Cort GB44

Made 2003 I guess. Can't remember what the wood is but it is real wood. Volume Master with push pull to switch active/passive, Pickup blend control, bass and treble tone contols. Jazz style single coil on neck, Musicman type humbucker on the bridge, believe they are Might Mite. Active or passive switchable by pulling volume pot out. See thru blue finish, white pickguard, dark wood fret board and offset perloid markers quite nice. Basically its a lean, mean, suped up jazz bass. Thru body bridge, black hardware, good quality enclosed tuners.

I wanted a Jazz type bass but that was lighter than by Squire Jazz which can be hard work in a long session. This thing weighs half as much as my Jazz, which means I play it more like guitar. It frees you up to move and jump around more, pull off the those classic rock poses! I use it with a 20 year old 60W Ohm Pukka Amp, which is a bit on the warm side but this guitar makes it sound 20% louder and brighter. Its going to sound great when a buy a 300W Behringer Head and Cab as I plan to. As one of the other guys said it is a little bit noisy but only on passive mode when you stand near your amp but no worse then my jazz. In active mode its the quitest guitar or bass I own, and I've got five. Would be great for recording. Its got a nice sound in passive mode though, a bit warmer a bit more sixties, like a regular Jazz but unfortunately the tone controls only work in active mode so if you want to play roll off the treble you have do it on your amp. I like having a pickup blend rather then having separate volumes like on a jazz. I tried buying a dual pot and wiring my Jazz like this but it never work quite right but the overall volume was not constant when blending pickups. This is. My only gripe is to my mind the control is backwards. You turn it clockwise for the neck pickup and anticlockwise for the bridge. In active mode the sound is even better especially the neck pickup which sound much more solid then my jazz but still bright and zingy. There is not as much tonal variation between the two pickups as a Jazz, but the tone controls are great. You can turn the bass right up for reggae styles or to get real rumble low down on the E and A string. Great for new metal and punk. And the treble control is great for adjusting how much zing you want especially when playing with a plectrum.

I tried two GB44s in the shop. The other one must have been an older model or was labelled wrong because it only had a single bridge pickup and three controls. It did however play slightly better but I put it down to the action on the one I bought being slightly too high. I took it home lowered the saddles as low as they would go until they hit the deck but still the action is slightly too high for my liking. It could definately go down another 2mm before it would start buzzing too bad. Despite this it is a very easy bass to play and I can definately play faster on this then my Jazz. The neck is very slim and fast. I may take it to a guitar tech and see if the adjusting the the truss rod or maybe shimming the neck would sort it out. Or maybe change the saddles for some that are lower. I find it much easier to play slap stuff on before which I used to find really difficult. Apart that the finish and build are excellent.

Only hand it a month but it feels strong enough. I'll have to wait and see how the active electronics last. It looks as if you have to take the whole scratch plate and stings off to get to them. In my experience all guitars at some point will need wires on the pots resoldered at some point, so that will be a bit of a hassle. The hardware is all painted black and I suspect this will probably wear off particularly on the bridge when the saddles are moved, have to wait and see. The strap button at the neck end is on the back of the upper horn not on the end as is common. At first I thought it was odd but, it is actually more comfortable then the usual arrangement and it is light enough that I could use a regular guitar strap rather than the three inch wide one I have for my Jazz

Not had to use it yet. Warranty is a year

I've been playing guitar since I was eight and I'm twenty four now and I picked up the bass about six years ago. I would buy another but I doubt I could get it at that price again. It was basically a third of the retail price. If I was buying another I would try a few more because, like most lower end guitars there are some good and some not so good ones. Mine is good but could be better a little. The design of it is a near to my ideal bass guitar that I could get without having one custom made. The volume blend is really convienient and the active tone controls give big variation in sounds. I like it most because it is unusual make, that not many people have. And looks a bit different from the usual Fender copies. If I had the money I would probably be tempted to go for middle of the range Yamaha next time because I've played a few of those and the play really nice even the cheap ones.

This Korean Cort GB44 Bass was made in 2002. Its blue and has a uniquely shaped white pickguard. The body's made of basswood, neck's made of hard rock maple neck which is pretty thin and fast. MightyMite pickups(J Neck Hum bridge) which have had mixed review but they're pretty decent considering the price of this bass. This bass has a Active/Passive push pull switch too which works pretty well. This bass is considered an entry level bass but it sure beats the crap out of the other basses in this price range. Cort makes quality value for money products. Under a different brand name I'm sure this bass would easily cost a hundred dollars more. This bass is exceptional if you're talking about basses in this price range. Its worksmanship is flawless and I've had this bass for 3 months. I groove on it practically everyday and it hasnt give me any problems. Top marks to Cort!

The MightyMite pickups can be a tad noisy but I find the configuration to be really versatile. A J/MM pickup configuration can be really versatile and the sound produced by this bass is really punchy and bottomy and with the pickups being active, I'm able to just about author my tone. Dark and growly or just plain bright and punchy. For around $350, you can't really ask for much but when you play one of these you'd think they'd cost about a 100 dollar more at least considering the sound versatility you can get from this beauty. I give it a 9 because for this price, the sound of this bass really impresses although it lacks a bit of definition, what do you expect. If you're asking for a unique tonal characteristic, I'm sorry but you're asking too much for the price. Basses with distinct tonal characteristics or has a sound of their own, whichever way you prefer, are the more expensive ones. $500 and above.

