Cortley Stratocaster Copy

This was my first guitar, given to me as a present for my 6th birthday. When I got it, I could barely hold it up, but now I'm 17, and it has lasted just fine for about 4 years of actual playing. All the hardware is generic, but plays well enough for a cheap guitar.

The Overall sound quality is grainy at best. I would strongly advise that the pickups be replaced upon purchase.

I am also a fan of the shallower "D" necks, but if the action is set low enough, I can manage to play it adequately. Also, the frets seem to get "weird" after about the 14th, so as to interfere with the string action. It's hard to tell if my neck is bent, or if the problem is just an overprotruding fret. As for the finish, it feels rather "sticky", especially on the neck, so a wet hand will slide, but dry hands may get caught up on the finish. Personally, I prefer a good satin finish any day.

The hardware is cheap, but it seems to stay in tune for at least long enough to withstand a few songs live.

I can't find ANY record of Cortley ANYWHERE.

If you're desperate, it's an adequate guitar. Otherwise, it's crap.

This guitar has the classic stratocaster styled body, is made of solid ash, and is equipped with all of the standard features of a 1970's Fender Stratocaster. The bridge pickup is not affected by the tone knobs like some of the more recent Strats offered on the market, and the pickup selecter switch is three way with no in between pickup settings. The head stock is the larger style like Strats from the 70's. This guitar was purchased new in 1977 by a friend of mine who later sold it to me for $175.00 in 1979. Cortley also offered a copy of Fender's Precision Bass, and another friend of mine owned one of those for a while. This guitar is a poor man's Strat. I was 17 when I got this guitar and it was all the guitar that I could afford at the time. It was made in Japan and is finished in a transparent clear finish. This is a good thing since copy guitars are sometimes made of cheaper materials, and the clear lacquer allows the purchaser to see the quality of wood. The neck and finger board are also clear and seem to be made of maple. The shape of the neck is a deep "C" shape. Kind of clubby feeling for me. I much prefer the new flatter neck profiles on the American Standards that Fender offers today. It is fastened to the body by four bolts with a chrome neck plate. The hardware is the standard nickel/chrome plated and this guitar has the vintage style tremelo system. The tuning keys are garbage are the weakest feature of all, but they will make you a tuning-Pro just trying to keep the guitar in tune long enough to play through a complete song. The guitar came with a hard shell case that provides adequate protection for a guitar in this price range. Compared to a 70's strat it has all of the features so I will give it a good rating. The quality of these features will be addressed in the following categories.

This guitar has the classic Stratocaster sound. I use it for rock, jazz, folk, or any style that comes to mind. The ash body has a brighter tone than my '97 Fender Stratocaster which is made of alder wood. Once I purchased the guitar I added new Schaller tuning keys and replaced the bridge pickup with a hot Dimarzio pickup. I don't recall the model number of the replacement pickup. This improved the tone since the other two pickups are slightly weaker than Fender stock pickups, and they also seem to lack some definition. I play through a Fender Silver Face Princeton amp and a Blackface Deluxe Reverb II amplifier. The guitar sounds okay but my Fender Stratocaster sounds very good and much better than the Cortley. I rarely play this guitar anymore since it is inferior to my Fender, but I did use it in the studio recently to record a slide guitar part on a a song that is going onto our new CD. The result was good, but those pickups did produce a warbly, squirelly sound that does not match the quality of tone produce by my American Standard Strat. It did work for the song though and the warble gave the song a nice effect and tone. When played without a slide the guitar has a good tone in all pickup positions, but the Dimarzzio pickup sounds the best since the other two pickups are a bit thin for my taste.

Action and setup on this guitar are fine. I blocked the bridge/tremelo block a couple of years ago to disable the action and make the guitar easier to tune. This also improved the sustain and overall tone. The finish is very good, and the highly figured ash body is a beautiful piece of wood. The frets are decent but I have had a problem with the high E string at the third fret. It tends to slide off of the fret and then off of the finger board. The filed angle on the side of the fret is incorrect and is the problem. Whenever this happens the guitar produces a "plink" sound that is totally unacceptable. Over time I learned to compensate for the flaw and eventually learned to play without creating the plink syndrome. The deep "C" radius neck is not my favorite and for me negatively affects the overall feel of the guitar. I learned that the bridge saddles are not the standard size whenevver I tried replacing them with stock vintage style Fender parts. The best thing this guitar has to offer is the thick slab of ash that was used for the body.

If you find one of these guitars you should approach it with caution. Quality may vary from guitar to guitar. My guitar is solid and durable, but the tuning problems and thin sound make it a second rate guitar. There are better copies on the market today.

Who is Cortley? I Can't find anything about them on the web. No history or anything. If Anyone has knowledge on these guitars please notify me. I am interested in finding out how others feel about Cortley's strat and bass copies.

I have been playing for thirty years. In addition to the amps that I listed above, I also play an Ibanez AS-120 semi hollow body ES-335 clone. What a great and under-rated guitar. I also have an Ovation Patriot acoustic guitar. See my reviews on all of these items right here at HC. I love the ash body and it is a high quality piece of wood. I dislike the second rate hardware and the feel of the neck. The sound of this guitar is good, but my Fender guitar is better. I have often thought of using the ash body to build another Strat that I would use and play more often. The money spent on good hardware and a new neck would probably exceed the cost of another American Standard Stratocaster, or another style of guitar that is reasonably priced. I have also thought of setting this guitar up for slide playing only, which would only require better pickups and setting the action higher. The deep "C" shaped neck would not be as noticable if only playing slide. I think that with all of their flaws, the Mexican Strats or the Standard Strat that Fender offers is probably a better value for the dollar. A Fender American Standard would be your best choice, and for the dollar ($750), you can own a quality instrument that will last most folks a lifetime. There may be better guitars out there but for the dollar an American Standard Stratocaster is really hard to beat, and you won't spend all of your time playing it instead of tuning it and trying to upgrade it. Just play...