PinkMohawk

Some of you may have been following Lemmywinks's struggle to get a Cort GB Modern 5 that's been ongoing for the last few weeks. Well, I've decided that the first one he bought (With the binding issues) wasn't a big enough issue for me to say no to it. That, and it discounted the price a little more. So, I got it transferred over to the Birmingham GuitarGuitar store, took the train over, spent a good hour playing it, checking it over visually for anything else I could try and get a discount for (Didn't find anything) and then traded in a couple of old pedals before I paid my money and left with my new bass. Despite Lemmywink's issues with it (And they are issues, don't think I'm downplaying them, these are issues that really should have been caught at QC, or when GuitarGuitar got it in and should have inspected it) I'm loving it. The fit and finish, the feel, the tone, it's all very lovely, though, compared to my two other basses, it's probably not much of a surprise that I think it's very nice, given how badly I've treated the others over the years I've owned them. I even went and bought myself an expensive Pinegrove Leather strap for it too, which is very nice and definitely worth the money for some high quality leather. You might notice the biggest change I've made so far, which is removing the clear pickguard. It might have just been my own eyes, since Lemmy said he couldn't see it, but I noticed that to me, it seemed like the guard had this almost purple tint to it? I've taken it off either way, and filled the screw holes with caphead allen screws, just to hide the holes.

Here it is, featuring a fancy Pinegrove Leather strap (Great strap, thoroughly recommend, etc.) and a closeup of the little caphead screws I used to fill the pickguard holes with.

Angled for bass, straight for board/amp. In terms of length, I prefer longer cables, but at a certain point, it's just time for a wireless.

Agreed. I mean, I get it, when I was working retail, we were selling shoes, and the ones that were on display would still technically be 'new' when we sold them, even if they'd been worn to try on in the shop, but also people weren't wearing the shoes for an hour walking around the shop, and we were constantly sweeping and mopping the floor to keep it clean. And, any shoes that came back as returns got boxed up separately and sent back to the warehouse where it'd be sold as 2nd hand for a steep discount.

Haha yeah, I'll be babying it, right up until that first ding, then all bets are off. Though the only playing I'm doing these days is much tamer than my old band, so I'll not be throwing it around like my Epi Grabber. It's my first active in a while, so I'm going to reserve judgment on the pre until I get it plugged into my proper rig, but I'll definitely agree that passive/active sounds basically the same when the B/M/T are all set to noon, surprised me how little difference there was, I had to twiddle the knobs to make sure the push/pull wasn't a dud haha. I did like it with the pre flat and a little bass boost, but that was playing fingers with just the amp in the noisy room, I'll want to see what it's like in a band environment before I can be sure if I want to change anything or not. I'm going to swap the knobs out though, just to personalise it a little. Would love if someone was looking to trade the chrome bridge and tuners for black versions too, but I'll keep myself under control for now haha. For sure, those pictures you posted of it absolutely weren't of a new bass, except perhaps in the sense that they'd never sold it, it'd just been hanging on the wall getting played by anyone and everyone.

Bugger me, you really can't catch a break Lemmy. I picked up the first one, with the binding issues earlier today. Played it at the store through one of the Darkglass combos and it sounded absolutely massive, absolutely zero complaints in terms of sound for me. I only got them to transfer that one to the store, not the second one so no chance to check and see if I could hear the pickup rattle, though I've no doubt it'd have irritated me as well as you. Would it be worth the time to try and get them to pay for a proper tech to give it a go over? Apart from the binding issues, the only thing I didn't like in-person was the clear pickguard, it almost seemed to have a purple tint to it? Might have just been to my eyes, but it was always coming off anyway, so it didn't bother me. Even found some panhead screws to fill the holes with instead of the countersunk screws from the pickguard. Lovely satisfying moment peeling the plastic off of the cavity cover too. Just need to give the action a little tweak to suit my very aggressive playing, and I've got my new main. Even got a little spendy and got a lovely Pinegrove Leather strap for it too.

Just got off the phone with the lad at the shop, paid my deposit to get it sent over to the store, now I'm just waiting for an email when it arrives and I'll be able to head to the store, give it a go in person and walk out with it if it's right for me. Yeah it mentions the binding very vaguely, you can just about see the 11th fret issue, but it doesn't show the 5th fret side binding issue from what I can see. Ah well, looking forward to getting it in my hands and finding out if it's the one for me.