I can't praise the quality and worksmanship of this bass. Get another bass brand with the same price and you'd be finding flaws here and there but I can't find a thing wrong with this Cort and I have tried pretty much all the Cort basses. Ive had a Cort G290 guitar which has high end features and that guitar plays like a dream out of the box. Cort makes quality basses from all various price ranges...the more expensive ones, the cheaper ones or the mid range ones and me being really familiar with alot of Cort guitars and basses can honestly say its pretty difficult to find flaws in their basses and guitars in terms of finishes, fit and action but of course you can't expect this all the time. Sometimes therell be bad apples just like Fender or other top makes. But 90 percent of the time you'd expect quality from Cort. Cort=You get more than what you pay for. For sure. 10 for the worksmanship...for the price, brilliant, right out of the box! Can't praise them enough.

This bass is light and it won't dent your shoulders. The size of the body is not too big and bulky neither is it too small. Its made of basswood, they're pretty decent woods. Much better than Agathis(normally found on cheaper stuff). It definitely will hold together but I'm not quite sure how theyd end up if youre the kind who likes to abuse your instruments. I don't do that so being on the safe side, if you don't abuse your instruments, you will have no problems with the bass. Itll definitely withstand live playing but I don't think itll hold up too much if you frequently gig with it say like every week. Remember its still a lower end bass and you're bound to have some problems if you frequently gig with it as with the more expensive basses. The strap buttons are solid. No problems so far and I've jammed with it on numerous occasions. I would gig with it without a backup only because its my only bass but if you have more than one, I don't see why you shouldnt bring along the extra bass even if you have an MIA Fender cuz you'd never know what would go wrong.

Never contacted them because the bass has been doing a great job so far.

I've been playing the bass for over a year. 2 years on guitar and I can honestly say this bass deserves alot of credit for its sound and worksmanship compared to other basses in the price range. Its still not a professional music equipment but it does the job pretty well if you just gig with it from time to time or you're using it for practice. It definitely is a good bass guitar. My favourite feature aside from its quality construction is the various tone options I can dial. This bass really comfortable..Not too small or too big..neck's fast and thin, perfect for fast playing. My next bass would be a Fernandes Atlas.

Tmy first bass review, and my first bass, so I'm going to review this instrument on that basis. And you'll have to read it on that basis too. (I'm a guitarist.) The details (aka what you could find out for yourself on cort.com) - basswood body, looks like it's three pieces, hard rock maple neck, 2 Mighty Mite alnico pickups (passive humbucker in the bridge, active single coil towards the neck), and a push/pull switch. It's a 22 fret 4string bass and no, I'm not sure what make they are. D'Addario I think. Machine heads are Schaller-style die cast black numbers. There's a pot each for volume, pup selection and, I would imagine, one for bass and one for trouble, er, treble. The finish is the natural wood stain, and it's quite pretty. There's a plastic scratch plate which is lifting a bit already at the sharp edge, but I'm not too worried about that. Overall, it's a pretty intrument, with a solid look and feel that seems to mean business. Hmmm... I'll give it a six because it's not bad, but it's not great.

I play mostly rock, classic rock, pop rock, blues, and some jazz now and then, and this bass fits right in. Thanks, I think, to the EQ, you can get a wide range of sounds out of this thing. If I had to think of one word to sum up everything, it'd be punchy. Played with fingers (my preference) or a pick, it punches the air with a definite presence. It can be bright or mellow, but I wouldn't use warm or dark to describe it. It's just a punchy bass sound. You can hear it's a bass, but you couldn't say which one if you heard it on a track. I guess what I'm saying is that while it does the job, it lacks a specific personality. Maybe it's my beginner playing ability! I use it straight into a Peavey Microbass which is in my opinion quite an awesome little piece of amplification equipment. Like that, I just jam along to jam tracks out of my computer speakers and it's cool, you know, just cool. Then, when I'm feeling adventurous, I plug it through my Zoom GFX-707 (no effects, just the EQ settings, kinda doubles as a makeshift pre-amp) and use it to record via CakeWalk. The finished product is quite nice, but the personality is missing for me. Like my PRS Std 22 has a personality, for instance. 6 because it does the job, not 7 because of the personality issue.

I'll have to rate this section fairly highly, because it's quite impressive. The action wasn't too much of an adjustment from my PRS and that's pretty low. Before you do a double take and ask how I could compare the action of a bass with a guitar, I obviously took the inherent differences into account. Everything seems to work well, there's little to no excess noise I can discern with my inexperienced ears. I buy all my equipment from this one store which sets up all the instruments it sells before they leave the shop, but even when I picked it up the first time, it felt comfortable. So seven.

Er, dunno yet. It does seem quite sturdy, but what would worry me in terms of durability is the three-piece body, the machine heads and the bridge. They just don't look top-notch. Not that there's anything wrong with them, I just don't know that they'd stand up to the rigours of continuous stage use. And of course there's the scratch plate. No rating here, but I'd caution you to be 100% sure this is the bass for you to take on the road.

N/a

I've been playing bass for about 6 months, all my other gear is guitar stuff notwithstanding the Microbass. If stolen or lost, I would probably replace it with something simliar due to the cost-value ratio. And it's the cost-value ratio that I love more than anything about it. It's playable, it sounds like a bass and it's great for a beginner such as myself. Dunno that someone looking for their second bass would go for it. I compared it to a Cort 5string bass which I seriously just could not get my hands around, anolther Cort 4string model and a Squier, can't remember which exact model. Chose this one because of, you guessed it, the cost-value ratio. Overall, it's just a little above average, so it gets a 6.