Cort's G290 FAT II has all the features, feel, and sounds to make it a serious midrange contender for the technical performer - if it wasn't for one major issue... Cort G290 Fat II - www.cortguitars.com/dp/g290-fat-ii/ This video contains paid promotion from Cort. More details on how Science of Loud implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #scienceofloud #cort #g290fatii
@forrestcrabbe No: a wah pedal sweeps a narrow band of amplified mid frequencies - it doesn't change the pitch of what is being played, it changes the tone. A whammy bar changes the pitch of what is being played by detuning the strings. It does not change the tone.
@ScienceofLoud ah, i got it. I thought maybe a wah pedal emulated a whammy bar. I reckon when i start learning to play i will begin with a hardtail, for simplicity. Can you emulate a whammy bar, is there a pedal or a computer program for it?
Hey! I repair guitars for living and what has helped me multiple times in these situations is tightening the screws under the saddles which attach bridge to the trem block.
@@Blazikenas it is something that is overlooked. In reality the use of a floating tremolo is 100% a system function and can’t be isolated to a single root cause. My experience and experimention shows the string moving in the block is the biggest contributor unlike online people saying it’s the nut, you can open the nut up like it was raped by an elephant and lubricate it until it is a greasy mess it still won’t fix the issue whereas if you putting locking saddles you will immediately see huge improvements. There is one guy who sells a tremolo block that locks the strings in the block this is less cumbersome than the Wilkinson locking saddles.
Cort has always been the unsung hero of budget guitars. I've had an m200 I picked up in 2004 that is still my primary writing instrument. That said i also wound up with a G210 that was an HSS that suffered the same issues you're having here but after how ever many years its been betwen that model and this one you'd think they'd have it figured out. Great content as usual!
I own this, didn't have a harder time keeping it in tune then with any other floating bridge but I did block it off for ease with tuning changes, still insanely good quality for the money and well worth the purchase.
Cort released this model name in the mid-2000s without the "fat", I still have one Cort G290 from 2005 that has amazing specs as stock: Mahogany body, Quilt flamed maple top, translucent blue color, bird's eye neck, rosewood fingerboard, Sperzel locking tuners, Tusk nut, Wilkinson floating tremolo and EMG's 89/SA/SA pickups, it's still my most used guitar and I'm sure if the same specifications had on the headstock the name "Shur" "Tom Anderson" or any other custom luthier name it'd cost over 2,000 dollars, you can still find these models second hand for as little as 500 dollars
I couldn't agree more! I bought a Stella DW and a Duality about 3 years ago, and while I no longer have the Stella (financial issues forced me to part with it), the Duality is probably my most versatile and most played guitar. I got it for just over $500 as a "B Stock" (I think they considered the finish on the neck to be subpar, but it's the smoothest neck on a guitar that I have) and I don't even play my LP as much as I play it. I've also considered getting a Cort Acoustic guitar because every one that I've played has had such a beautiful, bright tone. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm an Alvarez fan boy, and I almost always go that route, so...
The minute I heard "Hold The Line" I had to immediately pause the video and go listen to the song 🤣 Some songs just have an inescapable pull on you that you're powerless to resist. I digress... Love how you have the pickups highlighted, showing which pickups you're using as you're playing. Super helpful. Excellent review.
At one point I considered buying a Cort because I wanted a mid-priced guitar with humbuckers and a vibrato, and I didn't want to mess with a floyd rose. In the end I went with a fixed bridge. That was a great guitar review btw, probably one of the best I've seen on youtube
hey! After owning the guitar for more than two years i have to say that in order to keep a tuning even after lots of whammy tricks it worked for me with coated elixirs and good lubrication in both saddles and nut . it still doesnt keep the perfect pitch but the floating bridge has the ability to tune itself after stop playing for half a minute. i know its not the ideal thing to hear and its a small pain while recording but i thing its a sacrifice you make in order to maintain its so much unicue tone. Its a very well assembled and beautiful instrument and lots of times helps me creativitly even using that problematic floating bridge . For me its a perfect midrange guitar and i think its worth 100% buing. A solution as you said is either block the trem or maybe change it with a vega trem later. I personally dont change anything its my first advanced guitar aftter playing for 15 years and im in love with it!
My Haley Benton Pro Series has a one-way bridge (as in, it rests hard on return). Adjusting the springs to maximum tension and throwing the whammy bar over the right shoulder was my solution as well. Now it keeps tune perfectly well even when I really gank on the beds. That said: I REALLY like the sound of this Cort.
Blessed with another SOL I see, and with a reminder that he's actually really good at guitar. Which I somehow forget lol Always nice to hear you playing!
It's great to get an honest review. They still look like good guitars. I generally think that if buying a guitar with a trem you have to try it first, particularly second hand. So many old Floyds are completely knackered.
Great vid as always… very intrigued by these Corts. I’d consider one of these if they do a similar, but hard tailed model. Whatever you were playing at 06:58… loved that sound!
