Cort Triggs

[GNAPPI]

Does anyone have one of these? Comments? The few Cort guitars I have played were not very good, necks not straight, frets buzzing, high action...

I like the TRG2 and think it might make a good "grab" guitar in my living room if it were a few steps above the typical Cort.

[Progrmr]

I have not played a Trigg but I have a Cort TS-250 LP copy and its one of the best playing guitars I have played.

Also had a Cort fretless 4 string bass with wenge neck and it too was awesome.

I'd say that with a setup and fret level I wouldn't shy away from any Cort guitar.

[jorgemg1984]

I have a Cort Source that I love... it's one of those guitars you just play and love - for 300€ it was a no brainer. I changed all the hardware and pickups / electronics and it's stunning now for around 700€.

I have tried other Sources back then and while they were all fine none had the mojo this has. I have tried current ones and several Yorktowns and found them decent but not more than that.

The Triggs seems interesting actually.

[jazzbow]

Yup, got two....



Late 90's when they came out as well as the Yorktown and the Larry Coryell signature model.

There are the only two colours, a Gretch type translucent orange and a solid blue colour. The finish on the blue is quite thick and appears to be sprayed over the orange laquer.




Here is the orange one on the road to subtle tweaks whereas the blue remains stock. Both guitars have sound posts installed by me so as to get the back vibrating. It has improved the overall acoustic tone and there fore the amplified tone opened up too.




The orange one has had a Vintage Vibe humbucker sized CC rider, CTS pots 500k vol-250k tone with an old oil and film cap and a bone nut with slightly wider string spacing. The new bridge is a generic r/wood stepped design which is crap and will be changed soon.

Both guitars are equiped with TI 13's. The H/bucker is a mighty mite which makes it slightly larger than other H/bkrs but the sound is spot on for the ply hollow bodied sound we all know.

The CC rider though is a work of art, it imparts a nice airy acoustic tone with nice highs. the pots and cap I put in has given it such a wide tonal scope it is hard to find any mud.

As for the necks, both are straight with no issues and have been adjusted without hassles even with flatwound 13's.

The fretting is fine, the fingerboards are good quality and as I have had the Blue one for the last 12 years that f/board has really darkened down.

I bought the orange one for a friend as he coveted that blue one and kept on pestering me for it. But I decided to keep it myself as it was just as good.

The only issue I have with them is the gloss poly on the neck. I ended up flatting down the finish with 1200 wet and dry to give it a satin feel which works for me.

There are two pickup versions and an anniversary model which I was thinking of tracking down to expand the collection but that was then and not now.

They are a great platform for tweaking as there is little to get wrong, heck, even a bass string or two would work!!

[GNAPPI]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I like the hollow 1 pup model, the 2 pup I was looking at apparently has a block in the center to work with the roller bridge. I wonder why the Triggs design didn't make the Bigsby equipped model fully hollow?

Curious guitar there. I recently upgraded a Harmony 335 clone with a Schaller and old 12 pole DiMarzio and that cheapo is now a great guitar. I still have the mates to those two pups and I'll probably drop them into the Cort at some point.

More to come after it arrives... here it is:

[ooglybong]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I like the hollow 1 pup model, the 2 pup I was looking at apparently has a block in the center to work with the roller bridge. I wonder why the Triggs design didn't make the Bigsby equipped model fully hollow?

To the best of my knowledge, the Triggs I and II models are both fully hollow. I'm open to correction, of course, but I've never heard it suggested that there's a block involved. Here are the specs for the series from the Blue Book of Guitar Values page...

Blue Book of Electric Guitar Values - CORT ELECTRIC: JIM TRIGGS SERIES

Quality-wise, I suppose you can find a dog in any makers's output, but, as different as they are, my two Corts are keepers. Great necks on them both, no buzzing frets, nice lowish action, stable electronics.

I bought my own Cort Triggs I back in 2004, used, for $390 (inc. used Gibson 335 case). I'm very, very happy with the stock Mighty Mite pickup, too. The neck is fantastic, IMO, maybe a touch chunkier than some of my other guitars but I seem to be able to get around on it as good or better than most. I saw it hanging in my local Mom & Pop store back then, walked by... picked it up, thought about it... yup, entirely hollow, nice feel... went and plugged it in. Played for like 30 seconds (I'm usually much, much pickier), and I was immediately in love with the neck and the tone of this baby. WOW. Thirty minutes later it was on the ride home with me.

