CORE BLIMEY
The Core CT is designed for ‘blues to hard rock,’ as Godin claims, but already you get the feeling that it takes a detour through country, alternative, indie, goth and even some forms of jazz to get there, instead of taking a ‘blues, rock, hard rock’ route. It features a high-gloss carved maple top (not flamed, just purty) on a chambered Spanish cedar body – an interesting choice indeed for an electric guitar. The set neck is made of mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard, and the position inlays are simple dots rather than anything flashy. It feels like these suit the guitar perfectly. The neck is slightly chunky but its oiled nature makes it quite easy to zip around the fretboard since there’s no sticky finish holding you back, so it feels extremely comfortable and playable. The bridge is a GraphTech ResoMax Wraparound system with six intonatable saddles. We’re all used to seeing intonation compensated wraparounds with no serious intonation adjustment to speak of, but this system offers very precise control.
SOAP OPERA
The action out of the box was a little high for my liking but this guitar is definitely built to be played hard, so the higher action allowed me to lay in a bit more to really make the most of that chambered cedar body. The bridge pickup has a warm midrange with a bit more treble smoothness than you might expect from a P90. It’s almost more like a clearer sounding, P90-inspired humbucker, in terms of voicing, rather than being too overloaded with that serious P90 snarl, and it’s great for heavy gain or clearer tones. The neck pickup is more traditionally P90, with more edge and unpredictability, and more of an acoustic-like timbre. Put them together and you’ve got a great indie or classic rock ‘jangle’ tone which lets each note ring out clearly when you play complex chords.
I’LL RETIRE TO MY CHAMBER
This is a great guitar for a wide variety of styles, provided you like a little bit of edge and hairiness to your tone at times.