Tremol-no. Bang one of them in and you can have a fender type one way wangle action or a solid bridge. Simple solution and works, plus if you want to use the wangle-ness, then there's no issue with undoing it and et voila! Wangle-tastic. As for the not returning to pitch, I found that in the three cases I had on my wangle-equipped axes, they were all down to the blades on the trem not allowing the bridge to return to the zero point. I sanded the posts to ensure there was no pitting or scoring in the flanges, then sharpened the pivot blades and removed any burrs and it fixed it in all 3 cases. I think it must be a manufacturing defect in most cases with the cheaper trems that Floyd Rose catch with their quality control that other, maybe, lesser bridge maufacturers just don't have / can't afford to do. Never had an issue on any of my Ibanezeses, Washburns, Jacksons or Yamaha's, just the Razor, Woody and Marlin. Notice the issues were on the cheapies? The ones I got for next to nothing to mess about on. Cheap components, tuning issues. Expensive components and no issues. My belief is quality control. I was able to fix the issues that the manufacturers couldn't be bothered / afford to fix themselves.
The way you opened the guitar review in the third chapter of the video was absolutely brilliant. Would that be a semantic evaluation of the instrument? Psychological, perhaps? Whatever we call it, I swear I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see reviews of instruments and gear take that kind of consideration into account, but until now, I’d never seen it done so cohesively. Most of the time, people get stuck in technical assessments or superficial comments like "fast neck good for shredding" or something along those lines. Well done!
I had this problem with my G300 Pro. I used Lubrikit by Planet Waves on the nut, saddles and string tree, and it made miracles!! Everything works perfect now!
Cort doesnt get enough love! I have had a Cort LP style guitar for years and absolutely love it. The fit, finish and playability is as good as any other LP or LP style guitar out there.
Based on my experience, a little lubrication of the knife edges with lip balm usually saves the day. Simply loosen (or remove) the strings, carefully lift the bridge and apply a little dab of lip balm on all knife edge contact points (bridge plate & posts). If there is no other structural issue (damaged knife edge, badly cut nut, etc), this trick will improve tuning stability 100%.
Pretty guitar. I feel your pain. For Strat style trems I usually replace the springs with "Soft Springs" (I play 11s so I use four of them). Suggestions would be: 1. Replace the springs 2. Take off the saddles and grind a slope where the string might touch the plate before it goes up to the saddle 3. Replace the saddles if they are the problem (raw brass would look nice on this guitar). 4. If all else fails, take it to a Luthier and have them set it up. 5.Move the string tree 6. Replace the white switch tip with a black one (personal preference) I hope you can find the issue and enjoy this guitar amigo. 😎👍✨
Yeah - the two-point tremolo/vibrato systems... gah! I picked up a $200 Squier recently with a two-point and it had the exact issues you've run across with the Cort. Fortunately I was able to deck the Squier and that helped tremendously. Looks like the Cort is routed in a way that makes decking it difficult at best ☹. I've gotten to the point where, if I want a tremolo/vibrato on a guitar, I just go with a Floyd Rose or some type of locking system. Sure, they have their own issues, but they do stay in tune. Thanks so much for the always entertaining videos! 🤘
I bought my Fender Stratocaster plus new in 1994, and I had a very similar problem, I loved the guitar, but it put me off playing it for years, so in the end I decked the trem, and had a trem stop fitted, so now it's a hard tail. It sounds, and plays great, much better!
Great video. This guitar was on my radar but I never really pulled the trigger. The looks is beatiful. By the way, I have been dealing with the problem of two point tremolo stability on different guitars, especially the Wilkinson WVSIIK. On some guitars, it works great but, it was not the case on others. What a hard time I had. I found a video on UA-cam, where the guy recommended to use a battery or any object that can block the tuner, loose the springs so the strings pull up and the mass block blocks the battery against the body while floating parallel to the body and then perform the restring and corresponding setup. Once youßre done, the springs screws are slowly adjusted until the battery drops out. This was a solution for all guitars.
Man, i have the cort x700 duality in aqua marine... What a great guitar!!! I love it, god pickups, locking tuners, locking output jack, 24 stainless steel frets, lum in lays, very good balance and access to frets, 3 piece fretboard and it's a fkn beautiful sexy beast!!!
Well… there is a reason why PRS has choosen Cort to make their off-shore models, apart from the Santana: Cort knows what they are doing! About 12 years ago I bought a second hand Cort Zenox Z-Custom 1, a single cut/HH (SD)/hard-tail LP inspired thingy, and it still is my go-to guitar together with my MIM Fender telly. Absolutely flawless! Indeed, Cort is still greatly underrated.
Picked up a G300 last year which suffers from the same tuning issue when using the trem and by doing big bends. I’ve seen a few UA-cam videos showing that Wilkinson locking saddles help eliminate this issue almost completely so going to pick up a set asap.
I'd check the knife edges on the trem for burrs, also if someone adjusted the height of the bridge under tension can sometimes make the bridge eat into the posts and make the slot uneven. One thing I always do is put some thread seal tape on the posts to make them rock solid.
This is such a lovrly guitar! My solution with floating trems has always been to de-float them and then increase the vibrato tension, but I always miss that upward vibrato stuff, too...
Unfortunately you cannot de-float the bridge on this one, the wood is recessed below the bridge and dropping it to the body would put the bridge too low.
I had simmilar issue with Ibanez AZ after string change. Well lubrication is the point, but not only you have to lubricate the nut and knife edges. All strings touching points have to be lubricated as well as all contact points of tremolo system. I found that plain strings are mainly responsible for that, because the string loop bite in the saddle or tremolo block.
