CORT G290 FAT II

16
GUITARIST MAY 2022
CORT G290 FAT II
CORT G290 FAT II
PRICE: £639
ORIGIN: Indonesia
TYPE: Offset double-cutaway
solidbody electric guitar
BODY: Alder with figured maple
veneer top facing
NECK: Roasted maple, bolt-on
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black
Tusq/41.8mm
FINGERBOARD: Roasted maple,
compound 305-400mm (12-15.75”)
radius, black face dots with
Luminlay side dots
FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
HARDWARE: Chrome-plated Cort
CFA-III 2-post 6-saddle vibrato with
push-in arm, Cort staggered-post
rear locking tuners
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE:
52.5mm
ELECTRICS: Cort ‘Voiced Tone’
VTH77 neck and bridge direct
mount covered humbuckers, 5-way
lever pickup selector switch, master
volume, master tone
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.67/8
OPTIONS: None
RANGE OPTIONS: The G Series
starts with the new G110 (from
£189); all are HSS except our review
model and the G300 Pro (£799),
which are both dual-humbucking
LEFT-HANDERS: No
FINISHES: Trans Black Burst (as
reviewed), Antique Violin Burst and
Bright Blue Burst – gloss body and
headstock face, satin neck
440 Distribution
0113 4433145
www.cortguitars.com
9
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. Cort tells us
that ‘FAT’ isn’t an acronym: “It just means
that the tone it creates is FAT.” With either
humbucker engaged and a gainy amp,
we’d call it fat, too.
Again like the G300 Pro before it, we have
the parallel single-coil mixes in positions
2 and 4 on the five-way, the outer coils in
position 2 giving a subtly wider brighter
voice, more Tele-like perhaps than the
subtly more Strat-like mix in position 4, but
there’s not that much in it and all positions
appear to be hum-cancelling, too. These are
the ‘thin’ to the full humbuckers’ ‘fat’. You
can’t voice either humbucker split on its
own, which might be useful, especially as
the bridge would probably split quite well
like a JB. Nevertheless, the rock-to-funk
duality here is perfectly valid: there are
big arena rock sounds to be had from the
bridge, an earthier bluesier voice from the
neck, then you have those single-coil mixes
for your Chic numbers. A lot of mileage, in
other words. New sounds? Not really. But,
to our ears, the G290 FAT II is about getting
the job done and – particularly when paired
with a half decent pedalboard – it pulls it
off with style.
Verdict
Another hard-to-fault instrument from
Cort, the G290 FAT II might not be the
catchiest-named guitar we’ve had in our
hands, but it’s hard to argue with at this
price. The 2022 upgrades are very on-trend,
and the combination of the different body
construction and pickups gives it a slightly
different sonic spin compared with the
award-winning G300 Pro. It’s a guitar with
great potential for the studying player or
anyone needing to cover a lot of ground,
with plenty of potential for upgrading,
too, not least with some name pickups.
That said, its voices are surprisingly good,
especially the big fat ’buckers.
On the negative side, it doesn’t have the
cachet of some of the trendier brands out
there, such as Ibanez or PRS, but the build
quality is certainly on a par and just as valid.
Good craft and good sounds at a price that’s
temptingly affordable.
PROS Excellent build with
quality hardware; great neck and
playability with versatile ‘fat’ to
‘thin’ voices from the  ve-way
pickup selector
CONS No gigbag, but that’s
about it!
Cort’s CFA-III two-post vibrato
uses stainless-steel block saddles
and is back-routed to provide
considerable up and down travel
It’s a guitar with
great potential for the
studying player or
anyone needing to
cover a lot of ground
GIT484.rev_cort.indd 16GIT484.rev_cort.indd 16 15/03/2022 19:2415/03/2022 19:24