Cort Guitars' big NAMM news is its new partnership with Manson Guitars to create a more affordable version of the guitar played by Muse frontman Matt Bellamy. The two companies worked painstakingly with Bellamy over the course of three years—sending him multiple prototypes in order to get everything to match his original as much as possible at a reasonable price (about $700 street). It features a basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, custom locking tuners, a kill switch, and pickups wound to the same spec as his U.K.-made Manson.