I JUST had this exact experience with the G300 Pro. I loved every single spec on this guitar except for this bridge. If they just made this with a hardtail, I would own it in a heartbeat.
Wild about the floating bridge. Looks like most of their guitars come with them. I have their Action DLX V Plus bass and it's absolutely amazing. It feels great, holds a tune well, and the onboard preamp has a ton of character to it. All from a music store used for $200. So, I guess ymmv on Cort instruments.
I have a g290 fat I, the only issue was excessive feedback, tuning stability is great, using the floating bridge is not my thing, but it does stay relatively in tune. The issue with the feedback was solved by removing the springs from underneath the pickups, nothing else worked!
I've had this issue on a cheap wilkinson trem. Turns out the issue was that one of the knife edge connections to the trem stud was chipped. I replaced it with the exact same model trem and it solved the issue. I reckon most Cort G290s won't have this issue, but it's best to try before you buy as a setup wouldn't fix that.
I have the first version of the FatBoy, it has a birdseye maple neck and fretboard, a tusk nut and none of the trem problems you noted--it also has no string trees. So, perhaps "new and improved" is only partially correct. Time for a dram of Aberlour. Stay safe.
I've got a Cort V I bought from a guy I was in the navy with in '86. I did rip out the guts (it was an Effector originally) and replaced em with normal pots, caps and a 3-way switch. Aside from that it still plays and sounds great and I gig with it to this day. Cort make good guitars.
Counter intuitive but I have been able to get better floating bridge stability by actually removing the centre spring and angling the two outer springs in. To me it made no sense but an old luthier suggested it to me years ago on a Fender Strat that would always go out of tune on the whammy bar, it worked for me!
Like you, I would just block the trem and move on with a lovely hardtail. But given the difficulty you had in fixing the bridge issue, it really got me wondering what could be wrong. I wonder if it's possible that uneven torque on the knife edge screws could be causing an issue.
I have the same exact bridge issue with my strat, and it's a gotoh 6 screw trem... I'd love to watch one of your "handy" videos about fixing this kind of issue
Roasted wood neck, or even better 5 or 7 ply roasted wood neck, 2 graphite bars under the fretboard, ebony fretboard, stainless steel frets, PLEK fret job, graphite nut, NO STRING TREE (angled headstock or staggered tuning posts), straight string pull over the nut (NO ANGLE) ... that's all you need to have a perfect guitar. And if you absolutely want a vibrato unit (yes, vibrato, not tremolo) that never goes out of tune, then you'll have to look for an original Floyd Rose, unfortunately an EXPENSIVE ONE (not a cheap Floyd Rose Special for instance). The only non-locking vibrato unit which is nearly perfect is the Bigsby B3 on my 2002 Gretsch 6120 Junior ... and I don't know the f*** why 'cause the other Bigsby B3 on my recent 5420 Electromatic is a nightmare.
It's objectively measurable in many ways. You may have a subjective preference, but it's quite easy to grade the quality of any product on its objective successes and failures
I can't believe you just put up this video! I just bought one of these in the black transparent finish. The only thing I find fault in is the pickups. They sound horrible with gain.
Have you adjusted the height at all? I've had a couple pickups where the main issue is height, but this doesn't always fix the problem unless you can EQ for clean and distortion at a given height... I have one blade pickup that I can't get to do both myself
The point about height is a great one! I think the first thing I did with this (and tbh most guitars I get sent these days...) was bring the pickup height down away from the strings. Just like microphones, pickups have a proximity effect that overwhelms their signal if placed too close to the source they are capturing. If they sounded bassy, oversaturated and inarticulate - try dropping the height. It make a huge difference to the fidelity of the signal.
@@ScienceofLoud that's really funny to read because when I set the aforementioned blade pickup too high, "bassy, inarticulate and oversaturated," is exactly how I'd describe it, to a COMICAL extent. We're talking like, "child recording into a tape condenser mic directly in front of their mouth" kind of clipping
Did you lube the nut slots? Even my GraphTech nuts benefit from being lubed, even though they are "supposed" to be self lubricating. I also would have replaced the string tree, GraphTech makes string trees as well.
I have one of these and with my unit there was no problem. Just a little bit of untuning when i change strings and it stays in tune after some time playing and returning.
You should give the G300 Pro a go, it's basically perfect from the ground up. Never had a single issue with tuning stability with mine. Plus Seymour Duncan pickups from stock.
what size trem arm does it take - I bought one of these without a trem and can't find anywhere thta sells the trem arms or even knows what size. I also noticed mine doesn't play as well as yours, my solos are a lot slower and more crap 🤪
I can't call myself an expert, honestly, but the severity of that tuning problem suggests a serious issue with (I believe) the vibrato system. My feeling is that the unit got damaged or misaligned when those footprints you mentioned were put onto the guitar's box. Doesn't mean you're wrong, but I have never seen a vibrato problem that bad before, and it seems VERY unusual. As you say, otherwise, it's a great axe!
