The Cort Earth-Mini is a ¾-size dreadnought guitar that makes a great travelling companion or a great guitar for a young student.

The Cort Earth-Mini is a ¾ mini dreadnought guitar with a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides. The neck is mahogany with a rosewood fretboard and die cast nickel tuners with black knobs. The guitar came fitted with D’Addario USA EXP16 Light strings.

According to the Cort web site, “Delivering the look and sound of an acoustic from the golden age of acoustic guitars, the Earth Series is the perfect alternative to those vintage acoustics.”

Cort Earth-Mini guitar

Back of the Cort Earth-Mini guitar

I purchased my Cort Earth-Mini guitar from The Guitar Shop for $275. The recommended retail price is $349. The guitar came with a well-padded gig bag — probably the best gig bag I have seen for a guitar at this price point.

¾ mini dreadnought

The Cort Earth-Mini guitar is a handy travel size. With a 22¾” scale, it is three-quarters the size of a regular guitar and also has a much smaller body than a standard dreadnought guitar. The smaller size means that I can pack it in my luggage easier, as well as comfortably lounge in front of the TV playing it.

My eight-year-old daughter started out playing a Jose Ferrer El Primo classical nylon-string guitar (my review here). She liked my acoustic Yamaha F310P and FG720S guitars (review of F310P and FG720S), but she struggled to get her arm over them, let alone reach along and across the fret board. She can quite comfortably manage to play the Cort Earth-Mini guitar.

Size comparison — Cort Earth-Mini and Yamaha F310P guitars

Cort Earth-Mini sound

The Cort Earth-Mini sounds surprisingly good for a relatively cheap, three-quarter sized guitar. In fact, I am impressed by its tone and volume. Sure it is not the dreamy sound of a Baby Taylor, but it is nearly half the price too. Unfortunately, I did not get to play the Tanglewood Roadster TWR T, which was also on my short list.

Finish

The Cort Earth-Mini guitar is nicely understated, with an open pore finish and no binding.

I had thought that the clean matt finish of the Cort Earth-Mini would be too bland and a turn off for my daughter. After all, some other children in her guitar group are playing bright pink instruments! Just the opposite happened, with the other students in her guitar group ogling the guitar’s real wooden finish.

The die cast nickel tuners work fine. Before purchase, the guitar shop did a quick tweak of the truss rod. The action is relatively low and intonation good.

Headstock of the Cort Earth-Mini guitar

Body of the Cort Earth-Mini guitar — note no binding

Summary

Overall, the Cort Earth-Mini is a great little guitar for not a lot of money. It is a handy travel size, but also a good size for young students or adults with small hands. The guitar also sounds pretty good for such a small body.