Cornford Harlequin Mk1 112 Combo

I bought this amp a year ago new on the back of several glowing reviews both here and elsewhere and it is used exclusively for messing around at home. Enough has been said about the amps feature set although I must stress that in my opinion (and for my requirements) the feature set is spot on. No messing around just dial it in. If you looking for bags of knobs to play with don't look here - if its bags of tone you're after however.... Not really a gigging amp for obvious reasons as there's precious clean headroom but its advertised a recording amp and it does that to perfection. My score merely relects that it is a simple amp.

I play a variety of styles and guitars from Jazz to Rock. The Harlquin handles all of it with ease and is breathtaking. I still constantly find myself grinning after playing for a while - it simply sounds fantastic. A couple of words of caution here though. The amp is incredibly touch sensitive and responds to the subtle nuances of your playing - its a very revealing sound and if you're not used to playing through something like this it takes a while to get used to. Ultimately it makes you play better though and the dynamics are fantastic once you've cracked it. Potential users should also bear in mind that some of the sounds on Cornford's web site are not representitve of the amp in use when playing normally i.e. not recording it. All of these have the amp miked for recording and acoustic processing of the sound is at the desk. The nature of the amps design means that if you want any reverb or delay whilst practicing they have to be placed in front of the preamp (no loop). Clean amp sounds are no problem but the dirty you get the more compression takes place and it becomes very difficult to achieve acceptable processor levels. This is no criticism of the amp but you should be aware of it. I have actually purchased an isolation cabinet so that I can have it constantly miked, processed and listen through my monitors. Oh and by the way it is incredibly loud for 6 watts - I can't imagine that anyone can have this thing at full chat at home - unfortunately it works best at full! Another reason for the isocab purchase.

Solid as a rock

Cornford have this one cracked as well. Spoke to Paul a few times and emailed when I have had questions - superb service

I have playedguitar for 24 years now and it is one of the best purchases I have made. I'd definately buy another if I lost it.
From a value perspective the amp isn't cheap but what price would you pay for perfection?

WARNING!!!! This is a very special review which is intended to give an idea of what's possible with such a combo. It's not intended to suggest to people to do the modifications I did to mine. I COMPLETELY REBUILT IT!!!!
I'm an international student studying in the UK and living in university halls. The Harlequin was therefore the perfect choice for me as I love tube tone. I hate all those digital crap out there, it's just plain bullshit!!!
Ok, you should know all the specs by now. All tube. High and Low inputs. Volume (2 stage gain), Voice Switch (makes it very versatile), Bass, Teble, Master, On/Off Switch. What else do you need?!?!?!? Comes with Russian Sovteks tubes (more on that later). Quite a big combo for it's power rating. Bigger than a Boogie Mk1. Comes with a Celestion 12" Vintage 30.
I was affraid that the amp might not be very versatile since it doesn't have a Middle control, but the Voice Switch makesit very very versatile. And with an amp of this quality, it's all down to your ability to play, your pick attack and the guitar you use!
If you sound bad through it, blame it on you, not the amp!!!

