Cort HBS Hiram Bullock Signature

I bought this from a pawn shop totally based on the components this axe is decked out with. Locking tuners... Wilkinson trem... roller nut... pickup variety... curly maple neck... ash body... stuff you usually pay a ton extra for! At $100 I first thought of just picking it up for parts, but now that I've cleaned it up I think I might keep it as-is (except cover up the Cort name... black headstock). My opinion of Cort guitars has been pretty lousy up until now. This appears to be a solid guitar.

No complaints on the pickups, but I would classify them as average sounding. However, the versitile pickup selection on this one is nice. I'm an oddball kind of player, so I like unusual combinations. This will be a nice addition to the tone menagerie. I have a hot-rod tele USA, a frankenstein tele rigged with a big fat P-90 in a middle position (crazy!?!), a punked-out modern Mosrite copy, and a reissue Jazzmaster that was another $100 pawn shop steal. A sound for whatever mood I happen to be in!

Low action straight from the pawn shop (who leaves their guitars splayed out on the floor, mind you). Must be pretty solid to stand up to that kind of abuse. For tone, I recommend heavier guage strings. The finish seems nice and durable, but had a few imperfections that look like it was sprayed that way.

Feels solid. For the price I paid, I definitely won't cry over dings and dents. This will most likely be the guitar to drag along to the friend's house to goof around with. Again, I expect alot from the quality of the components.

I still can't believe that I bought a Cort guitar. I wouldn't buy this guy new, but for the price I paid I don't think I can go wrong. Whoever wrote the review at the bottom of this list had to be a sales rep for Cort! All that hoo-haa about being like "guitars costing thousands more." Also, the guy who gave it all "1" ratings and called it total crap is full of it himself. The bottom line... I would recommend it to one of my students (all punk teenagers and the likes) if they could get a deal on one. I would recommend it for people looking for alot of features without the price.

This guitar has a 2 piece swamp ash body, 1 piece birds eye maple neck, and rosewood fretboard. H/S/H configuration with V50 Wilkinson tremelo and Schaller locking tuners. I have modified this guitar extensively. I bought it used off of Harmony Central, and someone removed the locking tuners, and put in EMG Select pickups(the worst ever). They even removed the Schaller locking straps. I have added a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, Van Zandt Blues single coil in the middle, and a Tom Anderson H2+ neck pickup. I put a push pull for the neck position to change to a single coil which is the best I have heard. I put Schaller locking straps back on, added 2 roller trees and put Schaller locking tuners on. I added Graphtec saddles. I believe it is Korean, which normally I would never buy, but this guitar appeared to have so many features. Of course when I got it, most of the good stuff was gone. The frets were jumbo, which I like a lot. The neck has a great c shape, and the body is extremely resonant.

I play at church, mostly lead. I am using a John Landgraff Dee Lux amp with a Fulltone Distortion Pro, A Clyde McCoy Wah, Klon Centaur, Ernie Ball Volume pedal. This guitar sounds great through this setup. I have taken this guitar to many a music store, and blown away just about everything in the store. It has a very full and warm sound. The top end with my setup is amazing, it absolutely sings. It hangs with a Don Grosh, Tom Anderson, or any similar type of guitar. This guitar's woods are excellent and after the mods I made it kills. This is an incredible deal, just mod the electronics, and add string trees, and you have a killer gigging guitar, that people will scoff at initially, till they hear it. I have had people snicker at Guitar Center, then they usually inquire.

The finish on this thing is better than most new fenders I have seen, classic 3 color sunburst, and all routing done very well. Even the cavities were shielded properly. The neck is a real pleasure to play thin enough to be fast, but enough girth to keep good tone. I took off a spring, and use 10's on it, and the thing almost never goes out of tune. The neck's frets were polished and dressed proplerly, but had to adjust the neck, this was due to the previous person who owned it I think. I also bent the tremolo bar because it was riding too high.

This is one tough guitar, I carry this around a lot, it has been banged, kicked, dropped, and it is solid as a rock, I predict years of good use. Don't know about warranty, never contacted Cort.

Not sure.

I have been playing for 20 years. I owned a music store, and have been buying, trading used and vintage gear amost as long. I have played and owned most of the well known stuff. This cannot replace a Les Paul/PRS, but it definately is a great guitar with a little work. Recommended to the beginner as well the nightly gigging person. Great guiatr for 5 times the money.

Well specified with top quality components (except for the crap string tree)

Good for most styles although why no coil taps or wiring switch I cannot understand. It would only enhance the sound. Pickup quality is good.

The neck should be one of the best I have tried but is marred by dodgy fretting. When I bend the top 2 or 3 strings, they bottom out. The guitar goes out of tune badly, one of the worse I have encountered. I tried an extra spring on the trem which helped, but it was too high and stiff so I took it out. Can't understand why it does this with Sperzels and Wilkinson. The major gripe is the D string. It slips out of the roller nut due to the lack of drop after the nut; it goes straight to the Sperzel and cannot be lowered. I replaced the cheap original string tree with a roller-type and added a second one. Why did Cort not pick this up?? The overall finish on th eguitar was good.

The guitar is generally well made and aside from my general gripes is still great value for money. Durability, I can't say yet. The nut holding the jack socket in has already fallen off and some small nut or something has broken inside the socket cavity. I think overall it will probably serve well.

Rubbish! I purchased this guitar in Australia and brought it back to the UK. When I tried to contact Cort, thinking I had a "Limited Lifetime Warranty", I found out just how limited it was. They have no International agreement so I have no warranty except in Australia. The Australia rep agreed there were 1 or 2 design faults but neither the shop I bought it from nor Cort themselves bothered answering my emails or helped in any way.

