Cornford Carrera?

[dave_mc]

Hi guys,

Any of you tried one of these? Currently suffering a major GAS attack, despite not actually having tried it. :lol: :oops: In my defence, though, i loved the Hurricane when i tried it, just for home playing I'm guessing 5 watts is better than 20, especially since Cornfords seem to sound better when turned up a bit, in my limited experience with them, anyway.

Anyway, if you've tried one, or heard any good/bad rumours about them etc., let me know.

Thanks! :)

[Stevepage]

I played one with just a Fender Tele plugged straight into it. I got some of the most amazing tones from it. Absolutely amazing amp. I'd have one if I had the money

[sambo]

Tried one quite extensively in Coda a while ago; an incredible amp. Sounded fantastic with everything from the new Les Paul standard to PRSs, Eggles, Tele-hybrids and Vigiers.

'Tis very, very nice Dave.

[dave_mc]

ugh, you guys aren't helping. :lol:

Thanks for the posts, guys, at least if i'm going to buy it I might as well have a few recommendations saying it's awesome... :lol:

:drink:

have either of you (or anyone else) tried the hurricane as well? as i said, i tried it and loved it, but the carrera is more suitable for home playing (and with the switchable power valves, would appear to be more versatile too), if it can do similar tones to the hurricane (which is what i want)...

:)

[sambo]

 :D :lol:
Not tried the Hurricane.

But you're definitely right that it the Carrera is the (far) better option for home playing. I had it on bedroom levels most of the time and it still sounded good.

[dave_mc]

No worries, sambo, thanks for your input anyway :)

[Lew]

I owned the Hurricane for a year or so and a Harlequin for a week and my advice is get a Martamp for the same price  :lol:

[hamfist]

Use to own a Hurricane, and tried a Carrera out fairly extensively in a shop.

Didn't like the HUrricane at all, but absolutely loved the Carrera !!   If I had use for a 5W amp I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

[dave_mc]

I owned the Hurricane for a year or so and a Harlequin for a week and my advice is get a Martamp for the same price  :lol:

interesting, could you expand on that a little? I know martin's work is very well thought-of around here, but I thought most of his stuff was more vintage in character?

Use to own a Hurricane, and tried a Carrera out fairly extensively in a shop.

Didn't like the HUrricane at all, but absolutely loved the Carrera !!   If I had use for a 5W amp I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Haha, I'm not quite sure how to take this, because i loved the Hurricane! :lol:

[Lew]

I owned the Hurricane for a year or so and a Harlequin for a week and my advice is get a Martamp for the same price  :lol:

interesting, could you expand on that a little? I know martin's work is very well thought-of around here, but I thought most of his stuff was more vintage in character?

Sure.
Just so ya know I'm not saying Cornfords are bad-the build quaity is fantastic and to look at the inside the wiring and pathways look exceptional. I love the tones Greg Howe and Vinnie Moore get from their MK50 and Guthrie through the Kotzen sig.

I fell for the hype on the Harlequin and bought it without playing it, I only kept it for a week because it was without doubt the worst sounding amp I had played.

The Hurricane is a different kettle of fish though it does have a GREAT sound, but in all reality it is literally just one great sound. The clean break up. GREAT with p90s and single coils but less inspiring with buckers.

No matter how much I turned up the mids and treble I couldn't get the presence I wanted, it's just a dark dark dark sounding amp. It starts to open up about half volume.
An amp builder told me the reason it sounds so dark is because of the way the wires travel inside the chasis, it's wired up like a PC.

Im not saying the Hurricane's a bad amp(the Harlequin is lol), but it does one thing well and no amount of knob fiddling changed it for me.

The Martamp is in a different league soundwise and I don't care how biased that sounds because it's true, it wasn't the intention of the amp but the way it responds and the clean sounds of the Martamp reminds me loads of my old VHT PITBULL(thats a good thing). The gain on the Martamp is hot rodded plexi heaven.

Best thing is it was made for me, the difference between buying an amp because you like the sound of it and having one made to the sound you have in your head is a million miles apart.

Not pissing on your bonfire but you asked ;P

The Martamp comes with a free cup of tea too.

Edit: Yea his stuff is more vintage in nature but then so is the Hurricane, it's not a modern sounding amp. It sounds like a dark Vox with more gain. Your going to need a pedal to get modern gain.

[Neil F]

Hi,

I haven't tried a Carrera but I used to own a Harlequin so you might be interested in some views on that. I didn't really get on with it, though it took me a while to find this out. It's main failings were :

1) If you crank it - and that is the point of a low powered valve amp - it's still pretty loud, certainly you won't be popular if anyone else is in the house and doesn't want to listen to you. I certainly wouldn't describe the sound as "bedroom volume"

2) If you crank it, it doesn't actually sound that great anyway in my view. The sort of response I'd expect from a cranked valve amp (increased harmonics, touch sensitivity, etc) wasn't really there. I have a Marshall JMP50W that sounded much better with an attenuator than the Harlequin did without, which defeated the purpose of the Harlequin somewhat!

