Easy-playing model highlighted by OM body shape, open-pore finish and Fishman electronics
Blues picker Justin Johnson recently unboxed a Cort Gold A6 acoustic guitar, and he was so impressed with the instrument that he couldn’t wait to get his hands on another Cort.
So we were only too happy to hook him up with the new Core-OC Mahogany model, which he got straight into unboxing in the above video.
The Core-OC Collection is comprised of three all-solid acoustics: the Core-OC Blackwood, Core-OC Spruce and Core-OC Mahogany.
All three boast a 25.3" scale length, an OM body shape with a Venetian cutaway and an open-pore finish, and a 43mm nut, though each sports a different construction indicated by its name.
(Image credit: Cort Guitars)
We set up Justin with the Core-OC Mahogany, which features all mahogany construction (top, back and sides), and he couldn’t have been more pleased.
“It’s got such a cool, bluesy vibe to it,” he says upon first opening the case and laying his eyes on the Light Burst finish. “It’s a really rootsy vibe,” he continues. “Just beautiful. Looks like an awesome back-porch blues guitar.”
Regarding the all-mahogany construction, he says, “There’s something pure and cool about a guitar that’s just one type of wood.”
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As for how it sounds? Just listen as Justin picks out a bluesy tune.
“I love it,” he says afterward. “It’s very responsive. Not too bass heavy, and not too sharp or shrill on the treble tones. A lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s got that mahogany top, which is known for a little bit darker tone.”
He continues, “there’s the OM body shape – not only is it very comfortable, but it’s a little smaller and less boomy than a dreadnought or jumbo. So the guitar has a great balance between the low notes and the high notes.”
What’s more, the OC is equipped with an easy-to-use plug-and-play Fishman electronics system. “It’s got a tone and a volume knob, an under-saddle piezo pickup, real simple,” Justin says.
As for what he loves about the OC? That’s also simple: the sound and the feel. Cort, he says, “wants to take all the elements that make a high-dollar, high-quality guitar – a lot of the solid-wood construction, great hardware, different things like that – but they’re kind of cutting out some of the aesthetic things that go along with guitars that you spend more money on.
“The goal is to give you everything that contributes to the sound and feel of the guitar, without having to pay for things like paint jobs and aesthetics.”
Overall, he says, “I just love this guitar. The best way I can put it is, it just feels good to play it.”
For more information on the Core-OC Series and the Core-OC Mahogany, which is priced at under $500, head to Cort Guitars.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
