Cort MGM1 Matt Guitar Murphy Model

Made in Korea around 2001. 22 fret, 24.75 scale length, Agathis body with quilted maple top (not veneer), twin mightymite humbuckers (with coil tap), 3 way switch, one tone, one volume, tune-o-matic bridge and stoptail, gold hardware.

Wide variety of sounds available. Very les paul sounding - pickup voicings are more vintage than modern. I use this guitar in a function band - great funk, blues and rock tones (amp modeller through PA). I also use it in a heavy band (through line 6 spider stack)and it handles as much gain as you can throw at it - retaining definition even with a drop c tuning. I have upgraded the bridge pickup to accomodate the really heavy stuff.

Set up wasn't great in the shop (Speed Music, Cardiff)but that's the norm unfortunately. Once I'd changed strings, adjusted intonation etc it plays very well indeed. I use relatively heavy strings (10-52)and this guitar rarely goes out of tune. The nut did pinch a little on the G and B strings but a little pencil lead sorted that out. The quilting on the maple top is nice but not as even as you'd find on a PRS for example. Very attractive none the less. There are some minor finish imperfections but you have to look pretty closely and bearing in mind the price, it is a very good quality guitar. Electrics aren't top notch - volume pot needed changing pretty soon after purchase but this is no real problem. Three way switch is a bit vague but is also easily replaced. Tuners and bridge are great - no problems. Action can be set pretty low with not much fret buzz.

I have been using this guitar non stop for gigs, rehearsals, recording, practice etc. With the exception of the volume pot it has never let me down and is the most reliable guitar I've ever owned. The gold plate will ware off the bridge where your hand rubs on it but this can be replaced if it bothers you. The tuners are very good and show no signs of ware.

Never had cause to call 'em.

I've been playing for 20 years and this is the best guitar I've owned. Since I've had it I have bought a les paul, a wolfgang, a strat but I keep coming back to the Cort. It just seems to do everything that bit better than anything else. The neck on this guitar is pretty big - very 50's les paul in dimensions. This came as a bit of a shock when I first picked it up but it is the most comfortable neck I've played. If it were lost or stolen I would certainly buy another one.

Made in korea, bought second hand from sum guy at sound control, #400 worth every bit. 22 frets all easy to access, laminated top, looks amazing. mighty mite pickups, loud as you want. fast action. double cutaway ( miles better than the strats ) tune o matic bridge, chanigng strings becomes piss easy. i got mine with a marshall 4 x 12 cabinet + carls bro head for 50 quid!!!!!! ( he needed to get rid of his gigging amp )

I play anything that sounds good to be honest, mainly into power chord stuff though. noisy when it needs to be, fades out into the background at other times, total control over sound. single coil thing is a bit shit tho, but then, who wants single coils?!!!

dnt kno how well it was set up at the factory, got mine off the sound control guy and it was perfect, not heard one fret buzz yet, not even if i try!

Im hoping to do my first gig this weekend, so ill update this when i have done, should be good for live though. i always have my strat as a backup, but i would choose this over it anyday

mmm dnt really know bout customer support, people thing cort suck, but they seem alright to me when i needed to ask them bout the pickups

playing for about a year and a half constantly, the only other guitar i want now is a gibson sg special. this guitar is so comfortable you can play it for hours. i jus want a decent effects pedal now. ps guitarport is shite dnt buy it

Made in Korea is on the decal on back of the head. Solid body, 22 frets, set neck, amber finish. Three-position pickup switch. Only two controls; volume and tone (with pull for coil tap). Mighty-mite humbucking pickups. Gold hardware. Grover keys. Tune-A-Matic style bridge. Matt's signature on the truss rod plate. It came with a case that kinda fit, but I found out that Cort doesn't make a case for this guitar.

The guitar sounds great. It has the full, crisp sound of a Les Paul, but without the huge difference in highs and lows from each pickup. In other words, you don't need a new amp setting to change from bridge to neck pickup. I use a string of foot stomps I carry in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles canvas bag I got at a yard sale for $1. Boss CE-3 compressor, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, Boss DD-3 Delay, and a Boss TU-2 tuner. Plug all that into a silver- faced Twin Reverb with a Master volume w/pull switch that I bought used in 1975.

Can't find any factory flaws on the guitar. The frets had virtually no wear on them when I bought it. I can set the action high or low without any buzz, and causing only minor intonation reset. The pull switch on the tone control feels solid enough, but I prefer bat-style switches on a guitar. The finish is rich and shows marvelous workmanship. The neck feels like glass. Best neck I've ever played. The pickups are black and uncovered with white, plastic mounting rings. Looks like typical Gibson or DiMarzio pickups. It's contoured along the top back, though that doesn't fit me as well as I like; probably my anatomy. But that's my only complaint in playing it. I have an Epiphone Genesis that feels really snug and balanced against me.

