Cort NTL-B Acoustic Bass

I bought the NTLB-FL, the fretless model, and my experience appears to have been very different to the review below.

The bass is Korean made, which was initially one of my major concerns, however, for the price:feature ratio I realised that it was still a pretty good deal so decided to take the 'risk'. The bass looks well made, sounds well made, and, from what I can tell, is well made. From what I can gather, the 'Made in Korea' label just meant I got the bass for $A1000 cheaper.

The bass has a solid Spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and a slightly arched back. All of the finishings look beautiful, and I regularly have people come up to me after gigs saying "Where did you get your bass? It's beautiful!"

The pickup is a piezo with a Fishman preamp. The preamp has volume, treble, bass and contour. I tend to leave it fairly flat as I believe you should buy the instrument you like the sound of, but it is nice to know I can adjust it slightly if I need to.

The bass basically looks like a whopping big acoustic guitar, and came with it's own case, which is good, because it would have taken a fair bit of hunting to find something that fit it. It has a long scale neck.

I play mainly folk/rock kind of stuff, so like a nice warm velvety tone that compliments, but doesn't get lost in the spectrum of an acoustic guitar. I must have tried at least 10 fretted acoustic basses over a period of months, but could not find the one I was looking for. They all sounded a bit too 'acoustic guitary' and not at all 'double bassy'. I began to dispair of ever finding the tone that I had in my head. I figured that the 'steely' cold sound was most likely due to the frets, so, after much searching, discovered that there were only 3 or 4 fretless acoustic basses available throught the shops that I visited. The Cort NTLB FL was around $A1300, with the next being around the $A4000 mark, which was way out of my price range. I asked the most helpful of the shops to order in the NTLB FL, and as soon as I played it I thought "That's my tone!". It sounded great acoustically, and when I plugged it in it sounded a lot more solid, warm and generally 'bass-like' than any of the other acoustics I had played. Interestingly, the bass still had a nice top end, but the middles were less pronounced, which is what I like in a bass tone anyway! (I hate mud).

I have had numerous comments from audience members and sound guys who appreciate tone, saying that my bass is one of the nicest they have heard. Of course, some judge with their eyes, but just as many are judging with their ears.

The only problems that I have had are with feedback (around about 120Hz), however a 'feedback buster' in the sound-hole fixed that nicely. The 'feedback buster' changed the tone a bit, but probably made it sound a bit 'tighter' and controlled.

I originally bought the bass to just use on a few select songs, however it is now my primary bass. The only time that I use another bass is if I want a different tone for recording, or when I am playing with a full band playing rock - the sound has quite a 'wide' sound, so just doesn't have the punch needed when playing with a full-on band.

Also, as for the fretted vs fretless thing - so long as you have good technique and a good ear it's not that much harder not having frets, and the freedom is such that you'll never look back. I feel caged when I play with a fretted now! It's so much harder to get the subtle nuances like a small slide up to a note, or that little bit of vibrato... again it's not something you're going to appreciate if you're into the 'louder/faster' genres, but beautiful if you're into tones and the subtleties of music.

Being a fretless, it's not much good for slap, but who really slaps for more than the occasional pop anyway? (The pop is fine for that).

I gave it a 9 as I never give anything a 10 unless it is unbelievable. This bass is getting close, but I can't guarentee I won't one day find something even better. However, value:tone, I'd give it a 10.

I'm still searching for the perfect amp to go with it!

The bass was nice. It originally had roundwound strings, which were good, but cut into the fingerboard a fair bit. I have now replaced these with Thomastik flatwounds, which I think added to the overall smoothness.

For my hands, this bass feels great. I find Fender P basses a bit clunky, and the Yamahas maybe a bit too thin. The neck on this bass is nice & smooth, and the fingerboard feels velvety, but it did take my right hand a bit of time getting used to playing without a pickup to rest the thumb on. Also, being an acoustic, it feels a bit fatter than your average electric, so you may not be able to play quite as fast as normal, but I was never able to play too fast anyway.

Other than a slight rattle from a wire or something inside (which is a lot quieter now than new) I haven't been able to find any flaws. The inside looks pretty raw, but it doesn't seem to affect the tone much so it doesn't bother me!

As mentioned in the review below, they look like a bass twice the price!

I have had this bass for around about 2.5 years now, and I haven't had a problem with it (other than the rattles mentioned earlier). I gig on average twice a month, and it's been great.

I never have a backup, and have never needed one. I always carry a spare 9V battery for the pickup, but you should probably have one of those anyway.

