Cort Artisan Space 5

[Mark Ambler]

With the neck off, I can get a 34" scale bass into a suitcase. The neck joint is tight and the neck profile is very nice at 15.75". With a little eq, the bass sounds pretty good, I won't bother upgrading it.
My first and probably not last Cort. I do also have more expensive basses, Sad Metroline, etc, but this, being headless, fits in a suitcase. Also like that it's 24 frets. Highly recommend.

 

[20basspilots]

had a local guy (Final Shape Preamps) make a custom tuned on-board preamp.

You guys were right, the stock preamp was crap. The bartolini mk1 pickups are actually decent.

 

[CAIOVOTTA]

Thinking on buying and do some crazy mods on it. The neck is similar to the Cort A5?

 

[calypsocoral302]

had a local guy (Final Shape Preamps) make a custom tuned on-board preamp.

You guys were right, the stock preamp was crap. The bartolini mk1 pickups are actually decent.

What made the preamp "crap"?

Were there any adjustable trim pots? What were the elbow frequencies and center frequencies? Q factor? Signal-to-noise ratio?

Just curious, as I'm not familiar with it.

 

[20basspilots]

What made the preamp "crap"?

Were there any adjustable trim pots? What were the elbow frequencies and center frequencies? Q factor? Signal-to-noise ratio?

Just curious, as I'm not familiar with it.

According to Cort, in response to my Instagram message, the frequencies controlled by each knob on their stock preamp are as follows:

• Bass: Approximately 30 Hz
• Middle: Approximately 800 Hz
• Treble: Approximately 6 kHz

I’ve had the bass on stock for almost a year now and find the preamp lacking clarity in the high mids, which makes it difficult for the bass to cut through the mix. It also doesn’t respond well to overdrive or distortion pedals and seems to lack any clipping or distortion altogether. also, it doesn't have any trim pot. (photo of the stock preamp attached)

The only usable sound I could achieve with the stock preamp was by boosting the bass and treble to their maximum levels, though it still lacked high mids. Leaving the preamp EQ flat sounded muddy, so I had to boost both the lows and highs to get some clarity.

The Finalshape custom preamp, on the other hand, was tuned to make the bass sound less boomy and muddy while being tighter and more balanced. Its low and low-mid range had a more focused Q-curve, unlike the exaggerated response of the stock preamp. The mids and highs focused more on the high-mid range. With the preamp EQ set to flat, I requested a +1 dB boost on the high mids (1–2 kHz) for added clarity without needing to boost other frequencies.

 

[Genebro]

The Cort Space 5 is half the cost as the closest headless bass. Heck, even with upgraded US-made Bartolini pickups and preamp it would still cost less. Thanks, Cort!

Did exactly this and now I can’t put it down

 

[Bassconbeatz]

I want to change the preamp and pickups on mine. US Barts. What are the models of preamp and pickups you suggested?

 

[CascadeBass]

These caught my eye for sure. They seem to have a great design and of course Cort makes lots of instruments so quality is not a concern. The question is... is Dr Cheese just posting more videos or is he leaning toward a purchase?

 

[Genebro]

I want to change the preamp and pickups on mine. US Barts. What are the models of preamp and pickups you suggested?

I did Bartolini mk5cbc pickup set and NTMB-F preamp. I’m sure other pickups and combos would work too I just figured stick with the better version of what it came with. It sounds great though.

 

[pgpete]

factory pickups replaced with Nordstrand Big Single