Cort were SO CLOSE... | G290 FAT II

[@ScienceofLoud]

Cort's G290 FAT II has all the features, feel, and sounds to make it a serious midrange contender for the technical performer - if it wasn't for one major issue... Cort G290 Fat II - www.cortguitars.com/dp/g290-fat-ii/ This video contains paid promotion from Cort. More details on how Science of Loud implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #scienceofloud #cort #g290fatii

[@notvanymore]

The link to the guitar is broken :(

[@forrestcrabbe]

Will a wah pedal make the same effect as a whammy bar? I'm not a guitar player but I'm tryna learn to play bass and i may start on guitar as well 🤘🍻🤘

[@ScienceofLoud]

Link should be better now

[@ScienceofLoud]

@forrestcrabbe No: a wah pedal sweeps a narrow band of amplified mid frequencies - it doesn't change the pitch of what is being played, it changes the tone. A whammy bar changes the pitch of what is being played by detuning the strings. It does not change the tone.

[@forrestcrabbe]

@ScienceofLoud ah, i got it. I thought maybe a wah pedal emulated a whammy bar. I reckon when i start learning to play i will begin with a hardtail, for simplicity. Can you emulate a whammy bar, is there a pedal or a computer program for it?

[@gorbrushthreepwood]

I, like the Cort G290, am also FAT II.

[@fajaradi1223]

Are you Jay?

[@klaymeister]

Love isn't always on time

[@bayouboattrash]

Just hold the line....

[@br00talbr00skeez]

Oh no no..

[@xsonicassassinx]

Or in tune

[@Blazikenas]

Hey! I repair guitars for living and what has helped me multiple times in these situations is tightening the screws under the saddles which attach bridge to the trem block.

[@Alex_Martz]

Cort released this model name in the mid-2000s without the "fat", I still have one Cort G290 from 2005 that has amazing specs as stock: Mahogany body, Quilt flamed maple top, translucent blue color, bird's eye neck, rosewood fingerboard, Sperzel locking tuners, Tusk nut, Wilkinson floating tremolo and EMG's 89/SA/SA pickups, it's still my most used guitar and I'm sure if the same specifications had on the headstock the name "Shur" "Tom Anderson" or any other custom luthier name it'd cost over 2,000 dollars, you can still find these models second hand for as little as 500 dollars

[@cosmocipher]

Have the exact one. This guy is spitting pure facts, folks.

[@andrewlong445]

Cort has always been the unsung hero of budget guitars. I've had an m200 I picked up in 2004 that is still my primary writing instrument. That said i also wound up with a G210 that was an HSS that suffered the same issues you're having here but after how ever many years its been betwen that model and this one you'd think they'd have it figured out. Great content as usual!

[@KaldDodeGitarist]

Hold the line has some of the best vocalwork ever recorded in the history of music. You can't find anything that beats that chorus.

[@SlackWi]

I own this, didn't have a harder time keeping it in tune then with any other floating bridge but I did block it off for ease with tuning changes, still insanely good quality for the money and well worth the purchase.

[@BeachCat]

Wow, what a drag with the tremolo. I've never heard one that goes out of tune that fast. So much potential wasted.

[@MinnenMusic]

Are you kidding me? You’re a great guitar player!

[@ThatRandomGuyInTheComments]

LOVE ISN'T ALWAYS ON TIME!!!

[@low_e_music]

I have the G300 Pro and it stays in tune perfectly, even with serious trem abuse. One of my favorite guitars.

[@MrMadtv123]

Cort G250 in spectrum green ( or pink if your pink inclined ) i have both and the return to zero is absolutely flawless on both of them . Unsure why the G290 is having THAT much issue considering it also costs more than the G250. Maybe your paying for the nice flame maple top and the roasted maple neck . But still doesnt seem to do anything the G250 cant do.

[@ZeugmaP]

At one point I considered buying a Cort because I wanted a mid-priced guitar with humbuckers and a vibrato, and I didn't want to mess with a floyd rose. In the end I went with a fixed bridge. That was a great guitar review btw, probably one of the best I've seen on youtube

[@WDeeGee1]

I have an original G290FAT and I have to action unbelievably low and no fret buzz! Stays in tune; no problem unless wammy bar abuse.

[@jmsq92]

i just purchased this.. completely unseen, just because this feature. Not that i was looking for a new guitar but.. alcohol has a funny way of puhing you to do some things :v

[@OGStinkywizzleteats]

99% of the time, a tuning problem is the nut. The other 1% of the time, it's also the nut.