I imagine if you're really rough with your gear and/or like to leave your instrument in the car in the heat of the day or the cold of the night, it won't like you very much, but I haven't had a problem.

The front strap button keeps unscrewing as I play, however I just tighten it up at the end of each gig and I'm fine - maybe a nip of glue could fix it.

The finish is great and it's built solidly, so I can't see why this bass shouldn't grow old with me. Hopefully the tone will continue to improve, and not too many other people will get one so it will keep it's value.

The Guitar Factory in Gladesville, Australia where I bought it was good, but I haven't had to claim on the warranty or anything so I'm not sure about Cort. When the shop ordered it in, I still had the option to say no, so I'm not sure if that's Cort or just the shop that was good to deal with.

I've been playing for a bit over 10 years, but probably only became interested in tones a few years ago. I have a Nemesis 2x10in twin and a Peavey Mk III head. I will be selling the Peavey for something a little nicer (probably with valves, but definitely sounding smooth and velvety - like Baileys tastes).

My other basses are a Yamaha RBX 550M which I learnt on and a Yamaha fretless, which was my first fretless. While both of these are quite reliable, they don't really fit what I'm after these days so don't get played a whole lot.

The Cort has become my instrument of choice, and while I don't know what the other instruments of the same model sound like, my one is pretty close to everything I could want. I'm sure that there is a better bass out there for my style of playing, but I think I would be paying a lot more to find it!

If it was stolen, I would probably cry! I'm not sure just how replaceable it would be.

The basic verdict is, if you want a bass that sounds warm and smooth, you are using it for the folk/rock end of the spectrum (eg Counting Crows kind of vibe), and you don't need it to compete with a full drum kit and cranked electric guitar, it's definitely worth giving it a play. It probably isn't everybody's instrument, but for me, it fit the tone I had in my head and was looking for before I even knew it existed. However, definitely check out the fretless rather than the fretted - I seriously doubt whether a fretted acoustic bass can ever sound like I would expect an acoustic bass should.

The 10 is for 'Fantastic value', however this still doesn't mean it's the sound that you are after, as all of us have different tastes and needs.

34" scale, arched rosewood back, mahogoney sides if I remember correctly. Can't remember what the top was made up but I know it was solid, not laminate. No cutaway, large dreadnought body. Gold hardware, mother-of-pearl inlay, Fishman Prefix piezo-electric pickup & electronics with bass, treble, brilliance, contour, phase switch, notch filter for feedback. Natural finish.
While the Fishman name is good, this is their cheap end of the line.
The strength of this bass is definitely in its looks - it is absolutely gorgeous. With all of these fine features, you'd expect it to be a good instrument... but it's not...

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I am of the opinion that if an acoustic instrument cannot be played acoustically, why does it exist at all? While you might be okay if you're soloing on the G string, any note below the lowest D sounds hideous. The body is just not big enough to resonate properly in this range - and this is the bigger of there two acoustic basses! I can't imagine how crappy the littler one must be. Not only is this one quiet, but it's ugly and thin as well. Since the problem is in the staple bass notes, it makes the instrument a silly and useless endeavour. The piezo pickup can only pick up the acoustic resonance in the bass, so it does not correct the situation. When you plug in, you might get loud enough to be heard but the quality of the sound still stinks.

The factory action was much too high for my taste. A lot of wasted space. When it was set up to the proper action (a little more than the action all of my electric basses are set to), I found that poorly made neck and frets produced a lot of ugly fret buzz. There's no excuse for this. Elsewhere I suppose the construction was adequate.

I didn't keep it long enough to find out! Being big and wooden, it seems very fragile to me, but of course that comes with the acoustic territory. For some reason I thought that the Fishman Prefix was pretty flimsy. I didn't like the way you had to flip the entire unit out of the body to get at the battery underneath.

Dunno.

The most disappointing instrument I've ever owned. I feel that Cort is cheating the world by constructing and selling such a thing. And the new price is about $800 US! Ridiculous! If you want to hang this guitar on a wall as a decoration, fine, but as an instrument it just plain sucks. I imagine this is the case for all regular acoustic bass guitars. If you really want an acoustic bass guitar, the enormous Taylor (for an enormous price) or the wonderful Godin A4 are the only two I'm aware of that can function adequately - this is because they both employ unique and creative designs, but neither look anything like a traditional acoustic! There might be other makes out there that I haven't heard of yet too. But stay away from these! In fact, I'd say boycott Cort altogether for making such crap.