3) Inflexible sound - it generally sounded much the same with the tone controls producing only variations on the same theme

Having said that, where it did perform well was for recording at low volume. It produced some very nice rock and metal tones (I really am talking about bedroom levels now with the amp nowhere near on 10!).

I believe the Carrera is a bit more flexible with more controls but I would definitely advise you to try before you buy as it may not be what you expect.

As for build quality, I had an interesting experience recently. I ended up acquiring a used Cornford MH50H after selling the Harlequin, and that is a very nice sounding amp. After it died recently I took it to the amp tech who eventually found that one of the wires hadn't been soldered onto its connection properly and had been just poked through the metal loop, eventually losing proper contact. Although I'd bought the amp used he thought it must have left the factory that way which wouldn't reflect too well on QC for a hand wired amp but I should stress that this was just his opinion and we don't know what really had happened....

I tried a Hurricane in a shop and it sounded pretty similar to the Harlequin to me, albeit louder of course. Not really to my taste but that's just me. :)

[dave_mc]

Thanks very much for those extremely detailed replies. I know what both of you are saying about doing one tone, and doing it really well. The problem being, the tone that the hurricane did do well was more or less the tone I have in my head! So that's the big problem with ordering e.g. a martamp, i might end up going further away from what i want. Or else saying, "can you build me something which sounds like a cornford?" :lol:

i know it's going to be louder than bedroom volume, don't worry. :)

I don't think I can try it, unfortunately, that's the big problem (and I realise that it's always best to try first)- there are no dealers in Ireland, and taking a trip to England solely to try one would cost me more than the amp would (plus if order it and don't like it, i could take advantage of distance selling regulations if i haven't tried it).

that's interesting about the attenuator sounding better with a higher-wattage amp- i have an engl, and have never bothered with an attenuator, as its master volume sounds pretty good... might be worth considering as another option.

Definitely nice to hear some less glowing reports, though, thanks very much for those- makes it harder to decide, but at least I know it's not just one side of the story I'm hearing. Don't worry about "pissing on the bonfire", I'd rather hear the bad things now than after I've bought! :lol: :)

EDIT: i thought the hurricane sounded kind of halfway between vintage and modern when i tried it... didn't sound modern like e.g. an engl, but didn't really sound vintage either... and it had a lot more gain than any vintage-style amp i've tried... :)

[Lew]

There's a clip on you tube done by a geezer here with a Martamp check it out http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4KmuKkAazcE
I get a bunch more gain out of mine than that too.

Here's a good representation of the single coil sound you can easily dial in http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uNCmG7pT2ws
and with buckers too http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M9YgYbRnCXo

If you get a Hurricane you should look at ebay and get a bargain like this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cornford-Hurricane-Guitar-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ140283864728QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item140283864728&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

[Stevepage]

I owned the Hurricane for a year or so and a Harlequin for a week and my advice is get a Martamp for the same price  :lol:

interesting, could you expand on that a little? I know martin's work is very well thought-of around here, but I thought most of his stuff was more vintage in character?

Sure.
Just so ya know I'm not saying Cornfords are bad-the build quaity is fantastic and to look at the inside the wiring and pathways look exceptional. I love the tones Greg Howe and Vinnie Moore get from their MK50 and Guthrie through the Kotzen sig.

I fell for the hype on the Harlequin and bought it without playing it, I only kept it for a week because it was without doubt the worst sounding amp I had played.

The Hurricane is a different kettle of fish though it does have a GREAT sound, but in all reality it is literally just one great sound. The clean break up. GREAT with p90s and single coils but less inspiring with buckers.

No matter how much I turned up the mids and treble I couldn't get the presence I wanted, it's just a dark dark dark sounding amp. It starts to open up about half volume.
An amp builder told me the reason it sounds so dark is because of the way the wires travel inside the chasis, it's wired up like a PC.

Im not saying the Hurricane's a bad amp(the Harlequin is lol), but it does one thing well and no amount of knob fiddling changed it for me.

The Martamp is in a different league soundwise and I don't care how biased that sounds because it's true, it wasn't the intention of the amp but the way it responds and the clean sounds of the Martamp reminds me loads of my old VHT PITBULL(thats a good thing). The gain on the Martamp is hot rodded plexi heaven.

Best thing is it was made for me, the difference between buying an amp because you like the sound of it and having one made to the sound you have in your head is a million miles apart.

Not pissing on your bonfire but you asked ;P

The Martamp comes with a free cup of tea too.

Edit: Yea his stuff is more vintage in nature but then so is the Hurricane, it's not a modern sounding amp. It sounds like a dark Vox with more gain. Your going to need a pedal to get modern gain.

I had the Harlequin for over a year and I loved it. It's not a bad sounding amp, it's one of the best around. I found mind had alot of presence but I could easily dial it out. I wish I'd have kept it.

[HTH AMPS]

the Hurricane was the first Cornford I tried - didn't think much of it at all.

have since tried an MK50 and another head that came out after it (dual channel high gain affair) and they were both very nice indeed.