Personally, I'm more a fan of the Triggs I since the II (which I also played a year ago) gives me more the impression of being a rockabilly kind of guitar. Personally, I have zero need of the bridge pickup or the trem, and I simply like the more direct approach of the Triggs I for a more mainstream jazz approach. To my mind, at least, it seems sort of like a thinline version of a stylized ES165 (if you allow yourself to think of it in that way). Of course, this is all in my opinion and your milage may most certainly vary.

As far as Corts go, I also have a gorgeous upper-end solidbody Neil Zaza signature guitar (NZS-1)—Duncans, TonePros, Sperzals, ebony board on a basswood body/quilted maple cap, gorgeous finish, and super-high craftsmanship overall. Bought mint on eBay four years ago for about $400, IIRC. The thing just sings on the fusion/rock sounds.

Thumbs up for Cort as far as my experience goes.

[jazzbow]

Gnappi, that's the anniversary model there. Nice enough.

[ooglybong]

...Both guitars have sound posts installed by me so as to get the back vibrating. It has improved the overall acoustic tone and there fore the amplified tone opened up too.

Interesting. Exactly how does one go about doing this, and where do you get the posts? Is this hard to do?

I was under the impression that sound posts were usually installed in order to inhibit feedback. If, according to you here, the back gets to vibrating more, doesn't this then result in a guitar which also feeds back more easily? Maybe I have something backwards?

The orange one has had a Vintage Vibe humbucker sized CC rider, CTS pots 500k vol-250k tone with an old oil and film cap and a bone nut with slightly wider string spacing...

Huh. I'm a total newbie here, since my (otherwise great) local shop tends to look at me funny whenever I mention using anything more esoteric than the decent pots they seem to stock ("CTS?"). Maybe I should just go online, order said CTS pots and caps (is Stewmac the best source?), then bring them in for installation. Do these items really make all that much of a tonal difference in your experience?

...The H/bucker is a mighty mite which makes it slightly larger than other H/bkrs...

Huh again. Ya got me thinkin' there, so I just compared the Triggs Mighty Mite PU with my ES335, an Ibanez AM-205 with Super '58s and my Comins GCS-1ES with KAs; they were all the same size: 69mm x 37mm. (Are you maybe talking about the pickup's depth?) That being said, the pickup does still seem to look larger to me, too (and always has by a very slight bit), but I think it's somehow more of an overall visual illusion as placed upon the wide, open body surface.

The CC rider though is a work of art, it imparts a nice airy acoustic tone with nice highs. the pots and cap I put in has given it such a wide tonal scope it is hard to find any mud.

So is this more because of the pickup or the pots and cap? Thanks for your advice!

[DRS]

Yup, got two....



Late 90's when they came out as well as the Yorktown and the Larry Coryell signature model.

There are the only two colours, a Gretch type translucent orange and a solid blue colour. The finish on the blue is quite thick and appears to be sprayed over the orange laquer.




Here is the orange one on the road to subtle tweaks whereas the blue remains stock. Both guitars have sound posts installed by me so as to get the back vibrating. It has improved the overall acoustic tone and there fore the amplified tone opened up too.




The orange one has had a Vintage Vibe humbucker sized CC rider, CTS pots 500k vol-250k tone with an old oil and film cap and a bone nut with slightly wider string spacing. The new bridge is a generic r/wood stepped design which is crap and will be changed soon.

Both guitars are equiped with TI 13's. The H/bucker is a mighty mite which makes it slightly larger than other H/bkrs but the sound is spot on for the ply hollow bodied sound we all know.

The CC rider though is a work of art, it imparts a nice airy acoustic tone with nice highs. the pots and cap I put in has given it such a wide tonal scope it is hard to find any mud.

As for the necks, both are straight with no issues and have been adjusted without hassles even with flatwound 13's.

The fretting is fine, the fingerboards are good quality and as I have had the Blue one for the last 12 years that f/board has really darkened down.

I bought the orange one for a friend as he coveted that blue one and kept on pestering me for it. But I decided to keep it myself as it was just as good.

The only issue I have with them is the gloss poly on the neck. I ended up flatting down the finish with 1200 wet and dry to give it a satin feel which works for me.

There are two pickup versions and an anniversary model which I was thinking of tracking down to expand the collection but that was then and not now.

They are a great platform for tweaking as there is little to get wrong, heck, even a bass string or two would work!!

