anything from country to jazz to lightly overdriven rock. The 'JB can handle any type of distortion after that lightest possible setting, including full balls-to-the-wall metal. I play this guitar through a Line 6 Flextone II which it seems to have been made for. With the Line 6, I find it reacts differently to alot of different guitars, but this one it seems to love being plugged in to. The guitar is a bit too bassy when playing through the '59, but I don't really mind it. On the other hand, the JB is bright as all get out, leaving not a lot of in between unless you carefully adjust your settings.

I didn't really need to make any adjustments to the guitar after purchase. That should probably be chalked up the guitar store I acquired it from rather than the company, since it was used to begin with. The finish chips pretty easily but thats something else I love about it. I've stripped lots of pieces of the finish off to give it a worn, vintage look that I've fallen in love with. The nut was also a bit off on the G, which has been corrected.

I've had this guitar slam to the floor on a number of occassions and it just keeps on kicking. The only thing that has ever broken on it was a piece of one of the tuning pegs. I wouldn't gig without a backup however, because it seems to pop strings kind of easily. Its odd, sometimes it will go months without doing it and then all of a sudden I'll break two A strings in a week. Go figure.

Never dealt with them and I doubt I ever will. By that I mean that I don't think Cortley's around anymore as I've never been able to dig up any info about them on the Net. If anyone knows more about this enigmatic company, please e-mail. I'd love to hear anything you know.

Overall, I don't think I'll ever sell or get rid of this guitar. It was my first real guitar, and by that I mean the first guitar I ever owned that gave me tone that I was proud of. I will NEVER lose it but if it was stolen, the asshole who committed the crime would have some 'splainin' to do. I compared to a geniuine Les Paul when I bought it and noticed only subtle tonal differences. That was before I traded out the 'buckers. Now I would definitely square it off against a stock LP in a tonal showdown.