Cort Solencanto WBL — Limited-Edition Electro-Acoustic Guitar

The Cort Solencanto WBL is a numbered, limited-edition instrument that dresses grand-auditorium architecture in a translucent White-Burst Lace finish and infuses it with 21st-century engineering: torrefied Sitka spruce, solid European ash, sculpted player-port, carbon-reinforced roasted-maple neck and LR Baggs VTC electronics. Strictly limited to 250 pieces worldwide, each guitar bears its sequence on a brushed-steel heel plaque and ships with a holographic certificate of authenticity. The 3 000-word narrative that follows unpacks every contour—design provenance, tonewood chemistry, bracing topology, ergonomics, electronics architecture, sustainability commitments, and lifelong stewardship—then distills the essentials into a concise white-and-gray specification table.

1. Design Genesis — Lace, Light, and Limited Supply

“Solencanto” fuses two Spanish words: sol (sun) and encanto (enchantment). The WBL subscript stands for White-Burst Lace, a finish that begins with a translucent winter-white wash, feathers outward in barely-there grey, and lets the grain of torrefied spruce and ash glow like sunlight through frost. The design brief demanded an acoustic that would visually “pop” under LED rigging yet age like a classic. Only 250 billets of suitably figured European ash—lightweight, closed-pore, ribbon-streaked—were secured under FSC contract, defining the production ceiling and the guitar’s limited-edition status.

2. Body Architecture — Grand-Auditorium Confidence, Stage Ergonomics

Dimensions: 16″ lower bout, 11½″ waist, 4⅝″ tail depth tapering to 3⅞″ at the neck block. This delivers dreadnought headroom without shoulder fatigue. A soft Venetian cutaway (radius 3¼″) grants effortless ascent to fret 20, key for modern chord-melody work. The top edge bears a satin-clear maple/beech arm bevel—6-ply purfling—preventing ulnar-nerve pinch across multi-set gigs.

3. Player-Port — Self-Monitoring, Reduced Fatigue

CNC-milled on the upper bass bout, a teardrop port is chamfered to 5 mm and buttressed by a spruce wing brace. Lab readings show a 3 dB rise in near-field SPL with <0.3 dB loss forward. Players therefore back off right-hand force, yielding improved micro-dynamics and lower wrist tension.

4. Tonewood Alchemy — Torrefied Sitka × European Ash

Top. AAA Sitka spruce baked at 175 °C for four hours in an oxygen-scrubbed kiln. Crystallised lignin stiffens grain and suppresses future humidity creep, while caramelised hemicellulose turns pale champagne to golden honey beneath the white-burst tint.
Back & Sides. Solid European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) quarter-sawn for ribboning. Tonally ash sits between maple snap and mahogany warmth: tight lows, forward mids, sparkling, well-controlled highs.
Neck. One-piece roasted maple (Torrefaction Series II) with dual carbon rails for ±0.001″ relief stability across 15–90 % RH.
Fingerboard & Bridge. Macassar ebony brings density for articulate transients and creates high-contrast aesthetics against the white-burst top.

5. Bracing Science — Forward-Shifted Scalloped X + Ash Tone Bars

Primary X-braces in Adirondack spruce are advanced 5 mm toward the sound-hole, liberating the lower bout for bass bloom. Wings taper to 1.8 mm. Two ash tone-bars mirror the back wood, syncing longitudinal velocity and avoiding phase smear. Free-plate mass: 176 g, about 12 g lighter than standard GA, accelerating transient attack indispensable for percussive fingerstyle.

Specifications