Cort Guitars introduces the Artisan A5 Beyond bass guitar, a modern instrument with the specs from Cort’s best-selling A5 Plus SCMS model. It has a single-cutaway body with a 24-fret multi-scale fretboard that ranges from 35.5-inches on the bass strings to 34-inches on the treble strings. This “fanned multi-scale fret” arrangement produces more tension for the low strings and subsequently tighter, more focused bass sounds.
Cort goes with a reddish-colored bubinga top over a single-cutaway shaped ash body said to provide excellent articulation and deep sustain. There is a five-piece maple and panga-panga neck—the brightness of the maple is ideally balanced with the warm midrange of panga-panga.
The A5 has a Hipshot® Transtone bridge unit that greatly improves string separation and reduces crosstalk for enhanced articulation and definition. Meanwhile, the Hipshot Ultralite machine heads are made of cast zinc with aluminum string posts and mounting nuts, resulting in 30 percent weight reduction that improves balance and tuning accuracy.
The Bartolini® MK-1 pickup and preamp have long been the go-to electronics duo for the Artisan Series, and the MK-1 delivers plenty of punchy and warm mid-range along with transparent and brilliant highs for a superbly balanced sound.
The MK-1 preamp has a trademark crisp high-end plus a flexible three-band equalizer. The preamp also provides a switchable active/passive mode for a robust, modern active sound or an organic, traditional passive sound.
The new Cort Artisan A5 sells for $999 MSRP.
cortguitars.com
