Same thing with Samick. When I was a salesman in the 00s, everyone was like "Samick sucks dude", but in reality they were great affordable guitars and they built many of the other imports.
@@rtaylor1105 They have a really nice line "K series" in the 90s super strats. also moving into the Valley Arts series too which I think has something to do with the old Gibson luthier
yeah samick is great brand often cheap guitars are great if you have knowlage i bough for like 100 euro Schecter demon from like 20 years ago (still have dots inlays) with sd pickup more expensive new than money i paid for it quess what great guitar stay in tune as Glenn is always talking about schecter he have in studio
@@williamfletcher5760 I’m sure some are. I certainly am not. I mean, not even married. Nor have a relationship… not in 10 years. Yeah perhaps I’m not the best person to assume anything with other people’s relationships.
I left a comment on that Cort video saying that I've never heard anybody "dog on Cort" and then was immediately told that I might have unknowingly because they shadow build tons of guitars for other companies. This video just revealed to me how twisted my own perception was as well as how silly others can be. I couldn't help but laugh. Keep doing you, Glenn. I love your content.
I'm a Jackson guy and all of my x-series Jackson guitars are made in Indonesia at a Samak factory and I have no problem with that. They're quality made with the same specs as their American made counterparts.
I was guitar shopping the other week, my budget was $1200. I played a ton of guitars at and slightly over that budget. The best guitars I played were the Sturling Cutlass I ended up buying, and a $250 Jackson Dinky that was incredible. Went back to buy it yesterday but somebody nabbed it. I played other Jacksons in the $500-$800 range and that white dinky clobbered them all. Better tuning stability when you dump the bar, neck felt great, I felt like the pickups on this particular one were wound in a different way based on the extreme variance in tone in each postion. But maybe it's all in my head and I just liked the whote be cause all of my other guitars are black or dark colors
Glen, I like your channel, so I just subscribed. I'm not really into the kind of music your engineering is geared towards, but I still enjoy the content. I like the way you cut through the BS. If something sounds good, it's good, end of the story. There are so many affordable guitars, amps, and recording tools available today that are very good it's amazing. The only thing holding anyone back from making music nowadays is being motivated enough to put the work in to do it. BTW, years ago I used to have a Cort Les Paul copy that was actually pretty decent, but I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have because it didn't have the right logo on it, wish I still had it.
Cort has made 24 million guitars, for almost every brand. As a studio musician and producer for the last 20 years (even in brutal LA) I can honestly say "Use what WORKS". Any Hollywood engineer or musician would tell you the same thing. Use the tool that gets the job done.
This is a purely anedoctal situation, but hear me out: A friend of mine who runs a studio has THE Gibson Les Paul, seriously one of the best guitars I've ever played. I ended up going to numerous stores to find one just like his, but not ONE ever came close to it. So I asked him about it, and it turns out one of the most renowed luthiers in the country does the setup for his guitars and, ironically, out of all the "single cut" guitars I've tested, the best one was - lo and behold... a Cort.
@Domn879 as long as the guitar was decently constructed, yeah. But also to point out how the Cort's version of a Les Paul was better than an actual Gibson out of the box.
Best Les Paul I've played is an Indie Guitar Company (Didcot, UK) copy, reknown for spending the effort on setting up guitars they imported (though annoyingly I hear that might not be still true). My cousin has an LP delux '76 and he won't ever let me play it. If a guitar is that precious (or shit and he doesn't want to admit it), it's not worth having. I got an Indie PRS copy and it's great and f'ing cheap! Like the best SG's I've played to date were an Epiphone and a Schecter. I stupidly bought a Gibson SG and regretted it within a few weeks, even the min-etune couldn't save that pile of ass.
I just played with chat gpt for the 1st time. I asked it to write song lyrics and in mere seconds it writes songs. So I tested it to see if it knew about certain things. I asked about songs about Montreal's poutine. Just like that it gave me a cheesy text. So I wondered if it knew about youtubers and stuff so I asked a song about Glenn Fricker. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing if it Knew you so check it out: (Verse 1) In the world of metal, where the guitars scream, There's a man with a mission, living out his dream. With a beard as fierce as the riffs he crafts, He's a legend in the scene, and his name is Glenn Fricker, at last. (Chorus) Oh Glenn Fricker, with your no-nonsense style, You're the voice of reason, in a world so wild. From your studio diaries to your gear reviews, You're the guru of metal, breaking all the rules. (Verse 2) With a passion for tone and a love for the shred, He's the one you turn to when you're banging your head. From mixing tips to drum sound hacks, He's got the knowledge and the skills to keep you on track. (Chorus) Oh Glenn Fricker, with your fiery wit, You're a force to be reckoned with, never one to quit. From your honest critiques to your studio gear, You're the metalhead's mentor, year after year. (Bridge) In a world of noise and chaos, he's a beacon of light, Guiding metalheads through the darkest night. With his trademark laugh and his Canadian pride, He's the one we turn to, for the metal ride. (Chorus) Oh Glenn Fricker, with your wisdom so true, You're the rock of the community, shining through. From your passion for music to your love for the scene, You're the metal godfather, forever reigning supreme. (Outro) So here's to you, Glenn Fricker, may your legend grow, In the world of metal, where the true believers know. With every riff and every beat, we'll raise a toast, To the man, the myth, the legend, we love the most. Well you don't have a beard so that's a little off the rest seems quite related but it's like horoscope. all the songs have the same structure, the same template so it's kinda easy to recognize but how many artists will start using AI to write song lyrics? Have you heard of people doing it?
Dinosaur from the 70s here. Once upon a time Cort was considered a cheap budget guitar to laugh at. Not now, people used to laugh at Japanese cars too. Times have changed and if you make a quality product, people buy it. Unless you pay for a name to prove you are cool. Play your ass off and people will be impressed.
Those Japanese cars are still on the road today.. those people were always wrong but I'd be willing to bet the Cory's of that time probably were actually bad then got better over time. The Japanese cars were always good.
He hadn't a clue once he was handed a non mainstream brand. Then Lee even gave that away at the end, he thought they were Bareknuckles not cos of the sound rather, the pup covers having exposed screws.
Hello sir. I'm new on the channel. Seeing the speakers' importance debate going on here I must express my astonishment for the amount of poeple NOT KNOWING how crucial is the speaker for your sound. And this knowledge had been around since deacades long! It's funny how fast it can disappear. Nevertheless, I've got a different question for: what will be the difference in sound when mounting 16 ohm speaker to 8-16 ohm combo vs. 8ohm speaker to the same combo? Of course considering that the speaker is a same model (minus the impedance obiously) Thanks for your work, stay strong!
Glenn….MELTDOWN??? Really? Those PRS comments couldn’t be anymore tame…one just says “I love my PRS.” Lmao are you really sinking this low for click bait now?
Genaray lights = COMPLETE GARBAGE - avoid at all costs...!!! Had several full sets of studio LED lights. They would have that fried electronics meltdown. They would go back for repair. They would fail again. They would go back for repair, they would fail again... rinse & repeat. Anyone seeing a pattern here? Anyway, since I'm an electronics engineer, I decided enough is enough & pulled one apart. Turns out that on this particular product, they made the unwise decision to put two small diodes in parallel instead of using a single larger one to handle the rectification of the DC LED drive voltage. Some basic math showed that the pair of little diodes were running at about 98% of their design characteristic inside a poorly ventilated case. All semiconductors have manufacturing variations, and their characteristics also vary with temperature. This means that there was a very high likelihood that one diode would be handling a little more current than the other, and as the temperature rose, this situation would only get worse until the whole thing just ran away & smoked itself. Self destruct was actually inevitable in this design. This is the type of sh!te design work you can expect from Genaray. Replacing the dual dinky diodes with a single beefy one turned out to be a viable solution, but not one that the average consumer would be capable of discovering then carrying out.
Went to a guitar center and picked up an ibanez semi hollow and couldnt stop playing it. I ran the serial...... built by Cort 😆. One of the best feeling and playing guitars ive touched. Fuck those elitist guitar snobs 😆 🤣
I remember when I first started working at a guitar shop, we had all of these Samick guitars on the wall and I was like "Hey, where's all the GOOD stuff?!?!" and the guy who was showing me around informed me that (at least at the time in the early 00s) a majority of all musical instruments in the world are made in a Samick factory. When I looked closer at these instruments, you could tell that they were not just copies, but they were exact copies of American brad guitars. Different headstock of course, but they had an SG that and was every bit as good as my Gibson SG Special I had at the time. Like all industries, the ownership and/or manufacturing of a majority of the products gets chiseled down to just a handful of companies after a while.
@@SoldierOvSyn I mean the music is amazing (not that i understand a single word) but I wish that style of rock existed in the western world. Like what rock song has a jazzy b6 or #4 diminished
Also, new anime that looks promising is Girls Band Cry, which is currently airing this season. Not sure if that one's getting a dub though. JP metal is a different breed. Due to the music scene being absolutely monstrous in Japan, it tends to be hard to find truly unique acts, but if you do some digging you'll find some of the most talented musicians on the planet. (Exist Trace is one of my favorite bands.)
