CORT G290 FAT II

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GUITARIST MAY 2022

CORT G290 FAT II

£639

WHAT IS IT? Well-received

Cort model is updated for 2022

with a roasted maple neck

and  ngerboard

t’s rather ironic that many of the

mid-to-low price guitars we lust after

are made by instrument manufacturer

Cor-Tek, although its own brand is, we’d

suggest, far from a first choice for many

players. But back in issue 471, we were very

impressed with the G300 Pro, not least with

its stainless-steel frets, roasted maple neck

and Seymour Duncan humbuckers – and

it was even a featured winner in our 2021

Gear Of The Year awards in the sub-£1k

solidbody section.

The G290 FAT II – a V2 update of the

model that was introduced a couple of years

back – sits slightly below the G300 Pro,

price-wise. It retains that guitar’s sleek offset

Strat-inspired body outline, and is now made

from alder instead of light ash. It has a figured

maple ‘top’ that you can clearly see, but it’s

just a veneer, whereas the G300 Pro goes for

a basswood body with a 6mm maple cap.

The main upgrade to the new FAT II

model is that, like the G300 Pro, we now

have a roasted maple neck and fingerboard,

although here it has 22 not 24 frets, which

are standard nickel-silver not stainless steel.

Words Dave Burrluck Photography Olly Curtis

Cor-Tek already makes a considerable number of the

world’s electric guitars, but can its own brand, Cort,

compete with those bigger names? We think so

State Of

The Craft

GIT484.rev_cort.indd 12GIT484.rev_cort.indd 12 15/03/2022 19:2315/03/2022 19:23

Summary of content (5 pages)

PAGE 1
CORT G290 FAT II £639 WHAT IS IT? Well-received Cort model is updated for 2022 with a roasted maple neck and fingerboard State Of The Craft Cor-Tek already makes a considerable number of the world’s electric guitars, but can its own brand, Cort, compete with those bigger names? We think so Words Dave Burrluck Photography Olly Curtis I t’s rather ironic that many of the mid-to-low price guitars we lust after are made by instrument manufacturer Cor-Tek, although its own brand is, we’d suggest, far from a
PAGE 2
CORT G290 FAT II MAY 2022 GUITARIST GIT484.rev_cort.
PAGE 3
CORT G290 FAT II 1 2 1. For this year we get glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side dots, while the black face dots add contrast on the roasted maple fingerboard (compared with the small abalonelike dot inlays used on the G300 Pro) 2. Part of the makeover includes the caramelcoloured roasted maple used for the neck and fingerboard.
PAGE 4
CORT G290 FAT II UNDER THE HOOD Smart on the outside, but what’s it like inside? T here’s some clever thinking behind the sounds and the way they’re achieved here. The four-pole, five-way lever switch allows the tricky switching from the four-conductor humbuckers, resulting in two very balanced single-coil mixes, both of which are hum-cancelling. Both pots are small Alpha 500k types – the volume has a linear taper, the tone is audio – with a .033 microfarads tone cap.
PAGE 5
CORT G290 FAT II Cort’s CFA-III two-post vibrato uses stainless-steel block saddles and is back-routed to provide considerable up and down travel CORT G290 FAT II bends the tuning stability impressed once everything had settled in. Although there is only basic information available on the pickups, like the G300 Pro with its Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz combo, Cort’s VTH77 set here captures a similar style: plenty of beef at the bridge and a more vintage-y voice at the neck.