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Review by
a visitor on 20.1.2010
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Bought privately after trying one in a shop. Little did I know .....
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Features |
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Basic features but all you should need. |
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Playability |
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Limited set of sounds available and certainly not up to the hype but nevertheless useful once I had cured the design problem. |
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Quality |
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As above, the sound is quite good with a limited pallette of non-clean sounds.
Such a pity as this was a nearly right amp that just needed a bit of tweaking to cure the problems, having said that I managed to fix mine, I wouldn't have been happy if I had to shell out for new valves every couple of weeks. |
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Durability |
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I read the review by visitor on 1.6.2007 and I wondered if I had posted here already until I saw his spelling LOL. I had almost identical problems. The output valve continually failed after a few hours use and Cornford were totally unhelpful to the point of not answering my messages.
I have seen lots of web posts about this and they either rave about the support or denounce it as totally dreadful. I noticed that there was a theme running through them. If you fawn over the products and join thre Paul Cornford fan club you may get good support, however if you criticize the amps in any way you will be ignored.
I have since talked to several people in the industry and they have expressed doubts about the reliabilty of Cornford amps.
Lucky for me I'm an electronics engineer and eventually discovered that the EL84 failures are due to screen burnout and can be cured by a circuit modification. Not everyone is going to figure this out though. |
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Overall |
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A bit of a disappointment really and I wouldn't care to buy anything else from this company. Valve amps are't rcoket science so they should have just accepted there were problems and changed the circuit slightly.
Bottom line if you're touting quality and service then try offering it.
I've found many post that echo these thoughts. |
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Review by
aprilia1k on 19.10.2007
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Think it was Stevenulls Music Center on East Coast - not certain though without digging through files. Paid list, like 1395 or thereabouts. Bought it based on reviews all over, and wanting a recording amp that was "Something different" I am doing this review because I just read another SCATHING review here and could not believe it --- had to respond. Guy said it "eats valves" - thatnulls insane. I have had mine for 18 months and tubes are all fine - and I am a tone snob. I also build amps and effects, and know a few things about this stuff. This guys amp must be broken in some way - and he says Cornford support is awful, while I spoke directly to one of the engineers in England to ask him about using various NOS tubes, etc.. and get opinions. Great guy - and RIGHT THERE answering the phone (yes, a long distance call --- but with VOIP, not too bad). I loved the amp with the original tube complement, but swapped in a Mullard and Brimar 12ax7, and then a couple different EL84s (Amperex and Telefunken) just to experiment. The tone went from amazing to mind-blowing. Either that guy has a bad/broken amp or he works for a competitor. This amp rocks and is very kind to the tubes no matter how you set it up....
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Features |
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No standby, so Good instead of Excellent -- but a minor thing if you use a bit of sense - meaning that when you turn it on, you need to give the tubes 30-60 seconds to warm up, as though you were using a standby. Same rules apply even though therenulls no standby switch - you just have to use tube-amp common sense. This is a basic amp, designed for recording or home-usage... with TONE FOR DAYS. Gain, Bass and Treble, and a unique cut switch that is perfect for voicing for singles or humbuckers, although I sometimes just leave it off and use my stratnulls tone rolled off some. In addition to gain, itnulls got a master so you can easily dial in a sweet-spot burning blues tone or hi-gain "Marshall-esque" tone without waking the neighbors (flat out itnulls actually pretty loud). The gain is two-stage control, such that after 5.5 or so, the second stage kicks in and the dirt flows (good dirt mind you). Itnulls the closest thing to a Fender/Vox/Marshall hybrid tone machine that Inullve ever heard (I own Bogner, Marshall, Vox, Fuchs and VooDoo amps as well btw) The Harlequinnulls main thing is that it is a recording amp, therefore no reverb, no loop --- this is stuff you donnullt use when close/ambient micnulling a small combo. Itnulls unique in that although itnulls just a 6 watt amp, it is in a full-size 1x12 package. The cab is very well built with solid pine dovetailed and baffle dadoed permanently to the cab. Comes with a celestion vintage 30 and those 6 watts push that speaker WELL.
