Cortex Napoleon Deluxe Fretless 5
Cortex Bass stems from the desire to develop an electric bass of exceptional quality, hand made, at competitive pricing. Combining the three concepts of quality sourcing applied to a design made in Switzerland and a high-end luxury finish made in France.
The construction of our hand built “Napoleon” and “Ganesha” models were facilitated by an encounter and collaboration with Paul Lairat, Master Luthier in Courthézon (France), designer himself of a famous modern interpretation of the electric bass.
All structural woods (body and neck) used on Napoleon Basses are of European origin. The choice of electronics can vary, but are generally of American and European origin. Hardware can also vary, but comes from Japan, USA or Europe. Beyond the origin of all parts, sourcing also implies the respect of some market standards. That is why Cortex Bass has chosen to follow the Bartolini BC, P2, P4, EMG 35, 40, 45, Delano PC and MC Series for its entire pickup offer. That is also why we have preferred the “one string – one bridge” solution, allowing for classical string spacing, i.e. 19mm at the bridge for 4 string basses and 18mm at the bridge for 5 and 6 string basses.
Our basses are entirely hand made, following either our very own “Napoleon” shape designed by both Paul Lairat & Pierre Camilleri, as the “Ganesha” designed solely by the latter. The human hand takes action giving the bass a particular refined finish: Paul Lairat offers you all his expertise and a touch of flamboyance to ensure that our basses can live up to their name.
Our thoughts…
When we look for new brands to represent on electricbass.co.uk they have to firstly fall into certain categories to align with how we wish to work. We then in turn have to also of course be a good fit for the brand and it’s owners, so it’s very much a two way street.
Cortex bass fits all of these perfectly. They are professionally hand made with the finest materials and craftsmanship in very limited numbers, these are the primary drivers for us. They are also incredibly nice people to deal with and they care passionately about their work, this is also very important to us too!
They care about who we are and that we are going to represent their brand professionally, in the way they require and that also meets their own very high standards! We hope that we are up to the task and we will in turn endeavour to meet and maintain these expectations.
The basses…
Cortex basses have their own unique style which is easy to see at first glance, the basses also play superbly right out of the blocks and in our experience are setup to perfection which is such a great thing to be able to pass on.
This bass…
This Napoleon Deluxe Fretless 5 just hits all the right spots for us. The neck feels amazing and the overall Cortex style and aesthetics work really well for a fretless bass and it just looks stunning. This bass has Aguilar pickups and the position and spacing lend themselves perfectly to achieve a stunning fretless tone. The woods, build quality and construction are also superb as with every Cortex bass.
The bass will of course serve any style of playing or any genre extremely well, but if you want to go from a classic big pop fretless sound reminiscent of the 80’s, to a more subdued and subtle jazz tone, then hit those flowing Jaco type staccato grooves, this bass will certainly have you fully covered!
Please see the below videos of Cortex bass endorsee Alex Lofoco performing on his own Cortex fretless.
For more on Alex and his amazing bass playing please visit alexlofoco.com
*NOTE: We not a traditional high street guitar shop and viewing of our basses is by appointment only at our studio or demo facilities located very close to the A1 in Bedfordshire. If you would like a private viewing and demo of this bass, please contact us to arrange.