While many of the PRS SE models have been in the "great for the $$" concession... it was almost embarrassing how great the DGT SE was with no mods when I got one. Made me raise an eyebrow at all the more expensive guitars from various manufacturers in my studio. ☮❤🎶
After playing guitar for 30 years, I care that the guitar can stay in tune after bending notes and using tremolo. Also, I care about the action so I can play lead. Made is USA NO LONGER MATTERS! I own an 98' American Strat, Keisel CT6, Solar Guitar (Ola's company) and about 4 others.
Myself as well, I'll hit the pawn shops and find the guitar that has the best intonations, actions ,playability, somethings that's already been well used by a past pro. I don't bother plugging it in. It never fails, I'll find the best guitar in the pawn shop ,and it's around the cheapest one at the pawn shop.
Any working guitarist has to scrutinize quality. There is a reason you don't see touring guitarists playing Harley Benton guitars. They are fine sitting at home in a climate controlled environment their entire existence, but would it stand up to daily loading and unloading in trailers? Bumpy roads, roadies, temperature changes, almost daily live shows? I'm guessing not, but I notice not many guitarists will take that chance either, lol.
Bocchi the Rock would be perfect for ya Glenn! all those sweet sweet guitar tones you're missing out on... *sigh* also Frieren is based beyond all belief. the words *kill yourself* would never sound the same again
I got a PRS SE standard 24 about 6 months ago and holy shit this thing rips. It plays fantastically and the intonation is crazy good after a solid setup. Cant recommend these things enough!
On the subject of a reamp box, I am a bit confused. Is it different than taking a looper pedal and plugging that back into your amp? I've done that before to get a consistent performance and tweaking the mic/amp settings for a better recording.
proud owner of the Cort G 300 pro series, made in indonesia but had the specs of an Ibanez Prestige 👏🏼 other manufacturers would do well to follow them, cheers
I was looking to buy a bass guitar in the early 2000s, my best friend worked for GuitarGuitar in Glasgow so he took me into their try before buy booth to try out a few. I had my heart set on a Fender Precision but he said to try one bass before buying. Before he went to get it, he said DO NOT adjust the eq or ANYTHING on the amp after trying out a Fender Precision that I had decided to buy (he also said not to look at it which I thought was strange). I took his advice and didn't adjust anything. He brought in a Cort GB99, I plugged it in and HOLY SHIT, this thing SLAYED the Fender P, I will say that the look of it was goddam hideous (tobacco burst) but it grew on me and I still have it today and have nothing but good things to say about Cort. So glad that places like GuitarGuitar care more about having musicians make choices based on quality rather than price.
Here is an analogy: Pininfarina was a world famous Italian car designer, who designed some of the most beautiful cars ever made. His company also designed cars for Cadillac, Fiat, Peugot, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Honda and of course Ferrari. The design of something is generally more important than the manufacturer, so if PRS designs a guitar, and it is made by Cort, to a good standard, what is the problem? I play a G&L asat tele, designed by Leo Fender and made, probably by Cort. It is still a Leo Fender to me.
GLLLEEEENNNNN!!!! If you love Deutschland you have to get to Wacken in July. I'd love to hang with you there and talk gear after having our ears shredded from listening to all the metals. Love your show, love your info. Life experiences over more gear, right!!?? Keep up the great work!!
I’m from Toronto but live in China and found you on RUclips. Go figure. You are an amazing entertainer and knowledgeable guru. Your engineering skill is really appreciated. Love everything you discuss and even though I am not a rock fan, your experience is invaluable even for studio guys like me who write for TV and movies. Keep up the awesome!
Alright Glenn, getting close to 750k let's Gooooo!!!👍 I wish Fernandes would open distribution in North America. Glenn,do you know why they pulled their marketing etc. in North America?!?!Thanks Man.👍
I had to play a PRS when my main Yamaha (that I built for 100 bucks out of a 40$ eg-303 I got off craigslist) had a wiring issue at a gig. I was blown away... by how meh it was. The controls are not very accessible and clash with the trem arm, the neck was chunky which is good if you like that, but not for me. My impression before of PRS was that it was designed to be more ergonomics-forward vs other guitars so I was really surprised by the poor access to the controls. I'll stick with my Yamaha.
Wait a minute.... Pending trip to Taiwan for a "wedding".... relentless enthusiasm for cheap gear....Who is funding this channel?? I kid, of course. Very enjoyable channel you have here, comrade!
I love looking at and learning about everything. I just started looking more closely at PRS-after years of not caring/cloudy visions of Santana, Tremonti, or a random blues lawyer's sustained bend face (should I paint this axe red to match the Porsche, or paint the Porsche like a tiger stripe 10-top? I should get this hand-wired amp rewired...) Anyhow, I like the idea of the 24-08 and the Paul's guitar, they feel pretty nice, but I don't feel any real need. I like looking at the 70's-90's Japanese stuff, it's all pretty interesting and different. A lot of it is very nice and can be a nice alternative to crazy prices of US made guitars, but a lot of that stuff can be hiding a wiring nightmare, be warped, rusted, dinged battle scarred, and generally neglected (but original) and people have no problem paying $1500-2K for a bolt on neck 75 Greco or Burny LP. BUT-CORT is no good. I've recently been paying more attention to their FAT II G90 Super strat- Not a perfect guitar, but come on: $800 brand new and less than $450 used... Also their gold series Acoustics: All solid thin finish exotic tone woods/no ply w ebony fingerboard CNC accurate/consistent, WALNUT (hard shit) reinforced neck profile/construction, double dovetail neck joint-reinforced WITH A BOLT! I think some of these guys are trapped in the PRS/Murphy Lab owners club blogs& forums, or have been rechecking the vintage of their nitro lacquer supplies too often... Pick a topic. Pick a hobby. If someone's shitting on something their either not knowledgeable, insecure, or both.
Why do you remind me of a rocker Quentin Tarantino. Average pay in my country, is about 500 euro. Its refreshing to hear a normal person. Back in the day, every body and neck was hand made. Now, everything is CNC. Inexpensive guitars are natural. Non USA GUITARS ARE AWSOME. All I care about is the neck and tuning stability. in my opinion , amps are are a thing of the past. I use a Boss GT100 into a mixer and on to an amazing powered speaker. I get whatever tone I want. Thank You for your realistic opinions. I am sick of all the sales men on You Tube. If you ony knew the the stuff we put together back in the 70s, to play. Wood worker, then somebodys dad was an electrcal pro, and so on. We wrapped our oun coils! Most players are spoiled today. We earned our sound. Transformers were hand built and tubes from TVs or radios. Man I miss the the days when everything was improvised. Love your channel! Didnt subscribe yet, because the MAN is probably still watching me.
I mean....Someone's gonna need medical attention after pulling that PRS SE out of their ass after finding out where they're made. Cort is fantastic guitar maker, which is why so many OEM.'s use them. (Ibanez, PRS, Squire, Schecter, Gretsch......) Samick also makes a great product.
Meh...if it plays well, sounds good, and looks cool, i'll buy it. I've got a PRS, a Gretch, and a cheap squire tele....among others. I'm also a dreaded bass player. I've got a $2000 bass and $450 bass. I love them both!
Without finishing to watch this, if they're a such a PRS fan... Lol, tell'm that the PRS SE's are actually made @ the Cortek factory in Indonesia 😉🤣🤣 lol, if they're good enough for PRS, well..!🤨🤔🤣lol & you're all over it 😂
Well, this old fool learned something new today. Probably because I don't give a shit about much other than how a guitar plays and sounds. PRS made by Cort? How can that be??? LOL Truthfully, I had no idea about this and I own a PRS...go figure. But that's why I watch you Fricker...you always "I always lern me sumphin!" Thanks!!! 🤘😎
Cort have built two of my favourite guitars in my collection - a 2004 fender showmaster, and a 2010 PRS Santana SE. great factory for decades. BUT, Cory branded guitars, personally, lack vibe for me. But that’s subjective, and I’ll never scoff at the quality. I just wish their designs spoke to me more
I think people forget that "custom shop" is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, then what is massed produced. It is like appliances, only a few manufacturers build items for ALL the different lines out there.😂😂😂😂 If Mesa came out with their own guitar it would be shopped out to a manufacturer otherwise thay would cost more that their amps. Otherwise they would be called " custom shop Mesa guitars." Make sense now?????
Folks, you're allowed to like what you like, but no brand will ever thank you for forsaking any other brand. Customer loyalty used to mean something, but now everyone has a million customers, so they don't care if you buy something else. Someone else will take your place and big companies know it. So stop sucking the company's cool aid and diversify your brands!!!!! Have a guitar rack that says Cort, PRS, Gibson, ESP, Fender, Solar, Danelectro, Vox, Harley Benton... Doesn't that sound like a better collection than PRS this, PRS that, PRS signature, etc, etc?