Jazzbow,
Why do your two have Tanglewood on the headstock?

[jazzbow]

Jazzbow,
Why do your two have Tanglewood on the headstock?

Here in the UK they trade under the Tanglewood brand and Cort everywhere else. There must be a reason, I don't know why

[jazzbow]

Interesting. Exactly how does one go about doing this, and where do you get the posts? Is this hard to do?

I was under the impression that sound posts were usually installed in order to inhibit feedback. If, according to you here, the back gets to vibrating more, doesn't this then result in a guitar which also feeds back more easily? Maybe I have something backwards?

Right, big answer coming up. As far as I know, there are no jazz guitars made with sound posts (unless you know otherwise) but plenty with added blocks either stretching the gap or floating on the top plate. As 'f' hole guitars were fashioned after violins and cellos I wondered why there was not any sound posts. I guess with carved top and back you might get sympathetic vibration causing feedback but I thought with ply guitars there is less chance of nasty overtones and squeals. The posts are just plain old dowel rods shaped to fit and held in place by friction. I figured that any vibration being transferred from the bridge to the top plate would ripple out to the edges down the sides and then onto the back, quite a distance! So after I installed the posts the distance was shortened and I could hear a thickening with the acoustic tone (disclaimer, all sound is subjective so this is IMHO).

Short answer. If it didn't sound good I could take them out.

Huh. I'm a total newbie here, since my (otherwise great) local shop tends to look at me funny whenever I mention using anything more esoteric than the decent pots they seem to stock ("CTS?"). Maybe I should just go online, order said CTS pots and caps (is Stewmac the best source?), then bring them in for installation. Do these items really make all that much of a tonal difference in your experience?

The original electrical parts are fine, the stock blue one is a peach! The only difference there would be with replacing to CTS would be the 'torque' feel as you would turn up or down and that CTS pots are in old Imperial measurements and the Korean Alphas and drilled holes on the body will be metric and smaller. There is a lot of 'cork sniffing' where caps are concerned but for small coin it can be fun swapping them to find your favourites. Just don't spend any more than $5 on them.

The orange one with the Charlie Christian type pickup took a bit of tweaking to get it right. I researched for the Gibson schematics for the ES150 to see what the components were but ended up with a 500k volume for bright highs and a 250k tone with an NOS cap for a nice warm roll off, very nice indeed.

Huh again. Ya got me thinkin' there, so I just compared the Triggs Mighty Mite PU with my ES335, an Ibanez AM-205 with Super '58s and my Comins GCS-1ES with KAs; they were all the same size: 69mm x 37mm. (Are you maybe talking about the pickup's depth?) That being said, the pickup does still seem to look larger to me, too (and always has by a very slight bit), but I think it's somehow more of an overall visual illusion as placed upon the wide, open body surface.
So is this more because of the pickup or the pots and cap? Thanks for your advice!

The orange one was bought second hand and the original owner had swapped the black pickup surround for a creme coloured one to match the binding but I noticed the pickup was pushing it out of shape. I read somewhere on the internet that they were bigger but these are the only humbucker equipped guitars I have so I cannot compare.

I hope this helps

[jazzbow]

Just a few more bits for your information.

First off the sound posts.



I put two in for no other reason but to keep things balanced.



Here's a contemporary brochure of the guitar.

I've never come across the Larry Coryell model but the Yorktown I tried was really well made.

[DRS]

Larry sure looks happy to be playing that Tanglewood.

[ooglybong]

Just a few more bits for your information.

First off the sound posts.



I put two in for no other reason but to keep things balanced.



Here's a contemporary brochure of the guitar.

I've never come across the Larry Coryell model but the Yorktown I tried was really well made.

Thanks SO much for sharing your experience here, Jazzbow. Not only the caps info, etc., but esp the sound post idea; I think I'll try those out myself, so your photo really helps!

Also cool to see that brochure. Yeah, Larry looks pretty ecstatic, doesn't he? Actually, I've managed to try a couple of the LC model over the years (none lately), and my memory of them was that they seemed, um, a bit on the heavy, clunky side physically, neck-wise, etc. IMO—although they were apparently quite well made. I also wasn't that much of a fan, design-wise, either, as far as color, etc. went, so I never bothered to plug one in since the physicality of the guitar just didn't appeal to me much at the time. Huh. I wouldn't mind giving the LC another chance right now if I could ever manage to get my hands on one since I've heard good things about them every now and then since.

