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My Cort Guitars demo (2HB super strat)


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Great stuff, as always, sir!

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I didn’t even read any of the comments on this. I watched the video and I immediately skipped to the end to post this, not having any clue what anyone else said...

you, sir, make me want to buy a Cort guitar just so I can sound like you. You are the epitome of what EVH has said for years. The tone is in the hands. I love my USA Hamers. But if I could only make them sound half as good as you made those Cort guitars sound then I would die a happy man. 

You are a true inspiration and please do not ever sell yourself short in that respect. Thank you for what you have created. 

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"...Thanks for watching". Thanks for playing!

...five minutes fly in three minutes.

Great construction and craftsmanship on these guitars. Floating trem with straight string lead +1. Wood and coloring +1. Great sound, obviously! I couldn't see any flaws on the lacquer too. Nothing to criticize really.

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On 11/6/2019 at 8:06 AM, Disturber said:

It sounds absolutely fantastic!!  🙂 Great sounding demo. And your playing is, as usual, both "Cort and spark"! Love it!

Good work. Rick Springfield, who woulda thought.

What pickups are in that guitar?

Great fucking question!

Some sort of Cort pickups... the VTH-77 pickups. They seem to be medium-ish in output. Maybe lower output? I certainly wasn't having much of a noise or EFI/RFI problem in my high EFI/RFI plagued home studio. the 2 and 4 positions were the inner coils and outer coils of both pickups which was pretty bizarre to me but the combo worked for some odd reason. The clean stuff before the drumbeat comes in were positions 2 and 4... the sharper sounding stuff is position 2 and the more round sounding lead stuff was position 4.

The leads were good but the chords had a compression going on... I woudn't be surprised if the magnets were ceramic.I should have measured the resistance when the guitar was here but I flaked out on that. They felt like 8k-ish 42AWG PAF types but they certainly could have been 12-13k-ish 43AWG medium output (SD Custom like) pickups too. Sometimes it's hard to tell because 12-13k-ish 43AWG and 8k 42AWG feel the same compression-wise to me.

My best guess is just under 13k for bridge and 12k for the neck with ceramic magnets

Oh and thanks for the Joni Mitchell reference!

On 11/6/2019 at 9:19 PM, it's me HHB said:

sweet! Those look great whats the neck size?

Man, it is Cort's "Ergo" V shape (medium thickness) with a 12” to 15.75” compound radius. Very playable but the action was a little stiff. I like a higher action but lower bend resistance... this was set up with low action but stiff resistance. Most guitars are... I like my action weird. lolz!

On 11/7/2019 at 1:30 PM, polara said:

You do the shooting, too? Damn. They edit and do the post-production, titles?

  • Love the black background and t shirt and strap. You focus entirely on the guitar and hands. You really know your lighting and lenses, sir.
  • Thanks for being one of a handful of demo guys who plays not only some fast passages, but throws in some slower stuff, full chords, twang, slide.
  • And you don't go go full ENGL saturated gain. Shocking! You actually let the sound of the guitar come out.
  • Objectively, I think Cort did a fine job on the length and any edits. I know you felt it was at risk of being butchered, but from the point of a consumer, that was enough to get me excited about the guitar, and if anything was long. People zone out after 3:00, sad but true.

Pretty cool guitar. Wish they finished the back and sides in blue too, or even black, but I like the idea and lack of strong trees, switching.

Hell yeah! I do 100% of everything. I do the graphic design, animation, videography, songwriting, engineering, drums (samples), bass, mastering and editing. This video turned out to by my director's cut... they went all in and trusted my instincts.

Thank you for the kind words about the video craft.

I actually did wedding videos for a decade and am largely self taught. I did however, train under a master photographer for a while. He got me started doing product videography (high end custom furniture)... so I did indeed have someone show me the ropes. We were mostly doing rotating stuff and usually had to run through a room full of furniture in a  day. It was quite physically demanding. We were doing it all by the numbers... light meters, histograms, laborious focusing and running the cards to the computer for constant "dailies" of each piece. Great lesson for me actually!

I don't do much rotating stuff these days though... it's mostly hand operated slider shots and a couple of motorized tilt shots for these demos.

Man, I actually use 10 year old DSLR consumer grade crop frame cameras (Canon 60D) that are noisy as all hell. I have to implement judicious use of a noise reduction plug-in because even the lowest native ISO settings are noisy. Lenses are cheap $100 Chinese Yongnuo 35mm, $100 nifty fifty and the kit lens that it came with (low quality 18-135mm Canon).

