Cort Guitars

Cort was founded in 1960 as an importer of pianos by Jung-gyu Park, father of current CEO Young-ho Park. At that time, the company was called Soo Doh Piano. The business slowly evolved from a piano importer to a manufacturer and sales division, then finally into a guitar manufacturer in 1973. At this early stage of the company's history, Soo Doh Piano was strictly an OEM supplier to other foreign brand name companies. The company eventually changed its name to Cort Musical Instruments, focused on guitars as it became much more proficient at it than producing pianos and released the first Cort-branded guitars in 1982. Cort began production of headless guitars in 1984 with designs exclusively licensed from Ned Steinberger for Cort's own brand as well as for brands like Hohner and Kramer. This development helped bring the Cort name to the mainstream electric guitar market and attracted the attention of other well-known brand name companies seeking contract guitar manufacturers in Korea.

Cort does not have a specific model of guitar that could be called its “signature”, like the Stratocaster for Fender or the Les Paul for Gibson. Instead, Cort produces a wide variety of electric guitars, acoustic guitars, acoustic bass guitars, and electric basses.

Basses

GB

Artisan

Curbow

Controversy

Since 1997 controversy has surrounded Korean factories of Cort and Cor-Tek due to its alleged mistreatment of factory workers. Grievances include the closing of its Daejon factory with no advance warning on April 9, 2007, mass redundancies of all staff from its Incheon plant on April 12, 2007, and the firing and mistreatment of union officials and members.

On July 12, 2007, a Cort worker set himself on fire in protest, and on October 15, 2008, workers conducted a 30-day hunger strike and sit-in occupation on a 40-meter electricity tower. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian - both partners in the Axis of Justice - joined representatives of the Cort workers in a protest concert against Cort and Cor-tek on January 13, 2010, at the Nanum Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Morello said "I fully support the Korean workers' demands for justice in the workplace. All American guitar manufacturers and the people that play them should hold Cort accountable for the awful way they have treated their workers."

This controversy went through various legal stages in Korea from 2007 through 2012. Ultimately, Cort received favorable decisions from the Supreme Court in Korea that ended any further liability on Cort's part to the terminated employees. The court ruled that the closure of the plant in 2008 and subsequent layoff were justified.

Investigations into issues of widespread corruption and abuse led to the impeachment of president Park Geun-hye and the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Yang Sung-tae, who had ruled in the Cort labour dispute. These led in 2019 to apologies from Cort and honorary reinstatements of the workers who were laid off in 2007.