INCOMING
New gear arrives for the fall
The South Korean manufacturer Cort has announced two new basses for its Artisan C range, the five-string C5 Plus OVMH and four-string C4 Plus OVMH. Both offer features from Cort’s premium Artisan A range at a more affordable price, with bodies featuring a maple core, mahogany wings and ovangkol top, paired with a bolt-on Canadian maple neck and jatoba fretboard. Ovangkol is used as a substitute for rosewood and possesses similar tonal characteristics, although as Cort points out, it tends to be a little less bright. Partnering it with maple and mahogany is said to produce a balanced tone.
Fender’s affordable Squier Affinity range includes Jaguar bass models in finishes including Lake Placid Blue, Charcoal Frost Metallic and Burgundy Mist. Session ace Pete Griffin can be seen online, introducing the four Affinity basses, beginning with the all-new Jaguar Bass H, with its single humbucking pickup and 32” scale length. He then tackles the Precision PJ, with its combination of a split single-coil and single-coil bridge pickups, and the two Jazz bass models
– a four-string and a five. These are available for $249/£219, $279/£249, $279/£249 and $299/£269, respectively.
Finally, Orange has released a limited edition signature amp for the former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes. The Hughes Crush Bass 50 comes in a regal shade of purple, and as he says: “You can go in the studio, take that bass combo and make your album with something like that. It’s truly outstanding. It’s gritty, it’s punchy: sustain is so important and it’s certainly got all that.” Taking design inspiration from Orange’s flagship AD200 and OB1, the 50-watt bass combo is all analogue and has a ported cabinet, an active three-band EQ with parametric mids control, a buffered effects loop, onboard tuner and footswitchable blend and gain controls. It’s shipping for $299/£249.
“You can go into the studio, take that bass combo and make your album with it” Glenn Hughes on his new Orange combo