What's wrong with Cort? It's our fault, the Gen X'ers of course. Back in the 80's and 90's Cort guitars weren't great. Some of them you couldn't even touch with a stick in a hazmat suit. For the last 15 years however they did become really good. Excellent in fact. They do have issues with worker's rights though. Not great... Especially problematic since they build other brands "budget" models.
Hey Glenn, I know you already did the shootout between different brands of tubes and I fully expected the results you found there. I would like to hear a comparison between different types of tubes - I'm guessing that different tube types, i.e., EL34, EL84, 6L6, KT66 etc. do actually produce different tones(?) I've noticed that virtually every amp uses 12AX7s (or a variation) in the pre-amp but then we see all these different types of tubes in the power tube section. I know I have 2 amp heads that both use 12AX7s in the pre-amp, one has 6L6 power tubes and sounds more "scooped" while the other one has KT66 power tubes and seems almost like it produces even sounds across the frequencies, practically a flat EQ. I know when I first plugged into the KT66 head, I set the three EQ knobs to noon, then played for probably three hours and when I turned the amp back off all three knobs were still at noon. Just so you know, I have adjusted them since. I've learned that when using HH guitars (such as a Les Paul) the bass and mids are fine at noonish, but the amp is overly bright if I don't turn the treble down to somewhere around 9:30-10, but when I plug in my HSS Strat (Artic Pearl Ultra, exactly like the one you have!), I need to bring the Treble back up to noon at least on the KT66 amp, and boost the highs about +3db on my MXR EQ pedal to get a decent high end sound. I imagine this will be a harder test to do, because amp circuits don't usually allow for swapping in different types of tubes, so it will be harder to control all the variables. That said, I would still love to hear an A/B/C/etc. sound test to hear the differences - assuming there are differences - between the common tubes used in guitar amps.
People also forget that the guitarist for Muse, Matt Bellamy, has had a signature model directly through Cort since... FOREVER. Muse music is... alright, but not my cup of tea. Most of Matt Bellamy's signature models, however... every version of it absolutely FUCKS as long as it's in black. I have wanted one for like 10 years at this point lol. The model was first introduced in 2015 and I've wanted one ever since. I want it to swap the stock Manson Guitars pickups out for some vintage output GFS pickups, slap in an active preamp from Seymour Duncan, and to update the bridge hardware. If I can't get the kill switch to work with the setup I want, passive is fine. I already know the pickups I want sound great, even without the active preamp.
Cort are amazing guitars. Quality is well above the price range. I had a Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature model in the early 2k's and nobody would believe me when they heard recordings I did with it and told them it wasn't a Les Paul. 😂 I'm talking about guys who own and play USA built guitars (except for a Japanese Ibanez Paul Stanley Iceman they used in their Kiss Tribute band)😂😂😂
PRS caters to many audiences, the “high end” tonewood sniffers and the “lower end” people. I have had my PRS SE standard 24 for 4 years. It was 679 USD and it is PRS’s cheapest guitar. It arrived with a decent gig bag, AND in flawless, perfect condition. I have never had problems with it EVER. It easily beats much higher priced guitars in fit n finish and in component quality. It has amazing tuning stability and is a great studio workhorse as well. Some of the best money I have ever spent on a guitar.
This comments about Cort make me want to buy another PRS SE or two. And I'm someone who owns a few USA made PRSs. (And also a few SEs.) Or maybe I'll buy a Slick, or something from Harley Benton, or Guitar Fetish, or ...
"Not the guitar players in the world. IT'S ALL ABOUT THEM!!" Yeah, met a few of them over the years... almost made me give up on music entirely. Especially the shitty ones who can barely play power chords, yet think they're the next Jimmy Page. It's a bigger nightmare being in a band with an egomaniac than it is being in a band with basic musicians
I just bought a Cort single cut bass this week. It's flawless out of the box...I just bought a 2024 Epiphone this week too, not flawless but pretty good. This shouldn't happen with Epiphone.
It's hilarious that PRS SE are made by Cortek and everybody, including PRS USA die hard fan, think that PRS SE are amazing, but then when you review a Cort (Cortek retail brand) it suddenly become a shitty guitar, wow!
Hmmm.. Non-American Guitars arent all ' that '? I think Charvel would beg to differ. Their older Model 1's and such from the 80's ( made in Japan ) are highly sought after! Theres a lot of ' mexicasters ' out there that are also highly desirable. I think a LOT of guitars were made by Samick or in their factories ( maybe the parts were made by Samick and assembled elsewhere? ).
I had a chuckle when I saw the title of this vid...obviously the dude hasn't seen the 2 videos by Phillip McKnight talking about who makes who/who owns who. I think at the time of the first video 8 something years ago, it was WMIC making the SE line but I imagine it's been shifted to COR-TEK mostly by now. Either way, great vid and edits Glenn. Fuck You
one more thing. I have a PRS SE and it's made in south Korea. Best guitar I own along with my Jackson R.R. made in Indonesia. My lead player has a 2009 Gibson Les Paul Studio and he prefers my PRS, go figure
Just picked up the Spring Thing last night! I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about mixing, even if metal isn't my primary focus. I already had ELE but now I have Singularity and Element so watch out world! My horizons are expanding, just like my waistline thanks to Costco sized packs of cookies!
My Schecter sls plays every bit as nice as my very expensive PRS Custom 35th Anniversary. The PRS has way more pickup switching options (coils splits etc) which is great, but the Schecter holds it's own at a quarter of the price. I've recorded with them both and the Schecter is 10 of 10. After watching Glen's videos I think electric guitar woods have little to no effect on the sound. I just love the way the PRS looks, and have no regrets spending the money. But if you need a pro level guitar that plays, looks and sounds great, there are a ton of mid-level options. It's a great time to be a guitar player. F you Glen.
I had a PRS SE Baritone...it was an artist model. I forget the artist. It had a neck like a baseball bat, which is inconvenient for my small lady hands. I gave it to a kid who couldn't afford a guitar. Does anybody cool play PRS guitars? I need to know! Because when I think of PRS, I can't un-hear John Mayer singing love songs that have the panache of a pan of wallpaper paste. Apologies, Paul.
I was given an emergency call to fill in for a friend's bassist an hour before the show, and I was told I could use his gear that was already set up and soundchecked. He used Cort Basses. I've been an Ibby guy since the original SR1000e in the 80's, but hid cheap, $200 POS Cort bass felt glorious in my hands, and I almost replaced my show basses.... Cort is no bullshit.
I am about to spend almost 500 bucks on pickups for 2 guitars soon. And it's the right choice because they have microphonic trash from China in them 😂 But after that and a new bridge, I'll have insanely high quality Snakebyte and Telecaster guitars that cost under $650 apiece after upgrades. Thanks China. 👍
Bit off topic sorry… I have the Manda drums VST but I can’t get Reaper to record ‘freestyle’ only the pre-processed patterns and fills. E.G can’t do a hi-hat or kick count in/intro. I can see the signal go into the armed track but it won’t record it. Would all drum VST’s be like this? Enjoying the vids👏
Speaking of FOH, with headphones at YES in '73 the sound from the desk was flat and bland but the 'live' sound at the rather large venue was fantastic. Now 50 years later is the difference between room and desk still this confusing? Best room I've heard in a while was Kreator, stunning, mind blown by all, so obviously there are mixes and mixes. 🤔 Love the show 🤩
Still got my cheaper Cort VX-2V that I bought back in 2015 for £284 and even played my last 3 shows with it. Still to this day 1 of my most used guitars. However if I'm going to continue playing live, I do need to get that gloss of the neck. Playing live light shows means I can't see the fret markers due to the reflection off the gloss neck 🤣🤣
I know talking about pick ups on this chanel is frowned on, butttttt...... There are 12 guitars in my home currently. All humbuckers. Ranging in brands and price point and all out of asian factories. Of them all the best guitar in terms of over all build quality, player comfort is my dsughters PRS SE blue standard 24. The pickups are by far the best sounding pick ups of all the guitars, Clean tones sound amazing, and when driven hard on high gain the neck pick up sounds articulated, chugs great and really cuts through the mix. I have an explorer with emg pick ups, love that guitar but this prs se kills it, seriously does.
I own expensive guitars and cheaper guitars. PRS woodlibray 594 being one of my expensive ones and my cheapest is a Cort CL1000. A great set up on a cheaper guitar will bring it close to right up to par. End of the day, it's a plank of wood with some strings on it with coils and magnets. I bought my Cort twenty two years ago with my first pay check. It's still a great guitar and I still love playing it
I owned 2 PRS made in the US, one over 3k, and neither one was as great a piece of wood as my 83 Ibanez Artist. The SE's I owned impressed me more as the best inexpensive guitars, imo. In general, I found even when I could afford cork sniffer prices, the best anything could be was worth the money and the hype, as expected. Started to feel... transactional, instead of Magic, which is what I think it is when I think I found a diamond in the rough. Just a more satisfying mojo fantasy.