My backgrounds are black cardboard. lolz 2 x 2 tri fold science project cardboard pieces stacked on top of each other. The guitar shots are against a curved piece of black photography paper held with chip clips on yet more cardboard stacked on top of each other.

Lights are one singular overhead softbox on a boom stand (white) plus two LED lights with the barn doors (Yongnuo) that are always tinted with a filter.

Pretty simple. The crushed blacks where my body and shirt disappears into the background is accomplished as much as I can through the darkest and most matte finish black clothing I can get, light positioning and post production featuring elaborate animated masks  where the guitar and arms are masked off but everything else has it's white balance/gamma shifted downwards.

On 11/7/2019 at 5:10 PM, sonic1974 said:

Sounds great! What kind of amp(s) were you using?

I did all Kemper on this one and like to combine multiple profiles layered on top of each other via Re-Amping when going all digital. I used a Fender Deluxe and a Dumble profile for the clean stuff in the beginning. When the beat comes in, that song had multiple amp profiles layered on top of each other. I used that same (clean) Fender Deluxe profile, a (dirty) Dumble profile and a (dirty) Vox AC30 profile. Gain levels were low enough for the notes of the chord to all ring out with adequate separation.

I like a 3D sound where the guitar is full but not flabby, tight but not too tight... and bright enough yet with a warm & throaty midrange. I can only get those musical contradictions with multiple amps... SRV got me on this years ago. It's suuuuper easy via Re-Amping where I don't ever need to split my signal at all like I do when I am recording actual amps.

The Dumble profiles are God-like. Noisy as all hell, but they have a grainy, almost crushed-glass texture to them. The Deluxe profile is sort of dark and mellow (Cactus Ribbon mic), the Dumble has this crazy beautiful texture and the Vox AC30 serves as a balanced "base" tone. The clean stuff in the beginning doesn't have any Vox on it though.

Mixing plug-ins: Reverbs are Abbey Roads Chambers & Plates, Delays are from Echoboy. I use mainly the Waves API set, Puigtech Pultech style EQs, CLA-L3A limiter, L3 Ultra Maximizer (cant live without it) and judicious use of NLS Summer. I also use Kush Audio Clariphonic and UBK-1 plugs.

My mastering plug-ins were: Kush Audio Omega Transformers (Type-N, Type-A, Type-458a) & Clariphonic EQ + Softube Abbey Road Brilliance Pack + Waves NLS Summer, API 2500/550 and L3 Ultramaximizer.

Drums were Beta Monkey, bass was Hamer Cruise Bass also through Kemper (Bassman, Plexi and Mesa Boogie profiles) and EHX Key 9. Bass was also recorded direct through Warm Audio WA-12 preamp and WA-76 limiter.

Thank you for asking,... prolly TMI, but I just wanted to throw it all out there for anyone who is curious.

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1 hour ago, zenmindbeginner said:

 

Oh and thanks for the Joni Mitchell reference!

 

I sneaked in there, glad you noticed! 😂

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On 11/7/2019 at 6:07 PM, ArnieZ said:

Demo was great, as usual!

What do you think about the guitar?

arniez

Thank you ArnieZ!

I actually really liked it! The forearm cut, belly cut and compound radius made the guitar extremely comfortable to play. I would have liked to adjust the springs a bit making the action a little slinkier but maybe that would have affected the tuning stability. A tremolo without a locking nut always has the potential to be a tuning disaster... this wasn't too bad and the locking tuners operated well without any of the binding issues associated with normal tuners. I thought the birdseye maple neck felt great... super comfortable V profile. My hands are on the smallish side so I really love a "V" profile... it's my favorite profile.

Scale length was 25" which gave it a more of a Les Paul style action and feel than a 25.5" strat/tele style action.  I actually really liked the shorter scale length.

Pickups were decent... wiring was noise free and stable. All in all it's everything that one would want from a $600 2HB strat style flame maple guitar.

Not enough of these on the market to find one used. They are currently all sold out in the USA... which is weird because this video is to sell them. I was told that a new production run on this model was finished at the end of October, so we'll see how long it takes for them to hit the retail shelves again.

 

On 11/7/2019 at 7:07 PM, Jakeboy said:

Crazy outstanding Zen! Great playing as usual !  You inspire me anytime I listen to you play. You really do.

I particularly like one vibrato bar shake you did where the note trails off into Reverb. Just perfect.

