Cort CORE-GA ABW-OPLB — Core Series Electro-Acoustic Guitar

The CORE-GA ABW-OPLB distills Cort’s stripped-back Core concept into a grand-auditorium chassis crafted entirely from African blackwood and breathed upon by an 80 µm open-pore light-burst finish. It is equal parts boutique timbre, modern playability and road-ready pragmatism. The long-form narrative below charts every facet—design DNA, wood chemistry, bracing maths, ergonomic nuance, electronics architecture, sustainability profile and care roadmap—before condensing the essentials in a white-and-gray specification table.

1 | Core Series Blueprint — Tone First, Frills Later

Cort’s Core lineup jettisons abalone bling and thick polyester in favour of resonance, honesty and affordability. The ABW-OPLB flavour (African Blackwood · Open-Pore Light Burst) escalates that mandate: an exotic tonewood normally found on custom builds, voiced by minimal finish and a “bare-essential” hardware recipe. No binding, no gloss — just breathing wood and purpose-driven parts.

2 | Body Geometry — Grand-Auditorium Sweet Spot

Lower-bout width 16″, waist 11½″, tail depth 4 ⅝″ tapering to 4″ at the heel: the GA silhouette marries dreadnought headroom with OM finesse. A 3″-radius Venetian cutaway opens fret-17 territory for chord-melody voicings and capoless key modulations. Despite dense blackwood plates the guitar rides at ≈ 4.4 lb (≈ 2 kg) thanks to feather-weight bracing and the super-thin coating.

3 | Tone-Wood Matrix — All-Solid African Blackwood

Top · Back · Sides. African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) packs ~1.2 g cm^-3 density, outpunching rosewood and shading toward ebony. Tonally: piano-firm lows, compressed woody mids, bell-bright highs and sustain for days.
Neck. One-piece African mahogany, dual-action rod, open-pore back for sweat-free slide-ups.
Fingerboard & Bridge. Ovangkol mimics rosewood density, its caramel veins glowing beneath the burst perimeter.

4 | Scalloped X-Bracing — Light Touch for Heavy Plates

Dense tops need diet braces: spruce X-bars shave 0.5 mm off standard height; wings feather to 1.8 mm. The X intersection sits 5 mm toward the sound-hole to loosen the lower bout. Finished top mass ~190 g — lively enough for fingertip nuance, steady enough for hard flat-picking in dropped tunings.

5 | Open-Pore Light-Burst Finish

Process: water-based pore sealer, light-burst aniline, matte polyurethane top-coat (~80 µm). Result: tactile grain, 4-6 % more top displacement amplitude vs. gloss blackwood peers, and a warm amber centre fading to espresso rim that photographs like a boutique relic..

Specifications