Cort M600 Review – PRS Killer!

Hello there! I’m back again with another great guitar review for you! This time, we will be looking at a Cort M600 review, which I like to call a low-budget PRS killer. Some of you might say you can not compare a PRS with a Cort, and I agree. However, I think it’s unbeatable with its price, top-quality build and excellent tones!

This article was first published in 2018 when I first started working on my blog a bit more seriously. Years later, I had the chance to acquire a very rare, Cort M600 in Bright Blue colour and while on it, I wanted to update it for you guys!

As we always do, I will quickly introduce this wonderful guitar manufacturer, Cort and share original photos of my M600 along with some old and new videos in the article.

About Cort Guitars

Cort Guitars is a renowned South Korean guitar manufacturer that has established itself as a prominent player in the musical instrument industry. Founded in 1973 by Jack Westheimer, an American entrepreneur, Cort initially focused on building guitars for other brands. However, it soon gained recognition for its own line of instruments, becoming a trusted name among musicians worldwide.

Cort is known for producing a wide range of guitars that cater to different musical genres and player preferences. The company’s lineup includes electric guitars, acoustic guitars, basses, and even classical guitars. One of the key factors contributing to Cort‘s success is its commitment to quality craftsmanship and innovation. The company collaborates with acclaimed luthiers and employs cutting-edge technology to create instruments that meet the demands of both amateur and professional musicians.

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Over the years, Cort has gained popularity for offering high-quality instruments at competitive prices, making them accessible to a broad audience. The brand has also collaborated with well-known artists, further enhancing its reputation in the music industry.

Whether you’re a beginner looking for an affordable and reliable instrument or a seasoned musician seeking professional-grade gear, Cort Guitars has a diverse range of options to suit various playing styles and preferences. With a blend of craftsmanship, innovation, and affordability, Cort continues to be a significant player in the global guitar market.

Cort Guitars probably manufactures a lot more guitars than you could ever imagine! Whether those guitars are made in South Korea or Indonesia, chances are they are made by the Cort company. Cort Guitars operates its own factories and is known for manufacturing guitars not only under its brand but also for producing instruments for several other well-known guitar brands.

Many of these partnerships involve the production of guitars at different price points to cater to a diverse market. Some of the guitar brands that have utilised Cort’s manufacturing facilities include Ibanez, Schecter, PRS, etc

As an example, I have a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid PT-7 as well as an Ibanez AR300, which is made in South Korea by Cort Guitars and also the subject guitar, Cort G300 RAW made in Indonesia by Cort!

Check out my Cort guitar reviews here (more reviews will be added!)

Cort M600

As mentioned in the company introduction above, many of you know, Cort is a Korean guitar manufacturer, and they have one of the biggest factories in the world. They have been manufacturing guitars not just for their own brand but also for other leading guitar brands on the market, so it’s very possible to bump into a guitar made in their factories everywhere under different brand names.

However, Cort was a lot more dominant on the guitar market early 2000s until mid-2010s. I remember seeing Cort guitars in every guitar store in Türkiye back in the day. Weirdly, it was not the cheapest option for beginners (at least for my parents’ budget!). But more weirdly, the retail prices were the cheapest in Türkiye among other countries in which they were available.

Most of their stuff was considered beginner/entry-level guitars back in those days, as well as the Cort M600 is also considered a beginner-level guitar, but I highly doubt that. It’s a serious instrument out of the box!

My first encounter with this model was back in 2005 or something during a rehearsal in a local studio. It was a Korean-made version, and I only remember how easy it was to play the guitar and how solid the tones it produced were.

And yes, there used to be only made-in-Korea versions! I don’t remember seeing any other country of origin other than Korean ones! Just think about this for a while before we move on to the next sections.

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Years later, I started working in the musical instrument industry and playing, testing and recording a lot of guitars daily. Cort M600 was the standard item that we would ship almost every day!

Basically, on my first couple of days, my former boss wanted me to play test the guitars we sold and make some quick videos while I was learning how to do my job as a customer support and technical sales representative in the context of an online music store.

This was the first video that we did on my 1st or 2nd day!

Cort M600 Test Room Video (no talking)

Nowadays, a lot of guitars under different brand names are still manufactured by the Cort company. Most of them are made in Indonesia, but you will see a lot of brands which offer their own line of made-in-Korea guitars. I’m just asking you to check out the prices of those guitars. They are mainly over a 1000EUR price tag! So if you ever come across a made in Korea Cort guitar, don’t even think about anything. Just buy it :).

Cort M600 is a modern, double-cut guitar with dual humbuckers, and it reminds most people of the infamous PRS guitars. Not so surprisingly, budget PRS guitars are also manufactured by the Cort company!

I wonder why Cort decided to discontinue M600, Maybe it was a logical decision to manufacture tons of budget PRS guitars in their Indonesian factories instead of trying to compete with a similar model.

M600 also features an almost identical structure and a set of components to any double-cut, dual humbucker guitars featuring a Tune-O-Matic bridge with a tailpiece! One of the best guitar designs ever!

