Cort Space 5 - a story of a journey

[BaggyMan]

I'll admit i bought a space 5 on impulse, having loved the vibe of headless basses since way back in the 80's when i owned my washburn force 42...not heard of it well see below.... a wish i hadnt sold it bass tbh.

 

Anyway I bought a secondhand Space 5 the main idea being its a little dude of a bass and handy for small venues and jam nights. 

First up its a lovely build, very nicely put together, good materials and the spec and reviews indicated that it was going to be a fun bass, bart Mk1's and markbass pre.

 

But no, the sound was muddy or woody and a bit hollow and not to my liking and there was no 'snap' in the sound.

 

Folks are pretty down on Bart Mk1's, especially cort in house ones, so i went a bit giddy and bought some aguilars..

fitted and well still not distinctive...so pre amp swap then ( i like modding basses usually to good outcomes, so happy to fiddle as its not one of my 'front line' basses)...but this one I dunno.

 

Dropped in a glockenklang three band this week.  Still not there.  Something like £200+ worth of pickups and £100+ of pre amp and no real change (ok some but not £300+ worth of enough)

So pondering this on the way home from a gig last night and my next thought was perhaps its actually the pickup placement.  Might drop in some dual coils and parallel/series them to see where we go from there.

 

And before everyone kicks off with whats the point , why did you buy in the first place etc, i enjoy the journey, have turned the cheapest of basses into great gig machine in the past with some choice mods. 

Just surpised how wild the changes i have made have made only a small amount of difference.  coil tap/series parallel  mod coming up.

 

Washburn Pic grabbed from the interweb..not my bass.

 

 

[Kev]

Whilst still not being the sound you're looking for, it was still a big difference right?  As those pickups and preamp should have transformed the sound, like taking a blanket off your amp.  The far east Barts are not good IMO but swapping them out usually makes a good budget bass great.

Edited November 13, 2024 by Kev

[chris_b]

45 minutes ago, BaggyMan said:

. . . .  the sound was muddy or woody and a bit hollow and not to my liking and there was no 'snap' in the sound.

 

Just surpised how wild the changes i have made have made only a small amount of difference. 

 

 

I'm suffering the same problem with a couple of lightweight basses that weren't expensive, look nice and play well, but are not quite there with the sound. I'm getting the same hollow clonk instead of a full blooded tone.

 

Do I cut my losses and sell or do I spend more than the basses cost on high end replacement pickups and preamps, and still end up with a bass that doesn't sound right. I'm reluctant to throw cash at a problem with no certainty of the outcome. I'm thinking I should sell.

 

IMO the Bart Mk1's do not sound good enough on any bass I've played.

[lemmywinks]

My first thought would be to try a preamp where the bass is boosting a little higher (40hz is still a terrible choice IMO) although the Markbass should be getting there already, assuming the licensed stuff is the same spec as the MB built preamps.

 

What do the Aguilars sound like wired passive?

[SumOne]

I thought the Space 5 sounded good as it was. Granted, it doesn't sound as characterful as things like P or J bass or a Stingray. I wouldn't hear one and say 'that sounds like a space 5', it didn't sound at all bad to me though. 

 

The Space 5 is seemed pretty close to what all modern active basses with pickups in those sort of positions tend to sound like to me. And having even stable tuning, small, lightweight, nice neck, well balanced etc. makes up for that. I did sell it though! But that was party as I only needed a 4 string and I find them easier to slap, and partly as I like the character sound of passive single coil Jazz Basses.

 

As it is quite a 'clean' sound, rather than changing on-board preamps (or pickups) I've usually found it easier to use preamp pedals, different EQ, or use different strings and compression to change the sound character. Being 'muddy' and not enough 'snap' are can be a big combination of things - but  I'd have thought compressor, strings, playing style, setup, preamp pedal and Amp/Cab, and EQ are major parts of that, more so than the pickups or onboard preamp (which as you say, have made little difference with £300 of new ones). The pickups aren't in unusual positions, scale length is standard, and as far as things like the fretboard and body/weight of the instrument making any difference, well, that's a big can of worms but personally I think it'd make very little difference. 

 

But yeah, if you are after a particular character sound like P, J, Stingray, then I think that is mostly down to the positioning of the pickups and no amount of changing pickups or preamp will really do it.  