I'd absolutely love to see Colin have a rant about the missing engineering and innovation on floating bridges some day. The only real innovation I've seen in the oast years is ball bearings instead of knife edges, but that's basically it. TremolNo and Ibanez' zero point system seem like patches on a ripping wound
Ahhh... The two point thing. Personally never had much luck with that going back to a 1989 Strat Plus. Much like this Cort it was great until you even looked at the bridge wrong. That said I dislike locking bridges even more and have had the best luck with just about any vintage 6 point bridge. There IS a two point bridge I like and THAT is the Gotoh. And even THAT is something that is not exactly new.
I'm the opposite. Had a 6 point on two guitars and they were both terrible. I went to Kahler and Floyd and an Ibanez Edge and very few tuning issues. The Edge was the best. Gotoh makes them and theirs is pretty much the same.
i just purchased this.. completely unseen, just because this feature. Not that i was looking for a new guitar but.. alcohol has a funny way of puhing you to do some things :v
Cort G250 in spectrum green ( or pink if your pink inclined ) i have both and the return to zero is absolutely flawless on both of them . Unsure why the G290 is having THAT much issue considering it also costs more than the G250. Maybe your paying for the nice flame maple top and the roasted maple neck . But still doesnt seem to do anything the G250 cant do.
The problem with Cort is their customer support; they don’t respond at all. They are a good manufacturer, but I think they are not structured to sell properly under their own brand. It’s a shame.
The only solution Cort should do with this adorable guitar is to equip it with floyd rose and a locking nut at last! No one modern Cort guitar contains locking tremolo and that's a kind of an idiotic situation!
An experimental guitar that is long out of production, which no one else in the industry took any lessons from, might not be the best counter argument...
@@ScienceofLoud A failed experiment is still an experiment with useful results. Essentially, it was explored, and everyone said, "nope, the existing way is better".
@Alice-the-seal SG is an interesting case where originally they were designed to have a large metal vibrato unit on the rear which balanced the design, but players began removing these, Gibson eventually stopped including them, but never addressed how removing mass from the back of the guitar would affect its balance. So the perception is that the SG is a badly designed instrument, when in reality it was consumers removing an essential design element that caused the issue.
@ScienceofLoud yeah, that's why I what keeps mw from getting one. I love them, but many players I know are always complaining about the neck dive. I know there are gadgets to help out with it. I've also been told your pick hand position is different, and if you've been playing for years, it's a challenge to get used to? I've noticed that many legendary players, Hendrix, Clapton for example, picked up an SG at one point and then just moved on.
It is a floating Strat style bridge, those things haven’t stayed in tune in the last 70 years. Why would this one be any different? Maybe the knife edges on the base plate are dull and need to be honed or the block needs to be impacted tighter to the bridge, or you could put locking Strat saddles on, all these would help. Or you could put a Floyd rose style bridge and nut on it and not have to worry about any of that whatsoever
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Cort's G290 FAT II has all the features, feel, and sounds to make it a serious midrange contender for the technical performer - if it wasn't for one major issue...
Cort G290 Fat II - www.cortguitars.com/dp/g290-fat-ii/
This video contains paid promotion from Cort.
More details on how Science of Loud implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure
#scienceofloud #cort #g290fatii
The link to the guitar is broken :(
Will a wah pedal make the same effect as a whammy bar? I'm not a guitar player but I'm tryna learn to play bass and i may start on guitar as well 🤘🍻🤘
Link should be better now
@forrestcrabbe No: a wah pedal sweeps a narrow band of amplified mid frequencies - it doesn't change the pitch of what is being played, it changes the tone.
A whammy bar changes the pitch of what is being played by detuning the strings. It does not change the tone.
@ScienceofLoud ah, i got it. I thought maybe a wah pedal emulated a whammy bar. I reckon when i start learning to play i will begin with a hardtail, for simplicity. Can you emulate a whammy bar, is there a pedal or a computer program for it?
I, like the Cort G290, am also FAT II.
Are you Jay?
Yaaaassssss
Love isn't always on time
Just hold the line....
Oh no no..
Or in tune
Hey! I repair guitars for living and what has helped me multiple times in these situations is tightening the screws under the saddles which attach bridge to the trem block.
What situation? You gave no context.
@@bluwng tuning stability issues with trem
@@Blazikenas it is something that is overlooked. In reality the use of a floating tremolo is 100% a system function and can’t be isolated to a single root cause. My experience and experimention shows the string moving in the block is the biggest contributor unlike online people saying it’s the nut, you can open the nut up like it was raped by an elephant and lubricate it until it is a greasy mess it still won’t fix the issue whereas if you putting locking saddles you will immediately see huge improvements. There is one guy who sells a tremolo block that locks the strings in the block this is less cumbersome than the Wilkinson locking saddles.
I'm enjoying that we got Lamb Of God-esque and Cyndi Lauper-esque within a minute of eachother
Girls just wanna have grindcore
Cort has always been the unsung hero of budget guitars. I've had an m200 I picked up in 2004 that is still my primary writing instrument.
That said i also wound up with a G210 that was an HSS that suffered the same issues you're having here but after how ever many years its been betwen that model and this one you'd think they'd have it figured out.
Great content as usual!
The problem with this brand is that their customer support is absolutely non-existent and pathetic. I do not recommend Cort.
