Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN review
Kevin Barnard, San Francisco, CA - June 22, 2020
I've been playing music of one sort or another for over 45 years, with a twenty year stint in the middle playing bass in a variety of rock and funk bands. I started out on bass with a garage-band-esqe 70s Harmony short scale P-style bass, then upgraded to an 80s Fender P-bass, then switched to a 1990 Ibanez SB900 "saber" 4-string, followed by a custom KLS 6-string made of purple heart and maple, then found a fantastic 1996 Warwick Fortress Masterman 4-string at Haight Asbury Music Center that I owned for 12 years. (At the time of this writing, I've sold or traded all of those basses.)
In 2020, I discovered Cort guitars and basses. I was looking for a 5-string bass because I'd never owned one before. Came across a Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN for sale on Reverb.com in a shop run by The Gator Tone in Florida. (Message Sib with any questions. Their website is Home) I’ve always been a fan of the way single cut basses look. In the reviews that I read, players talk about the way single cut basses feel, saying things like "more wood is better, providing additional resonance and tone" and "the high single cut allows very easy access to the higher frets."
I was looking at getting either a multi-scale (fanned fret) guitar or bass. The Cort A5 Plus SCMS OPN has a multi-scale fretboard and I was very curious about this style of fretted instrument. The concept of a fanned fret instrument is not new to the 21st century and actually dates back to the 1600s. (For context see Fanned Fret and Multi-Scale Guitars, Explained.). In comparison to a standard 34" scale bass, the multi-scale length on the Cort A5 SCMS feels very comfortable. The range is 35.5" to 34” scale with the low B @ 35.5” and the high G @ 34” with E - A - D strings in between. For me, the acclimation to multi-scale fanned frets was pretty quick. I got used to the "new thing" after playing on it for a few hours. A multi-scale bass is designed to give even tension across all strings plus better intonation, and the A5 Plus does the job well.
Regarding overall build, the A5 Plus tonewoods are swamp ash with a spalted maple top. The neck-thru-body construction is five-piece maple + panga panga with a 24 fret panga panga fingerboard and walnut binding. The electronics and dual pickups are Bartolini MK-1. The Bartolini MK-1 is a flexible 3 band EQ that has separate controls for bass, mid, and treble when in active mode. There's an active / passive toggle switch to go between active and passive EQ, with the treble control also functioning as a tone control in passive mode. There's a blend control for mixing the neck and bridge pickups. The control knobs are solid machined aluminum with thin rubber rings and are very tastefully designed. Each of the 5 strings has it’s own individual hardtail bridge which allow string separation while minimizing string crosstalk. The 5 individual hardtail bridges provide more defined definition and articulation than a solid block bridge. The tuning machines are Hipshot Ultralites with a 20:1 tuning ratio. Overall, the fit and finish on this bass are premium quality and of high value for the very reasonable under-$1000 street price.
Once I got the individual bridges' intonation and truss rod / neck relief set to my preferences, it's a total immersion to play this Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS for hours at a time. For live sound, I'm using an Eden WTX-264 bass head into a discreet stereo cabinet with two JBL E120 12" 8 ohm speakers. My pedalboard currently includes: Morley Mini Volume Plus, Bogner Harlow v2, Xotic BB Plus, Source Audio Nemesis, Strymon BigSky, Snarling Dogs Whine-O Wah, and Boss RC-30 Loop Station. My DAW is an Avid FastTrack Duo and an Akai MPK61 connected to Ableton Live 10 on a MacBook Pro.
The Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN is a lot of fun to play, sounds amazing, and is a joy to behold hanging on the wall of my studio. Keep it close – you never know when the muse will come tapping and slapping on your shoulder!
Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN feature
Cort A5 Plus SCMS | Artisan Series Electric Bass
Reviews
Cort Guitars and Basses (only playing - no talking)
René Flächsenhaar & Gregor Fris review
Igor Odaryuk review (only playing - no talking)
Alberto Rigoni review
Kevin Barnard, San Francisco, CA - June 22, 2020
I've been playing music of one sort or another for over 45 years, with a twenty year stint in the middle playing bass in a variety of rock and funk bands. I started out on bass with a garage-band-esqe 70s Harmony short scale P-style bass, then upgraded to an 80s Fender P-bass, then switched to a 1990 Ibanez SB900 "saber" 4-string, followed by a custom KLS 6-string made of purple heart and maple, then found a fantastic 1996 Warwick Fortress Masterman 4-string at Haight Asbury Music Center that I owned for 12 years. (At the time of this writing, I've sold or traded all of those basses.)
In 2020, I discovered Cort guitars and basses. I was looking for a 5-string bass because I'd never owned one before. Came across a Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN for sale on Reverb.com in a shop run by The Gator Tone in Florida. (Message Sib with any questions. Their website is Home) I’ve always been a fan of the way single cut basses look. In the reviews that I read, players talk about the way single cut basses feel, saying things like "more wood is better, providing additional resonance and tone" and "the high single cut allows very easy access to the higher frets."
I was looking at getting either a multi-scale (fanned fret) guitar or bass. The Cort A5 Plus SCMS OPN has a multi-scale fretboard and I was very curious about this style of fretted instrument. The concept of a fanned fret instrument is not new to the 21st century and actually dates back to the 1600s. (For context see Fanned Fret and Multi-Scale Guitars, Explained.). In comparison to a standard 34" scale bass, the multi-scale length on the Cort A5 SCMS feels very comfortable. The range is 35.5" to 34” scale with the low B @ 35.5” and the high G @ 34” with E - A - D strings in between. For me, the acclimation to multi-scale fanned frets was pretty quick. I got used to the "new thing" after playing on it for a few hours. A multi-scale bass is designed to give even tension across all strings plus better intonation, and the A5 Plus does the job well.
Regarding overall build, the A5 Plus tonewoods are swamp ash with a spalted maple top. The neck-thru-body construction is five-piece maple + panga panga with a 24 fret panga panga fingerboard and walnut binding. The electronics and dual pickups are Bartolini MK-1. The Bartolini MK-1 is a flexible 3 band EQ that has separate controls for bass, mid, and treble when in active mode. There's an active / passive toggle switch to go between active and passive EQ, with the treble control also functioning as a tone control in passive mode. There's a blend control for mixing the neck and bridge pickups. The control knobs are solid machined aluminum with thin rubber rings and are very tastefully designed. Each of the 5 strings has it’s own individual hardtail bridge which allow string separation while minimizing string crosstalk. The 5 individual hardtail bridges provide more defined definition and articulation than a solid block bridge. The tuning machines are Hipshot Ultralites with a 20:1 tuning ratio. Overall, the fit and finish on this bass are premium quality and of high value for the very reasonable under-$1000 street price.
Once I got the individual bridges' intonation and truss rod / neck relief set to my preferences, it's a total immersion to play this Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS for hours at a time. For live sound, I'm using an Eden WTX-264 bass head into a discreet stereo cabinet with two JBL E120 12" 8 ohm speakers. My pedalboard currently includes: Morley Mini Volume Plus, Bogner Harlow v2, Xotic BB Plus, Source Audio Nemesis, Strymon BigSky, Snarling Dogs Whine-O Wah, and Boss RC-30 Loop Station. My DAW is an Avid FastTrack Duo and an Akai MPK61 connected to Ableton Live 10 on a MacBook Pro.
The Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN is a lot of fun to play, sounds amazing, and is a joy to behold hanging on the wall of my studio. Keep it close – you never know when the muse will come tapping and slapping on your shoulder!
Cort Artisan A5 Plus SCMS OPN feature
Cort A5 Plus SCMS | Artisan Series Electric Bass
Reviews
Cort Guitars and Basses (only playing - no talking)
René Flächsenhaar & Gregor Fris review
Igor Odaryuk review (only playing - no talking)
Alberto Rigoni review
