Cort promo @ Swee Lee

This CORT promo is happening at Swee Lee (Katong Branch), I'd like to vouch for the good performances of both the X1 guitar & J2 bass in terms of playability + tone. I have no idea if bags are offered for them, please contact the store for details.

Cort: Motor Oil/ Gasoline

Cort recently teamed up with artist Stephen McSwain to create the Motoroil (bolt-on) & Gasoline (set neck) guitars.

I was at Swee Lee recently to try them out. Both basswood bodied models sport different body depths to accommodate the body-neck construction with the Gasoline sporting a thinner profile. The pickups on board did well to manifest a great crunchy distortion, nothing excessively high output, please note. At testing time, no list prices were available. If you wish for a deep, dual cutaway type design which do not threaten to neck dive all the time, do consider these artistic products.

Separated at birth (yet again)

This is the wonderful but discontinued Ibanez SZ model, wish it was back...

Conceptually, Schecter's C1 model & the Ibanez SZ are only slightly differentiated.

We can say so for Yamaha's (discontinued) RGX model here as well.

Not forgetting Cort's Katana offering- they are all fundamentally similar with slight differentiation to respect the design/ copyright threshold.

When a particular guitar design establishes a forte in terms of appeal, it will be imitated. Many of us will not hesitate to embrace the design fundamentals in other manifestations because having an experience with one, we know what to expect from the other. Ibanez's SZ & Yamaha's RGX are sadly extinct; they were both very good guitars for the money but the manufacturers have their reasons to do away with them.

Cort: X-3 (conclusion)

So here they are; my Cort X-3 & Beta Aivin BM6 being best friends in the office. That's right, it's nothing fantastic to behold but some of the best value-for-money equipment I've acquired are seen above.

Cort: X-3 (Part 2)

One of the strap buttons is located at the X-3's upper cutaway bout. Any plus points for this difference? Not really, it gives the guitar a different feel upon strapping on which some of us might dislike because it moves the strap further away. On the other hand, it makes putting the strap over your head much easier.

This is perhaps the highlight of my entry; the X-3's fixed bridge features a tail end access. As such, the intonation adjustments screw are located above the string entry points. Why this peculiarity? If you've handled the X-3, it's feels super light so the implication here is the guitar's body had been extensively chambered. This way, the body's hollow nature could not hold any string ferules to allow a through-body stringing hence the tail end entry instead. Do note the horrible action adjustment screw protrusions there; I'm looking for replacement parts for those.

Cort: X-3 (Part 1)

Cort's X-3 is a lower tier offering by the manufacturer, I got mine for less than $250 (yesterday) so you get the picture where it stands. It's also very light, in fact, too light to be a worthy consideration for those hunting for a fresh electric guitar. This effectively means, the X-3 is inherently a bright guitar & I like what I hear from this guitar once the distortion kicks in.

To be continued...

Decent package

This is a good offering by Swee Lee, I'm not highlighting this for the price but I've played the G200 (Cort) & it's a good starter unit in terms of QC.

Tone-wise, do not expect anything spectacular but they offer some decent cleans for the money, especially so when I got to hear it plug into a Fender (tube) amp. You might say it's the amp rather than the guitar which is giving off ear candy in this case but I managed to A-B it against a Peavey guitar & this G200 did better.