2006 Archives

The first time I got my hands on a Cort guitar was about two years ago. I bought the beautifully built and magnificently sounding Cort S2550 with it's soft maple body, quilted arched maple top, 25.5" maple neck, Mightymite pickups, and Wilkinson VS50K tremolo. It's an absolute dream to play and although it actually looks more like an intermediate guitar, it's wholly pro!

Mine was manufactured in Korea sometime in 2002 I think and its superb 22 medium frets make it great for guys with 'smaller hands' of which I am one. There's one humbucker and two single-coils that are controlled with five-way switching. The humbucker pick up can be switched to single-coil by pulling the tone-knob and the Wilkinson-trem is brilliantly stable. Having gone through a lot of guitars in my time and never once thought about naming one, I decided to name this one Ellen. It is by far my favourite solid electric to date!

Within a month or two, and as I started out primarily as a bass player, I picked up a Cort Artisan C4P Bass and oh deary deary me was this a very wise buy indeed! The wine red basswood body with Fishman Piezo Pickups and 2 band active EQ supports a maple bolt on neck and it really is an absolute joy to play whether your playing deep and mellow or sharp and twangy bass lines.

Now, two years later, I can say with confidence that these guitars make great studio instruments and although I've heard some nice things about them being used on stage, I haven't personally had that priviledge so far.

On to the day before yesterday. There's a cool guitar shop about 30 mins walk from my front door that I just happened to stroll into. They had a few Ibanez's, a few Gibsons and Epiphones, and quite a few Cort guitars. I pointed to one of the Epiphone semi's and asked 'Er... is that an Epiphone Casino you've got up there mate?' and after the guy nodded I added: 'can I have a quick go???' The Epiphone was nice but a little uncomfortable for me on the fretboard... I wasn't that impressed to tell you the truth but I know that some people worship this particular model. After handing the guitar back I noticed that the lovely red semi hanging only a few guitars away was a Cort and closer inspection revealed that it was a Cort 'Source' Jazzbox.. a delightfully pretty 'Lady in red' to these enchanted eyes!

The Cort 'Source' (now named 'Prudence') is actually lighter and seemingly better finished than it's Epiphone counterpart and it felt really comfortable to play unplugged. The guitar features a semi-hollow body, spruce top, maple back & sides and Mightymite pickups. Like it's relatives is was of course born in Korea but whatever it is that those guys over there do to create these little gems... they do it right! It's around 795 CAD but this daughter of delight was 450 dollars including a nice hard case after a university student boght it, looked at it a couple of times, and part exchanged it for something else! For me, it's my first eleccy semi-hollow and I can't wait to see what it sounds like when I eventually get back to recording... for now though.. it's part of the family and although I still intend on pursuing a nice Fender Strat sometime soon (cos Mick Clack's got a really nice Strat and I'm dead jealous), I know I'll be happy to continue recommending Cort guitars!

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