The pickup-blended tone is solid and full-bodied, but for the slight scoop in the lower mids that helps make the Cort an impressive slapper. The treble filter is well suited to the purpose. With the bridge pickup engaged, I found myself cutting the highs to get a full-throated Jaco-esque sound. The Markbass preamp is well voiced, with each EQ band offering a useful bump at thoughtfully chosen broad-Q frequency centers.
With everything set flat, the Cort’s intrinsic sound was bright and wiry, but with a healthy low-end response and present and articulate mids. The B5 proved itself a capable bass throughout testing, offering a useful array of tones. The fingerboard radius is also quite flat-again, whether this feels right is up to you. Pick-style players or those who don’t dig in with their plucking hand may prefer it to a wider spacing, though. Rather, the string spacing was way too narrow for me, both at the bridge and nut. There was nothing objectively wrong with the bass it balanced well, was decently light, and had a nice neck contour. That said, given my playing style, I was not especially enamored of the approach Cort took with the B5. Playability is a subjective thing, given the diverse spectrum of bodies, hands, and personal taste out there. In the Cort, the MB-1 is paired with Bartolini MK1 pickups, nearly ubiquitous on many a faux-boutique import bass. It doesn’t offer any bells and whistles, instead providing the tried-and-true 3-band EQ + active/ passive switch. It’s the first time I’ve encountered an onboard system from the Italian manufacturer better known for its amps. Speaking of the control cavity, it houses a Markbass MB-1 preamp. The neck joint was solid and tight, and even the control cavity (which is often a dead giveaway for a cheap bass) was relatively neat and tidy. The frets were well installed, with no sharp edges or poorly filed crowns. It’s obvious that Cort has been at the building game for a while. The instrument’s overall fit-and-finish was hard to fault. I also wasn’t especially impressed with the skill of whoever put on its strings, as they left only a wrap-or-so on the post and neglected to push the string down to ensure good contact at the nut. The generic Cort-branded bridge did its job, too, but the plastic nut wasn’t up to the generally solid quality of the rest of the bass. I was generally impressed with the B5’s hardware, particularly its use of Hipshot Ultralite tuners, which are among the best. The matching headstock cap is another elegant touch. Long a feature of high-end instruments, laminated necks made of contrasting wood species can help mitigate the effects of weather.
Similarly handsome is the Cort’s five-piece wenge/rosewood neck. Our tester’s open-grained ash body was finished with a thin lacquer, allowing me to feel the subtle undulations of the wood under my hand and imparting the instrument with an organic vibe.
The B5 makes an excellent first impression. It fuses a selection of natural- finished woods with active electronics and Bartolini soapbars, and to the untrained eye has the same aesthetic vibe as many boutique instruments. The B5 Plus AS is an affordable 5-string with many of the touches previously associated with more expensive basses.
0 kommentar(er)
