Having grown up on classic, flamenco and electric guitars, dreadnought and jumbo steel-string guitars always felt 'wrong' to me. So I'd been looking for a 000 size steel-string guitar for a while when I found this Cort.

As usual for Cort, this guitar was surprisingly inexpensive for the features. The solid cedar top and solid mahogany back as well as the good construction quality alone make it worth the money. The bound fretboard, abalone inlays, abalone rosette and herringbone body binding are all just icing on the cake. I have seen better 000 size acoustics, but at ten times the price - and nowhere near as pretty.

Interestingly, the Cort web site lists the top of this guitar as solid spruce, but this guitar's top is definitely cedar. Either the Cort web site is wrong, or the specs have changed since mine was made. Other examples I have seen since I bought this guitar are all cedar too.

Overall the guitar has a strong and focused midrange, a quieter but tight low end and a clear high end. I have changed the nondescript plastic nut and saddle for TUSQ models which helped even out the tone somewhat by adding a little high end. It is a guitar that can be difficult to mic, as the wrong mic placement brings out too much of the midrange, making for a very muffled and indistinct sound.

I also added a Fishman Matrix Natural pickup system - this system has the pre-amp built into the jack socket, so there is no need to cut out a large hole in the side of the guitar to fit a pre-amp with controls. It's pretty unobtrusive, with the only outward sign that the guitar is electrified being the endpin jack socket.