[@MEGAMIGA]

Love isn't always in tune! 😁

[@jacob_krause_official7286]

Blessed with another SOL I see, and with a reminder that he's actually really good at guitar. Which I somehow forget lol Always nice to hear you playing!

[@Ernesto87]

I would get a floyd rose bridge and replace the whole assembly.

[@Arryhall]

Tremol-no. Bang one of them in and you can have a fender type one way wangle action or a solid bridge. Simple solution and works, plus if you want to use the wangle-ness, then there's no issue with undoing it and et voila! Wangle-tastic. As for the not returning to pitch, I found that in the three cases I had on my wangle-equipped axes, they were all down to the blades on the trem not allowing the bridge to return to the zero point. I sanded the posts to ensure there was no pitting or scoring in the flanges, then sharpened the pivot blades and removed any burrs and it fixed it in all 3 cases. I think it must be a manufacturing defect in most cases with the cheaper trems that Floyd Rose catch with their quality control that other, maybe, lesser bridge maufacturers just don't have / can't afford to do. Never had an issue on any of my Ibanezeses, Washburns, Jacksons or Yamaha's, just the Razor, Woody and Marlin. Notice the issues were on the cheapies? The ones I got for next to nothing to mess about on. Cheap components, tuning issues. Expensive components and no issues. My belief is quality control. I was able to fix the issues that the manufacturers couldn't be bothered / afford to fix themselves.

[@robertharmon9332]

And get that thing off your strings above the nut!

[@ScienceofLoud]

That 'thing' prevents the strings resonating behind the nut. It's important to keep playing clear and precise.

[@SyrusRayne]

Just for that I'm gonna buy one.

[@bruiserbrawler8054]

Ahhh... The two point thing. Personally never had much luck with that going back to a 1989 Strat Plus. Much like this Cort it was great until you even looked at the bridge wrong. That said I dislike locking bridges even more and have had the best luck with just about any vintage 6 point bridge. There IS a two point bridge I like and THAT is the Gotoh. And even THAT is something that is not exactly new.

[@Scott__C]

I'm the opposite. Had a 6 point on two guitars and they were both terrible. I went to Kahler and Floyd and an Ibanez Edge and very few tuning issues. The Edge was the best. Gotoh makes them and theirs is pretty much the same.

[@bruiserbrawler8054]

@@Scott__C the Edge is my favourite locking bridge. I have a JS1 and an RG550 with it and they're really good.

[@Scott__C]

@@bruiserbrawler8054 IMO, the posts having the locking screw is the real secret sauce of them.

[@-processdrone-]

I'm enjoying that we got Lamb Of God-esque and Cyndi Lauper-esque within a minute of eachother

[@DA-rz2dl]

Girls just wanna have grindcore

[@riffs66]

The Gotoh 510 trem is still the benchmark for this type of setup imo

[@keithavarney170]

Yeah - the two-point tremolo/vibrato systems... gah! I picked up a $200 Squier recently with a two-point and it had the exact issues you've run across with the Cort. Fortunately I was able to deck the Squier and that helped tremendously. Looks like the Cort is routed in a way that makes decking it difficult at best ☹. I've gotten to the point where, if I want a tremolo/vibrato on a guitar, I just go with a Floyd Rose or some type of locking system. Sure, they have their own issues, but they do stay in tune. Thanks so much for the always entertaining videos! 🤘

[@PhillipBeauchamp]

That’s too bad that you had those tuning issues! I have the G290 fat series one and it’s tunings is excellent even with heavy whammy bar use. I do think maybe you got a bad unit.

[@escapegulag4317]

edge zero exists. what is cort doing?

[@lwwells]

I’d love to see how this compares with the Harley Benton Fusion Pro. Looks incredibly similar.

[@pulaski1]

The playing segments sound _spectacular,_ even on my crappy computer speakers.

[@lunastrat]

Couldn't you just put in all the springs to make it stiffer? If you're one of those players who doesn't do a lot of dive bombs, that should work.

[@zeppo20]

This guitar gets better with a Floyd Rose.

[@redshark64]

Based on my experience, a little lubrication of the knife edges with lip balm usually saves the day. Simply loosen (or remove) the strings, carefully lift the bridge and apply a little dab of lip balm on all knife edge contact points (bridge plate & posts). If there is no other structural issue (damaged knife edge, badly cut nut, etc), this trick will improve tuning stability 100%.

