Cort CM30R

HERE STANDS A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING…

There are literally dozens of practice amps on the market, and choosing between them is sometimes just a case of figuring out whether it has the colour or knobs you prefer, or if it has “the look” (whatever that is this month). The Cort guitar company – makers of some truly fine instruments (acoustics, electrics and basses alike) – have decided to target the amateur player with a simple, yet stylish 30-watter that represents some surprising bang for buck.

The basic idea is a channel-switching preamp with a full tone set, a nice reverb and a punchy 30-watt power amp driving a ten-inch speaker, all wrapped up in a cab that is just 380 millimetres tall. The brain section is top-loaded for easy viewing and access, and the two channels are footswitchable.

But there’s more going on here that just that.

The two channels share the tone shaping circuit, but sound quite different – as if channel two has been revoiced. The clean channel has the expected small Fender combo sound: spanky, with a snap to the attack. But Cort have added a crunch mode (effectively, an extra preamp stage) to approximate that pushed-but-not-too-much sound. This is a cool sound because backing off the guitar volume cleans it up somewhat, creating a semi-clean tone with some bite when you dig in. Think of it as a clean amp with a Boss DS-1 in front, but the DS-1’s gain is not quite half on.

Stick a low-to-medium-gain overdrive in between the guitar and the crunch channel, and you’ll hear a fat lead tone with plenty of note clarity. I used a Zendrive, an old SD-1, and a Mesa Flux-Drive – each one presented their own focussed character, but with a touch of broad grind from the crunch mode. Very cool. I could use this channel with an overdrive pedal all night and find loads of different clean, crunch and drive options.

The lead channel is interesting, too. Most small amps offer a boosted version of the first channel, but Cort have chosen to bump up this second channel with an extra volume control. In other words, the signal runs through gain, channel volume and master volume controls. With the master up and the channel volume up, the gain can swing from low distortion to solid hard-rock.

Lower the master volume and raise the channel volume, and there’s some seriously focused metal grind happening. The task is to find the right balance of these three volume controls – a balance that suits the individual player. Add a drive pedal in front of this preamp, and the options are immediately expanded. That said, I found the second channel had plenty to offer without any extra electronics.

The CM30R has an effects loop – one of the most useful features an amp can have, and something usually only found on pro amps. Modulation- and time-based effects (chorus, delay, phaser, whatever) have inherent background noise, and running through the amp’s front end will amplify this noise along with the effect and source signal (the guitar).

Effectively, the source signal and the effect (with its noise) gets amplified twice: first by the preamp and then by the power amp. The effects loop is after the preamp, so with the modulation- or time-based pedal in the loop, the signal gets amplified by the preamp, then hits the effect and then the power amp. The source signal is processed twice, but the effect and its noise are only amplified once. It’s amazing how well this works, and all you need is an extra cable to make it happen.

With the CM30R, the ‘R’ stands for reverb. The onboard reverb is digital and models a hall reverb. For those who like a real spring reverb, they only sound good in the “long pan” form, and practice amps just aren’t large enough to fit this inside the cabinet – so digital makes sense. The Cort reverb is a sweet effect, which can be as subtle or dramatic as you require it to be.

The headphone output is for personal practice, but I used it as a line out into a mixer feeding Logic, and it worked well. The Send output on the effects loop will do the same thing, but you’ll get a less refined signal – great if you’re feeding a second amp, though. The CM30R has an aux input for amplifying an external audio source (such as iTunes), but better still, it’s also Bluetooth enabled, so you can send this audio direct to the amp without having to worry about any cables.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Cort’s CM30R is a great value combo – just right for personal practice, that late night jam with some friends, or a low-level practice session with the band. Channel one’s vintage vibe offers plenty of variety from clean to crunch, and channel two follows on with a revoiced heavy crunch through to modern high-gain.

The old school look belies the tonal variety on tap, because there’s plenty going on behind that two-tone vinyl and dark tweed grill. This is the kind of amp you could leave behind the driver’s car seat, ready for that impromptu gathering, and have it do the business without any effort at all. The Cort CM30R offers plenty of features for not a lot of money – definitely worth a suss.