I have been playing (Bass & Guitar) for 30 years professionally and teaching for 15 years. I build, repair and design gutars and related products. I knew when I bought the guitar that it wasn't set up properly and had these faults, but the potential was great. I would buy one again but would make sure it was perfect initially

Basically it's a hot-rodded strat. H/S/H Mighty Might custom pickups, made to HB's specs. 5-way strat switch. One volume, one tone. Solid swamp ash body. Birdseye maple neck, rosewood fretboard. Wilkinson tremolo(which is amazing!!) SPerzel locking tuners, roller nut, strap-locks. Almost everything you could ever ask for, but in a stock guitar!! Only one color - sunburst. Excellent craftsmanship and quality!!

S0 great I own 2!!!

Great tone!!! With pickup combination in it can do anything and everything. Neck pickup has beautiful jazz tone. Middle pick up, single coil, gives you tones of strat tone!! Neck great for lead parts, high comping rhythms etc....

I use it thru a Boogie Rocket 440 and a ton of pedals. Also , depending on the gig, use it thru 1967 Fender Vibrolux reverb, early 70's Music Man 210 Sixty-five, or straight thru Johnson Mirage.

It can dial up any sound/tone one can dream of. I play tons of gigs in many styles, has never let me down yet. Country, rock, blues, raggae, jazz - what ever it does it.

The action was great right from the factory, though I changed it for my taste. I also put bridge against top of body so it doesn't float. ( I rest my hand on tremelo too often, just a bad habit of mine.) Haven't changed pickup heights at all, loved them were they were set. I never found any flaws with the guitars, and I am very, very picky.

These guitars have and will withstand many, many more live and studio gigs. Hardware is excellent and never a problem. Is an extremely dependable guitar.

I own 2 so that if a string break can change to the other without having to reset amps, pedals, or have a change in tone. DOesn't everyone take at least 2 guitars to a gig?

I have only dealt with the company thru my local musci shop, but when I got my Cort Coryell, they had to send 3 out before I was happy with it, and they did it fast and promptly.

I have been playing for 15 years. I have taught students for 10 and teach many clincis nationwide. Am currently in my senior year getting my degree in Guitar Performance. My only job for the last 2 years has been to play and teach guitar.

I own tons of other guitars. Gibson Les Pauls, Fender Strats, Teles, Peavey Wolfgangs, Martins, too many to list.

I would definitely replace this guitar were it stolen or lost!! I wish there was a coil tap switch for humbuckers though.

THis is one of the best guitars I have ever owned or purchased. I highly recommend them!!

This guitar sucks, I've never played such a crappy guitar in my life, the sound sucks, and the neck work is horrible, the tuners though locking are horrible, schaller should stick to strap locks and let sperzel do the loking tuners deal, the bridg is nice, it's a wilkinson, probably the only feature that is worth it on the guitar, the sunburst finish looks like it could use a liitle more time spent on it.

Mighty Mite? WHat the heck is mighty mite, these pickups are no better than stock epiphones, and not even that good, i think i could of got a better sound pluggin into a cat's ass.

Poor, the guitar is what is expected of a 250 dollar guitar, and a signiture guitar no less, so where did the money go to make such a guitar, obviously into the bridge?

The setup is so poor, i will never give it a chance on stage, it was a gift, so i give it some credit as a free guitar, however, this is the most unstable guitar, i had to spend 3 hours getting everything aligned properly.

Don't even wanna find out, the customer support is probably as good as the guitar was constructed, really shitty

Legendary guitarist Hiram Bullock and Cort have teamed up to create the Hiram Bullock signature model. The HBS is modelled after Hiram's beat-up old strat (featured on the cover of "Way Cool"), but with some nice added features. The body is swamp ash with an excellent sunburst finish. The pick-up configuration on this guitar of humbucker - single - humbucker is the first I've seen in a production guitar (typically custom work is required to create this setup). Like Hiram's old guitar, the Cort has a Les Paul style pickup made by Mighty Mite in the neck and bridge positions and a single coil pick-up in the middle positions. Five way "strat" pickup selector with one volume and one tone control. The best part about this guitar is the neck. It is the easiest playing neck I've encountered and its curly maple and rosewood construction is usually found on guitars costing thousands of dollars. To top it all off, this guitar comes equipped with Dunlop straplocks, a Wilkonson rolling nut and tremolo bridge and Schaller locking tuners.

The Cort HBS is arguably the most versatile sounding solid body guitar I've ever played. I would rank it right up with some Tom Anderson and Brian Moore guitars which costs thousands more. From the neck pick-up you can go from cool jazz tones a la George Benson to fat distored tones like Santana, Slash and SRV. The out-of-phase selections are vintage "strat" sounds perfect for funky rhythm playing or blues inflected leads. The middle pick-up is perfect for twangy country or blues playing, while the bridge pickup gives great high output lead tones without being too edgy.

The action on the HBS is low and contributes to the guitars excellent playability. The frets are seated perfectly, as the craftmanship on the neck is of extremely high quality. The joint where the neck meets the body is very tight and the sunburst finish on the swamp ash body gives the guitar a very appealing look.

This has been my main gigging axe since I bought it four months ago. It can handle a wide variety of musical styles and is very comfortable to play. The HBS doesn't wear out your shoulders and back after a long gig due to the light swamp ash body. It has proven to be a very dependable and durable guitar for a working musician.

The HBS is an excellent value and I would replace it in an instant if it were stolen. The sheer variety of sounds that can be coaxed from this guitar make it my hands down favorite.