Cornford Amps!

[reverbbb]

[El Capitan]

www.cornfordamps.com

and on ebay.....
http://search.ebay.com/Cornford_Musi...pZ1QQsacatZ619

I had never heard of them until your enthusiastic post above

[reverbbb]

My good friend just bought a Cornford Hurricane. The most versitile 20 watts I have ever played. I dialed in the bass in full and played an open E chord. My comment to my friends is that I had never heard that sound from any amp or guitar in my 32 + years of playing. It was truly remarkable. You could easily dial in a punchy clean and then push the gain into an astonishing gain that would roar like a 100W Marshall head. The thing would just sustain and scream and feedback for as long or however much as you wanted.

The amp that was on the top of my wish-but-can't-afford list, was a Two Rock Opal at $3800 for the head. This little 20W combo ($2150) from Cornford has just taken a place at the top of the list. My Dr. Z Maz 18 Jr. is an incredible amp. But it is a long way from getting the gain that the Hurricane was getting.

My friend now has all of his Marshall and Hot Plate gear up for sale. He is as much of a die hard Jimmy Page/Les Paul/Marshall fan as Ol' Fuzzy is a Telecaster fan. So, that is a big testamony in of itself.

[skip62]

Dude, if it sounds anything like the clips, just buy solid state...

[reverbbb]

skip[size=7]62[/size]

Yeah, I was noticing the clips did not sound so great last night. Most of those clips were done on the 6W Harliquin. Then there is a bunch on the 50W head. My friend (you met him), has the 20W Hurricane. Those clips don't do the amp any justice. The amp is far more lively in your hands than anything that I have played.

Also, the speaker might not be the best for the recorded sound. My friend has a Avatar with two Celestion Blue Alnicos running in addition to the single built-in Celestion. The speakers are a critical part of the output of the sound. But the responsiveness under your fingers is the real sign of the quality of the circuits.

I am considering the Garland Jam again in May. I'm certain that he will bring it then.

[skip62]

reverBBB

LOL, you know I was messin' with ya. I never take the clips too seriously. I knew if you liked it, it had to be something missing on the clips.
I know who your talking about, btw. Is is DSL a 50 or 100, I can't remember, I still want a 50. Wife would absolutely kill me though.

May eh? Matt and I were just talking about that 15 minutes ago. Set it up, we'll be there.

[chriswuzhere]

Is this a music store that has this amp??? It seems like the music stores here around Dallas are going down hill...

Brook Mays Pro Shop used to be my favorite, but it's dead now.... :(

[reverbbb]

Originally Posted by chriswuzhere

Is this a music store that has this amp??? It seems like the music stores here around Dallas are going down hill...

Brook Mays Pro Shop used to be my favorite, but it's dead now.... :(

+1

Actually, Cornfords are from England and has a very low import rate into the US due to their high cost. My friend bought his from GuitarX in Denver - sight unseen. He is not usually a big risk taker like that. But he had a 72 hour trial period. He ordered the amp and Cornford just happened to have a Hurricane on the bench that they could sell. It took about 2~3 weeks to get. Otherwise, it might have taken 6~8 weeks for them to build per order. GuitarX told me that they currently have another Hurricane on order from Cornford.

Now, the sticker shock

$2150.

I know that this price is going to get a lot of folks saying this or that and how they would never spend that much on an amp. Before you jump on that band wagon, just realize that my friend has finally found "his" tone after 2 years of tweaking his Marshalls. He has played several other boutique amps and none of them made him as happy as he is with this amp. I am happy to say, that I would tend to agree with him on this assessment (and we don't always agree on tone mods and tweaks).

[size=7]Skip[/size]62:

His is the DSL100, and it is for sale, although the other guy (kewlpack) is probably set to buy that amp.

[skip62]

I'm soooo glad to hear that. For 1 I want the 50, and 2 the wife would make me live with you...lol. Good choice for kewl, I can't wait to hear this stuff, hook us up brother.

[Kewlpack]

Bump

I was there Friday night at our little jam and the Cornford does indeed rock. The thing I noticed about the amp when Reverbbb was peeling the paint with it (hehehe) was this low end purr/growl. It was really cool and gave the tone a lot of character. I think that is what Rev is referring to.

Now on the Marshall DSL 100/1960av cab... Rev's right. That's gonna be my new monster soon! w00t! Finally getting a REAL rig. :)

[tom grossheider]

Local guy is a Cornford dealer, they sound pretty good but over-priced for me.

[skip62]

Hey Kewl, long time no speak. 100 watts? I know a place that has good deals on ear plugs...lol congrats buddy, we need to all hook up and do a blues circle.

[Kewlpack]

Part of the deal is that I'm getting a 4-pack of THD YellowJackets which will let me run the head as 20/40/50/70/100 watts.

Last week when I was playing through it the head was setup as 40w class A. Sounded sweet and didn't hurt. ;)

I believe Reverbbb is trying to get things setup for the next jam.

[spyeman]

I just sold my Maz Jr 18 head cause it couldn't deliver the goods on harder rock (beautiful cleans though). I am also investigating right now the Two Rock's, thinking if I could cough up the dough for a TR Custom Reverb Signature. Then I saw your post, listened to a clip (the one clip, MK5O Top, is me, man, I can play like that, I just don't sound like that!!!! I just bought a VHT head, and again, it's very good for somethings but is not what I want.

