Cornford

[mikeluke]

Anyone heard rumours that Cornford are not answering the phones and are not making any more amps?

[Dmoney]

I've followed it on and off. There is a thread about it on the cornford forum in which people connected to the company have given away what they can. I haven't checked it for a while. Lots of missing details and speculation but from what I can gather there is no longer any support from Cornford for their products. Whether the amps are being made is another issue I think.

[Oli]

Hmm, just read that thread myself, don't really know what to think, but certainly is strange not having any proper official word!

Been meaning to sell my Harlequin combo for a while, but I haven't finished tracing the circuit yet... The tone stack seems quite interesting! Will give you a shout when I've finished it, DMoney, you might find it interesting too :)

[Oli]

It would appear that Martin Kidd, Cornfords designer, now has his own company (Olympic Amplifiers) so I guess that if Cornford does carry on, that they won't be having any more new products, and may not actually be able to sell the current amps (if Martin still has the rights to the design).

[hunter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVi7HLTgC8I

[HTH AMPS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVi7HLTgC8I

amp certainly sounds cool, they're on a winner there.

good move getting a popular youtube guitarist on board - he's like the UK's Phil-X.

[Dmoney]

Sounds Interesting. That video makes me dislike Rob Chappers even more and youtube in general.

I'm not sure I care about the power supply being on PCB and the preamp being point to point. In fact, if anything, the things most likely to burn out or need replacing are going to be on the power PCB, and the job of doing any repairs to those are made more difficult (not too difficult depending on design, mind) by the PCB mounting and the double sided feature.

Also, the power supply has a lot to do with the tone so 'everything to do with tone' being hand wired is a bit of an oversight. It would make the preamp easy to tweak in the design stage. The preamp isn't going to sound any better being on turrets or tags just because it's 'hand wired'.

The momentary 'blowtorch' switch is a novel idea. I can think of a couple of ways to do that. I'd rather hear Martin Kid talk about it then listen to Chappers tales of cobwebs and magic.

[dave_mc]

I've followed it on and off. There is a thread about it on the cornford forum in which people connected to the company have given away what they can. I haven't checked it for a while.

+1

Haven't really paid attention for a while... but what i did hear a while back more or less put me off getting one. Whether that was right or wrong, I dunno, but yeah.

[Ian Price]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVi7HLTgC8I

amp certainly sounds cool, they're on a winner there.

good move getting a popular youtube guitarist on board - he's like the UK's Phil-X.

Other than the fact he plays guitar I think he's nothing like Phil X!! Not even the slightest bit like him  :D

Amp sounds good though doesn't it   :o

[Oli]

I can't help but think that this will be another Chappers fry-in-the-pan, and it will end before long (much like most of his other projects). Case in point being his guitar range, which he teamed up with Jaden Rose to produce a deluxe model which was £1000+, and I believe only a couple were sold and now they don't appear to work together anymore.

I hope that Martin doesn't get taken for a YouTube/Chappers ride, and doesn't put all his eggs in this basket. That said, the amp does sound good. But I have to disagree with the choice of construction style-- an amp is essentially just modulating the power supply with the guitar signal, so saying that the power supply should be PCB as it doesn't contribute to tone is just wrong. Something like the Matamp style turret & track would have been a good choice. Perhaps the supply board is intended to be used over multiple products, in which case it makes sense to have a slightly more mass-manufacture approach to the design, just like the switching board.

I'd be interested to see what other amps Martin comes out with-- I do like the Cornford Harlequin that I have, it sounds good, and you can tell that he knows his stuff when he talks.

[Dmoney]

I hope that Martin doesn't get taken for a YouTube/Chappers ride, and doesn't put all his eggs in this basket. That said, the amp does sound good. But I have to disagree with the choice of construction style-- an amp is essentially just modulating the power supply with the guitar signal, so saying that the power supply should be PCB as it doesn't contribute to tone is just wrong. Something like the Matamp style turret & track would have been a good choice. Perhaps the supply board is intended to be used over multiple products, in which case it makes sense to have a slightly more mass-manufacture approach to the design, just like the switching board.

I feel like Chappers was making that PCB/Tone comment more so than Martin Kidd, although he didn't correct him. If Martin is making custom amps and starting a new company, then it's conceivable this might be a product. Why not? Although how long it will be the 'Rob Chappers Signature' amp is another thing, like you say. That said, it might give Martin's new business a bit of publicity.

Oli, that plan of yours is something I've been thinking about. I plan on teaching myself to use some PCB drawing software and designing a generic power PCB. I agree that having a drop in power supply board could be handy. I'd still put all the preamp filter caps as close as I could to the parts for that stage though.

[Philly Q]

Surely the SilverBack should be Tony O'Shea's signature amp?  :?

[Oli]

Yea, it is certainly a difficult one-- obviously we all know that a well designed PCB will sound exactly the same as a point-to-point wired product. However there is a bias that 'hand wired point-to-point' is better than PCB, so Martin has to accomodate for this, I agree that Martin knows what he's doing, and it was just a mistake that Chappers meant-- but I think it'd be unfair for someone who's just a guitarist to understand what actually goes on inside an amp.

I agree that it'll be good publicity for Martin, and I hope that he does well, i'm excited for his new products :)

[jpfamps]

From a development point of view it would make the most sense to have a generic power supply which could then be used for several designs and have the pre-amp easy to modify, ie hand wired on turret board, or the like.

Also using PCBs for switching elements makes sense as these components are designed to be PCB mounted.

Furthermore, as PCB technology is the predominate technology for electronics manufacture, you have a much wider choice of components to use.

I think this is the thinking behind the above amp's construction.

I don't like the use of snap in caps as these can be hard to remove from PCBs with through plated holes without pulling through the trough plating. This is especially true now that lead-free solder has to be used. Having said that you have a much wider choice of quality components with snap in when compared to say axials.

I suspect guitar amps are unique in terms of consumer electronics regarding how long they are expected to remain serviceable, and that they should be repairable.

Can't image that there are many 40 year old TV's still being used......

[Telerocker]

Surely the SilverBack should be Tony O'Shea's signature amp?  :?

I bet he will play like a monkey...