Cort CORE-OC SP-OPTB — Core Series Electro-Acoustic Guitar

The CORE-OC SP-OPTB is Cort’s answer to a recurring request from working musicians: an all-solid, plug-and-play acoustic that travels light, records clean, and won’t induce wallet vertigo. Wrapped in an open-pore trans-black finish that lets mahogany ribboning smoulder beneath stage lights, this orchestra-concert cutaway speaks with spruce clarity, mahogany warmth and contemporary edge. What follows is a long-form dossier (~3 000 words) covering design philosophy, tone-wood science, bracing calculus, comfort engineering, electronics architecture, environmental footprint and long-term care, finished with a white-and-gray specification table.

1. Core Series Vision — Strip It Back, Keep It Solid

Cort’s Core line removes layered veneers and thick glossy poly to reveal what matters: solid tone-woods and resonance-friendly finishes. The SP-OPTB variant (Sitka–Pore / Open-Pore Trans-Black) delivers boutique ingredients at mid-tier price by skipping shell purfling, fancy bind or abalone rosettes. The black stain highlights grain; the open pore keeps weight low, the guitar breathing and the budget sane.

2. Body Architecture — Orchestra-Concert with Cutaway Reach

The OC silhouette (15 ⅛″ lower bout, 11″ waist, 4 ⅛″ tail depth) occupies the sweet spot between parlour intimacy and dreadnought brawn. A rounded Venetian cutaway, radiused to 4″, frees the fingerboard’s final five frets for chord-melody colourations and solo breaks. Lap comfort and microphone friendliness informed every contour: the waist tucks under the rib, the depth allows under-arm boom-stand placement without phase headaches, and the broad lower bout still shifts enough air for unplugged café gigs.

3. Tone-Wood Matrix — Solid Sitka Spruce × Solid African Mahogany

Top. Sitka spruce harvested from PEFC-certified Pacific forests provides a high stiffness-to-mass ratio and forgiving dynamic ceiling. Cort’s open-pore sealing regimen adds minimal film thickness (≈80 µm), letting cell walls flex fully.
Back & Sides. Solid African mahogany (Khaya) anchors the tonal spectrum with woody mids and quick bass bloom, pairing naturally with Sitka’s shimmer. The trans-black stain sinks into pores without clogging them, leaving tactile grain you can feel.
Neck. One-piece mahogany, dual-action truss rod, slim C carve.
Fingerboard & Bridge. Ovangkol offers rosewood-like density, chocolate streaks evident through a matte oil coat.

4. Advanced Scalloped X-Bracing — Responsive but Stable

Under the spruce plate, Cort’s advanced X spreads 5 mm toward the sound-hole, freeing the lower bout. Spruce braces scallop to feather-edge 2 mm tips. The result is a top mass ~176 g—light enough for fingerstyle whispers, stiff enough for capo-5 strums. Internal tap tests place the fundamental at G, harmonics stacking predictably for FOH engineers.

5. Playability Platform — Slim-C Neck, Rolled Ovangkol

Depth measures 0.83″ at the 1st fret, tapering to 0.88″ by the 9th—substantial for chord grip yet sleek under thumb-over manoeuvres. Twenty medium nickel frets nestle into a 16″ compound radius; edges are hand-rolled so barre chords melt rather than bite. Bone nut width 43 mm (1 11⁄16″) straddles singer-songwriter familiarity and finger-style viability.

Specifications