So, apart from having the most annoying website ever made, how do you contact these folks and perhaps get them to send you one of these monsters across the ocean blue? Have you looked into the different products, like Hellcat vs. MK50 versus others? I'm very interested, and if they are half the price of Two Rock, then I'm VERY interested. Thanks.

[Kewlpack]

spy,

You should be able to get all the info and availability stuff from GuitarX in Denver (they are the guys who helped our friend with purchasing this Hurricane).

http://www.guitarx.com/

[spyeman]

Do you know if there's reverb on those heads? I can't read the knobs. Plus I saw another poster indicating there may be a US dealer - do you know of any? Thanks again.

[spyeman]

Thank you.

[Kewlpack]

Yes there is reverb on the amp. I was messing around with the amp last night at the guy's house. All kinds of tones in that little box!

I don't know of any other dealers (they are out there though)...

[reverbbb]

lol:

Annoying website - ain't that the truth! I couldn't put my finger on it until you mentioned it. But those moving Flash images are annoying. Also, you cannot cut-n-paste their amp images to show the rest of the world.

I think their prices are not to far off from the Two Rock. I have played both a Two Rock and a Cornford. I would say the Two Rock has more tone bandwidth, but then again, the TR was a 50W head and the Hurricane is 20W combo. For my money, I would go with the Cornford Hurricane over the Two Rock. It is more portable, plenty loud, and does far more than most amps I have played. Right now, GuitarX has a Hellcat head that they have been trying to sell. I think it belongs to the owner and he has been using it for demos. It is priced at $2300, which is below the cost of a new Two Rock. He also has another Hurricane on order and they sell for about $2150.

There are a couple of other Cornford dealers in the US. But these imported boutiques are too expensive for most small shop dealers to stock in deep inventory.

Cornford would rather you deal through a dealer than to have an endless stream of inquiries from all over the world. that is why there is no contact on the website, other than the dealers. My friend does have the contact email of one of the Cornford partners - but he ain't gonna give it out, I already asked him.

I don't think that I mentioned, that I'm going over to our friend's house again this Friday. I'm bringing my Telecaster and PRS this time. I think I am going to have some SUPER fun.

[Kewlpack]

Originally Posted by reverbbb

I don't think that I mentioned, that I'm going over to our friend's house again this Friday. I'm bringing my Telecaster and PRS this time. I think I am going to have some SUPER fun.

Bleh... I gotta finish up the move. :? Play loud for me!

[mlepage]

Heard Reverrrbs Tele and PRS through this thing -
Absolutely wonderful!!! Then heard Reverrrrb's "one in a thousand" strat - almost didn't let him back out the door with that one...
The truest character of any guitar shines through with this amp. Got a tone monster? This will put it on steroids.

- The Cornford owner

[captain gorgeous]

Hmmmm... i did some recording with one of these a while back. The Hurricane i think? is that the 20W one?And while i did like it for raunchy classic "brown-sound" rhythm playing, i found it generally a little... polite? It was just a little too generic sounding for my tastes. I felt it lacked much of an individual character.

it's hard to tell as i was in a very big room with a loud-ish drummer and bass player so maybe the environment didn't do it justice. But even flat out with a clean volume boost in front i felt it wasn't quite cutting through. It didn't have the cutting edginess of my comparatively cheap PV and the cleans weren't anywhere near the shimmering beauty of the JMP45 RI + 4x12.

Great amp I'm sure. But they're a lot of cash and it just wasn't for me.

Oh! i have to say it did generate some beautiful, musical and controllable feedback though. I ended up using just that as a feature in one of the tracks we recorded that day. :D

[reverbbb]

The 20W is a Hurricane. Lacking character? Maybe. These amps are all hand built and tweeked by ear. It is possible that the organic nature of that process can let a few go through that would satisfy the maker, but not the player - as in your case.

I suppose, as with any amp, it depends on what charater trait that you are looking for. Everyone raves over the '65 BF Deluxe. But they are hiddeuos sound under my fingers. There are folks that rave over Dr Z amps (which I own one), but they open up to a clean that is not at all like a good Fender clean - and they will not crunch worth a flip.

For every negative comment I make, there is a society of folks that are amazed that I see the amps that way.

Cornfords are not for everyone. The owner and myself have yet to use this amp in a live band setting. I love the tone aspects of the little 6W Harliquin. But that amp apparently has no use in a live setting, strictly recording by some accounts. The Hurricane is intended to capture the tones of the Harliquin except in a volume format that is usable in a live setting

[captain gorgeous]

Oh yeah dude.

I'm not i'm knocking the thing - just wanted to add my experiences with a Cornford to the conversation. Lovely amp i'm sure but worth pointing out i felt that over $2k's worth of hand-wired custom-built "boutique" amp may well float some folk's boats but it won't necessarily cure everyone's problems... Especially if you can't really hear it over the drummer!

Regarding my comment on the character, okay, that was maybe a little harsh. It's all totally subjective of course. What i was getting it was that it seemed to somehow lack a bit of grit and snarl for my tastes. It was almost toooo good y'know? Too close to the "perfect creamy sustain" tone you hear on those free CDs that come with Guitarist Magazine (UK) which are yup... all played through a Cornford as far as i'm aware.

My favourite players have always had a little bit of chaos in their tone, and for me the Cornford sounded a little too smooth, and little too creamy and a little too "pro" for my tastes.

Does that make ANY kind of sense?

Probably not.