[@edsknife]

*Laughs in keyboard.*

[@gringogreen4719]

Pretty guitar. I feel your pain. For Strat style trems I usually replace the springs with "Soft Springs" (I play 11s so I use four of them). Suggestions would be: 1. Replace the springs 2. Take off the saddles and grind a slope where the string might touch the plate before it goes up to the saddle 3. Replace the saddles if they are the problem (raw brass would look nice on this guitar). 4. If all else fails, take it to a Luthier and have them set it up. 5.Move the string tree 6. Replace the white switch tip with a black one (personal preference) I hope you can find the issue and enjoy this guitar amigo. 😎👍✨

[@henchmusic5878]

I have the first version of the FatBoy, it has a birdseye maple neck and fretboard, a tusk nut and none of the trem problems you noted--it also has no string trees. So, perhaps "new and improved" is only partially correct. Time for a dram of Aberlour. Stay safe.

[@akwamarsunzal]

Counter intuitive but I have been able to get better floating bridge stability by actually removing the centre spring and angling the two outer springs in. To me it made no sense but an old luthier suggested it to me years ago on a Fender Strat that would always go out of tune on the whammy bar, it worked for me!

[@akwamarsunzal]

Cort doesnt get enough love! I have had a Cort LP style guitar for years and absolutely love it. The fit, finish and playability is as good as any other LP or LP style guitar out there.

[@wizardito7741]

Man, i have the cort x700 duality in aqua marine... What a great guitar!!! I love it, god pickups, locking tuners, locking output jack, 24 stainless steel frets, lum in lays, very good balance and access to frets, 3 piece fretboard and it's a fkn beautiful sexy beast!!!

[@Merjia]

You should give the G300 Pro a go, it's basically perfect from the ground up. Never had a single issue with tuning stability with mine. Plus Seymour Duncan pickups from stock.

[@lopp3]

Like you, I would just block the trem and move on with a lovely hardtail. But given the difficulty you had in fixing the bridge issue, it really got me wondering what could be wrong. I wonder if it's possible that uneven torque on the knife edge screws could be causing an issue.

[@aden01]

I have a g290 fat I, the only issue was excessive feedback, tuning stability is great, using the floating bridge is not my thing, but it does stay relatively in tune. The issue with the feedback was solved by removing the springs from underneath the pickups, nothing else worked!

[@sadowskihomestudio]

I had simmilar issue with Ibanez AZ after string change. Well lubrication is the point, but not only you have to lubricate the nut and knife edges. All strings touching points have to be lubricated as well as all contact points of tremolo system. I found that plain strings are mainly responsible for that, because the string loop bite in the saddle or tremolo block.

[@thomaspatton1991]

Wild about the floating bridge. Looks like most of their guitars come with them. I have their Action DLX V Plus bass and it's absolutely amazing. It feels great, holds a tune well, and the onboard preamp has a ton of character to it. All from a music store used for $200. So, I guess ymmv on Cort instruments.

[@allanshookphoto]

Did you lube the nut slots? Even my GraphTech nuts benefit from being lubed, even though they are "supposed" to be self lubricating. I also would have replaced the string tree, GraphTech makes string trees as well.

[@vorpalblades]

They used to have Wilkenson vibrato units standard.

[@Moonsguitars]

Great vid as always… very intrigued by these Corts. I’d consider one of these if they do a similar, but hard tailed model. Whatever you were playing at 06:58… loved that sound!

[@stephenmclachlan364]

It's great to get an honest review. They still look like good guitars. I generally think that if buying a guitar with a trem you have to try it first, particularly second hand. So many old Floyds are completely knackered.

[@MelissaGordon-x5q]

605 Thompson Square

[@jongangloff8076]

How about some municipal waste riffs on the next video?

[@ruassmarkt]

I'd absolutely love to see Colin have a rant about the missing engineering and innovation on floating bridges some day. The only real innovation I've seen in the oast years is ball bearings instead of knife edges, but that's basically it. TremolNo and Ibanez' zero point system seem like patches on a ripping wound

[@markdakel9253]

Excellent and honest review

[@George.Andrews.]

It can only be friction stopping the bridge from returning, so it needs lube. And a locking nut.

[@tazinguitars]

Would it be a candidate for a top mount floyd rose? Best of both worlds I suppose?

[@awkljfrbgksehgkljd]

I would guess the string is slipping on the nut. It's good to have a double locking system

[@stevenhirsekorn3444]

It is a floating Strat style bridge, those things haven’t stayed in tune in the last 70 years. Why would this one be any different? Maybe the knife edges on the base plate are dull and need to be honed or the block needs to be impacted tighter to the bridge, or you could put locking Strat saddles on, all these would help. Or you could put a Floyd rose style bridge and nut on it and not have to worry about any of that whatsoever

[@frankcarter6427]

a guitar that won't stay in tune is useless, I finally gave up on my strat and hard tailed it, which defeats the only real reason to play one - all hail the tele!! after a nuclear war, cockroaches will rule the earth and all the teles will still be in tune

[@cedricBUNKERTON]

what size trem arm does it take - I bought one of these without a trem and can't find anywhere thta sells the trem arms or even knows what size. I also noticed mine doesn't play as well as yours, my solos are a lot slower and more crap 🤪

[@moonboogien8908]

Like a lot of issues with tuning stability, it's probably the nut.