 

 

Edited November 13, 2024 by SumOne

[MichaelDean]

1 hour ago, BaggyMan said:

Just surpised how wild the changes i have made have made only a small amount of difference. 

 

So, you're saying the tone is in the wood? 😜

 

My tongue is firmly in my cheek before anyone else comments!

[tauzero]

I put Bart MK5CBCs into mine (one of the MK-1s was faulty) and it seems fine to me - original preamp.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Mmmm... I did consider getting one of these a while back . Everyone's views may vary on tone etc, but to me it sounds a cross between a Warwick and a Hohner headless cricket bat that I had . 
 

I had heard of and seen Washburn Force ..but never a headless one ! Thanks for that info and pic. It looks like it would fall into the full body Hohner Jack Bass  category imho .

It sounds to me that the sound that would suit your requirements headless wise, is the Washburn Status .

You may have had one  but anyway , compared to the sounds I've heard from the Artisan the Washburn status is like a slap in the face 

You would be noticed for sure !  I have one .

 

On my headless journey , I had a Steinberger XM2 . Pricey now , and the sound was great also . I decided to sell , because it was great for pick playing but not much else for my needs . Possibly the string spacing was too narrow for me . It replaced my Hohner professional which a friend told me it sounded like a tuba ! Action and feel were good , but I didn't think replacing th3 EMG Select pickups would be worthwhile and too much of a gamble . My Jack Daniel's Bass feels like the Hohner , but has a bit more bite to it .
I have a fretless made by mybass , and got it set to B-E-A-D . The feel is great and the Bassline Humbuckers sound good . 
I think sometimes about getting a 5 string , but I have a Digitech Bass Whammy which is bulky ! I play at home only ,so not too big a deal . 

 

I did think about the Ibanez healdless basses. Cheapest one is made of Basswood Body . It seems like Cort manufacture the same type of necks ( and possibly the rest ) in Indonesia . The sound seems similar to the Cort in places . I've heard demos from Nate Navarro and Low End Lobster .  Some Basschatters changed the pickups on the Ibanez for Aguilar ones and raved about the improvements .

 

Have you considered changing your amp ? ( A bit extreme ) Or possibly get something like a Zoom B3 or similar ? 
If there is a shop near you to tryout your bass in different amps , that may be something to consider, Times are hard right now , but just ideas that came to me while typing .

Edited November 14, 2024 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

[Count Bassy]

In my limited experience different strings can make a huge difference to the sound.

 

[BaggyMan]

Had some play time and I think I have the skinny on it.  The barts are not very clear, not a pickups to match the quality of the build in total.  The Glockenklang is  good all round pre amp and a better fit tonally than the markbass i think.  Overall its a very modern sounding bass and expecting it to have musicman or P bass characteristics isn't really the idea of it, so that my bad for not letting it have its own style.. I tried it through a markbass amp and it sounds great, through the my darkglass amp, not so much lack definition in the bottom end for some reason.  Changing the pickups and pre have changed it for the better in the end, just not in the way i expected. Like i say a journey.

[BaggyMan]

 

Some time later.....

 

Having lived with the glockenklang/Aquilar mix I just wasnt happy with over £400 of mods giving me a meh outcome.  So decided best to sell the Space 5 and swap the bart's back in, sell the aguilars separately or use on another project. 

And so I did

Setting things back up (pick height etc) suddenly i am thinking...actually this is sounding pretty good...in fact really nice, warm and good sustain, a bit scooped but best of all of the combinations....

 

The fella on youtube Hobo workshop/Johnny Lee or similar has mentioned that some of his mods fail on a mismatch between pre amp and pickup choices/mixes.  Looks like i had built my own. Interesting.

 

One Other thing to note, which could apply to any roast maple necked bass for that matter,  the side dots on the neck are black.  They all but dissappear in lower light stage conditions.  Looks like some luminlay dot marker might help perhaps.

 

 

 

[tauzero]

I think the MK1s have nothing wrong with them - maybe their biggest problem is that they are clean and simply transmit the sound of the string rather than colouring it in some way.

 

I wondered why the white side dots on mine felt as if they were slightly protruding, then realised that the DPO had put them on. A very sensible move - he hadn't done the top one or two and so I could see how invisible they were in their original state.