If you venture outside the mainstream brands, you’ll find that Cort Guitars has been rolling out an impressive array of their very own premier electric guitar models that are not only visually striking but come loaded with upscale hardware and electronics.
It’s a significant observation considering Cort is known to manufacture guitars for other makers, yet its signature instruments often take a backseat to more popular guitar brands.
But that hasn’t prevented Cort from keenly following modern guitar trends in order to revamp its KX Series, which caters to progressive players who demand more than just traditional features.
Case in point: the new Cort KX700 EverTune – with the revolutionary EverTune bridge and Seymour Duncan pickups – has all the makings of a dark horse instrument, brilliantly primed to become a weapon of choice for many guitarists and further proving that Cort is well on its way to becoming a vanguard brand that can no longer be overlooked.
Features
The KX700 EverTune features a gracefully carved open-pore ash top – with a black matte finish – neatly sandwiched on a mahogany body with a bolt-on 5-piece roasted maple and walnut neck that’s all tidily joined and put together. The guitar’s wide and scooped cutaway horns and sculpted heel provide swift access to the higher fret registers.
A sweep of the neck exposes a 25.5" scale length, a super-flat 15.75" fretboard radius, 24 stainless steel frets, glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side dots, Cort staggered locking tuners and an accessible spoke nut Hotrod truss rod wheel.
For its power players, the KX700 EverTune comes armed with Seymour Duncan Nazgûl bridge and Sentient neck high-output passive humbuckers with master volume and tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector, and the EverTune bridge system.
Performance
There’s nothing twee about the KX700 EverTune, but what’s striking is the juxtaposition of the natural woodgrain back and sides to its menacing jet-black motif that reveals the guitar’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” split personality appearance.
Looks aside, the guitar feels responsive and comfortable to play, and the neck’s very-slim C profile is uniformly smooth and pleasant to grasp. It’s also impossible not to notice the level of craftsmanship here, with the stainless steel frets perfectly dressed and gleaming off the ebony fingerboard.
On the other hand, the EverTune bridge is something to behold once you recognize its mechanical purpose and possibilities. It's a lifesaver for the studio and stage for chordal work because it maintains tuning stability even if you’re bending out of tune within a chord.
Conversely, if bending is your thing, you can adjust for that to maintain proper intonation – in other words, it’s an extremely precise bridge system that can be set up to work with your style of playing.
The Seymour Duncan pickups are a direct mount, and this layout offers far more density and articulation in tone. The Nazgûl bridge unit is aggressively focused and leans toward more distorted textures but remains surprisingly articulate in its percussive tightness.
Flicking the switch to the neck, you’ll hear ample amounts of vigor and body, with the Sentient doing an admirable job of handling clean and saturated tones with clear attack and balanced output. Together, they’re a heavy-hitting pair, and when combined with the EverTune’s bridge system, the KX700 EverTune becomes a colossal titan of a 6-string for metal chunk and chugging.
Specs
- PRICE: $1,399
- TYPE: Six-string electric guitar
- ORIGIN: Indonesia
- BODY: Mahogany with open-pore ash top
- NECK: 5-piece roasted maple and walnut
- FINGERBOARD: Ebony, 15.75" radius
- FRETS: 24, stainless steel
- SCALE LENGTH: 25.5"
- PICKUPS: Seymour Duncan Nazgûl (bridge) and Sentient (neck) humbuckers
- CONTROLS: 3-way pickup selector, volume, tone
- HARDWARE: EverTune ET001F bridge, Cort staggered locking tuners, black
- FINISH: Open Pore Black
- CONTACT: Cort
