Spot on snojones.

There is far too much snobbery or elitisim, susceptability to marketing and craven desire for peer approval of the label call it what you will influencing many people when they go shopping for a guitar. They're not listening to the instrument, but to their ego being massaged. That said, people are free to choose to pay for that if that's important to them.[br][br]Asian manufacturers are now turning out the majority of instruments as OEM for many famously familiar brands as well as their own which are mass produced to a consistent standard of excellence unsurpassed in previous decades. Other than if one wants to on very, very expensive boutique brands for exclusivity and arguable acoustic perfection, or segments within brands still manufactured in high labour cost and artificially inflated currency countries trading on market perception of a brand legacy, one doesn't need to spend a whole lot of money these days to buy a truly great sounding guitar which will serve the needs of any beginner or intermediate and arguably beyond for many years before most players will potentially reach that point where their demonstrated skill usurps the performance capability or limitations of the instrument, assuming the frets aren't worn out before then! [br][br]Along with my Yamaha APX e-acoustic slimline cutaway I own and use two full body acoustics, a Concert bodied Cort AF510 and a Dreadnought bodied AD810. And yes, the player in this demo should definitely have applied some string lube prior to executing this. Four and a half years in now, I couldn't want for nor perceive a need of more from an acoustic. These three still fit pretty much [u]my[/u] every acoustic purpose [u]at this time[/u]. [br][br]Perhaps it's just my presbycusis afflicted aging ears not listening to the price point but to the bright warm tones which has arrived at that conclusion. Although a recent hearing test produced an above average for age quantitative and qualitative result arguably refuting that as a factor. Price to acoustic performance, overall build quality along with features such as OEM D'Addario strings fitted default out of the box, scooped bridges and open pore Mahogany body tonewoods the Spruce laminate tops notwithstanding, in any blind test, these are up to [u]their job[/u] and will perform it as well as any and many well above their respective price points. [br][br]As a Yamaha instrument fan as many of you here might be aware, and having bought an Ibanez instrument of recent at a mid upper level price point with which I have been wholly unimpressed due build 'quality' absent quality control (where is it Ibanez?) for their relative price point in 2022, Cort OTOH are right up there with PRS IMV. In fact, Cort are the OEM manufacture for several PRS lines. e.g. SE. Can't go wrong today with any guitar from Yamaha or Cort FMM. Just choose a specification level, price point and desired acoustic tone or config if electric.