I heard Cort makes guitars for Ibanez, PRS (SE line), Squier, and G&L Tribute series. But I heard they do guitars for other brands just can't find who they are.
"There's a notch in the upper mids that's a giveaway"... Yeah Rob, it had chuff all to do with being one of the most iconic guitar shapes and neck profiles of the past 40 years and knowing what they load their up market models with. You should challenge him to a test of guitar tones mixed in a track and see if they really can back it up with proper scientific methodology?
idk if this is where you get your questions from (though i assume it is), and ive got one ive been thinking of. Is there really any point at all to a high wattage (100w+) amplifier? From what I understand (which very well could be mistaken), amplifiers got to be made for such high levels of power because back in the day all or most of a bands sound came from the speakers on stage, and also because players in other genres wanted the headroom be able to play clean and loud without distortion. Thats all fine and makes sense to me. But what about today? Most bands I see these days are either playing sims directly into the PA or are miced up and playing through the PA, and it seems to me like lower-power versions of amps tend to sound identical to their bigger siblings. ... So why do people still buy them? Is it just because they are so undeniably cool? Years ago I made the mistake of getting a 120w Bugera 6260 combo amp, basically a knockoff 5250. I think it could use some better speakers, but besides that it sounds pretty great for my purposes. The only issue with it is that it is just *way* too fucking loud, and so I've been thinking about selling it to downsize to one of those 20w/5w "lunchbox" amps. So then as I've been looking into these smaller amps its been making me wonder why anyone would want a full 120w amp over one of them. From what I can tell the bigger ones dont sound better (just louder), theyre too loud to play anywhere that isnt a concert venue or a sound-proofed studio, they take up a ton of space, and even for a concert they dont seem to be the best or most popular choice anymore. Is this just another case of guitar players being overly traditional in a way that makes us want to needlessly spend thousands? Or is there something I dont know or am not considering?
My brother had a Cort Acoustic, he traded it to my buddy in high school for a quarter of weed. My buddy still has it and it is genuinely one of the best sounding acoustic guitars I've ever played. Mu buddy went to school for music production and that Cort is in many of his recordings for school projects, played by him and by me. I was looking at a Cort 12 string acoustic and it was fantastic. I don't care about how much a guitar costs, I care about how it feels in my hands. I just bought a Sterling Cutlass and it's perfect. I played several guitars the were more expensive, built by "more reputable" brands, and still went with the Sterling and saved myself hundreds of dollars, also bought a hard case and treated myself to a ribeye steak after too. I played a $2500 EVH and it was kind if dogwater
Hey Glenn, To be honest, a round table talk could actually be eye opening fir a lot of people. It may help a lot of musos understand why mix engineers are doing and requesting certain things. I used to be a FOH but mainly a stage monitor engineer. I know your channel (awesome by the way!) is recording based, but studio, FOH and monitor engineers are all interrelated to a point.There could be some helpful information shared, but judging by the replies you mainly have, replacing pickups will give you a better studio, FOH sound, as well as being able to hear everything on stage..... Cheers, and come to Australia f*$ker!
I hope you can discern when tubes prefer to compress, rather than clip. If they are doing asymetrical clipping or balanced clipping. These "subtle nuances" will be there at the "edge of breakup" not at high gain, valves wide open. I think you may need some sort of oscilloscope to catch the wave forms. I'd also like to see you compare the EQ graphs of Ruby branded tubes to generic chinese to see a difference. Ruby has a sweet frequency profile they want and apparently hand pick select tubes on those profiles. My cork sniffing, tone snob, ears prefer Ruby branded tubes, especially the EL34 power tubes. They seem "smooth" and lack harsh, unhappy frequencies which usually are in that 5-7k range and can hurt. Prove me right, prove me wrong Glenn, either way it will be a great episode.
It is astonishing to me that more times than not that RUclipsrs with moderate to very successful show content, Don't realize or can't understand, That the reason people subscribe, And keep watching is because they like the content the way it is. But the "Creator" With some success and revenue coming in.. Becomes bored and, He wants "Bigger and Better" content. Like what is happening here. And in my opinion (which means nothing) I think the show overall is suffering for it. Well ? .. For me? I Liked it the way it was for years. I am glad for Glenn and his new engineering board; and that he is financially able to go on cruses & mutable trips abroad in a year. But now the show content seems rushed, And is getting weaker and weaker. I've got to say .. After all these years watching; being subscribed liking & commenting to support this gig. Sorry to say, I'm about outta here.
My first guitar was a Cort V back in the late 80s... great? No.. bad.. not at all.. played fine.. the only comment is that if a EX-girlfriend hits you in the had with one... it fucking hurts...
I really love my PRS SE silver sky. I had a core SS before and, as far as the tone goes its better, but not THAT much better. The SE actually has a more comfortable neck. The core neck is quite big and fatigued my hands after only playing for 20-30 minutes. I can play my SE for hours, and have been doing so since I got it. If thats not the mark of a great guitar I dont know what is.
While there is no Holy Grail of tone pickups, shitty-ass pickups do exist. Especially in some bargain guitars (cough*Epiphone*). I think it would be cool to give some reasonable price options for replacement pickups without buying that Dimarzio signature that costs twice as much as the guitar. Again this is about fixing noise, uneven volume or minimal volume of mud no matter the gain.
When it comes to guitarists and "feel" After playing with a real tube amp for a while I've learned what I found lacking in using Ignite emissary. The best part about that, it's all about setting up the input correctly and now the ampsim feels just as capable to give the same rich "feel" a real amp does, and thats with very minor setup too. Also I didn't even know the PRS SE was frowned upon by snobs, I'm very happy about mine, I love the functionality of having split coil, so many possibilities for different tones for different genres. I dunno what my point is, guitar snobs are full of shit? I'm just rambling cause I want to lmao
Once I tried buying Cort G300. First time o got one with busted neck joint. Second time I got one with a huge knot in the main neck part (I still got this abomination on a photo), burned cable insulation in the electronics, also someone did really bad fretjob busting the fretboard. I don't care who makes the guitar. What matters is that i have not heard about such badly made PRS SE. And that Cort supposed to be a flagship model... Seems like PRS just actually looks with their eyes on what they sell and will not allow busted guitars. But I eventually got Fender Player which also was a pain to get the good one.
Hey Glenn, I think you should care about feel. If you record a DI, then tone can be fixed; but if the guitarist you're recording isn't feeling it, then you won't get a good performance, and that can't be fixed. Sometimes, making the musician comfortable is most of the battle. And as ever, FUG.
Same thing with Samick. When I was a salesman in the 00s, everyone was like "Samick sucks dude", but in reality they were great affordable guitars and they built many of the other imports.
I'm pretty sure the Samick factory made Ibanez and alot other big brand guitars too. Such an under rated brand Samick
I had a very nice samick...early 90s
@@rtaylor1105 They have a really nice line "K series" in the 90s super strats. also moving into the Valley Arts series too which I think has something to do with the old Gibson luthier
yeah samick is great brand often cheap guitars are great if you have knowlage i bough for like 100 euro Schecter demon from like 20 years ago (still have dots inlays) with sd pickup more expensive new than money i paid for it quess what great guitar stay in tune as Glenn is always talking about schecter he have in studio
My first bass at 12, I am 45 now and it was a samick, it's was great i loved it 🤘🏼
Dude doesn't need to pick up anyone, in a bar or any other place. He's happily married.
Married yes... Happy? Is any man happily married?
There are rare kinds of those happy mofos @@williamfletcher5760
@@williamfletcher5760 I am :) for almost 17 years now
@@williamfletcher5760 I’m sure some are. I certainly am not. I mean, not even married. Nor have a relationship… not in 10 years.
Yeah perhaps I’m not the best person to assume anything with other people’s relationships.
@@steevidrums My tells me I am happy my band mates tell me their wives tell then the same so we must be?
Lol people actually think this channel is called SpectreGuitarGuitars
I left a comment on that Cort video saying that I've never heard anybody "dog on Cort" and then was immediately told that I might have unknowingly because they shadow build tons of guitars for other companies.
This video just revealed to me how twisted my own perception was as well as how silly others can be. I couldn't help but laugh. Keep doing you, Glenn. I love your content.
Cort guitar = some unpopular kid with good heart but lame @social
PRS = cool kid with lots of bytches hanging around
It’s like when people scoff at the cheap imports on alibaba but then buy the more expensive department store version made by the same company
cort beginner instruments sucked 20 years ago. not anymore
I'm a Jackson guy and all of my x-series Jackson guitars are made in Indonesia at a Samak factory and I have no problem with that.
They're quality made with the same specs as their American made counterparts.
I think my Washburn 335 clone was built there. They did a fantastic job.