Unfortunately it was haha, no bother, I like both colours just fine. I'm probably going with the binding issue one, that's the serial number 23 I believe. The binding issue isn't a big enough deal for me to kick it back (Though I'd definitely have been looking for a discount for it too), I do notice that they don't really highlight the issues on the pictures online though, so I might be able to knock them down a bit more. Plus I'm trading in some old pedals so I'll not be spending too much. Yeah, the 20 quid I'd save on the other one would immediately disappear into a set of strings for it. I'll be going over it with a fine tooth comb either way, see how much of a discount I can squeeze haha. Here's hoping that the charcoal one is up to snuff for you when it shows up though, I don't know if I'd have had the patience you've displayed throughout all this haha.

I was literally an hour away from messaging them to get it sent to Birmingham so I could try it before I bought it 😢 Going to have to go with one of your cast-off's haha

One thing most people don't think of, but makes a surprising difference is a fret polish. Far easier than re-crowning or anything else, and cheap to pick up the supplies to do so. Other than that, probably just a matter of taking your time, dialling things in just the way you like it to suit your playing style.

Yeah, I've never bought into the high mass bridge improving tone school of thought, but I still prefer them, for the looks, the comfort and they generally tend to be nicer to adjust and dial in for setups.

If that's house paint, I should give whoever did it a shout, they did a better job than the slumlord who owns the place I'm renting.

Yeah, it sounds great on all the demos I've heard of it, and I've been wanting something like it for a while, especially with a good low B that doesn't sound like farts. Not worried about the basic setup stuff, I've got my own tools for that kind of thing, and I'd be dialling it in how I like it regardless. I think I actually prefer it that way, treble being towards the bridge makes more sense in my head than towards the neck, in a 'bridge has more treble' kind of way? I agree, for what they're asking pre-discount, I'd expect better from either the shop or the QC, but from what I've seen, that seems to be the outlier, not a typical thing.

Damn, I'm looking to pick up one of these in the charcoal colour soon, from GuitarGuitar too, hopefully I manage to dodge the QC issues you ran into.

Played a few shows where bands with two guitarists needed to borrow my Ampeg 8x10, it always sounds pretty f***ing good to me.

I'm with Neepheid on this, it's always smacked of placating people who don't trust that Asia can actually turn out instruments to proper spec, which is something that really only happens when you're too cheap to pay the factories properly.

I *think* it's a sliding switch, probably recessed down so it's not sitting proud enough to catch on your clothes when you're moving around and playing. I actually prefer having it on a switch rather than a push/pull, but I'd rather it was on the front, though in the interests of keeping the front of the body uncluttered, I get what they're doing. Nice of them to make the gain trim pot accessible without removing the cavity cover too. Overall I like this a lot, though I'd like to see black hardware on the black one, chrome always stands out too much for me.

Having looked at the listing on Amazon, it seems like part of the price is from the digital lessons package they include with the bass, and apparently the body is thinned down from the usual to save even more weight. 100% a first bass type deal, which for the money, isn't a bad thing I don't think. Quality dependant, of course.

Well, I think the goal with these is less to just be a passive Ray, and more that it's for beginners. This is basically the Squier Affinity of Ray's. Or, it would be, if UK pricing was the same as US. To me at least, this is just their effort to move into that beginners market with a classic shape that isn't another P or J. I think it's a somewhat interesting proposition, but the international pricing is going to make it a challenge for them to move these, especially when there's a HB alternative for less money available. Annoys me that the black and maple colourway has the white pickguard, rather than a black one too.

Move this to the 'Wanted' section in the classifieds.

Sure, whole lot of people moving in this direction, using amp modellers either direct to the PA or power amp into cabs. I'd look at getting an amp that you like the sound of, and that also has an effects loop. That way, you can plug into the return of the loop with your Zoom, and should the Zoom ever fail on a gig, you can still plug into the front of the amp and it's not a show-stopper.

With the caveat that I'm not at all a flats guy, I found myself enjoying the TI's more than the EB's. I liked the extra midrange and the definition that they brought to the tone compared to the EB's.

I'm with Lozz, the white is just fine, but the tort does make it pop a lot more, much more of a pleasant contrast, whereas the white is looking a little too much like they both started as white, and the pickguard never yellowed like the finish did.

Nice, I think this is the way I'm leaning, unless someone shows me something mindblowing. Yeah I don't understand why it's iOS only, they're shutting themselves out from half the market with that choice.