Cort MBC-1 is the signature guitar of

Matthew Bellamy Matthew James Bellamy (born 9 June 1978) is an English singer, songwriter and producer. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and lyricist for the English rock band Muse (band), Muse. He is recognised for his eccentric stage persona, wid ...

, lead singer and guitarist of the English rock band

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

, launched in 2015 in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It was designed by Bellamy and in collaboration with

Cort Guitars Cort Guitars (Cor-Tek Corporation) is a South Korean guitar manufacturing company located in Seoul. The company is one of the largest guitar makers in the world, and produces instruments for many other companies. It also has factories in Indonesi ...

, and based on Manson MB Series.

History

Bellamy was actively involved in the creation of the guitar, testing each prototype and giving instructions on what needed to be changed. What took the most time was creating the

truss rod The truss rod is a component of a guitar or other stringed instrument that stabilizes the lengthwise forward curvature (also called ''relief'') of the neck. Usually, it is a steel bar or rod that runs through the inside of the neck, beneath the fi ...

neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...

, and pickups, which were difficult to recreate in the factory. The release of this guitar was announced in early December 2014 and premiered at the

NAMM The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) is a not-for-profit global trade association dedicated to the music products industry. Originally founded in 1901, NAMM is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and represents 15,000 global memb ...

exhibition in January 2015 with a price of £500.

Premier Guitar ''Premier Guitar'' is a media company devoted to guitarists. It is based in Marion, Iowa. Interviews have included guitarists such as Pete Townshend of The Who, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Guthrie Govan, Brent ...

magazine reviewed the model in 2015 and awarded it the Premier Gear designation, noting a 5 out of 5 score for playability, a 4.5 score for tone and value, and a 4 out of 5 score for build/design.

Design and varieties

File:Cort MBC-1 07.jpg File:Cort MBC-1 10.jpg,

Headstock A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the tuning pegs or other mechanism that holds the s ...

in front with signature File:Cort MBC-1 06.jpg, Headstock from behind with serial number File:Cort MBC-1 04.jpg, Killswitch and

single coil A single-coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single-coil pickups are one of the two most po ...

File:Cort MBC-1 03.jpg,

Tune-o-matic Tune-o-matic (also abbreviated to TOM) is the name of a fixed or floating bridge design for electric guitars. It was designed by Ted McCarty (Gibson Guitar Corporation Gibson, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation and Gibson Brands Inc ...

and

humbucker A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...

File:Cort MBC-1 08.jpg, Body from behind Guitar has solid

Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele (), is an electric guitar produced by Fender (company), Fender. Together with its sister model the Fender Esquire, Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes ...

-form body made from

tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperateness, temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Bri ...

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

and

rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

with compound radius. Modifications of Cort MBC-1: * MBC-1 MBLK — ''Matt Black'' colour. * MBC-1 RS — ''Red Sparkle'' colour. * MBC-1 LH — Matt black version for left-handed people. * MBC-1 Matt White Show Special Stormtrooper Edition. Manson Guitar Works are proposing modernization of guitar * upgrade with Sustaiac Pro sustainer; * installing Z.Vex Fuzz Factory; * replacement of hardware; * replacement of machineheads and control knobs.

Awards and nominations

This guitar was nominated on ''Music and Sound Awards'' and ''MIA Awards'', as «Best electric guitar» and «Electric guitar of the year», and won the last one. Besides, it was marked as "Premier Gear" by ''

'', magazine ''

Total Guitar ''Total Guitar'' was a monthly music magazine based in Bath, the United Kingdom, published from 1994 to 2024. The magazine was owned by Future plc, who publish many other magazines ranging from drums and video games to technology magazines. ' ...

'' called it «Best buy» (5/5). , - , 2015 , Cort MBC-1 , Best Electric Guitar , Music and Sound Awards , , , , - , 2015 , Cort MBC-1 , Electric Guitar of the Year , Music Industries Association Award , , ,

References

Sources

External links

About guitar on official Cort website

About guitar on official Manson Guitar Works website
*
Review Cort MBC-1
from

Review Cort MBC-1
from

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

* Review * Article on MuseWiki Electric guitars {{electric-guitar-stub