I also have an M200, mine is from 2012, so just short of when they stopped making them from what I can tell.
Are you kidding me? You’re a great guitar player!
I own this, didn't have a harder time keeping it in tune then with any other floating bridge but I did block it off for ease with tuning changes, still insanely good quality for the money and well worth the purchase.
The problem with this brand is that their customer support is absolutely non-existent and pathetic. I do not recommend Cort.
Love isn't always in tune! 😁
Cort released this model name in the mid-2000s without the "fat", I still have one Cort G290 from 2005 that has amazing specs as stock: Mahogany body, Quilt flamed maple top, translucent blue color, bird's eye neck, rosewood fingerboard, Sperzel locking tuners, Tusk nut, Wilkinson floating tremolo and EMG's 89/SA/SA pickups, it's still my most used guitar and I'm sure if the same specifications had on the headstock the name "Shur" "Tom Anderson" or any other custom luthier name it'd cost over 2,000 dollars, you can still find these models second hand for as little as 500 dollars
Have the exact one. This guy is spitting pure facts, folks.
I couldn't agree more! I bought a Stella DW and a Duality about 3 years ago, and while I no longer have the Stella (financial issues forced me to part with it), the Duality is probably my most versatile and most played guitar. I got it for just over $500 as a "B Stock" (I think they considered the finish on the neck to be subpar, but it's the smoothest neck on a guitar that I have) and I don't even play my LP as much as I play it. I've also considered getting a Cort Acoustic guitar because every one that I've played has had such a beautiful, bright tone. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm an Alvarez fan boy, and I almost always go that route, so...
The problem with this brand is that their customer support is absolutely non-existent and pathetic. I do not recommend Cort.
The minute I heard "Hold The Line" I had to immediately pause the video and go listen to the song 🤣 Some songs just have an inescapable pull on you that you're powerless to resist. I digress...
Love how you have the pickups highlighted, showing which pickups you're using as you're playing. Super helpful. Excellent review.
At one point I considered buying a Cort because I wanted a mid-priced guitar with humbuckers and a vibrato, and I didn't want to mess with a floyd rose. In the end I went with a fixed bridge.
That was a great guitar review btw, probably one of the best I've seen on youtube
Great variety of music style demonstrations colin! Keep it up, really great playing
Hold the line has some of the best vocalwork ever recorded in the history of music. You can't find anything that beats that chorus.
hey! After owning the guitar for more than two years i have to say that in order to keep a tuning even after lots of whammy tricks it worked for me with coated elixirs and good lubrication in both saddles and nut . it still doesnt keep the perfect pitch but the floating bridge has the ability to tune itself after stop playing for half a minute. i know its not the ideal thing to hear and its a small pain while recording but i thing its a sacrifice you make in order to maintain its so much unicue tone. Its a very well assembled and beautiful instrument and lots of times helps me creativitly even using that problematic floating bridge . For me its a perfect midrange guitar and i think its worth 100% buing. A solution as you said is either block the trem or maybe change it with a vega trem later. I personally dont change anything its my first advanced guitar aftter playing for 15 years and im in love with it!
The best guitar review I've seen !
My Haley Benton Pro Series has a one-way bridge (as in, it rests hard on return). Adjusting the springs to maximum tension and throwing the whammy bar over the right shoulder was my solution as well. Now it keeps tune perfectly well even when I really gank on the beds.
That said: I REALLY like the sound of this Cort.
I have an original G290FAT and I have to action unbelievably low and no fret buzz!
Stays in tune; no problem unless wammy bar abuse.
Blessed with another SOL I see, and with a reminder that he's actually really good at guitar. Which I somehow forget lol Always nice to hear you playing!
It's great to get an honest review. They still look like good guitars. I generally think that if buying a guitar with a trem you have to try it first, particularly second hand. So many old Floyds are completely knackered.
Great vid as always… very intrigued by these Corts. I’d consider one of these if they do a similar, but hard tailed model. Whatever you were playing at 06:58… loved that sound!
Tremol-no. Bang one of them in and you can have a fender type one way wangle action or a solid bridge. Simple solution and works, plus if you want to use the wangle-ness, then there's no issue with undoing it and et voila! Wangle-tastic. As for the not returning to pitch, I found that in the three cases I had on my wangle-equipped axes, they were all down to the blades on the trem not allowing the bridge to return to the zero point. I sanded the posts to ensure there was no pitting or scoring in the flanges, then sharpened the pivot blades and removed any burrs and it fixed it in all 3 cases. I think it must be a manufacturing defect in most cases with the cheaper trems that Floyd Rose catch with their quality control that other, maybe, lesser bridge maufacturers just don't have / can't afford to do. Never had an issue on any of my Ibanezeses, Washburns, Jacksons or Yamaha's, just the Razor, Woody and Marlin. Notice the issues were on the cheapies? The ones I got for next to nothing to mess about on. Cheap components, tuning issues. Expensive components and no issues. My belief is quality control. I was able to fix the issues that the manufacturers couldn't be bothered / afford to fix themselves.
The way you opened the guitar review in the third chapter of the video was absolutely brilliant. Would that be a semantic evaluation of the instrument? Psychological, perhaps?
Whatever we call it, I swear I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see reviews of instruments and gear take that kind of consideration into account, but until now, I’d never seen it done so cohesively.
