Cort & Spark

An all-solid OM acoustic that comes Fishman-powered and feature-packed. And the price won’t break your heart, either…

- David Mead

Once upon a time an acoustic maker who spec’d out its instruments with the ‘all-solid woods’ merit badge to the forefront could be king or queen of the heap. But times have changed and conservation now rules the roost, meaning that now some of the six-string formulae of yore are considered to be all but invalid. We speak to luthiers all the time and many are saying that sometimes laminated sides are actually a very sensible idea, especially when you look at things from the point of view of structural integrity.

“Think of the body of an acoustic guitar to be a little like a drum,” one luthier told us. “You need a rigid frame with a resonant, flexible top to make it work.” Okay, we can see that’s a plan.

The big manufacturers have been at it for a while, too. Taylor offers ‘layered’ backs and sides, Martin uses ‘fine veneer’ and has taken the even more extreme route of using high-pressure laminate backs and sides on some of its lower-priced models. So, where does that leave us in the ‘all-solid woods’ debate now that we’re all being encouraged to be more ecologically aware? Well, there is another way. Traditionalists can still have all-solid woods if that’s what floats their boat. You can pay top dollar for the remaining supplies of the rare stuff, or you can choose your woods with one eye on the planet’s dwindling resources (and your own pocket) and act accordingly – which is what Cort is doing here. The Gold-OC6 wears its ‘all solid woods’ spec with pride, and nobody’s planet is going to end up devastated in the process. Sounds good on paper, but what’s it like in practice? Let’s test its mettle…