[H-D-A]

I wonder why the Triggs design didn't make the Bigsby equipped model fully hollow?

Just to confirm what has already been supposed by ooglybong, the TRG-2 (both editions, dot and non-dot) is fully hollow. There is a parallel bracing system running the length of the guitar attached to the (highly) undulating arched top, it is into this that the fixed bridge is attached. The vibrations from the strings therefore go directly to the top via the bracing, and produce a very resonant sound indeed.

The shallow rims coupled with a deep belly (back and front) means that unlike, say, a 330, Casino or Sorrento (to name but 3) there is a very sonorous bottom end without losing the focus of the top end - all within the confines of a thinline. Not to forget a 15/16 fret neck joint and perfect access to all 22 via a Florentine cutaway. It's made to a budget, which is the real genius of the design imho, so needs a wee bit tweaking when you first get it, but there's nothing here not to like.

If Gibson or Gretsch had made the TRG-2 it would have been hailed as a genuine step forward in archtop evolution, but (alas) G and G only do reproductions of jazz guitars from the 1950s for old blokes born in the 1950s with lotsa hard earned and a yearning to be Wes or Joe or Pat or George or Chet or Groucho before it's too late.

The nearest to the TRG-2 looks wise is (arguably) the PRS SC-J, but that is a 17" stretched out monster with carved top and 25.5" scale and costs just as much dosh as a top line G and you wouldn't dare take it round to the 'Dog and Duck' jam session! Everyone I see playing a SC-J on YT looks uncomfortable with it as well, it seems to wibble-wobble round on the knee, but maybe that's me being jaundiced 'cause I can't afford one?

Anyway, thumbs up to Jimmy Triggs, as far as I am concerned the TRG-2 is a mini masterpiece for the masses - and I have told him so (I'm sure he was just waiting for this most obscure of irrelevant user endorsements)!!

Of course, as with all good things it is now discontinued......

[ooglybong]

Just to confirm what has already been supposed by ooglybong, the TRG-2 (both editions, dot and non-dot) is fully hollow. There is a parallel bracing system running the length of the guitar attached to the (highly) undulating arched top, it is into this that the fixed bridge is attached. The vibrations from the strings therefore go directly to the top via the bracing, and produce a very resonant sound indeed.

The shallow rims coupled with a deep belly (back and front) means that unlike, say, a 330, Casino or Sorrento (to name but 3) there is a very sonorous bottom end without losing the focus of the top end - all within the confines of a thinline. Not to forget a 15/16 fret neck joint and perfect access to all 22 via a Florentine cutaway. It's made to a budget, which is the real genius of the design imho, so needs a wee bit tweaking when you first get it, but there's nothing here not to like.

If Gibson or Gretsch had made the TRG-2 it would have been hailed as a genuine step forward in archtop evolution, but (alas) G and G only do reproductions of jazz guitars from the 1950s for old blokes born in the 1950s with lotsa hard earned and a yearning to be Wes or Joe or Pat or George or Chet or Groucho before it's too late....

Of course, as with all good things it is now discontinued......

Just got out the flashlight and peered inside my own Triggs I. Yup, there's two parallel braces running fore-to-aft (besides being fully hollow). Nice description of the tonal formula there. Strung up with D'A Chrome 12s, yeah it's a tad of a darker tone, but that's what I'm going for. Roll the tone down a bit, then the volume and... great 'mainstream' jazz tone (whatever that means!). IMHO.

And I fully agree with the rest of your post, by the way. Nicely worded and good points all.

[GNAPPI]

I'm the OP, and It's been nearly two months with my Cort Triggs and I have to admit that it's everything everyone above said about it.

My only "complaints"arethe tacky pearl tuner buttons (totally compatible with Grovers) and the tremolo. I don't use a tremolo and ordered a set of Grovers to strip off the heads and replace the pearl buttons.

Sound and playability are excellent.

[jazzbow]

I'm the OP, and It's been nearly two months with my Cort Triggs and I have to admit that it's everything everyone above said about it.

My only "complaints"arethe tacky pearl tuner buttons (totally compatible with Grovers) and the tremolo. I don't use a tremolo and ordered a set of Grovers to strip off the heads and replace the pearl buttons.

Sound and playability are excellent.

Yes, the tremolo version is a great piece, but if you are in the market for a single pickup 'jazzy' version hop over to the 'for sale' section and check out my listing

( a blatant plug, sorry Gnappi, but, y'know...)