Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork

June 2015 Guitarist 135
Quick TesT
Miscellaneous
Cort, like the majority of huge
Asian brands, offers a diverse
range of guitars. We last caught
up with its collaboration with
Manson guitars here in the UK
and Muse’s Matt Bellamy. This
cutaway electro-nylon string
couldn’t be more different.
It has a few things in common,
however, with that Bellamy
signature in that it’s very crisply
made with an attractive price-
point. Combine a narrower nut
width (44.9mm), some 6mm
thinner than a concert classical,
but with a wide classical-style
string spacing at the tie-block
bridge of 60mm, not to mention
a lightly cambered fingerboard
and reduced depth, and you
have an intentionally stage-
friendly, ‘crossover’ guitar.
It seems ideal for any player
wanting to don nylons who
doesn’t want to go down the
hardcore classical guitar route.
Construction-wise, it’s
classed by Cort as having an
SFX outline, which falls into the
grand-auditorium bracket and
certainly isn’t many millimetres
away from Takamine’s NEX
outline, not least the upturned,
round-nosed cutaway horn.
The body is wider than a
conventional classical at
402mm and, as we say, the
depth is reduced from a more
classical dimension of approx
100mm, to 85mm.
Typical of the modern electro-
nylons, we have an adjustable
truss-rod although the three
piece mahogany neck has a
noticeable slight V to its profile
in lower positions – much more
steel-string-like. However, the
crisp, tidy bracing at least
includes proper classical-style
fan bracing. Typical of the
modern Chinese-made style,
the fingerboard is bound with
black plastic and, again quite
typical at this price, the small
frets, though very nicely
installed, haven’t been properly
polished, giving a scratchy feel
to any slight bend.
Powering comes from
a simple Fishman setup: a
Sonicore under-saddle married
with a Presys preamp featuring
volume, bass, mid and treble
mini-rotary controls, plus
a feedback-defeating phase
switch and onboard tuner.
Sounds
Slackening off the strings and
giving a good rub to the frets
and fingerboard dramatically
improves the feel of the guitar
and takes all of 10 minutes.
Acoustically, well, it’s far from
the loudest nylon-string we’ve
ever played, and lacks some
richness in the lower end and
lower mids. But as an amplified
stage guitar – not to mention a
perfectly good at-home practice
instrument – it justifies its cost.
It really has quite a percussive
‘Spanish’ tonality: crisp highs,
a quick attack and not a huge
sustain. The D and A strings are
a little underpowered, which
might be the strings, or more
likely a slight imbalance caused
by the fitting of the under-
saddle. Plus, the onboard tuner
on our model doesn’t work.
Verdict
A little fingerboard TLC goes
a long way, and the non-
functioning tuner would
immediately be sorted by any
dealer. For a student, or a player
wanting to experiment with the
nylon ‘crossover’ genre without
breaking the bank, certainly for
onstage use and at-home
practice, it’s a very
valid instrument. [DB]
Guitarist ratinG
Guitarist says: Affordable and
stage-friendly, a good starter for
nylon-string wannabes
Need a nylon-string ‘crossover’ guitar, but strapped for cash?
CONTACT: Proel PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.cortguitars.com
Cort CGC7 Electro nylon cutaway £389
GIT394.rev_quick.indd 135 4/17/15 4:25 PM