Cort B4FL Artisan

I purchased this bass in the Summer of 2003. The bass has a mahogony body ,a fretless african wenge neck, all black hardware on a 34" Scale. This bass is a solid top with Cherry Sunburst finish. The bass is equipped with 2 Active Bartonlini MK1 pickups (H/H neck/bridge pickup configuration and Hipshot tuners. Controls consist of 1 volume, 1 blend, and 3 tone(treble/mid/bass).

I play primarily a Progressive Metal style. I use an Ampeg 6x10HLF Cab, SWR 350 Head w/1500 watt Berhinger power amp. I also use Boss Overdrive and Chorus pedals with a Dunlop Crybaby Wah. This bass fits my style quite well. It is bright, punchy, and very full. The pickup are relatively quiet, typical hiss with Mid/Treble dimed out. I keep the bass control turned up about 75% and the mids/treble turned all the way up, which allows me to bring out the slides and punch harmonics (ala Steve Digiorgio). I have used it both live and in recording situations and have been very please with both.

The Action at time of purchase was decent, I did have to adjust the string height to bring them closer to the fretboard.

The pickups did not have to be adjusted at all.

The Cherry Sunburst finish is excellent. There is no noticable flaws in finish.

The Neck is thin at the nut and is extremely fast. The string spacing is perfect. Playability is excellent

This bass is built very well. I have played it live countless times and with my style of music I have really pounded on it. The finish is still in excellent shape. I have had to adjust the neck only once in the 3 years I have owned the bass. I have used this bass many times without a backup. This bass has been very reliable for me.

Have not dealt with Customer Support

I have been playing bass for a little over 9 years. I also own a Cort Curbow 5 string, Traben Chaos 4, and a Charvel Dinky 4 string. The Artisan B4FL is by far my favorite bass because of its playability. I bought this bass on a whim one day while in a no name guitar shop. They were sent the wrong bass on an order and priced it the same price they would have given the correct bass. I just could not pass this bass up.

I have no major complaints. The only thing I could have wished for was a Bartolini Precision style pickup at the neck.

This is a Fretless bass made by Cort, have two pickups (soap bar) manufactured by Bartoline (MK1 MODEL).

Active bass, ashwood oil finish.

I play some funk with the bass and I think it's very according with this style. Using the pickup that is nearest the fretboard you can have a good funky sound if you turn up the treble.

The bartolin EQ it has a lot of power, it's awesome, I love it.

The bass has not flaws... It has a good setup from the factory... I had only to "plug and play"...

I own this bass on January 04 and still working very well. No problem.

What year was it made? -I don't know [but I picked it up new in early 1999 so I am assuming it's not much older than that] How many frets, or is it fretless? How many strings? -It is a 4 string fretless -I'm pretty sure it's a solid top. -Volume, tone, bass, treble -Mighty Mite Active Soapbars -The neck is wenge; the body is Swamp Ashwood -natural finish -the neck is very thin and it is a 34" scale

Funk : Suits it well (altho I would go with a fretted next time) it has a huge scoop where the neck meets the body and the string spacing is nice and wide. I running it thru a pevey amp and some times thru an overdrive or distortion. Very full sound not very bright though [could be the lack off frets] It can go from a nice midrange with tang to a very subsonic low

It was not set up very well. The pickups were pretty good. All the physical stuff [wood, saddle ,pegs, electronics,...ect] no problems [a year and a setup later; still no problems]

Every is good to great except it's nice thin neck bends and bows with any slight humidity change. Yes, I would use it on a gig with out a back-up.