I was guitar shopping the other week, my budget was $1200. I played a ton of guitars at and slightly over that budget. The best guitars I played were the Sturling Cutlass I ended up buying, and a $250 Jackson Dinky that was incredible. Went back to buy it yesterday but somebody nabbed it. I played other Jacksons in the $500-$800 range and that white dinky clobbered them all. Better tuning stability when you dump the bar, neck felt great, I felt like the pickups on this particular one were wound in a different way based on the extreme variance in tone in each postion. But maybe it's all in my head and I just liked the whote be cause all of my other guitars are black or dark colors
My main gig bass is an Indonesian Jackson X. Great articulate instrument that has a genuinely useable 3-band EQ. Shows up all my lack of talent. 😂
Glen, I like your channel, so I just subscribed. I'm not really into the kind of music your engineering is geared towards, but I still enjoy the content. I like the way you cut through the BS. If something sounds good, it's good, end of the story. There are so many affordable guitars, amps, and recording tools available today that are very good it's amazing. The only thing holding anyone back from making music nowadays is being motivated enough to put the work in to do it. BTW, years ago I used to have a Cort Les Paul copy that was actually pretty decent, but I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have because it didn't have the right logo on it, wish I still had it.
I make jazz rock and I love this channel and find a lot of useful stuff from this!
Cort has made 24 million guitars, for almost every brand. As a studio musician and producer for the last 20 years (even in brutal LA) I can honestly say "Use what WORKS".
Any Hollywood engineer or musician would tell you the same thing. Use the tool that gets the job done.
but not a cort lol
@@Eri4Jp Plenty are. Nashville studios use a ton of PRS Se. Made at....hmmm...Cort.
This is a purely anedoctal situation, but hear me out:
A friend of mine who runs a studio has THE Gibson Les Paul, seriously one of the best guitars I've ever played. I ended up going to numerous stores to find one just like his, but not ONE ever came close to it.
So I asked him about it, and it turns out one of the most renowed luthiers in the country does the setup for his guitars and, ironically, out of all the "single cut" guitars I've tested, the best one was - lo and behold... a Cort.
@Domn879 as long as the guitar was decently constructed, yeah. But also to point out how the Cort's version of a Les Paul was better than an actual Gibson out of the box.
@Domn879 No, read again. THE Les Paul was an actual Gibson Les Paul.
I have a guitar tech that is so amazing at what he does he made my Pacifica 112 smoke any Fender Strat in terms of playability and tone lol
Best Les Paul I've played is an Indie Guitar Company (Didcot, UK) copy, reknown for spending the effort on setting up guitars they imported (though annoyingly I hear that might not be still true). My cousin has an LP delux '76 and he won't ever let me play it. If a guitar is that precious (or shit and he doesn't want to admit it), it's not worth having. I got an Indie PRS copy and it's great and f'ing cheap! Like the best SG's I've played to date were an Epiphone and a Schecter. I stupidly bought a Gibson SG and regretted it within a few weeks, even the min-etune couldn't save that pile of ass.
Holy shit dude. You’re looking slim AF comapared to last year. Good job on meeting your goals!
I just played with chat gpt for the 1st time. I asked it to write song lyrics and in mere seconds it writes songs. So I tested it to see if it knew about certain things. I asked about songs about Montreal's poutine. Just like that it gave me a cheesy text. So I wondered if it knew about youtubers and stuff so I asked a song about Glenn Fricker. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing if it Knew you so check it out:
(Verse 1)
In the world of metal, where the guitars scream,
There's a man with a mission, living out his dream.
With a beard as fierce as the riffs he crafts,
He's a legend in the scene, and his name is Glenn Fricker, at last.
(Chorus)
Oh Glenn Fricker, with your no-nonsense style,
You're the voice of reason, in a world so wild.
From your studio diaries to your gear reviews,
You're the guru of metal, breaking all the rules.
(Verse 2)
With a passion for tone and a love for the shred,
He's the one you turn to when you're banging your head.
From mixing tips to drum sound hacks,
He's got the knowledge and the skills to keep you on track.
(Chorus)
Oh Glenn Fricker, with your fiery wit,
You're a force to be reckoned with, never one to quit.
From your honest critiques to your studio gear,
You're the metalhead's mentor, year after year.
(Bridge)
In a world of noise and chaos, he's a beacon of light,
Guiding metalheads through the darkest night.
With his trademark laugh and his Canadian pride,
He's the one we turn to, for the metal ride.
(Chorus)
Oh Glenn Fricker, with your wisdom so true,
You're the rock of the community, shining through.
From your passion for music to your love for the scene,
You're the metal godfather, forever reigning supreme.
(Outro)
So here's to you, Glenn Fricker, may your legend grow,
In the world of metal, where the true believers know.
With every riff and every beat, we'll raise a toast,
To the man, the myth, the legend, we love the most.
Well you don't have a beard so that's a little off the rest seems quite related but it's like horoscope. all the songs have the same structure, the same template so it's kinda easy to recognize but how many artists will start using AI to write song lyrics? Have you heard of people doing it?
Dinosaur from the 70s here. Once upon a time Cort was considered a cheap budget guitar to laugh at. Not now, people used to laugh at Japanese cars too. Times have changed and if you make a quality product, people buy it. Unless you pay for a name to prove you are cool. Play your ass off and people will be impressed.
There is a reason why Cory got that rep. It took years for them to come out of hiding. Now everyone forgets history... on every subject these days.
Those Japanese cars are still on the road today.. those people were always wrong but I'd be willing to bet the Cory's of that time probably were actually bad then got better over time. The Japanese cars were always good.
@@morbidmanmusic having Gene Simmons of Kiss play a signature Cort bass for years as your company spokesman doesnt hurt either.
Glenn, have you seen the Rob Chapman blindfolded pickup video??
He hadn't a clue once he was handed a non mainstream brand. Then Lee even gave that away at the end, he thought they were Bareknuckles not cos of the sound rather, the pup covers having exposed screws.
What a 🤡 recommending prs se while trying to bash cort
Why would you want a Cadillac when you could have a Chevy?
@@RussInCanada sounds like working cars to me 🤷
Having gone to school in the States, the person at 1:36 definitely went to school in the States
Hello sir. I'm new on the channel. Seeing the speakers' importance debate going on here I must express my astonishment for the amount of poeple NOT KNOWING how crucial is the speaker for your sound. And this knowledge had been around since deacades long! It's funny how fast it can disappear. Nevertheless, I've got a different question for: what will be the difference in sound when mounting 16 ohm speaker to 8-16 ohm combo vs. 8ohm speaker to the same combo? Of course considering that the speaker is a same model (minus the impedance obiously) Thanks for your work, stay strong!
Glenn….MELTDOWN??? Really? Those PRS comments couldn’t be anymore tame…one just says “I love my PRS.” Lmao are you really sinking this low for click bait now?
Genaray lights = COMPLETE GARBAGE - avoid at all costs...!!! Had several full sets of studio LED lights. They would have that fried electronics meltdown. They would go back for repair. They would fail again. They would go back for repair, they would fail again... rinse & repeat. Anyone seeing a pattern here?
Anyway, since I'm an electronics engineer, I decided enough is enough & pulled one apart. Turns out that on this particular product, they made the unwise decision to put two small diodes in parallel instead of using a single larger one to handle the rectification of the DC LED drive voltage. Some basic math showed that the pair of little diodes were running at about 98% of their design characteristic inside a poorly ventilated case. All semiconductors have manufacturing variations, and their characteristics also vary with temperature. This means that there was a very high likelihood that one diode would be handling a little more current than the other, and as the temperature rose, this situation would only get worse until the whole thing just ran away & smoked itself. Self destruct was actually inevitable in this design.
This is the type of sh!te design work you can expect from Genaray. Replacing the dual dinky diodes with a single beefy one turned out to be a viable solution, but not one that the average consumer would be capable of discovering then carrying out.
Hilariously, I'm a PRS loyalist with a soft spot for Cort, being my first guitar and I still have it 😅
All my PRS are SE's and I love them. So, I AM a Cort loyalist
Went to a guitar center and picked up an ibanez semi hollow and couldnt stop playing it. I ran the serial...... built by Cort 😆. One of the best feeling and playing guitars ive touched. Fuck those elitist guitar snobs 😆 🤣
I remember when I first started working at a guitar shop, we had all of these Samick guitars on the wall and I was like "Hey, where's all the GOOD stuff?!?!" and the guy who was showing me around informed me that (at least at the time in the early 00s) a majority of all musical instruments in the world are made in a Samick factory. When I looked closer at these instruments, you could tell that they were not just copies, but they were exact copies of American brad guitars. Different headstock of course, but they had an SG that and was every bit as good as my Gibson SG Special I had at the time.
Like all industries, the ownership and/or manufacturing of a majority of the products gets chiseled down to just a handful of companies after a while.
People don’t realize Cort has been making good quality inexpensive guitars for a very long time. And they last.
Holy shit glenn, that weight loss regime is going pretty damn well,, SWOLE GLENN WHEN?
Not a gear snob, i happily use no name guitars, but replace pickups and set it up properly. I love my SHIT chinese guitars.
Frieren the Slayer rocks. So does Bocchi.