Most of the time, people get stuck in technical assessments or superficial comments like "fast neck good for shredding" or something along those lines. Well done!
Thank you CSG! 5:16 - no you did not! Sounds great - cheers!
That's one of the coolest guitar lines in history, how could I not?
I was hoping someone would mention this line!
At 35 seconds i can say that YOU nailed it, anyway. Absolutely thought, 'Steve Lukather' as soon as it was on screen... And THEN!
Very Lukather coded, especially when you get it in your hands. That's what felt right to play.
The Cindi Lauper was unexpected but gotta say I loved it. Always enjoy your videos
I had this problem with my G300 Pro. I used Lubrikit by Planet Waves on the nut, saddles and string tree, and it made miracles!! Everything works perfect now!
Good honest review!
Cort doesnt get enough love! I have had a Cort LP style guitar for years and absolutely love it. The fit, finish and playability is as good as any other LP or LP style guitar out there.
7:13 thanks, you just made me relive my high school metal youth ❤
Great review, Colin! Slàinte from the US!
Based on my experience, a little lubrication of the knife edges with lip balm usually saves the day. Simply loosen (or remove) the strings, carefully lift the bridge and apply a little dab of lip balm on all knife edge contact points (bridge plate & posts). If there is no other structural issue (damaged knife edge, badly cut nut, etc), this trick will improve tuning stability 100%.
Sweet playing, dude!
I have the G300 Pro and it stays in tune perfectly, even with serious trem abuse. One of my favorite guitars.
Pretty guitar. I feel your pain. For Strat style trems I usually replace the springs with "Soft Springs" (I play 11s so I use four of them).
Suggestions would be:
1. Replace the springs
2. Take off the saddles and grind a slope where the string might touch the plate before it goes up to the saddle
3. Replace the saddles if they are the problem (raw brass would look nice on this guitar).
4. If all else fails, take it to a Luthier and have them set it up.
5.Move the string tree
6. Replace the white switch tip with a black one (personal preference)
I hope you can find the issue and enjoy this guitar amigo. 😎👍✨
Yeah - the two-point tremolo/vibrato systems... gah! I picked up a $200 Squier recently with a two-point and it had the exact issues you've run across with the Cort. Fortunately I was able to deck the Squier and that helped tremendously. Looks like the Cort is routed in a way that makes decking it difficult at best ☹. I've gotten to the point where, if I want a tremolo/vibrato on a guitar, I just go with a Floyd Rose or some type of locking system. Sure, they have their own issues, but they do stay in tune. Thanks so much for the always entertaining videos! 🤘
What an intro man!
Excellent and honest review
I bought my Fender Stratocaster plus new in 1994, and I had a very similar problem, I loved the guitar, but it put me off playing it for years, so in the end I decked the trem, and had a trem stop fitted, so now it's a hard tail. It sounds, and plays great, much better!
wow. You've made huge progress as a solo guitarist
Great video. This guitar was on my radar but I never really pulled the trigger. The looks is beatiful.
By the way, I have been dealing with the problem of two point tremolo stability on different guitars, especially the Wilkinson WVSIIK. On some guitars, it works great but, it was not the case on others. What a hard time I had. I found a video on UA-cam, where the guy recommended to use a battery or any object that can block the tuner, loose the springs so the strings pull up and the mass block blocks the battery against the body while floating parallel to the body and then perform the restring and corresponding setup. Once youßre done, the springs screws are slowly adjusted until the battery drops out. This was a solution for all guitars.
Don't use a battery for that - find an equivalent sized object which won't go on fire or explode when subjected to crushing forces.
Man, i have the cort x700 duality in aqua marine... What a great guitar!!! I love it, god pickups, locking tuners, locking output jack, 24 stainless steel frets, lum in lays, very good balance and access to frets, 3 piece fretboard and it's a fkn beautiful sexy beast!!!
Lovely review!
Well… there is a reason why PRS has choosen Cort to make their off-shore models, apart from the Santana: Cort knows what they are doing!
About 12 years ago I bought a second hand Cort Zenox Z-Custom 1, a single cut/HH (SD)/hard-tail LP inspired thingy, and it still is my go-to guitar together with my MIM Fender telly. Absolutely flawless! Indeed, Cort is still greatly underrated.
Picked up a G300 last year which suffers from the same tuning issue when using the trem and by doing big bends. I’ve seen a few UA-cam videos showing that Wilkinson locking saddles help eliminate this issue almost completely so going to pick up a set asap.
I’d love to see how this compares with the Harley Benton Fusion Pro. Looks incredibly similar.
I'd check the knife edges on the trem for burrs, also if someone adjusted the height of the bridge under tension can sometimes make the bridge eat into the posts and make the slot uneven. One thing I always do is put some thread seal tape on the posts to make them rock solid.
Great review
This is such a lovrly guitar!
My solution with floating trems has always been to de-float them and then increase the vibrato tension, but I always miss that upward vibrato stuff, too...
Unfortunately you cannot de-float the bridge on this one, the wood is recessed below the bridge and dropping it to the body would put the bridge too low.