I've played my MGM on a couple of gigs in Baltimore. It's a short guitar and so well constructed that I don't worry about using a gig bag instead of a hard-shell case. Back when I was gigging full time, the only "backup" I could afford was a spare set of strings. Yeah, this is a high quality guitar, well made, well designed.

Bought the guitar used and have never bothered with contacting the manufacturer. I can't see that they'd be very busy with problems from this guitar.

I've been playing since 1967. People mistake this for a PRS. I've never played one, but I've never driven a Mercedes either. A buddy from college also has an MGM (sunburst) from ebay ($285). I practice on mine and play his when I fly up to do weekend gigs at nightclubs and baseball stadiums. I loaned it to a friend and he wanted to buy it from me. I thought about it, but I'd just buy another. This is one of the most under priced guitars around.

Uma beleza coreana, provavelmente fabricada em 2000. 2 humbuckers MightyMite pretos, de excelente qualidade, chave seletora de 3 posicoes, 1 volume e 1 tom (que pode ser pulled out, transformando os humbuckers em singles). Excelente acabamento com marcadores na escala em madreperola e opala, logo da Cort no headstock em madreperola e detalhe MGM em madreperola e opala. Escala em rosewood (linda por sinal), corpo apenas envernizado - transparente. O braco e colado ao corpo, ao contrario das strato. Uma guitarra pesada.

Eu tenho tocado rock anos 70 ha 3 anos, 2 anos com essa guitarra. Sua versatilidade permite variacao de tibres de David Gilmour a Frank Zappa, ou ate bem proxima de uma semi-acustica (apenas regulando o botao de tom). Uma guitarra de baixissimo ruido, mas com saida forte (bem superior a uma Fender American Standart, por exemplo).

No entanto, quando alternando para singles, o ganho e mais baixo, motivo pelo qual nunca usei essa opcao (nem mesmo quando tocando Gilmour).

A guitarra havia sido regulada pelo luthier da loja onde comprei.. estava uma beleza.. Sobre o acabamento, apenas um pequeno defeito: parece que algum infeliz raspou o dedo sobre a assinatura do Matt no headstock, antes que a tinta estivesse seca.. detalhe muito, mas muito pequeno...

Excelente no palco, nenhum feedback (so mesmo com distorcao em altissimo ganho), afinacao estavel.

As partes douradas que tem mais contato com a mao, como a ponte, comecam a perder a tinta, e se nao forem cuidadosamente limpas apos uma apresentacao, podem ficar marcadas..

Nao sei se a usaria sem outra como backup - nessa hora e mais importante definir o q e mais rapido - trocar um cabo ou uma corda.

Nunca precisei, mas felizmente o luthier da loja onde comprei tambem tem uma MGM, e sabe tudo o q eu posso precisar..

Realmente um instrumento fantastico - melhor, so se fosse mais leve. Talvez converse com o luthier pra ver a possibilidade de algumas mutac?es, mas ja e um grande instrumento, sem nenhuma alterac?o. Um som pesado, mas doce. Brilhante e explosivo. Feche os olhos, regule a distorc?o de seu cubo Fender, escolha um humbucker e imagine a Fender ou Gibson que quiser.. no fim das contas, vai preferir a Cort.

I bought the guitar new in January 2002. It's the Amber quilted maple that got my attention (yeah, sick I know).
It's a double cut that fits into a strat case with miles of space left. Very small guitar, overall about 3 inches shorter than a strat. The Spec is:

Solid Agathis body with quilted maple top.
Stop tail and real tun-o-matic bridge make up the body anchor points.
One volume and one tone pot (the tone pot has a pull out coil tap)
Three way selector switch next to the volume pot (in a strat position)
One back access cover.
Jack outlet is one the side.
Electics are basic Mighty Might Humbuckers (modelled on PAF's). I've found them fine (loads of squeal and pop when you know how to handle the harmonics)
Neck is standard two piece in good quality wood (you can see the grain is very even and tight right throughout the length of the neck
Nice machine heads (un-named) in plastic mother of pearl and a graphite nut. 22 fret neck (standard gibson length) with quite large jumbo frets. Markers are rectangular Abalone with a morther of pearl diagonal stripe.