Bocchi mentioned⁉
@@noel0004 no, Skunga mentioned it. It was a good little anime though. Look at all us Weebs coming out the works XD
@@SoldierOvSyn I mean the music is amazing (not that i understand a single word) but I wish that style of rock existed in the western world. Like what rock song has a jazzy b6 or #4 diminished
Also, new anime that looks promising is Girls Band Cry, which is currently airing this season. Not sure if that one's getting a dub though.
JP metal is a different breed. Due to the music scene being absolutely monstrous in Japan, it tends to be hard to find truly unique acts, but if you do some digging you'll find some of the most talented musicians on the planet. (Exist Trace is one of my favorite bands.)
I got a PRS SE thats made by Cort. After a set up, I'd put that thing against any Gibson, Cort and Samick kicks ass.
While many of the PRS SE models have been in the "great for the $$" concession... it was almost embarrassing how great the DGT SE was with no mods when I got one. Made me raise an eyebrow at all the more expensive guitars from various manufacturers in my studio. ☮❤🎶
Come to Hiroshima, Glenn! I can guide you around on the weekend.
Mayor Of...
After playing guitar for 30 years, I care that the guitar can stay in tune after bending notes and using tremolo. Also, I care about the action so I can play lead. Made is USA NO LONGER MATTERS! I own an 98' American Strat, Keisel CT6, Solar Guitar (Ola's company) and about 4 others.
Then Gibson is the guitar for you!
Myself as well, I'll hit the pawn shops and find the guitar that has the best intonations, actions ,playability, somethings that's already been well used by a past pro. I don't bother plugging it in. It never fails, I'll find the best guitar in the pawn shop ,and it's around the cheapest one at the pawn shop.
@@RoderikvanReekum He said he cares if the guitar can stay in tune...
@@Ran-tan-tan I think he's being sarcastic, which is probably misleading new guitarists
Any working guitarist has to scrutinize quality. There is a reason you don't see touring guitarists playing Harley Benton guitars. They are fine sitting at home in a climate controlled environment their entire existence, but would it stand up to daily loading and unloading in trailers? Bumpy roads, roadies, temperature changes, almost daily live shows? I'm guessing not, but I notice not many guitarists will take that chance either, lol.
Why is it so difficult for people to say I am not educated enough to speak on this?
Old Blood loves you Glen ❤🩸❤️🩸❤️🩸
Bocchi the Rock would be perfect for ya Glenn! all those sweet sweet guitar tones you're missing out on... *sigh*
also Frieren is based beyond all belief. the words *kill yourself* would never sound the same again
I love when they make typos in an insult !
Especially when trying to insult intelligence! haha!
I'm so outraged that I can't even spell properly.
I own a music store, and I just bought myself a Cort X500 Menace. Love it!
I always regret not getting a Matt Murphy Cort.
I got a PRS SE standard 24 about 6 months ago and holy shit this thing rips. It plays fantastically and the intonation is crazy good after a solid setup. Cant recommend these things enough!
Q: Does it sound good?
A: It's shiny!
On the subject of a reamp box, I am a bit confused. Is it different than taking a looper pedal and plugging that back into your amp? I've done that before to get a consistent performance and tweaking the mic/amp settings for a better recording.
proud owner of the Cort G 300 pro series, made in indonesia but had the specs of an Ibanez Prestige 👏🏼 other manufacturers would do well to follow them, cheers
I was looking to buy a bass guitar in the early 2000s, my best friend worked for GuitarGuitar in Glasgow so he took me into their try before buy booth to try out a few. I had my heart set on a Fender Precision but he said to try one bass before buying. Before he went to get it, he said DO NOT adjust the eq or ANYTHING on the amp after trying out a Fender Precision that I had decided to buy (he also said not to look at it which I thought was strange). I took his advice and didn't adjust anything. He brought in a Cort GB99, I plugged it in and HOLY SHIT, this thing SLAYED the Fender P, I will say that the look of it was goddam hideous (tobacco burst) but it grew on me and I still have it today and have nothing but good things to say about Cort. So glad that places like GuitarGuitar care more about having musicians make choices based on quality rather than price.
Cort manufacturing is absolutely fantastic
I have a dearmond bass from the late 90s made by cort, when strung with rotosounds it sounds almost identical to my rickenbacker
GLENN!!! being a guitar player myself... I resemble your guitar player remarks.
Never thought id see glenn recommend frieren
Here is an analogy: Pininfarina was a world famous Italian car designer, who designed some of the most beautiful cars ever made. His company also designed cars for Cadillac, Fiat, Peugot, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Honda and of course Ferrari. The design of something is generally more important than the manufacturer, so if PRS designs a guitar, and it is made by Cort, to a good standard, what is the problem? I play a G&L asat tele, designed by Leo Fender and made, probably by Cort. It is still a Leo Fender to me.
GLLLEEEENNNNN!!!! If you love Deutschland you have to get to Wacken in July. I'd love to hang with you there and talk gear after having our ears shredded from listening to all the metals. Love your show, love your info. Life experiences over more gear, right!!?? Keep up the great work!!
I’m from Toronto but live in China and found you on RUclips. Go figure. You are an amazing entertainer and knowledgeable guru. Your engineering skill is really appreciated. Love everything you discuss and even though I am not a rock fan, your experience is invaluable even for studio guys like me who write for TV and movies. Keep up the awesome!
Alright Glenn, getting close to 750k let's Gooooo!!!👍
I wish Fernandes would open distribution in North America.
Glenn,do you know why they pulled their marketing etc. in North America?!?!Thanks Man.👍
I subscribed to your channel because I have learned something.
Happy to help!!
PRS are made by the same kind of robots lol
I had to play a PRS when my main Yamaha (that I built for 100 bucks out of a 40$ eg-303 I got off craigslist) had a wiring issue at a gig. I was blown away... by how meh it was. The controls are not very accessible and clash with the trem arm, the neck was chunky which is good if you like that, but not for me. My impression before of PRS was that it was designed to be more ergonomics-forward vs other guitars so I was really surprised by the poor access to the controls. I'll stick with my Yamaha.
Wait a minute.... Pending trip to Taiwan for a "wedding".... relentless enthusiasm for cheap gear....Who is funding this channel??
I kid, of course. Very enjoyable channel you have here, comrade!
I love looking at and learning about everything. I just started looking more closely at PRS-after years of not caring/cloudy visions of Santana, Tremonti, or a random blues lawyer's sustained bend face (should I paint this axe red to match the Porsche, or paint the Porsche like a tiger stripe 10-top? I should get this hand-wired amp rewired...)
Anyhow, I like the idea of the 24-08 and the Paul's guitar, they feel pretty nice, but I don't feel any real need.
I like looking at the 70's-90's Japanese stuff, it's all pretty interesting and different. A lot of it is very nice and can be a nice alternative to crazy prices of US made guitars, but a lot of that stuff can be hiding a wiring nightmare, be warped, rusted, dinged battle scarred, and generally neglected (but original) and people have no problem paying $1500-2K for a bolt on neck 75 Greco or Burny LP. BUT-CORT is no good. I've recently been paying more attention to their FAT II G90 Super strat- Not a perfect guitar, but come on: $800 brand new and less than $450 used... Also their gold series Acoustics: All solid thin finish exotic tone woods/no ply w ebony fingerboard CNC accurate/consistent, WALNUT (hard shit) reinforced neck profile/construction, double dovetail neck joint-reinforced WITH A BOLT! I think some of these guys are trapped in the PRS/Murphy Lab owners club blogs& forums, or have been rechecking the vintage of their nitro lacquer supplies too often...
Pick a topic. Pick a hobby. If someone's shitting on something their either not knowledgeable, insecure, or both.
Why do you remind me of a rocker Quentin Tarantino. Average pay in my country, is about 500 euro. Its refreshing to hear a normal person. Back in the day, every body and neck was hand made. Now, everything is CNC. Inexpensive guitars are natural. Non USA GUITARS ARE AWSOME. All I care about is the neck and tuning stability. in my opinion , amps are are a thing of the past. I use a Boss GT100 into a mixer and on to an amazing powered speaker. I get whatever tone I want. Thank You for your realistic opinions. I am sick of all the sales men on You Tube. If you ony knew the the stuff we put together back in the 70s, to play. Wood worker, then somebodys dad was an electrcal pro, and so on. We wrapped our oun coils! Most players are spoiled today. We earned our sound. Transformers were hand built and tubes from TVs or radios. Man I miss the the days when everything was improvised. Love your channel! Didnt subscribe yet, because the MAN is probably still watching me.
I mean....Someone's gonna need medical attention after pulling that PRS SE out of their ass after finding out where they're made. Cort is fantastic guitar maker, which is why so many OEM.'s use them. (Ibanez, PRS, Squire, Schecter, Gretsch......) Samick also makes a great product.
Meh...if it plays well, sounds good, and looks cool, i'll buy it. I've got a PRS, a Gretch, and a cheap squire tele....among others. I'm also a dreaded bass player. I've got a $2000 bass and $450 bass. I love them both!