Unfortunately, the Cort M600 model guitars were long discontinued. The first video I shared is dated 2015, time files! Back in those years, the M600 was still in production, but only models made in Indonesia were available.

I don’t remember the exact differences in terms of the tech specs, but what I remember is that the pickups were infamous Mighty Mights, and the neck and the back of the body were not painted black but featured a transparent finish, which would allow you to see the wood.

With the Indonesian ones, they started using Duncan-Designed pickups and completely painted the neck and back of the body black, which you will see below.

Also, surprisingly, even though M600 guitars were long discontinued, the company I used to work for (mydukkan.com) were still listing them until a couple of years ago. I believe the Turkish distributor 4CMusic had some leftovers in their stock. But, currently, it’s impossible to purchase brand-new ones.

Indonesian ones came in two colour options, Blue Burst and Black Cherry. But, there was also an Antique Violin version, which was basically a satin finish one.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember everything about these guitars anymore. Especially, the differences between the Korean and Indonesian M600s have become a kind of mystery to me! Let’s look at the full tech specs below, then we will jump to the demo video and review section! 🙂

Cort M600 Tech Specs

As we used to ship these guitars almost every day, we always felt like we could record another demo video any time we wanted! 🙂 So, here’s another one that we did. Here I was playing a Black Cherry version with Marshall JVM205C. Straight into the amp, mic’ed with Shure SM57.

Cort M-600 Review & Sound Demo (no talking)

Cort M600 Review

As I mentioned, we used to sell M600s almost every day! In order to make sure the guitars were all set up properly right out of the box, we would test them one by one. As far as I remember, there was not a single bad one that came out of the box. All ready to play, excellent craftsmanship with very good fretwork and finish.

The only thing we sometimes had to do was to adjust the truss rod. This is usual for any guitar you may purchase. The guitar necks tend to move a little due to different temperatures and humidity levels, so I wouldn’t say they had issues.

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Headstock

Cort M600 features a unique headstock design that stands out, and surprisingly, the company is still using this design on some of their instruments.

For instance, the Cort KX700 has the same headstock! Personally, I like this headstock design a lot. Even though the guitar is very much like an SG/LP-style, dual humbucker design instrument, this headstock is pretty modern for that classic design and allows strings to go straight into the tuning pegs, reducing the risk of strings getting stuck at the nut.

The back of the headstock is also painted black, just like I mentioned. As you can see, this was made in Indonesia in 2015. The tuners are Cort’s own die-cast tuners in chrome. I must say they are one of the best! Very sturdy, smooth and rock-solid build.

Nut

Cort M600 features a Graphtech Nubone nut, and it is perfectly cut. I have had zero issues with tuning and the tuning stability is one of the best out of all my guitars! Well done, Cort!

Neck

As mentioned, the Cort M600 has a mahogany body and neck. You can see the black paint on the back of the neck and the body here in this photo. The Korean versions featured a transparent finish on the back so you would see the wood grain easily.

As additional information for you: I also have an Ibanez AR300 (2006) made in Korea, meaning a guitar that was made in Korea by the Cort factories. I used to own another AR300 more than a decade ago that was also made in Korea, and it featured a lot darker, almost black back of the neck.

But my current AR300 (2005) has this transparent finish on the back of the neck. You can check out my findings and the whole story on my Ibanez AR300s here.

Fingerboard

M600 features a rosewood fingerboard. The one I got was not the darkest one, but still a very good quality rosewood. I remember the Korean versions featured a lot darker ones, but there was a decade-long period after these were built in another country, probably with different grades of rosewoods.

The fingerboard also features a cream binding, which was perfectly fitted. I really liked that they did not use pale blue colour on such a beautifully coloured instrument. Along with the cream pickup rings, they look awesome!

Even though it was not mentioned in the tech specs openly, I believe the frets were medium jumbos. As this guitar was mint when I bought it used, it was already 10 years old, and there were some high frets here and there. This is, unfortunately, normal for guitars that did not receive a good playing time and care. Luckily, none of the high frets caused dead notes (amplified).

Body

M600 features a solid mahogany body with a flame top. As far as I could see from the pickup cavity, it was not a thick layer of maple, but rather a thinner layer with a flamed maple veneer.

I think this bright blue colour is awesome! However, I would expect a better flame maple veneer. It never looked intense enough for my taste. But as you know, it’s just visuals, nothing to do with the overall sound of the instrument.

The back of the body is painted all black, as mentioned. In my opinion, it’s one of the best, the most ergonomic guitar bodies I have ever played. It sits in your lap and blends in with your body, so you will feel the utmost comfort while playing this guitar!

Here’s another shot to show you the flame maple from a different angle.