I think this amp deserves another review here, after the last total thrashing review... |
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Playability |
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Sweeeeet.. Itnulls one of those amps that is, itself, an instrument. You play with it and you donnullt want to stop. REMEMBER - garbage-in/garbage-out. You have to know how to play guitar ;) |
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Quality |
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Again, built like a tank - has BOUTIQUE tone for days. Can get Fender-ish chime with gain down and master up, can get to Vox-ish brit-chime, and through to Marshall and then Mesa gain and mesmerizing harmonics. These are the facts man. I used a few pedals through it - good ones, like an HBE power-screamer (sp?), Fulltone OCD and others -- by keeping the gain down below 5.5, the front end is quite nice to pedals. When you dime the gain and master, you get some noise - but you are in hi-gain territory, and itnulls perfectly within the norm. At clean/crunch/sing settings, the noise is actually quite minimal --- handwired with monster in-house wound trannys, itnulls actually a pretty quiet amp on the whole... |
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Durability |
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Built like a tank - like Mesa stuff--- VERY WELL BUILT. Metal Corners, hearty leather handle, solid pine dovetail construction with solid plywood baffle dadoed to cabinet.
No bad sounds to be had. TUBES last as long as they would in any amp... pre-tubes for years and years with care, and power tubes for thousands of hours.
ALL TUBE AMPS NEED TO BE HANDLED WITH CARE -- when turning on, since there is no standby, you MUST wait 30-60 seconds before you go slamming the amp! When turning off, you need to wait for tube cooldown before moving the amp... this is common knowledge and should be commandments for tube-amp owners. |
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Overall |
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I wanted a low-wattage recording and home-play amp that provided a good range of clean and distortion tones.. This thing is a blues-monster rivaling anything out of Chicago or Liverpool/London, but goes a good degree beyond both clean and scream-wise. I love it and do not believe that therenulls anything better out there. I owned a Carr Mercury - another low-watt, highly configurable and great-sounding combo. It had more bells and whistles, and sounded damn good. I sold it and I am keeping the Cornford. Thatnulls it. |
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Review by
a visitor on 1.6.2007
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Bought privately on the strength of reviews and a tryout in music shop. I wanted a straightforward low output amp for recording, rather than gigging.
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Features |
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Very basic unit based on standard El84 single ended circuits. Bass & treble tone control and Master volume control. 12" speaker and solid cabinet construction are points in its favour |
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Playability |
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As mine only works for a short while this is a moot point. If you can afford to re-valve every few hours then it sounds great but having shelled out around ?500 you donnullt expect to have to spend over a quid an hour in valves! Hence the "terrible" rating. |
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Quality |
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Sounds great for a few hours after re-valving but once the valves have died it sounds bloody awful. I have actually reverted to using my Fender Champion (solid state amp) as it sounds better! I wish I could say something else but thatnulls the way it is. |
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Durability |
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Big problem, these things donnullt last well if used at any sort of volume. Despite the apparently solid construction, there seems to be a flaw with the design that causes them to eat valves like theynullre going out of fashion. This is made a lot worse by Cornfords total lack of customer support. Email them and they donnullt reply and they wonnullt discuss anything on the phone. Bear in mind that their propaganda machine suggests that you can call them up if you have a problem and theynullre always interested in hearing from customers. NOT TRUE!
I couldnnullt recommend that anyone buys one unless they have infinite patience and a good knowledge of valve electronics.
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Overall |
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I chose this amp on the basis of trying one in a shop and the hyped reputation, then foolishly bought privately as I thought I was saving money. This has been one expensive mistake, there seem to be plenty of people who are happy with these things but maybe they donnullt use them in earnest or perhaps I just got a bad example, I guess Inullll never know.
Beware if younullre thinking of buying one.
By the way I have tried the bigger Hurricane and it seems fine but I wouldnnullt buy anything from these people on the basis of their downright insulting attitude to customers. |
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