Cort was originally a guitar factory in Japan and Jack Westheimer began distributing guitars from them into U.S. during the early 1960s. Some of the trademark/brand names that Westheimer distributed included Cortez, Kingston, Pearl, Teisco, and Silvertone. In 1973, Westheimer along with Yung H. Park founded the Yoo-Ah company in South Korea. Yoo-Ah eventually changed names to Cor-Tez and Park bought the company from Westheimer.
Cort is one of the few brand names that owns its manufacturing facility overseas. They also build guitars for several other trademarks other than Cort including Epiphone, Ibanez, G&L, Parkwood, and Schecter. Cort continues to build guitars in their Korean factory where several other manufacturers have shifted production to China and other Asian companies.
Most early Cort models were copies of popular American models, mainly modeled after the Stratocaster. In recent years, Cort has shifted its product line to include only all-original models. Cort has also endorsed several guitartists with their own model including Larry Coryell, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Hiram Bullock, Neil Zaza, and Claudio Pagelli. Luthiers Jim Triggs and Gary Curbow have also designed a line of semi-hollowbody guitars and electric basses respectively for the Cort line.
Currently, Cort offers a full line of acoustic, electric, and electric bass guitars. For more information, visit Cort's website or contact them directly.
Instruments currently produced in Inchon and Taejon, Korea, Surabuya, Indonesia, and China. Distributed in the U.S. by Cort Musical Instrument Company, Ltd. in Northbrook, IL.