I had simmilar issue with Ibanez AZ after string change. Well lubrication is the point, but not only you have to lubricate the nut and knife edges. All strings touching points have to be lubricated as well as all contact points of tremolo system. I found that plain strings are mainly responsible for that, because the string loop bite in the saddle or tremolo block.
The playing segments sound _spectacular,_ even on my crappy computer speakers.
I JUST had this exact experience with the G300 Pro. I loved every single spec on this guitar except for this bridge. If they just made this with a hardtail, I would own it in a heartbeat.
How curious, one of the things I like most about mine is the stability of the tuning. I've had to tune it about three times in a year.
Wild about the floating bridge. Looks like most of their guitars come with them. I have their Action DLX V Plus bass and it's absolutely amazing. It feels great, holds a tune well, and the onboard preamp has a ton of character to it. All from a music store used for $200.
So, I guess ymmv on Cort instruments.
I have a g290 fat I, the only issue was excessive feedback, tuning stability is great, using the floating bridge is not my thing, but it does stay relatively in tune. The issue with the feedback was solved by removing the springs from underneath the pickups, nothing else worked!
I've had this issue on a cheap wilkinson trem. Turns out the issue was that one of the knife edge connections to the trem stud was chipped. I replaced it with the exact same model trem and it solved the issue. I reckon most Cort G290s won't have this issue, but it's best to try before you buy as a setup wouldn't fix that.
I love the X100.
I have the first version of the FatBoy, it has a birdseye maple neck and fretboard, a tusk nut and none of the trem problems you noted--it also has no string trees. So, perhaps "new and improved" is only partially correct. Time for a dram of Aberlour. Stay safe.
I’ve played these, pretty cool guitars!
Hold The Line 👍
Lol, you were all over the place Colin. From Toto to Lamb of God to Cindy Lauper. Props. And yeah. I'd block it too.
I've got a Cort V I bought from a guy I was in the navy with in '86. I did rip out the guts (it was an Effector originally) and replaced em with normal pots, caps and a 3-way switch. Aside from that it still plays and sounds great and I gig with it to this day. Cort make good guitars.
Counter intuitive but I have been able to get better floating bridge stability by actually removing the centre spring and angling the two outer springs in. To me it made no sense but an old luthier suggested it to me years ago on a Fender Strat that would always go out of tune on the whammy bar, it worked for me!
The Gotoh 510 trem is still the benchmark for this type of setup imo
Who woulda thunk that the factory that makes buttloads of import models for lots of major guitar brands could be so damn underrated.
You could try either changing the springs to others with different tension, lubricating the nut and the string saddles
Like you, I would just block the trem and move on with a lovely hardtail. But given the difficulty you had in fixing the bridge issue, it really got me wondering what could be wrong. I wonder if it's possible that uneven torque on the knife edge screws could be causing an issue.
I assume the tuning issue was also there without the thingy to mute the strings above the nut?
I have the same exact bridge issue with my strat, and it's a gotoh 6 screw trem... I'd love to watch one of your "handy" videos about fixing this kind of issue
Roasted wood neck, or even better 5 or 7 ply roasted wood neck, 2 graphite bars under the fretboard, ebony fretboard, stainless steel frets, PLEK fret job, graphite nut, NO STRING TREE (angled headstock or staggered tuning posts), straight string pull over the nut (NO ANGLE) ... that's all you need to have a perfect guitar.
And if you absolutely want a vibrato unit (yes, vibrato, not tremolo) that never goes out of tune, then you'll have to look for an original Floyd Rose, unfortunately an EXPENSIVE ONE (not a cheap Floyd Rose Special for instance).
The only non-locking vibrato unit which is nearly perfect is the Bigsby B3 on my 2002 Gretsch 6120 Junior ... and I don't know the f*** why 'cause the other Bigsby B3 on my recent 5420 Electromatic is a nightmare.
Perfect is subjective.
It's objectively measurable in many ways.
You may have a subjective preference, but it's quite easy to grade the quality of any product on its objective successes and failures
I can't believe you just put up this video! I just bought one of these in the black transparent finish. The only thing I find fault in is the pickups. They sound horrible with gain.
That's interesting - the pickups were one of my favourite parts about the guitar; especially with distortion.
Have you adjusted the height at all?
I've had a couple pickups where the main issue is height, but this doesn't always fix the problem unless you can EQ for clean and distortion at a given height...
I have one blade pickup that I can't get to do both myself
The point about height is a great one!
I think the first thing I did with this (and tbh most guitars I get sent these days...) was bring the pickup height down away from the strings.
Just like microphones, pickups have a proximity effect that overwhelms their signal if placed too close to the source they are capturing.
If they sounded bassy, oversaturated and inarticulate - try dropping the height. It make a huge difference to the fidelity of the signal.
@@ScienceofLoud that's really funny to read because when I set the aforementioned blade pickup too high, "bassy, inarticulate and oversaturated," is exactly how I'd describe it, to a COMICAL extent.
We're talking like, "child recording into a tape condenser mic directly in front of their mouth" kind of clipping
Did you lube the nut slots? Even my GraphTech nuts benefit from being lubed, even though they are "supposed" to be self lubricating. I also would have replaced the string tree, GraphTech makes string trees as well.
I have one of these and with my unit there was no problem. Just a little bit of untuning when i change strings and it stays in tune after some time playing and returning.
