CORT KX500MS

Seven strings, totally brutal tone, multi-scale... This is gonna be poplar

- Jonathan Horsley

Occasionally you pick up a guitar and you’ll be a little unsure as to what you are going to get when you switch on the amplifier. But usually, there are some subtle (and not-so-subtle) tells. Take the KX500MS. You might call Cort’s flagship seven-string a multi-scale extended-range exercise in not-so-subtle tells. It has fanned frets for enhanced intonation and feel, and, complementing those, you’ll also find an angled nut and an ingenious hardtail of six independent saddles arranged in a similar fashion to Ibanez’s Monorail bridge design – adding yet another angle into a souped-up S-style that is all angles. With two active EMG-707 humbuckers in the neck and bridge, there’s probably a little too much fire for the open-mic folk night. Indeed, the KX500MS might have too much firepower for all but the most extreme styles – chug-heavy contemporary metal, death metal, djent, that kind of thing – but, hey, that’s what Cort built it for. That they built this and put it on the market for 700 bucks is really the big story here.