That Cort  reminds me of the late 90s USA Peavey Limited  series. Same KILLER pickup switch selections....you get buckers plus Strat and Tele tones. Plus the body is reminiscent of the Limited. Makes me wonder. Same faux binding too. 
 

Cort will sell a boatload of these thanks to you.

Oh man, thank you so much dude!

And thank you for the specific part shout-out. That part was actually inspired by the feedback'd reverb trail off of BOC's "Don't Fear the Reaper". I had a little octave up part that was buried in the mix and the last note was awash in Soundtoy's Space Echo setting within Echoboy. There is a sample mixed in a very subtle way... I used Thomas Dolby's synth intro to Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You". It blends in with the reverb and you can hear the reverb note sort of shift pitch right before the drums come back in, but that's just the reverb blending with that beautiful sample. I mixed it super quiet but will probably raise it in the mix for when it actually comes out as a song.

Speaking of "songs"... I think I may need to solicit your help on putting this stuff on some sort of "album".

Yeah it DOES resemble those Peavey's except for a forearm cut with a flame maple top, a slightly shorter scale length & a maple body (Cort) vs a basswood body (Peavey). Both have house brand pickups... I'd give that edge to Peavey since they have mos def made some great pickups over the years.

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4 minutes ago, zenmindbeginner said:

A tremolo without a locking nut always has the potential to be a tuning disaster...

It actually depends on the wood and neck thickness stiffness. I own several guitars with floating trem constructions. Stable constructions perfectly stay in tune where the more flexibles play with you rather than you with them.  

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Zen, thanks for the recording details! I love the Soundtoys plugs. And I get the SRV multiple amp reference from his In Step album....he asked Jim Gaines how he felt about recording 10 amps at a time so they could pick and choose which amps to mix  in on any specific track. Genius. I do something slightly similar with multiple amp cabs or multiple mics running into different preamps. 

‘Anyway, the detail was awesome and it would be my pleasure to help you in any way when you go to build an album.

You think outside the box when you record....and that helps make your stuff special. My buddy AC would have thought of that Reverb/Echoboy add to that fluttering vibrato bar piece, but I wouldn’t have. That’s why my recordings where I collaborate are better and deeper....

Great stuff here, brother.

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3 hours ago, gorch said:

It actually depends on the wood and neck thickness stiffness. I own several guitars with floating trem constructions. Stable constructions perfectly stay in tune where the more flexibles play with you rather than you with them.  

Agreed. Everything matters when it comes to keeping a non-locker vibrato bar system in tune. The nut has to cut right so the string can flow freely....I greatly prefer locking tuners BIG TIME...floating or decked?    Neck joint stability matters. I am talking about Strat types here where they get seriously yanked on and driven down to the guitar body....

My Newport with a Bigsby gets seriously whammed on......it is stock and stays in tune great...but I do lube the nut and bridge often. Same with the Duesey Les Trem II on my Artist.. and neither of those have the locking tuners they need. The Artist did need some nut work when I threw the Les on there.. the g string mostly. 
 

I prefer my Strat to float and find it stays in tune MUCH better that way.

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On 11/15/2019 at 5:16 AM, zenmindbeginner said:

My hands are on the smallish side so I really love a "V" profile... it's my favorite profile.

You and me both, brother. My Talladega V-neck is my favorite of all time. I wonder if our hand size has anything to do with us both preferring 10-52 gauge strings tuned to E-flat...

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6 hours ago, Travis said:

You and me both, brother. My Talladega V-neck is my favorite of all time. I wonder if our hand size has anything to do with us both preferring 10-52 gauge strings tuned to E-flat...

Actually, I have a similar tendency to prefer the Talladega V neck or the Newport neck. I don't appear to have the longest fingers too. However, I don't see a relationship to an Eb tuning and .10 gauge strings other than string tension. It would be similar to play .09 strings on E (standard) tuning.

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On 11/15/2019 at 6:23 AM, gorch said:

It actually depends on the wood and neck thickness stiffness. I own several guitars with floating trem constructions. Stable constructions perfectly stay in tune where the more flexibles play with you rather than you with them.  

I suppose the nice dried wood seems to stay in tune a bit better than the wood that hasn't been as carefully dried. I don't think that Cort guitars can afford to dry their wood like the high end manufacturers can. Of course I can make even the finest guitar sound out of tune.

