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Cort Artisan Workmanship

fnsweeeet

fnsweeeet

Mar 5, 2006
72
0
Pittsburgh, PA
#1
Picked up a Cort A4 at GC the other day, and loved the sound and the solid feel. Neck-through, Bartolini pickups, solid construction. Two red flags. One, the hardware is horrendously platinum/plastic-looking. Two, it is Korean-made, which doesn't exactly scream "HAND-MADE QUALITY STUFF" from the mountaintop in my village. I know that in the past, Cort has a reputation for knock-off quality, but except for the hardware, this looks and sounds like a very nice bass. Is Cort any better now than it was, say, a decade ago? Or should I expect this to sound like strumming a laundry line in a month? I didn't buy it yet, but they have a sweet one on clearance.
 
#2
I feel comfortable speaking on this subject since I owned an Ocean TB75 for a while.

I wouldn't be afraid of build quality. High end Corts are well made. The consensus of Ocean/Artisan bass owners would be its a heck of a lot bass for the money. Folks that don't like them generally either don't like the sound of MK1 Bartolini pickups or don't like the tight string spacing. If you like the sound of the Bartolinis and find the string spacing comfortable I say GET IT.

Just beware . . . because of the "Cort" on the headstock, even though it is an awesome bass, resale value is going to be lower than similar quality basses of other brands. This might not be a problem if you are already getting it at a discount price though.
 
#3
Just because it says Korean made doesn't make it any less amazing. I would Cort right now has their game, they're factories are putting out almost all the asian made basses I know of. Squiers, G&L tributes, Lakland Skyline, etc... all of which I've found to be amazing values. Resale might hurt though with the Cort name itself but why sell if you like it?
 
#6
My A4 developed a tist in it's neck, practically unplayable, for the sort of work I'm doing. It is such a dog that I would feel bad selling it on to some poor unsuspecting person.

So far Cort have refused to replace it, even though it still has 2 years left on the warranty. Cort are great if nothing goes wrong, but their after sales service sucks.
 
#9
JazzyLambert said:
My A4 developed a tist in it's neck, practically unplayable, for the sort of work I'm doing. It is such a dog that I would feel bad selling it on to some poor unsuspecting person.

So far Cort have refused to replace it, even though it still has 2 years left on the warranty. Cort are great if nothing goes wrong, but their after sales service sucks.
Click to expand...

IME, necks don't twist that drastically by themselves. If it is unplayable, that is a result of poor maintainence and/or lack of care. Necks will naturally warp themselves, but if you let it get to the point where it is rendered useless, that is your fault, not Corts. Therefor they shouldn't, and don't cover it under warrenty.
 
#10
Cort builds solid basses; they sound & look good; I own 2 (Artisan C) and the workmanship is flawless - I'd say their necks feel even more comfortable than the ones of my Ibbys (which I totally love btw). The electronics may be a bit of an issue, especially on the lower models. The tuning machines also look weird because Cort keeps using those plastic keys, but strangely enough, they're actually good at keeping the bass in tune so unless you're a diehard fan of the metal tuning keys (like me), you won't need to normally change 'em.
I too feel that Cort basses offer a lot for the money; it's only a matter of liking the Cort sound...or not.
 

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