Bridge

Cort M600 features one of my favourite types of bridge systems, a simple Tune-O-Matic bridge with a locking tailpiece by TonePros! It is an excellent design that makes any guitarist’s life a walk in the park when it comes to tuning and intonation! 🙂

Pickups

As stated in the tech specs, M600 comes with a pair of Duncan-Designed humbucker pickups. These were previously Mighty Mights by Cort, but after they switched to Indonesian factories, Duncan-Designed ones were preferred by the company.

Unfortunately, I forgot to measure these and take some notes (I sold the guitar!). As far as I know, these are very similar to a classic, Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded JB/Jazz pickups.

The pickups on my M600 were almost spotless. No playing/usage marks and even came with a plastic pickup cover! You will hear how these pickups sound in the following videos anyway! 🙂

I also removed the pickups to take photos of the back plate with model numbers. As you can see, there is no label mentioning these are Duncan-Designed ones. Duncan Designed label is only visible on the chrome pickup covers.

Based on these labels, it seems like the Bridge is the HB102B/CRC (1402) and the Neck is the HB102N/CRC (1405) models.

Electronics

Here’s an image from the electronics cavity. M600 features a simple 3-way pickup selector with a single volume and tone pot.

The tone pot is a push-pull switch that allows you to split these humbuckers. So, basically you can get 6 different sounds instead of 3. Personally, I’m not a big fan of push-pulls any more. 

I find them annoying as it’s not practical to use and also after using them for a while, you start to pull the tone knob (this happened to me with this guitar many times). You need to widen the shaft using a screwdriver to tighten the connection.

But we still have this option by default on this guitar. The split sounds are very usable, as these pickups are probably medium to high output ones.

I would say this wiring shown here is pretty cleanly done! So well done, Cort! I have seen much worse on brand-new guitars these days.

Neck Tenon

While on it, I also took a photo of the neck tenon here (you won’t find this image anywhere online!). This darker area here shows how long the neck is going through the body and how it is connected.

As you know, the storyline, when I first published this article, I didn’t own a Cort M600, but I had played dozens of them while working in the industry. From time to time, I would go research this guitar online to see if I could get one.

After some time, I bumped into some used options and decided to get one. It wasn’t because I needed another electric guitar, but just to have the nostalgia! Also, I wanted to update this article with some freshly updated content.

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Here’s a video of my Cort M600 restringing and instrument care session.

Cort M600 Restringing & Instrument Care

As I always do, I also recorded a no-talking style demo video in which I just play the instrument with my setup below.

I used my Marshall JVM410HJS, Two Notes Torpedo Captor X, Boss SD-1 and Ibanez TS Mini as well as my RME Babyface PRO FS audio interface and Genelece 8020DPM monitors. I only used PSP SpringBox as my reverb plugin.

Just a side note about this video: I used a set of Cleartone, nickel-plated strings, 11-48 gauge and tuned down to E-flat. Cleartone is probably my least favourite guitar string brand ever! And, again, I hated these supposedly “treated” strings. So, my performance is not the greatest here! 🙂

Cort M600 Review & Sound Demo (no talking)

Verdict

I don’t know why, but I literally chased this guitar to have the nostalgia again! It reminds me of those good old days when I was surrounded by tons of guitar boxes every day to test, record and ship during my service in the industry! Sadly, you can not purchase these guitars anymore.

I don’t know why Cort is not making these, as they are still actively manufacturing guitars with newer additions to their KX series. But the M series has just disappeared a long time ago. My theory is that they are working for PRS, and these guitars are pretty much a PRS-style guitar rather than an SG-style guitar, even though these would be both classified as double-cut guitars.

Of course, PRS guitars feature a different scale length. But I believe scale length is just about the string tension, and it’s a relative attribute as it will shift based on what gauge of strings you use. A unique scale length is not going to make a guitar better than anything else on the market.

Cort M600 is the perfect guitar for those who are after a modern, double-cut design with dual humbuckers. If I had the chance to re-design these guitars, I would definitely change the pickup selector switch’s location to be just like an LP-style guitar has and also add a pair of mini switches for splitting or maybe out of phase options and remove the push-pull pot.

Where to Buy Cort M600?

Unfortunately, your only option is to regularly check out Reverb.com as well as eBay and your online local marketplaces. It’s very difficult to find these anymore. But you never know! As I mentioned, I just got this to revisit the good old days and also give you guys a set of fresh materials.

After I was done with the guitar, I wanted to list it on my local marketplace and a couple of months later, I saw another Bright Blue that was listed in the same marketplace (Slovakia)! Sometimes, weird things happen!

I guess that you may see these in the marketplaces at any random time, as some people even forgot about these guitars and suddenly realise there is a guitar lying there in their homes that they never played! 🙂

When I look at the market now, I can see PRS has been attempting to dominate the double-cut guitar category with multiple price-segmented instruments. They have even started manufacturing satin versions of their iconic designs to make them appealing to everyone.

So, alternatively you can check out the current PRS SE CE line of guitars on Thomann. These are priced very competitively!

I hope it’s been a helpful review for you. If you are interested in other Cort reviews that I have created, please click here.

Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!

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