Without finishing to watch this, if they're a such a PRS fan... Lol, tell'm that the PRS SE's are actually made @ the Cortek factory in Indonesia 😉🤣🤣 lol, if they're good enough for PRS, well..!🤨🤔🤣lol & you're all over it 😂
Well, this old fool learned something new today. Probably because I don't give a shit about much other than how a guitar plays and sounds. PRS made by Cort? How can that be??? LOL
Truthfully, I had no idea about this and I own a PRS...go figure. But that's why I watch you Fricker...you always "I always lern me sumphin!" Thanks!!! 🤘😎
Cort have built two of my favourite guitars in my collection - a 2004 fender showmaster, and a 2010 PRS Santana SE. great factory for decades. BUT, Cory branded guitars, personally, lack vibe for me. But that’s subjective, and I’ll never scoff at the quality. I just wish their designs spoke to me more
I think people forget that "custom shop" is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, then what is massed produced. It is like appliances, only a few manufacturers build items for ALL the different lines out there.😂😂😂😂 If Mesa came out with their own guitar it would be shopped out to a manufacturer otherwise thay would cost more that their amps. Otherwise they would be called " custom shop Mesa guitars." Make sense now?????
Folks, you're allowed to like what you like, but no brand will ever thank you for forsaking any other brand. Customer loyalty used to mean something, but now everyone has a million customers, so they don't care if you buy something else. Someone else will take your place and big companies know it. So stop sucking the company's cool aid and diversify your brands!!!!! Have a guitar rack that says Cort, PRS, Gibson, ESP, Fender, Solar, Danelectro, Vox, Harley Benton... Doesn't that sound like a better collection than PRS this, PRS that, PRS signature, etc, etc?
What's wrong with Cort? It's our fault, the Gen X'ers of course. Back in the 80's and 90's Cort guitars weren't great. Some of them you couldn't even touch with a stick in a hazmat suit. For the last 15 years however they did become really good. Excellent in fact. They do have issues with worker's rights though. Not great... Especially problematic since they build other brands "budget" models.
Have an Ibanez s470, green quilt top. Not the greatest, but the fit and finish are excellent. Plays, sounds and looks sweet. Built by Cort.
Hey Glenn, I know you already did the shootout between different brands of tubes and I fully expected the results you found there. I would like to hear a comparison between different types of tubes - I'm guessing that different tube types, i.e., EL34, EL84, 6L6, KT66 etc. do actually produce different tones(?) I've noticed that virtually every amp uses 12AX7s (or a variation) in the pre-amp but then we see all these different types of tubes in the power tube section. I know I have 2 amp heads that both use 12AX7s in the pre-amp, one has 6L6 power tubes and sounds more "scooped" while the other one has KT66 power tubes and seems almost like it produces even sounds across the frequencies, practically a flat EQ. I know when I first plugged into the KT66 head, I set the three EQ knobs to noon, then played for probably three hours and when I turned the amp back off all three knobs were still at noon. Just so you know, I have adjusted them since. I've learned that when using HH guitars (such as a Les Paul) the bass and mids are fine at noonish, but the amp is overly bright if I don't turn the treble down to somewhere around 9:30-10, but when I plug in my HSS Strat (Artic Pearl Ultra, exactly like the one you have!), I need to bring the Treble back up to noon at least on the KT66 amp, and boost the highs about +3db on my MXR EQ pedal to get a decent high end sound.
I imagine this will be a harder test to do, because amp circuits don't usually allow for swapping in different types of tubes, so it will be harder to control all the variables. That said, I would still love to hear an A/B/C/etc. sound test to hear the differences - assuming there are differences - between the common tubes used in guitar amps.
People also forget that the guitarist for Muse, Matt Bellamy, has had a signature model directly through Cort since... FOREVER. Muse music is... alright, but not my cup of tea. Most of Matt Bellamy's signature models, however... every version of it absolutely FUCKS as long as it's in black. I have wanted one for like 10 years at this point lol. The model was first introduced in 2015 and I've wanted one ever since. I want it to swap the stock Manson Guitars pickups out for some vintage output GFS pickups, slap in an active preamp from Seymour Duncan, and to update the bridge hardware. If I can't get the kill switch to work with the setup I want, passive is fine. I already know the pickups I want sound great, even without the active preamp.
Cort are amazing guitars. Quality is well above the price range. I had a Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature model in the early 2k's and nobody would believe me when they heard recordings I did with it and told them it wasn't a Les Paul. 😂
I'm talking about guys who own and play USA built guitars (except for a Japanese Ibanez Paul Stanley Iceman they used in their Kiss Tribute band)😂😂😂
PRS caters to many audiences, the “high end” tonewood sniffers and the “lower end” people.
I have had my PRS SE standard 24 for 4 years. It was 679 USD and it is PRS’s cheapest guitar. It arrived with a decent gig bag, AND in flawless, perfect condition. I have never had problems with it EVER.
It easily beats much higher priced guitars in fit n finish and in component quality. It has amazing tuning stability and is a great studio workhorse as well.
Some of the best money I have ever spent on a guitar.
This comments about Cort make me want to buy another PRS SE or two. And I'm someone who owns a few USA made PRSs. (And also a few SEs.) Or maybe I'll buy a Slick, or something from Harley Benton, or Guitar Fetish, or ...
"Not the guitar players in the world. IT'S ALL ABOUT THEM!!"
Yeah, met a few of them over the years... almost made me give up on music entirely. Especially the shitty ones who can barely play power chords, yet think they're the next Jimmy Page. It's a bigger nightmare being in a band with an egomaniac than it is being in a band with basic musicians
I just bought a Cort single cut bass this week. It's flawless out of the box...I just bought a 2024 Epiphone this week too, not flawless but pretty good. This shouldn't happen with Epiphone.
It's hilarious that PRS SE are made by Cortek and everybody, including PRS USA die hard fan, think that PRS SE are amazing, but then when you review a Cort (Cortek retail brand) it suddenly become a shitty guitar, wow!
Hmmm.. Non-American Guitars arent all ' that '? I think Charvel would beg to differ. Their older Model 1's and such from the 80's ( made in Japan ) are highly sought after! Theres a lot of ' mexicasters ' out there that are also highly desirable. I think a LOT of guitars were made by Samick or in their factories ( maybe the parts were made by Samick and assembled elsewhere? ).
I had a chuckle when I saw the title of this vid...obviously the dude hasn't seen the 2 videos by Phillip McKnight talking about who makes who/who owns who. I think at the time of the first video 8 something years ago, it was WMIC making the SE line but I imagine it's been shifted to COR-TEK mostly by now. Either way, great vid and edits Glenn. Fuck You
The Rosetta Stone actually helped scholars unlock multiple languages, so... not really cryptic. LOL.
one more thing. I have a PRS SE and it's made in south Korea. Best guitar I own along with my Jackson R.R. made in Indonesia. My lead player has a 2009 Gibson Les Paul Studio and he prefers my PRS, go figure
Just picked up the Spring Thing last night! I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about mixing, even if metal isn't my primary focus. I already had ELE but now I have Singularity and Element so watch out world! My horizons are expanding, just like my waistline thanks to Costco sized packs of cookies!
My Schecter sls plays every bit as nice as my very expensive PRS Custom 35th Anniversary. The PRS has way more pickup switching options (coils splits etc) which is great, but the Schecter holds it's own at a quarter of the price. I've recorded with them both and the Schecter is 10 of 10. After watching Glen's videos I think electric guitar woods have little to no effect on the sound. I just love the way the PRS looks, and have no regrets spending the money. But if you need a pro level guitar that plays, looks and sounds great, there are a ton of mid-level options. It's a great time to be a guitar player. F you Glen.
I had a PRS SE Baritone...it was an artist model. I forget the artist. It had a neck like a baseball bat, which is inconvenient for my small lady hands. I gave it to a kid who couldn't afford a guitar. Does anybody cool play PRS guitars? I need to know! Because when I think of PRS, I can't un-hear John Mayer singing love songs that have the panache of a pan of wallpaper paste. Apologies, Paul.
I have owned guitars from LTD, samick, gibson, fender and prs (Custom 24). Nothing comes close to PRS quality and sound. That is the reality!
I was given an emergency call to fill in for a friend's bassist an hour before the show, and I was told I could use his gear that was already set up and soundchecked. He used Cort Basses. I've been an Ibby guy since the original SR1000e in the 80's, but hid cheap, $200 POS Cort bass felt glorious in my hands, and I almost replaced my show basses....
Cort is no bullshit.