I play guitar like a boxer boxes. I like to put a little sting or heat into every note unless I am deliberately playing lightly. All of that force just whacks any guitar I play out of tune... I attribute that ham fisted playing style to my roots in thrash metal. I started out playing thrash metal for the first couple of years. I was obsessed with Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer... I also had friends who were into hardcore music and listened to a lot of that stuff too... D.R.I., Agnostic Front, Wehrmacht etc.

 

On 11/15/2019 at 9:35 AM, Jakeboy said:

Zen, thanks for the recording details! I love the Soundtoys plugs. And I get the SRV multiple amp reference from his In Step album....he asked Jim Gaines how he felt about recording 10 amps at a time so they could pick and choose which amps to mix  in on any specific track. Genius. I do something slightly similar with multiple amp cabs or multiple mics running into different preamps. 

‘Anyway, the detail was awesome and it would be my pleasure to help you in any way when you go to build an album.

You think outside the box when you record....and that helps make your stuff special. My buddy AC would have thought of that Reverb/Echoboy add to that fluttering vibrato bar piece, but I wouldn’t have. That’s why my recordings where I collaborate are better and deeper....

Great stuff here, brother.

Oh SHIT! I was describing the break in the song and you were referencing a different part.

Lolz

That tremolo whammy wham-work actually just flowed into the next lick and there was an overlay where the whammy part went down and out while the next lick started playing.

I suppose I should note that my solos are written phrase by phrase... I record it phrase by phrase too. Its not a secret that my videos are "play-throughs" right? I record the song and then painstakingly set-up each camera angle for each shot. I usually only manage to do a camera angle or two a day. I have to absolutely NAIL my parts during the play through and if I make a mistake, I do another take. It's a laborious and time consuming process. In the old days I would chain together endless licks and then by the time I get ready to shoot the video, I forgot the initial parts I laid down. lolz! Nowdays, I limit my licks to just enough for the song but not enough for me to have a hard time remembering the individual licks. The worst thing is that I have to play outside of my actual style for these demos... which makes them a good bit harder to remember.

If left to my own devices, I will just sound like Kirk Hammett. lolz

For slide, I am always chasing the Ozark Mountain Daredevil's "Jackie Blue.".. not emulating any blues guys, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks or anything like. Those slinky and haunting licks dug deep into my soul and I am obsessed with re-creating that vibe as many places that I can in my solos.

Sorry for the mixup... all of that stuff I mentioned was for the break in the middle of the song. Ooops I am sorry I led us down a rabbit hole.

On 11/16/2019 at 11:23 PM, Travis said:

You and me both, brother. My Talladega V-neck is my favorite of all time. I wonder if our hand size has anything to do with us both preferring 10-52 gauge strings tuned to E-flat...

I'm pushing 5 foot 8 but have the hands of someone 5 foot 6... not only that, but I have slender fingers without much meat on them. My daughter's hands are literally the same size as mine and she is fucking 5 foot 1 (obviously her Mom has big ol' hands. lolz). I get all of my force from my shoulders and arms. My skinny fingers help my hands to not seem so small visually.

From my memory of seeing a picture of you that you have heavily muscled forearms and seemed to be of normal height? Am I wrong, are you shorter than 5 foot 9? You definitely look strong as an ox!

On 11/17/2019 at 5:40 AM, gorch said:

Actually, I have a similar tendency to prefer the Talladega V neck or the Newport neck. I don't appear to have the longest fingers too. However, I don't see a relationship to an Eb tuning and .10 gauge strings other than string tension. It would be similar to play .09 strings on E (standard) tuning.

You are pretty dang tall... but you might just enjoy the comfortable feel of the V profile. You might not have the longest fingers but I'll bet your mitts are plenty big.

Yep, the tension would be similar to .009 in standard tuning just a slightly different feel as far as the diameter of the string goes.

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3 hours ago, zenmindbeginner said:

 

From my memory of seeing a picture of you that you have heavily muscled forearms and seemed to be of normal height? Am I wrong, are you shorter than 5 foot 9? You definitely look strong as an ox!

Yeah, I’m 6’1” and about 225 right now. I was a national level strongman competitor years ago (at a slightly heavier bodyweight: 240-260). I still train recreationally so I’ve kept a good deal of the strength I built over the years. 

Alas, I inherited my mom’s stubby fingers so my reach on the fretboard is somewhat limited by my anatomy. But I can bend the shit out of some heavy gauge strings, for sure. 

Dont know what it is about the V-profile of my Talladega but it is my absolute favorite neck. Just felt “right” the first time I had it in my hands. 

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