Can Cort move into the premium market with the X700 Duality?
The new flagship guitar from Cort
4,5 / 5,0 | 
The new Cort X700 Duality was first touted during Winter NAMM and was positioned as the brand’s new premium flagship model. Now it is finally here and on paper it has a lot to offer. But will it convince the players?
Cort X700 Duality
Cort has presented the X700 Duality as its new flagship model for 2019 since Winter NAMM earlier this year. It has a Swamp Ash body with a very nice Flame Maple top and comes in a fetching Light Blue Burst finish. It reminds me a lot of some of the Ibanez models from the last few years, especially with that plain wood stripe along the top edge of the body.
The neck is made using Maple and Panga Panga and is fitted with an Ebony fretboard that comes with a set of glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side dots and stainless steel frets. These are the the type of features you would expect on a high-performance guitar.
Cort X700 Duality · Source: Cort
Seymour Duncan
This guitar comes factory-fitted with a set of humbuckers: a Seymour Duncan TB4 bridge humbucker and SH2N neck humbucker wired via a 5-way selector switch and a single Volume and Tone control.
The trem system is a recessed Cort CFA-III Tremolo System I have no doubt will let you divebomb and pull up with ease. The machine heads are Cort’s own staggered locking variety, so it should have decent tuning stability and allow you to play hard and fast without any issues.
Cort X700 Duality: A full-on shred machine? · Source: Cort
Now that this model has finally been released, we have some official demo videos to listen to. It certainly appears to stack up well with other premium guitars in its price bracket. I think the only major issue Cort will have is persuading buyers that they can build premium guitars. This is a brand that has made its name building mid-range to budget instruments.
However, if you get the chance to try one out, then I think it may well be worth your while. There are some premium features here and hopefully the street price will be slightly lower than the recommended retail price.
RRP – USD 1299
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2 responses to “Can Cort move into the premium market with the X700 Duality?”
This model has been on sale at Thomann for a few months now, and while there aren’t many reviews out there, the one at Thomann is a bit critical and says that Cort has done poor QC on his guitar.
I have purchased the Cort Manson Telecaster from Thomann a while ago, the first arrived with a serious flaw where the neck has been rammed into the pocket despite being too wide, with visible damage to the pocket and the paint. The second was basically flawless.
So I guess it’s a bit hit or miss with Cort after all. The X700 might be excellent, or too pricey for the quality. I’m waiting a bit for the price to drop at Thomann, and at, say, 700, will probably buy it as that’s probably the right price point.
That is one ugly fuckling. :^\
I checked out a Cort NZS1 a while ago (like around 2011, when you could still find it new). It had great specs and looked good on pics. But the one I’ve seen had cracks in the round inlay at 12th fret, had a horribly high action (I suspect it either had a twisted/warped neck or needed a fret levelling otherwise the people in the store would have set it up with a lower action) and ALL the screw were rusty. My nineties Gibson has some visible corrosion on the screws, but man, the screws on that cort were brown!!
So I have no faith in Cort…