I am about to spend almost 500 bucks on pickups for 2 guitars soon. And it's the right choice because they have microphonic trash from China in them 😂 But after that and a new bridge, I'll have insanely high quality Snakebyte and Telecaster guitars that cost under $650 apiece after upgrades. Thanks China. 👍
Bit off topic sorry… I have the Manda drums VST but I can’t get Reaper to record ‘freestyle’ only the pre-processed patterns and fills. E.G can’t do a hi-hat or kick count in/intro. I can see the signal go into the armed track but it won’t record it. Would all drum VST’s be like this? Enjoying the vids👏
Speaking of FOH, with headphones at YES in '73 the sound from the desk was flat and bland but the 'live' sound at the rather large venue was fantastic. Now 50 years later is the difference between room and desk still this confusing? Best room I've heard in a while was Kreator, stunning, mind blown by all, so obviously there are mixes and mixes. 🤔 Love the show 🤩
Still got my cheaper Cort VX-2V that I bought back in 2015 for £284 and even played my last 3 shows with it. Still to this day 1 of my most used guitars. However if I'm going to continue playing live, I do need to get that gloss of the neck. Playing live light shows means I can't see the fret markers due to the reflection off the gloss neck 🤣🤣
I know talking about pick ups on this chanel is frowned on, butttttt......
There are 12 guitars in my home currently. All humbuckers. Ranging in brands and price point and all out of asian factories.
Of them all the best guitar in terms of over all build quality, player comfort is my dsughters PRS SE blue standard 24.
The pickups are by far the best sounding pick ups of all the guitars,
Clean tones sound amazing, and when driven hard on high gain the neck pick up sounds articulated, chugs great and really cuts through the mix.
I have an explorer with emg pick ups, love that guitar but this prs se kills it, seriously does.
lol oh wait.....didnt Gene fucking Simmons play a signature Cort bass for years? i believe he did..... these people would do well to remember that.
I own expensive guitars and cheaper guitars. PRS woodlibray 594 being one of my expensive ones and my cheapest is a Cort CL1000. A great set up on a cheaper guitar will bring it close to right up to par. End of the day, it's a plank of wood with some strings on it with coils and magnets. I bought my Cort twenty two years ago with my first pay check. It's still a great guitar and I still love playing it
I owned 2 PRS made in the US, one over 3k, and neither one was as great a piece of wood as my 83 Ibanez Artist. The SE's I owned impressed me more as the best inexpensive guitars, imo. In general, I found even when I could afford cork sniffer prices, the best anything could be was worth the money and the hype, as expected. Started to feel... transactional, instead of Magic, which is what I think it is when I think I found a diamond in the rough. Just a more satisfying mojo fantasy.
Owner of a Korean made Squier 2 90s strat made in Samick factory, and a 2004 Korean made Ibanez AR 300 made by Cort. Both are great guitars.
I heard Cort makes guitars for Ibanez, PRS (SE line), Squier, and G&L Tribute series. But I heard they do guitars for other brands just can't find who they are.
"There's a notch in the upper mids that's a giveaway"... Yeah Rob, it had chuff all to do with being one of the most iconic guitar shapes and neck profiles of the past 40 years and knowing what they load their up market models with. You should challenge him to a test of guitar tones mixed in a track and see if they really can back it up with proper scientific methodology?
idk if this is where you get your questions from (though i assume it is), and ive got one ive been thinking of. Is there really any point at all to a high wattage (100w+) amplifier? From what I understand (which very well could be mistaken), amplifiers got to be made for such high levels of power because back in the day all or most of a bands sound came from the speakers on stage, and also because players in other genres wanted the headroom be able to play clean and loud without distortion. Thats all fine and makes sense to me. But what about today? Most bands I see these days are either playing sims directly into the PA or are miced up and playing through the PA, and it seems to me like lower-power versions of amps tend to sound identical to their bigger siblings. ... So why do people still buy them? Is it just because they are so undeniably cool?
Years ago I made the mistake of getting a 120w Bugera 6260 combo amp, basically a knockoff 5250. I think it could use some better speakers, but besides that it sounds pretty great for my purposes. The only issue with it is that it is just *way* too fucking loud, and so I've been thinking about selling it to downsize to one of those 20w/5w "lunchbox" amps. So then as I've been looking into these smaller amps its been making me wonder why anyone would want a full 120w amp over one of them. From what I can tell the bigger ones dont sound better (just louder), theyre too loud to play anywhere that isnt a concert venue or a sound-proofed studio, they take up a ton of space, and even for a concert they dont seem to be the best or most popular choice anymore. Is this just another case of guitar players being overly traditional in a way that makes us want to needlessly spend thousands? Or is there something I dont know or am not considering?
My brother had a Cort Acoustic, he traded it to my buddy in high school for a quarter of weed. My buddy still has it and it is genuinely one of the best sounding acoustic guitars I've ever played. Mu buddy went to school for music production and that Cort is in many of his recordings for school projects, played by him and by me.
I was looking at a Cort 12 string acoustic and it was fantastic. I don't care about how much a guitar costs, I care about how it feels in my hands. I just bought a Sterling Cutlass and it's perfect. I played several guitars the were more expensive, built by "more reputable" brands, and still went with the Sterling and saved myself hundreds of dollars, also bought a hard case and treated myself to a ribeye steak after too. I played a $2500 EVH and it was kind if dogwater
Hey Glenn,
To be honest, a round table talk could actually be eye opening fir a lot of people. It may help a lot of musos understand why mix engineers are doing and requesting certain things. I used to be a FOH but mainly a stage monitor engineer. I know your channel (awesome by the way!) is recording based, but studio, FOH and monitor engineers are all interrelated to a point.There could be some helpful information shared, but judging by the replies you mainly have, replacing pickups will give you a better studio, FOH sound, as well as being able to hear everything on stage..... Cheers, and come to Australia f*$ker!
I hope you can discern when tubes prefer to compress, rather than clip. If they are doing asymetrical clipping or balanced clipping. These "subtle nuances" will be there at the "edge of breakup" not at high gain, valves wide open. I think you may need some sort of oscilloscope to catch the wave forms. I'd also like to see you compare the EQ graphs of Ruby branded tubes to generic chinese to see a difference. Ruby has a sweet frequency profile they want and apparently hand pick select tubes on those profiles. My cork sniffing, tone snob, ears prefer Ruby branded tubes, especially the EL34 power tubes. They seem "smooth" and lack harsh, unhappy frequencies which usually are in that 5-7k range and can hurt. Prove me right, prove me wrong Glenn, either way it will be a great episode.
It is astonishing to me that more times than not that RUclipsrs with moderate to very successful show content, Don't realize or can't understand,
That the reason people subscribe, And keep watching is because they like the content the way it is.
But the "Creator" With some success and revenue coming in.. Becomes bored and,
He wants "Bigger and Better" content. Like what is happening here.
And in my opinion (which means nothing)
I think the show overall is suffering for it.
Well ? .. For me?
I Liked it the way it was for years.
I am glad for Glenn and his new engineering board; and that he is financially able to go on cruses & mutable trips abroad in a year.
But now the show content seems rushed, And is getting weaker and weaker.
I've got to say .. After all these years watching; being subscribed liking & commenting to support this gig. Sorry to say, I'm about outta here.
My first guitar was a Cort V back in the late 80s... great? No.. bad.. not at all.. played fine.. the only comment is that if a EX-girlfriend hits you in the had with one... it fucking hurts...
I really love my PRS SE silver sky. I had a core SS before and, as far as the tone goes its better, but not THAT much better. The SE actually has a more comfortable neck. The core neck is quite big and fatigued my hands after only playing for 20-30 minutes. I can play my SE for hours, and have been doing so since I got it. If thats not the mark of a great guitar I dont know what is.
While there is no Holy Grail of tone pickups, shitty-ass pickups do exist. Especially in some bargain guitars (cough*Epiphone*). I think it would be cool to give some reasonable price options for replacement pickups without buying that Dimarzio signature that costs twice as much as the guitar. Again this is about fixing noise, uneven volume or minimal volume of mud no matter the gain.
When it comes to guitarists and "feel"
After playing with a real tube amp for a while I've learned what I found lacking in using Ignite emissary. The best part about that, it's all about setting up the input correctly and now the ampsim feels just as capable to give the same rich "feel" a real amp does, and thats with very minor setup too.
Also I didn't even know the PRS SE was frowned upon by snobs, I'm very happy about mine, I love the functionality of having split coil, so many possibilities for different tones for different genres.
I dunno what my point is, guitar snobs are full of shit? I'm just rambling cause I want to lmao
Once I tried buying Cort G300. First time o got one with busted neck joint. Second time I got one with a huge knot in the main neck part (I still got this abomination on a photo), burned cable insulation in the electronics, also someone did really bad fretjob busting the fretboard. I don't care who makes the guitar. What matters is that i have not heard about such badly made PRS SE. And that Cort supposed to be a flagship model... Seems like PRS just actually looks with their eyes on what they sell and will not allow busted guitars.
But I eventually got Fender Player which also was a pain to get the good one.
Hey Glenn, I think you should care about feel. If you record a DI, then tone can be fixed; but if the guitarist you're recording isn't feeling it, then you won't get a good performance, and that can't be fixed.
Sometimes, making the musician comfortable is most of the battle. And as ever, FUG.