Quickly! Someone give me a good reason not to buy a Cornford Harlequin at £350

shaunm · October 2015

57Deluxe;831044" said:
cos you don't need another amp

mrs ShaunM you're on the forum???

jpfamps · October 2015

ICBM said:

Because they are terrible sounding amps.

All midrange, no clarity, horrible boxy tone. And they have the wrong speaker even if the amp section wasn't as bad.

In my opinion...

Couldn't agree more.

The build quality isn't all that either.

The one's I've seen wouldn't pass the safety regs.

Essentially it's a rip off of one of the AX84.com open source amp projects (the November?).

For £350 I'd rather have a Silverface Vibro Champ.

Lodious · October 2015

I bought one after reading a glowing report in Guitarist magazine. It was bought mail order, direct from Cornford. As soon as I turned it on I thought it sucked. It just sounded lifeless, even when cranked. I asked to return it, and offered to pay a re-stocking fee, and Paul Cornford said no.

What he actually said was ‘Gary Moore thinks they are great, so they must be good, it’s your fault’. The tolex wasn’t properly stuck down at the back of the cabinet…it looked more ‘homemade’ than ‘handmade’.

A few months later it developed an intermittent problem where it started making random background noises. When I phoned him, Cornford actually said ‘That’s not possible, nothing can go wrong’! Eventually he agreed to get it collected. He returned it back to me, saying ‘There was nothing wrong, I didn’t do anything to it’ but I think he fixed it, as it was OK for the limited time I kept it. I sold it shortly after for £250 to a shop as I wasn’t sure if it was ever fixed properly.

Paul Cornford is possibly the biggest stroker I’ve ever spoken to in all my time of buying guitar gear. I thought he was a condescending little weasel.

Winny_Pooh · October 2015

jpfamps;831817" said:
ICBM said:

Because they are terrible sounding amps.

All midrange, no clarity, horrible boxy tone. And they have the wrong speaker even if the amp section wasn't as bad.

In my opinion...

Couldn't agree more.

The build quality isn't all that either.

The one's I've seen wouldn't pass the safety regs.

Essentially it's a rip off of one of the AX84.com open source amp projects (the November?).

For £350 I'd rather have a Silverface Vibro Champ.

Wow, I had no idea these were so bad.
Fwiw I plugged my siverface champ into a 2x10 cab yesterday, sounds so much better than I could imagine, huge low end from that tiny tranny too!

Fuzzdog · October 2015

I had one for a few weeks which I bought online, I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I received.

I hate writing off amps as being badly made, terrible sounding woeful piles of tripe, but it really was a badly made terrible sounding pile of tripe.

Looked quite nice in the living room, though.

Gadget · October 2015

Jeez, tough crowd.

Cornford fanboy? Yeah, sure I am, but some of the comments here are really harsh and do not match my extensive experience with them.

Are they versatile? No, not particularly. Lots of features/ No. Loud enough to gig with? No.

But they are most definitely not even close to the 'rubbish' image being portrayed here IMHO.

It does a low volume lead, rock and clean tone REALLY well. This records great by simply sticking a bog standard SM57 in front. That's really what it was designed to do. Plenty of reviewers and artists thought so at the time too.

Anyway, have a listen to these demos both recorded with the Harlequin. Tell me they sound shit and I'll shut up. Probably.

Frank Gambale

Guthrie Govan

TheDarkLord · October 2015

I've had both the Harlequin (bought new from a dealer) and then the Carrera (bought off ebay). The Harly was better - real great amp. Regret selling it - but needed the loot for bass gear for gigs.

I say buy it.

ICBM · October 2015

Gadget said:

Jeez, tough crowd.

Cornford fanboy? Yeah, sure I am, but some of the comments here are really harsh and do not match my extensive experience with them.

Are they versatile? No, not particularly. Lots of features/ No. Loud enough to gig with? No.

But they are most definitely not even close to the 'rubbish' image being portrayed here IMHO.

It does a low volume lead, rock and clean tone REALLY well. This records great by simply sticking a bog standard SM57 in front. That's really what it was designed to do. Plenty of reviewers and artists thought so at the time too.

Anyway, have a listen to these demos both recorded with the Harlequin. Tell me they sound shit and I'll shut up. Probably.

Frank Gambale

Guthrie Govan

Those sound reasonable, in a mix - but they do illustrate the complete lack of top end the amp has. That may be what you want - although personally I wouldn't want to use either of those sounds, and even if I did I would want them to only be a small part of what the amp can do, if you deliberately set it for all midrange… but it isn't. It's all it can do.

It does not have a usable clean sound really - the Guthrie Govan track is not really clean. The only way to get a clean sound is to max the treble, bass and volume, use whichever of the switch settings is less middy, and keep the gain as low as possible - even then it's not very clean. I'm also guessing the Frank Gambale sound is with the amp fully cranked - I couldn't get close to that level of sustain at any other volume with the ones I've played. Fair enough if that's the only volume you're going to use it at… not very useful otherwise.

I would not have said they were badly-made - the ones I've seen have had nothing I would consider wrong with them in that sense. (Interested as to what jpfamps spotted.) The problem is the circuit design - it's got too much gain in the wrong place, caps to take off any clarity or sparkle, others that limit bass… just a really odd way to design an amp, considering that two 12AX7s and an EL84 *should* be able to give you a huge amount of tone range.

