Surprised Cort Owner . . .

louwd123

Hi everyone,

I've mentioned that I'll be posting about my venture(on a "my gear" post) to buy a cheap(ish) electric guitar and try and make something more of it. I sold my Gibson LP Studio during December last year and wanted something with a flame top, but cheap, as I can't afford to buy a full on LP. So I thought If I can find something that is a looker, plays nice and is cheap I'll rather spend some money to make it better, but not trying to make it a Gibson, coz only a Gibson can be a Gibson. So the one I landed with is a Cort TS250 in Amber colour. With it's hard case it cost less than half than what I managed to sell the gibby for so I had some cash. To upgrade the sound I decided on the Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded set which consists of the SH-2 neck, a.k.a. "Jazz", and the SH-4, a.k.a. the "JB" pickup.

So I got around to the pickup swap last night after the little one went to bed and started working on it by 9. If you look at the stats of the cort you would see it says only a mahogany body. So I thought it would only be a maple veneer over the mahogany, but man was I wrong. Here are the pic's of the upgrade process, but the nicest of it all was when I saw that it had a complete solid maple top and it is visible in the pup cavity pics. The job took me 3 hours and went to bed just after 12, but man was I suprised about the change in tone!!! Heeehaaaw.

I'm still working on before and after video/audio material and would hopefully be able to load some samples either tonight or tomorrow night. Here are the pics.

Starting the removal process.

The original wax sealed "Airline" pickups. Looks more like it was drowned in wax.

The cavity showing the maple cap.

Very well finished fretboard with flash

Fretboard in desk light.

Nice flame

Insulation tape keeping the pups in the cavity to flip it around.

The SD's in place.

Set of light Gibson strings that I still had.

All back to normal with non-covered SD's.

raithza

I'm getting more and more respect for Cort guitars...

AlanRatcliffe

I played a Cort G-VT happily for a number of years - it got me back into Strats (I'd given up on Fenders for years after owning lots of dud Fenders - including "The Strat" and a a pair of original '68s). I still have an Earth 900 parlour acoustic steel. They're not as consistent since they started making in other Asian countries, so you do need to try a few to make sure you get the best example, but still good guitars and great value for money.

I was perusing their new models the other day:
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/setup-mods-and-repair/surprised-cort-owner/?action=post;num_replies=1

Aside from the CR LPs, of note are the new Bigsby equipped models, the G-Custom and the M-Custom (although the latter two are a bit "bling" for me).

MikeM

That BV Source piques my interest :?

louwd123

I agree that the last two do look a bit over the top on those pics, but before my purchase of the TS(now CR) I was between the two fires of the TS and the M-900(second from bottom) which seems they changed to the M-Custom now. In real life the guitar does not look as wild as on the pictures. It has the fishman powerbridge as well with the two Seymour Duncans. I was actually purchasing the m900 when it didn't go through as the funds that I transfered to my account from my bond(thats where we save up) wasn't immediately available. Thus moping about my misfortune, I walked out of the shop feeling like a complete idiot with my pedalboard as I sat there all saturday morning trying to decide. But it really was a blessing in disguise. When I was driving home I remembered how I needed to alter the tone control again after playing on the one pickup and wanting to go to the other pickup with full tone(One master volume and one master tone control). Then I realised how amazing the LP setup actually is and how I got used to it, as your controls give you immediately so much more freedom to go back and forth from one setting to another without the need of changing anything. That changed my final decision and I was very glad that I didn't purchase that guitar.

Just a note on the M's body. It is actually a full hollow and not a semi, even with the stop-bar setup. It does have a centre block, but the centre block does not form part of the body. It's just a support on the bottom of the maple top. And it is not a laminated top as the F-holes aren't bound and you can clearly see that there it is one solid piece of wood. Which I thought was a nice feature. The guitar sounds great, just feels a bit . . . dunno . . . as if it would not survive even a slight drop on the floor. It's not flimsy, but it gives the feeling of being something that needs to be handled with care though.

louwd123

Hi all,

I finally managed to get around to finalising the recordings of the pickups swap that was done. So here is a little video with pictures of the process, the guitar and the gear used. I would like to hear your comments on what you hear in the difference between the two. Maybe I should also load an mp3 link for those who don't want to hear the audio through youtube's processed videos.

---mario---

:applause: ? :applause:

slyd

Heeeyyy *! Very nice sound. Beautiful axe!
What'd u pay for the pups ??

PeteM

Good, simple demonstration. A big difference hey?

louwd123

Hi Guys,

Yes the more I'm playing with it the more I realise the difference, or it might just be my wishfull thinking, but yes it is a major difference, especially on the neck. On your questions about the price, I tried local, but it seems SA is out of stock for these specific pups, then I considered tonerider, but also one was out of stock. So I decided to give ebay a go and with shipping it cost me R 1047 for the complete set. I think it is a heck of a bargain as locally they would've cost me around R1150/pup.