[@CaptainWhatever77]

Now I will practice „girls wanna have fun“ all day

[@phillipestebar4309]

I don't have the same issue so far on my G300 pro

[@nikkiduncan9209]

Sweet playing, dude!

[@scoosh.productions]

Lay this to rest 🤘🏻

[@Merkaba85]

Hold! The! Line!

[@TheTektronik]

I love the X100.

[@ScottStieg]

bigger springs

[@chrisf6216]

Thank you CSG! 5:16 - no you did not! Sounds great - cheers!

[@ScienceofLoud]

That's one of the coolest guitar lines in history, how could I not?

[@pipingpepsi6665]

I was hoping someone would mention this line!

[@Burnt_Gerbil]

Hold The Line 👍

[@hms2407]

What an intro man!

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

Hold the Line, that's on old one.

[@DJBuglip]

Lol, you were all over the place Colin. From Toto to Lamb of God to Cindy Lauper. Props. And yeah. I'd block it too.

[@DJBuglip]

I've got a Cort V I bought from a guy I was in the navy with in '86. I did rip out the guts (it was an Effector originally) and replaced em with normal pots, caps and a 3-way switch. Aside from that it still plays and sounds great and I gig with it to this day. Cort make good guitars.

[@benpowersguitar]

It's pretty nice guitar. Not really surprising from Cort. I am sure the tuning can be corrected.

[@peterhicks6328]

perhaps changing the saddles would help. maybe rig it to be hardtail bridge.

[@TheWorstManOnEarth]

Roasted wood neck, or even better 5 or 7 ply roasted wood neck, 2 graphite bars under the fretboard, ebony fretboard, stainless steel frets, PLEK fret job, graphite nut, NO STRING TREE (angled headstock or staggered tuning posts), straight string pull over the nut (NO ANGLE) ... that's all you need to have a perfect guitar. And if you absolutely want a vibrato unit (yes, vibrato, not tremolo) that never goes out of tune, then you'll have to look for an original Floyd Rose, unfortunately an EXPENSIVE ONE (not a cheap Floyd Rose Special for instance). The only non-locking vibrato unit which is nearly perfect is the Bigsby B3 on my 2002 Gretsch 6120 Junior ... and I don't know the f*** why 'cause the other Bigsby B3 on my recent 5420 Electromatic is a nightmare.

[@martinclayton7260]

I bought my Fender Stratocaster plus new in 1994, and I had a very similar problem, I loved the guitar, but it put me off playing it for years, so in the end I decked the trem, and had a trem stop fitted, so now it's a hard tail. It sounds, and plays great, much better!

[@miguelnavarroangulo1865]

Great video. This guitar was on my radar but I never really pulled the trigger. The looks is beatiful. By the way, I have been dealing with the problem of two point tremolo stability on different guitars, especially the Wilkinson WVSIIK. On some guitars, it works great but, it was not the case on others. What a hard time I had. I found a video on KZbin, where the guy recommended to use a battery or any object that can block the tuner, loose the springs so the strings pull up and the mass block blocks the battery against the body while floating parallel to the body and then perform the restring and corresponding setup. Once youßre done, the springs screws are slowly adjusted until the battery drops out. This was a solution for all guitars.

[@ScienceofLoud]

Don't use a battery for that - find an equivalent sized object which won't go on fire or explode when subjected to crushing forces.

[@fajaradi1223]

Between Cort G290 and Ibanez AZES40, they might be came out from the same factory.

[@vorpalblades]

Cort manufactures approximately 70% of the electric guitars made every year. They build for almost every country that offers import models.

[@Piccyman1]

You could put a small spacer under the string tree to raise it up a bit

[@ScienceofLoud]

Height isn't the issue in this case - it brings the strings down to the correct level, it just does so too close to the nut.

[@XaleManix]

This is such a lovrly guitar! My solution with floating trems has always been to de-float them and then increase the vibrato tension, but I always miss that upward vibrato stuff, too...

[@ScienceofLoud]

Unfortunately you cannot de-float the bridge on this one, the wood is recessed below the bridge and dropping it to the body would put the bridge too low.

[@PigglyWigglyDeluxe]

7:13 thanks, you just made me relive my high school metal youth ❤

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

One would think they would actually test it. Just as bad as Gibson's QA department.