You should give the G300 Pro a go, it's basically perfect from the ground up. Never had a single issue with tuning stability with mine. Plus Seymour Duncan pickups from stock.
what size trem arm does it take - I bought one of these without a trem and can't find anywhere thta sells the trem arms or even knows what size. I also noticed mine doesn't play as well as yours, my solos are a lot slower and more crap 🤪
I can't call myself an expert, honestly, but the severity of that tuning problem suggests a serious issue with (I believe) the vibrato system. My feeling is that the unit got damaged or misaligned when those footprints you mentioned were put onto the guitar's box. Doesn't mean you're wrong, but I have never seen a vibrato problem that bad before, and it seems VERY unusual. As you say, otherwise, it's a great axe!
I'd absolutely love to see Colin have a rant about the missing engineering and innovation on floating bridges some day. The only real innovation I've seen in the oast years is ball bearings instead of knife edges, but that's basically it. TremolNo and Ibanez' zero point system seem like patches on a ripping wound
Ahhh... The two point thing. Personally never had much luck with that going back to a 1989 Strat Plus. Much like this Cort it was great until you even looked at the bridge wrong. That said I dislike locking bridges even more and have had the best luck with just about any vintage 6 point bridge. There IS a two point bridge I like and THAT is the Gotoh. And even THAT is something that is not exactly new.
I'm the opposite. Had a 6 point on two guitars and they were both terrible. I went to Kahler and Floyd and an Ibanez Edge and very few tuning issues. The Edge was the best. Gotoh makes them and theirs is pretty much the same.
@@Scott__C the Edge is my favourite locking bridge. I have a JS1 and an RG550 with it and they're really good.
@@bruiserbrawler8054 IMO, the posts having the locking screw is the real secret sauce of them.
Hold! The! Line!
i just purchased this.. completely unseen, just because this feature. Not that i was looking for a new guitar but.. alcohol has a funny way of puhing you to do some things :v
i have the g300 pro same specs but JB pickups, i never had problems with tuning. i even do divebombs
I would get a floyd rose bridge and replace the whole assembly.
Could it possibly be that the saddles are rough and are gripping the string
Would it be a candidate for a top mount floyd rose? Best of both worlds I suppose?
Now I will practice „girls wanna have fun“ all day
Cort G250 in spectrum green ( or pink if your pink inclined ) i have both and the return to zero is absolutely flawless on both of them . Unsure why the G290 is having THAT much issue considering it also costs more than the G250. Maybe your paying for the nice flame maple top and the roasted maple neck . But still doesnt seem to do anything the G250 cant do.
Guess you haven't tried the X700 triality or g300 pro.
I still like my old X-4. The only issue is that the bridge saddles tend to buzz sometimes.
LOVE ISN'T ALWAYS ON TIME!!!
The problem with Cort is their customer support; they don’t respond at all. They are a good manufacturer, but I think they are not structured to sell properly under their own brand. It’s a shame.
The only solution Cort should do with this adorable guitar is to equip it with floyd rose and a locking nut at last! No one modern Cort guitar contains locking tremolo and that's a kind of an idiotic situation!
You could put a small spacer under the string tree to raise it up a bit
Height isn't the issue in this case - it brings the strings down to the correct level, it just does so too close to the nut.
M...mine stays in tune unless i go mad with with whammy, pick ups are the let down for me lol
You say the springs have been unexplored since the '50s. I would note the Parker Fly flat-spring tremolo as a counterargument.
An experimental guitar that is long out of production, which no one else in the industry took any lessons from, might not be the best counter argument...
@@ScienceofLoud A failed experiment is still an experiment with useful results. Essentially, it was explored, and everyone said, "nope, the existing way is better".
perhaps changing the saddles would help. maybe rig it to be hardtail bridge.
I just don't get why these guitars keep coming out with longer horns. What's the function of that?
To balance that guitar when worn on a strap. The upper horn reaching the 12th fret is a well established way of preventing neck dive.
@@ScienceofLoud ahh yes. That may explain the SG
@Alice-the-seal SG is an interesting case where originally they were designed to have a large metal vibrato unit on the rear which balanced the design, but players began removing these, Gibson eventually stopped including them, but never addressed how removing mass from the back of the guitar would affect its balance.
So the perception is that the SG is a badly designed instrument, when in reality it was consumers removing an essential design element that caused the issue.
@ScienceofLoud yeah, that's why I what keeps mw from getting one. I love them, but many players I know are always complaining about the neck dive. I know there are gadgets to help out with it. I've also been told your pick hand position is different, and if you've been playing for years, it's a challenge to get used to? I've noticed that many legendary players, Hendrix, Clapton for example, picked up an SG at one point and then just moved on.
Cort makes more guitars than Gibson and fender combined
Lay this to rest 🤘🏻
It is a floating Strat style bridge, those things haven’t stayed in tune in the last 70 years. Why would this one be any different? Maybe the knife edges on the base plate are dull and need to be honed or the block needs to be impacted tighter to the bridge, or you could put locking Strat saddles on, all these would help. Or you could put a Floyd rose style bridge and nut on it and not have to worry about any of that whatsoever
They used to have Wilkenson vibrato units standard.