I play blues/rock (who doesn't?)and it suits the sound. You can tell a blues man was involved in the design beacause it would have been easy to make this guitar an all out rocker but it has that bright springy sound you always associate with good electric blues (Chicago'ish BB King like).The coil tap does split the pick ups but I don't use it that much as it loads the buzz level through my rig and If I want a single coil I'll play a strat!
I'm playing it through a Yamaha DG60FX-112 digital modelling amp with a Yamaha DS60-112 powered speaker to get the power and stereo. The quitar really does sing on some of the driven settings but does tend to die on clean settings (you really need to have a volume pedal and set the output vol on the amp way up high so you can compensate). I'd have said it was the amp rather than the guitar but I play a few others through the same rig and they get on fine!

It's a nice overall finish but.......
Look closely and:
Quilting isn't top quality, you can see styrations (lines) all over the quilt)and forget bookmatching,
The neck is set in and when you look at the joining there's a load of varnish around the join. Then when you look closer you can see hand finishing sanding marks! Now that is just sloppy, it's just the wrong grain of paper!
Right, nuff said. The neck is obviously made way over the other side of the factory because it's in a different class. The fret markers and head logo are very good quality with minimal filler (check out expensive guitars on this point and you'll frequently be surprised). Alignment seems to be near perfect, which means they've got their setting jigs right too. The fret dressing from the factory is of reasonable quality too so you shouldn't cut yourself picking the guitar up. File finish to the neck binding is the only place wheer the neck is let down because it's uneven.
Electrics are a different story. The pickups are bought in and I'm still looking at polythene insulation sticking out between the coils. The jack plate was misaligned and only finger tight. The switch operates fine but the toggle soo loose you think it's going to fall out of teh switch. That's down to the "too high" tolerance (it's cheap. THe knobs are speed knobs which is good until you try and operate the pull for coil tap (nothing to grip onto)!

I've gigged with this quitar a few times and it will stand up against much more expensive axes. In fact I always get some dusty old muso coming over afterwards asking to see it (so they can find out who made it without looking stupid)! I've used it without back up but wont any more because although I've had the jack plate off twice and tightened the jack it keeps coming loose, which means one day I'll put the lead in and the jack will disappear in the guitar!

I've not needed to contact the company.

I've been playing guitar since 1974. I find kit I like and live with it, forever (I've only just got rid of my old WEM dominator 45 which I bought in 1978)! So I tend to find out as much about an instrument as possible (including the manufacturer). Cort have made guitars for loads of other people and have been in business for 40 odd years (best factory in Korea they say).
This guitar isn't the best in the world but for the price it is presentable and able to produce some very nice tones which augment the music style I'm playing. I chose it because I like to show anyone who'll listen that you don't need a 59 gold top or a Macarty soap bar to sound good. Ok so you may need to work at the action a bit and experiment with settings etc but isn't that part of the fun?

Made in 1998 or 1999, probably over in Japan or Korea or somewhere over there. 22 frets on a rosewood fingerboard, agathis solid body double cutaway(resembles a Paul Reed Smith). It has 2 humbuckers and two volume controlls, one of witch pulls out a bit to split the coils two get a single coil sound. The bridge is like that of a Les Paul. The hardware is gold-plated. The finish is an amber color on a beautiful quilted maple top. Volume controlls don't do a whole lot to change tone or even the volume. It would be nice if they had tone controlls.

This guitar is very versatile. It can be used for many different kinds of music. I use it for just about everything, from punk to some classical stuff. The pickups are average, nothing spectacular, but they aren't terribly noisy and they produce some nice sounds. The neck pickup produces some rich, warm sounds and you can get some really spanky tones from the bridge pickup.

The guitar was already set up pretty well when i first picked it up at the shop. I'm not sure if it came that way or if the guy who works there set it up. He also uses one that has a pretty sunburst fisish on the quilted top. I didn't notice any flaws when i bought the guitar. It was beautiful and when i saw it i just had to have it.

Some of the gold hardware has kind of rubbed off and the strap buttons get loose sometimes, but everything else is very reliable. I would and have gigged without a backup.

I've only dealt with them once and that was when i e-mailed them asking if there was a case that would fit this guitar especially well. They never responded. That made me mad. I give them a 1.

I've been playing since I was about seven years old and I'm a guitar addict, always looking at new gear. This is my new favorite guitar and I use it constantly. I love the elegance of it and the fair price. It plays better than some guitars in the $2000-3000 range. It looks better too. Some of the components are a little cheaper than in more expensive guitars, but that's expected on a cheaper guitar and can easily be replaced. If it were lost, i would get another one, but i might get it in the blue transparent finish which is still on the quilted top.