[@andersjjensen]

My Haley Benton Pro Series has a one-way bridge (as in, it rests hard on return). Adjusting the springs to maximum tension and throwing the whammy bar over the right shoulder was my solution as well. Now it keeps tune perfectly well even when I really gank on the beds. That said: I REALLY like the sound of this Cort.

[@edwinstovall3334]

I can't call myself an expert, honestly, but the severity of that tuning problem suggests a serious issue with (I believe) the vibrato system. My feeling is that the unit got damaged or misaligned when those footprints you mentioned were put onto the guitar's box. Doesn't mean you're wrong, but I have never seen a vibrato problem that bad before, and it seems VERY unusual. As you say, otherwise, it's a great axe!

[@twotontenor]

I really like this guitar but I purchased it two different times and in both cases the bridge pickup was defective and could not be repaired. In both case, one from Thomann, and one from a small U.S. guitar shop, they were unable to either replace the guitar or get me a replacement pick up. I returned both of them to the respective dealers. Obviously, both Cort's quality control and their service department are sub standard., therefore, I will never purchase another Cort guitar, (at least under the Cort banner), as they are not worth the trouble. Very unfortunate, because theoretically this is a great guitar, but unfortunately I live in the real world. I almost feel scammed because I watched so many rave reviews on youtube from presumably legit sites. Buyer beware!

[@lzmiranda]

The way you opened the guitar review in the third chapter of the video was absolutely brilliant. Would that be a semantic evaluation of the instrument? Psychological, perhaps? Whatever we call it, I swear I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see reviews of instruments and gear take that kind of consideration into account, but until now, I’d never seen it done so cohesively. Most of the time, people get stuck in technical assessments or superficial comments like "fast neck good for shredding" or something along those lines. Well done!

[@yayogakko]

I've had this issue on a cheap wilkinson trem. Turns out the issue was that one of the knife edge connections to the trem stud was chipped. I replaced it with the exact same model trem and it solved the issue. I reckon most Cort G290s won't have this issue, but it's best to try before you buy as a setup wouldn't fix that.

[@scottyreynolds9874]

The Cindi Lauper was unexpected but gotta say I loved it. Always enjoy your videos

[@piermariamontalto6563]

I have the same exact bridge issue with my strat, and it's a gotoh 6 screw trem... I'd love to watch one of your "handy" videos about fixing this kind of issue

[@OmarBhoo]

Never been a fan of the straight headstocks. Never had that problem with an angled back headstock.

[@adammono1839]

Great variety of music style demonstrations colin! Keep it up, really great playing

[@mickloh]

I'd check the knife edges on the trem for burrs, also if someone adjusted the height of the bridge under tension can sometimes make the bridge eat into the posts and make the slot uneven. One thing I always do is put some thread seal tape on the posts to make them rock solid.

[@BrockOfBodom]

I’ve played these, pretty cool guitars!

[@rev.j.chriswallace642]

Great review, Colin! Slàinte from the US!

[@wbfaulk]

You say the springs have been unexplored since the '50s. I would note the Parker Fly flat-spring tremolo as a counterargument.

[@ScienceofLoud]

An experimental guitar that is long out of production, which no one else in the industry took any lessons from, might not be the best counter argument...

[@wbfaulk]

@@ScienceofLoud A failed experiment is still an experiment with useful results. Essentially, it was explored, and everyone said, "nope, the existing way is better".

[@emptyMan0]

I still like my old X-4. The only issue is that the bridge saddles tend to buzz sometimes.

[@stephenchow5161]

just needs 24 frets like the g300 raw

[@GabrielGomes]

Lovely review!

[@JamesSmith-zs8fl]

Great review

[@DaveyDeSade]

I've got an original G290 FAT. It doesn't have a string tree, it has the same bridge and I've had no tuning problems whatsoever. In fact I'd say it's probably the best floating bridge I've got aside from a Vega-trem I added to a strat. Maybe you just got bad one?

[@ScienceofLoud]

Maybe I did. Cort's response to my issue was "this is not a common problem", which implies they are fully aware this does happen. So they probably need to tighten up their QC somewhere to prevent some of them heading out like this. It's a loan instrument, so I can't mess around too much to figure out what the cause is. I'm sure there is a straightforward fix, if I had the freedom to change things.

[@chrispodesta8105]

At 35 seconds i can say that YOU nailed it, anyway. Absolutely thought, 'Steve Lukather' as soon as it was on screen... And THEN!

[@ScienceofLoud]

Very Lukather coded, especially when you get it in your hands. That's what felt right to play.