Anyway, keep well.

Louw

mikeyb

That is great, have you got a full shot of the guitar with the SD's in there? It is amazing how pickups can change the look of a guitar entirely.

Regarding the Cort discussion further up. I had actually contacted my local Marshall Music store to see if they could get me a Cort M200, because I was wanting a classic double humbucker guitar, and this piqued my interest because of its similar looks to the PRS guitars that I admire so much, as well as my admiration for Mark tremonti and his current guitar mastery on the Alterbridge albums, although he plays a signature single cut.

Cort M200 with Walnut satin finish on a mahogany body.

I am a sucker for the more understated guitar (I am saying this having owned a mid 90's purple glitter emblazened Jackson, and having a week ago bought a honey burst tanglewood). I would have immediately replaced the pickups with some Tone Rider Generators though.

I ended up buying a Tanglewood TSB58 HB , because I got it for a steal.
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/your-gear/new-les-paul-coming-on-saturday/

A lot of the Corts though are very bling, but I would still go and buy a Cort any day.

singemonkey

Erm. How do you reckon it's a solid top? I certainly can't from that pic, see any flame running from the edges of the top down into the maple. Actually, from this pic, I can't even see if the center seam matches up.

Not dissing you, but I would be frankly gobsmacked if they put a solid flame top on a budget guitar and weren't trumpeting it to high heaven.

louwd123

Hi Singe,

just a note or two. In terms of a cross grain cut(the untreated edge) on a piece of figured wood the chances of seing the "flame" are very slim, yes you do see the flame on a raw cut in line with the grain, but not across in my understanding. The leftover buffing paste, or what ever the whitish powder sticking to the pickup cavity is, makes it difficult to see the fix between the two halves. The pictures wasn't actually meant to "show" this as it was just pix i've taken of the process and just used it to show my very surprised find.

Another note of interest on this series of Corts is that they only made during 2010. The 2011 lineup changed to the CR series with almost the same numbering. in this series the 250 is the top, but in the new series the specs say of the 280(top in the series) maple cap, with flamed veneer.

As you say, having a solid cap for that price would be just wrong as it would put it in exactly the same class in terms of wood specs as guitars 10 times it's price. Maybe that's why the TS series was never found in any Cort catalogue, or even on their website during the time I was shopping for one during nov-dec.

On my next string change I'll pop the hood quickly and see if I can take some better picks.

Tonedef

Just an observation.

The quilt pattern looks very similar to my M600. While that's not really the point, if you go and look at the M600 specs, it simply states "quilted maple top", whereas on the M-Custom (the M-series big boy) the specs specifically state "quilted maple veneer & solid maple top".

I could be wrong of course but what Singe says does make perfect sense.

louwd123

As I mentioned in the beginning, I was actually coming from a Gibson LP and I was just suprised to get at least a mentionable piece of maple on the mahogany as I didn't even expect that for the price. I just liked the finish and the nice and thin neck for my stubby fingers. I knew even before I bought it that I'd need to replace the pickups to make it worthwhile. I was just struggling to find proof that it is actually a veneer on the edge of the cavity. Furthermore, in favour of your judgement Singe, is the edge that is visible on the picture of neck pickup dangling from the cavity. If you look at the top right edge it almost looks like a veneer edge, but the stain & poly over-run is also very evident when held in light. In the left hand side of the same cavity, next to the pickup, there is almost no overrun of the stain and polyurethane to the naked eye no clear indication of a veneer. That is what tickles me on it.

I agree that it is too good to be true. But I will take some pics again to maybe clarify this issue. Otherwise I'm very happy with the hot rodded outcome and it plays like a dream. extremely good finish all round.

singemonkey

Look, I'm sure the guitar is top quality, veneer or not. But I'd be interested to see the closer pic. Flame will be visible in the cavity. It runs right into the wood so cutting through it you'll see the variation of colour like on this early '80s Tokai LS120:

This, on the other hand is an Epi Slash with veneer.

Here's another one of a Gibson R6. You can see the stripes running down the inside on the right.

I just mention this because I've discovered from spending too long on fora that you can't spot a veneer by looking for the join. Usually it's too thin and done too well and is obscured by the finish. It's looking for the flame continuing in the cavity and, in some instances, that the join in the cap is out of alignment with the join in the veneer.

Edit: I quit nit-picking long enough to watch your demo. Sounds great, and a really neat vid. Also, nice long-tenon neck on that guitar of yours.