mcnach Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1434223805' post='2797815'] I picked up at GB74 off of Ebay last month for ~£240 or so. Maybe less. Mine is the 'open pore natural' finish with the black pickguard. From the top, in my opinion: Good points: The neck! I've never played a bass with such a solid neck. It fits perfectly in my hands and I have not had to touch the trussrod at all. The body! It is like my Fender Jazz,but with 20% of the unnecessary bloat lopped off. It is very comfortable to play and balances really well. The bridge! Seems to be a higher mass unit than your usual Fender unit. The tuners! Licensed Hipshot Ultralites rather than anonymous Fender clones. Keeps the balance right as well. Bad points: The preamp! They used a generic 3-band unit in these, with the bass and treble controls stacked and the mid control allocated its own pot. I found that the treble control didn't dial out enough treble for me, so you cannot get that pillowy Motown sound out of the instrument. The stacked knobs were also loose on mine and I had to remove washers to get the whole thing to tighten up again as the thread had been worn off the pot by the previous owner. I pulled the preamp out and replaced it with an Alembic Stratoblaster clone. The bridge pickup! On my GB74 this pickup was wired with the coils in series. It overpowered the neck pickup badly, and didn't sound very nice. I detected a baked-in mid-range bark on all settings. I rewired it in parallel. Did Cort screw up? The black wire was connected to hot and the white wire connected to ground! Perhaps the previous owner Barry'd up the bass before I got it (they broke off a pickguard screw and superglued the head back onto the pickguard leaving the broken shaft buried into the wood. The neck pickup! A squashy single coil that doesn't blend well with the bridge pickup. If you EQ your rig for the tight, rubber-bullet attack of the bridge pickup then you won't have a tone that also works with the mooshy output of the neck pickup. It sounds a bit like a P bass, but somehow lacks balls. I stuck a stacked Carvin humbucker in neck slot and have not looked back! The slap switch! What is this thing? A preset EQ curve? In my opinion Cort build a beautiful looking bass, did a brilliant job on the fit and finish of the body and neck, but half-assed the electronics. There is a reason 100% of the Youtube videos of this bass feature some guy slapping away. Great for brittle slap tones but not so hot for other uses. I've modified mine to be an all-round instrument. [/quote] good review! I agree with a lot of it. Mine is incredibly light too... I have some pickups in my drawer that I mean to use on it (Seymour Duncan SMB4A and Nordstrand NJ4SE, leftover from previous projects) and a John East U-Retro preamp... One day, one day. Perhaps I should have it sprayed shell pink too... and I am only half joking! I've played a few gigs with it as it is... not the best, but it does work. Edited November 16, 2016 by mcnach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 I can beat £150 - my Cort C5P was £90! It's the model with the Fishman piezo bridge too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I've just bought one from BassDirect. It's a 2013 model and has a coil selector for the humbucker instead of a 'slap switch' thankfully so on paper is the same spec as a Lakland 55-02 (which was my target, but half the price). I agree with other reviews that the preamp isn't the best, but when bass/treble are generally ignored I found cutting of the mids to be most effective especially for getting a good Stingray sound. I may upgrade the preamp in the future but wouldn't spend a fortune. But I think decent pickups (e.g. Nordstrand/Seymour Duncan) would turn this from a good instrument into a great one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubinga5 Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 they build these basses knowing you will upgrade the electronics I'm sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 After a few days with it i don't think anything really [i]needs[/i] to be changed. If you want a more Stingray sound I think the pickup will need rewiring to parallel but cutting the mid control does a fairly decent job of this. I think the preamp is definitely the only thing that really stands out as not great, but if you leave it flat you won't ever know. I may replace it but not sure what with that isn't overly costly (e.g.not a U-Retro). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I have one of these - and the 4 too. The 4 is a stupendously good bass, the 5 for some reason sounds very different but it still a good bass. The 4 is now my main bass. It sounds more or less the same through any amp, mixer or DI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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