Cort Earth Mini NTGD (New travel guitar day)

Squonk

Finally got my Cort Earth Mini today!

After reading plenty of favourable reviews on the internet, the one thing that I was expecting was a guitar in desperate need of setup.

This one is set up! No fret buzz, strings are not too high or low, Frets are fitted quite well, so no sharp edges as noted in some of the reviews.

Did some picking and it responds well, strumming has a great warm tone. The Bass strings are not as prominent as I would like but still good stuff.

Great guitar, will post Pics later

I played the Baby Taylor and the Little Martin to compare, and the Cort is not far behind in looks or tone, but hugely behind when it comes to price.

I approached my local music shop who said they would have to order from Cort (In Cape Town, I believe) and would take a week and half to arrive and they could offer me a deal of R1995, discounted from the retail price of R2495.
Thought I would phone around and not much luck, but eventually got through to the West Rand Music Mate who in my mind were a bunch of ripoffs and unhelpful in the past. I spoke to the most helpful person called Rob who could offer it to me for R1600 and a 2 day delivery from Cort (Cape Town). I said lets make a deal, stressing that I would have to play it before I buy it, which he agreed to.

2 days later the Cort arrived so hats off Music Mate ?

AlanRatcliffe

Congrats! They look like a lot of fun. Are you travelling a lot, or did you just want a small guitar?

Squonk

We have taken up camping as a family, so we plan about 7 - 8 trips a yeat, so this will come in quite handy

Still hugely impressed with the tone and playability

Huge inspiration for songwriting as well

PeteM

Congrats... good looking instrument.

Bob-Dubery

What's the scale length and how is it tuned?

costafonix

congrats Squonk, nice quality finish guitar at a great price. :yup:

Squonk

X-rated Bob wrote: What's the scale length and how is it tuned?

I haven't tried different tunings, It came in standard tuning

The scale length is 22 3.4 (578mm)

I had to hide it away last night so that I could practice on the full size guitars. The neck is a bit thinner than my Takamine.

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: What's the scale length and how is it tuned?
I haven't tried different tunings, It came in standard tuning

EADGBe?

Warren

Cool guitar Squonk! You gonna take it to TJ's one night?

Squonk

The Honeymoon period is over!

I have tried alternate tunings, capos, fingers and plectrums, And this little guitar actually works.

The intonation is spot on, Action just right, stays in tune better than my high end Takamine.

It has a solid spruce top and laminated back and sides and obviously a smaller body, so you can't expect full bodied tones.

Finger picking - does sound a little tinny, bass strings not that responsive as a full bodied but not that bad either. The first three strings sound great, great for lead bits.

Strumming - sounds a whole lot louder , a lot more than you would expect considering the size.

Great for taking out outdoors, watching the kids play. I even took it to Brightwater Commons while my son did a three hour Skateboarding session at Boogaloos. I didn't enjoy taking the Takamine everywhere, so this is good stuff.

Can't wait to go Camping now ?

Bob-Dubery

BigM, who very occasionally posts here, has a similar size Breedlove. He has it strung "Nashville" style with 6, 5 and 4 an octave higher than they would be in regular tuning, which gives something like, but not quite the same as a 12-string. It has it's charms.

AlanRatcliffe

Thanks for the post-honeymoon report. I was thinking with the addition of a decent pickup, this would also be a great gigging acoustic.

What gauge strings do you use on it BTW?

Squonk

@ Alan I am still using the strings that came with the guitar which are 12's. Putting a pickup sounds like good stuff.
The neck is noticeably thinner than my Takamine Acoustic and with all things Nylon at the moment it feels kind of small, but a couple of songs later it's second nature ?

In the street watching the kids skate etc (Wonder where they are, I was so engrossed in the guitar ?)

Acquired black Labrador puppy at the same time, All guitars are in high places at the moment as this beast eats anything in sight

arjunmenon

Squonk wrote: Acquired black Labrador puppy at the same time, All guitars are in high places at the moment as this beast eats anything in sight

Ha ha ? Congratulations on both bundles of joy

Nitebob

X-rated Bob wrote: BigM, who very occasionally posts here, has a similar size Breedlove. He has it strung "Nashville" style with 6, 5 and 4 an octave higher than they would be in regular tuning, which gives something like, but not quite the same as a 12-string. It has it's charms.

Tried this with my Cort, but the action became so high I abandoned before completion of the tuning, for fear the neck might snap.

Bob-Dubery

Nitebob wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: BigM, who very occasionally posts here, has a similar size Breedlove. He has it strung "Nashville" style with 6, 5 and 4 an octave higher than they would be in regular tuning, which gives something like, but not quite the same as a 12-string. It has it's charms.

Tried this with my Cort, but the action became so high I abandoned before completion of the tuning, for fear the neck might snap.

Were you tuning the strings up an octave, or trying a lighter string that at regular tension would give a note an octave higher?

The classic method is to use the octave strings from a 12 string set.

Squonk

X-rated Bob wrote:
Nitebob wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: BigM, who very occasionally posts here, has a similar size Breedlove. He has it strung "Nashville" style with 6, 5 and 4 an octave higher than they would be in regular tuning, which gives something like, but not quite the same as a 12-string. It has it's charms.

Tried this with my Cort, but the action became so high I abandoned before completion of the tuning, for fear the neck might snap.
Were you tuning the strings up an octave, or trying a lighter string that at regular tension would give a note an octave higher?

The classic method is to use the octave strings from a 12 string set.

I think I might just give this a go.

Bob-Dubery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_tuning_(high_strung)
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/instruments/how-to-use-the-nashville-tuning/

Sorry for the confusion, I should have made it clearer that Nashville Tuning involves changing strings. Tuning the existing strings up a whole octave is most likely to result in broken strings.

Nitebob

Good. Will give it a go with the other strings...on the next string change...thanks XRB

Bob-Dubery

Nitebob wrote: Good. Will give it a go with the other strings...on the next string change...thanks XRB

Find a shop that sells individual strings, else you'll have to buy a 12 string pack and toss half of them away.

It sounds a little odd as you end up with a sort of re-entrant tuning. The strings don't just go low to high any more. Your 4th string will be higher than your 2nd and your 3rd will be higher than your 1st.

You can play the same chords but they'll have a different character.

And I think this is probably not much good if you're playing solo fingerstyle as you lose all the low bass notes you'd be hitting with your thumb and on the beat.

But, in a situation like you play in, Bob, it could work quite well as you play with another guitarist.