Here’s some good news for the progressive metal guitarist who is looking for a reasonably priced high-performance seven-string guitar for good times, chugs and long walks across the fretboard: Cort has brought the KX500MS back. Furthermore, it’s new and improved.
Retitled the KX507MS, this extended-range electric guitar boasts the same 25.5-to-27” multi-scale format as its predecessor but now comes equipped with a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers at the neck and bridge positions.
Hitherto, we’d had a pair of active EMGs on there, which provided a welcome amount of aggression and heat, but these multi-voiced Fishman’s should extend the KX507MS’s appeal, with push-pull functions on the volume control to activate the alternate pickup voicings, and on the tone control for coil-split sound.
You’ll notice the controls have been repositioned, with Cort promising enhanced ease of access. This time around we have a solid mahogany body that’s topped by strikingly marked poplar burl.
The individual hardtail bridge unit returns, allocating a solid bridge unit to each string to further enhance intonation and help with sustain, as does the bolt-on five-piece maple and purple heart neck, and a Macassar ebony fingerboard with ‘Raindrop’ inlay.
The fingerboard houses 24 fanned jumbo frets, and a spoke nut Hotrod truss rod adjustment wheel at the top for quick-and-easy tweaks. And there is a set of staggered locking tuners to keep everything nice and secure. The hardware is finished in black nickel.
Multi-scale fretboards can take a little getting used to but those who dig them swear by the enhanced feel and intonation on an extended-range guitar, and it doesn’t take too long for the fingers to reorientate themselves.
Here, the neutral fret – that is, where the frets are aligned parallel to one another as on a regular guitar – is to be found at the eighth fret.
The Cort KX507 Multi-Scale is available now in Stardust Black or Star Dust Green, and is priced £749 / $849. See Cort for more details.