And I really think the V30 is a poor choice for a 5W amp which has the same sort of midrange tone characteristic by itself - almost anything else would be better. Although Cornford aren't the only company who just seem to stick V30s in anything whether appropriate or not.

SunDevil · October 2015

Did Cornford combos ever come with anything BUT V30ies or did they just buy a job lot in to 'tick' the Celestion box?

I went through a Roadhouse ad Hurricane combo before swapping to a Budda SuperDrive and thinking id died and gone to heaven!

Of the two (for me at least, at that point in time) the Roadhouse was the better amp, but both essentially became pedal platforms

Majorscale · October 2015

I've owned a Cornford Hurricane from new. For it to remain in my gear collection for 11 years is quite an achievement. I'm def not a fanboy but it sounds fantastic and the build quality has been top notch...it still looks and performs as new even after years of gigging. I now tend to prefer Fender style amps but it would be a tough day if I had to part with the Hurricane.

At the time of release the Cornford amp line was universally praised by the press and picked up many an award so I'm quite surprised by some of the comments here. Still, we all have different tastes and I can't speak for the Harlequin model.

ICBM · October 2015

Majorscale said:

I've owned a Cornford Hurricane from new. For it to remain in my gear collection for 11 years is quite an achievement. I'm def not a fanboy but it sounds fantastic and the build quality has been top notch...it still looks and performs as new even after years of gigging. I now tend to prefer Fender style amps but it would be a tough day if I had to part with the Hurricane.

At the time of release the Cornford amp line was universally praised by the press and picked up many an award so I'm quite surprised by some of the comments here. Still, we all have different tastes and I can't speak for the Harlequin model.

It's surprisingly different given how similar the circuits are in some ways - the Hurricane is much more open-sounding and more flexible.

richardhomer · October 2015

I played one when they first came out, after reading a rave review in Guitarist. It convinced me the reviewer was deaf....

Lew · October 2015

I had a Hurricane and thought it was a good sounding amp. It did have a few issues but served me well for quite a spell.

Also bought a Harlequin new and returned it the same day. Thought it sounded pretty bad :-(

StuartMac290 · October 2015

I've never owned one, but have had a few brought to sessions by guitarists over the years. None have ever made it onto the actual recording being done, they've just sounded incredibly lifeless and flat every time.

Gadget · October 2015

Here are a couple more demos. I'm not hearing flat / no definition / no cleans / no high end? Each to their own, but I don't want icepick highs. This is a 5 watt, single power tube amp. It does what it does, but it does it well IMHO.

And I don't get these "to get that sound I had to max the X control...", or "to get it clean I had to turn off Y..." I mean, so what? If the sound is in there somewhere, what's the problem? You wouldn't talk about a car and complain "to get it to go fast I have to press the accelerator right down" or to get it to stop on a sixpence I have to dime the brakes" would you?

Jan Cyrka

John Jorgenson

Eric Roche / Phil Hilborne

ThePrettyDamned · October 2015

I was quite keen on buying a used one when I thought a 5 watt amp would be a good thing.

A mooer little monster destroyed it. For volume, clean tones, dirty tones, taking pedals... Everything. Very flat sounding thing.

jpfamps · October 2015

SunDevil said:

Did Cornford combos ever come with anything BUT V30ies or did they just buy a job lot in to 'tick' the Celestion box?

I went through a Roadhouse ad Hurricane combo before swapping to a Budda SuperDrive and thinking id died and gone to heaven!

Of the two (for me at least, at that point in time) the Roadhouse was the better amp, but both essentially became pedal platforms

The cheapest way of buying Celestion speakers is by the pallet of 60 of the same type.

For a small manufacturer it makes sense cost wise to only use one type of loudspeaker.

The V30 has good power handling so can be used across the entire range.

ChrisCox1994 · October 2015

I love my Hurricane, when it isn't catching fire or flubbing out on the low end (its reeeeeally picky about pedals, sounds best with none) Build quality is nice though, my tech isnt convinced my the circuit design though, but unfortunately the bottom line is it sounds great, so its staying and I'll keeping using gig money to repair it...

Harlequin, ok for recording, hurricanes sound great at home volumes too so I'd say try and find one of them..

ICBM · October 2015

Gadget said:

And I don't get these "to get that sound I had to max the X control...", or "to get it clean I had to turn off Y..." I mean, so what? If the sound is in there somewhere, what's the problem?

You're missing the point - I don't have a problem with setting controls to the ends of their ranges either - but I do if that still doesn't give enough of what you want.

I don't like icepick treble either - but I do like some clarity and sparkle, and this amp has none... or any depth or openness even with bass up full, and with the volume up full and the gain low it doesn't get clean enough at any useful volume, even for a 5W amp.

Those sounds are simply not in there, because they have been purposely designed out. That's great if you like that one very specific type of sound it does, which clearly you do. It appears that most of us don't...

richardhomer · October 2015

I wonder if the OP's still tempted?

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Quickly! Someone give me a good reason not to buy a Cornford Harlequin at £350

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