OK, the interresting part now.
This is a very neatly built amplifier. First class craftmanship at every level. Being a plugg-in and play amp, you either connect with it or not. I loved it. I must also add that it sounds much better with humbuckers (i have a Les Paul and a PRS Custom 22. Both sounds AWESOME through it). I really think that a strat doesn't sound 'right' throught it. It's a very Dark sounding beast.
I must also add that I didn't like the tubes it came with. Sovteks are good in average quality amps, not in such a high class one!!! They sound way too cold and don't have that very sought after lower-midd sweetness. I replaced them with Harma Diamonds (the best tubes available, apart from the NOS ones, which can be very unreliable). After the revalving, the amp really came to life. It's ABSOLUTELY KILLER now!!!! If you want to read more about the tone, just read the other reviews.
Now to the reason why I wanted to submit this review!!!
Being an international student, I go home quite often during the holidays. The problem with that is that I can't carry the Cornford with me all the time. The solution: take only the chassis of the amps, build a 'head' for it at home, and build my own speaker cabinet!!!! INSANE isn't it? Did it work?!?! HELL YEAH!!!!!
I basically took only the chassis home with me. Incorporated it in a head built by me out of some exotic wood. It looks abolutely killer now. It does really look like a boutique head!!! I'm very proud of it. It's really not hard to do. It's kind of a plugg it in! And when I come back in the UK, I just take the chassis with me and put it back into the combo!!! As simple as that!!!
The head is really easy to build, you just need some skills at working with wood. The tricky part was the cabinet!! As you must have heard, the cabinet add greatly to the overall tone of an amp!!! If it's not built properly, it won't sound good!!! When building mine, I wanted to experiment a bit. The Harlequin comes with a Vintage 30, which sounds really nice, but I wanted to try the DR Z trick. I built a 2 X 12" cab out of solid pine. It's a half open back. Did some research for the dimensions, and just tried my luck!!! I fitted one Vintage 30 and a G12H. Plugging everything together, flipping the On switch.... UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! The Harlequin seems twice as loud with 2 speakers!!! The G12H seems to be the main voice there. Very warm, vintage types of tone. Absolutely gorgeous on it's own, but add the Vintage 30, and it's surreal!!! The Vinatge 30 complements the G12h in the lows and together they are absolutely AMAZING!!!!! Jut think of Eric Clapton's tone on 'Crossroads' with Cream. That's it!!! Very DARK and SWEET!!!!
The cabinet seems to work so well that I'm always sad leaving home to come back to the UK and plugging my Harlequin in it's original box. It works fine, but I prefer my 2 X 12!!!!!!

Biult like a tank!!!!

Never had to deal with Cornford, so I can't tell!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!!! I don't think that I'll look back!!! It's the TONE I've always been looking for, and I loved building the cabinet and the head. Might do it with a Hurricane and a 4 X 12"!!!!
THIS IS SIMPLY A GREAT AMPLIFIER WHICH WILL BECOME STUDIO CLASSIC IN A FEW YEARS TIME, PERIOD!!!!!!!!

Geez, how do I follow an excellently written review by Mr. Wardell's?
My Harlequin is last years model that I purchased about 3 months ago. I also own a Matchless SC 30 so my review will be based from that frame of reference (an A/B comparison).
I agree with most of what the previous reviewer stated as to the Cornfords features...but from a objective standpoint, feature wise the Harlequin is not that versatile. Of course this can be taken as a plus (I certainly do) if you are here in America and do not have a chance to try out this amp before buying (I wasn't able to) understand that this is a basic BASIC, amp no loops, channel switching, effects...anything. Be advised that it is 6 watts and precious little clean headroom can be had at this wattage. This bad boy is expensive here in the States so it had better freakin sound good!

Well yeah, it does sound good. Let me cut to the chase. Playing my Les Paul 54 Oxblood through this amp is pretty much a religous experience. WAY better than with the Matchless. Why? because you can dial into this amps sweet spot much easier. I admit that the Matchless has much better clean sounds, but to get the tone I heard in my head I had to rely on pedals. I don't need squat with the Cronford. Amazing. It goes from creamy thick distortion, to a bouncy low end growl without any wooliness or piercing highs on either end. I just turn one knob and can get it all. It'll match up to single coils and humbuckers with no problem. Every time I play through this amp, I just stand there and shake my head, the Brits can build a damn fine amp! My girlfriend who can't tell a Cornford from a corn dog thinks it "sounds better than the green one"(the Matchless). High praise indeed!

No problems, built like Hummer.

N/A never delt with Cornford, hope I never have to!

I've been playing for 28 years and I've gone round and round equipment wise. I can tell you that at least with this geetar player, the search for the perfect amp has ended. This amps gets that Beck/Allman/Page tone in spades. American players check this British amp out or at least go to the website and check the sound bites out, their pretty close to what you'll hear sittin in front of the speaker. Awesome amp!

Purchased new from Electromusic in Doncaster, England. Brand new 6w hand wired (no pcb's whatsoever) all valve combo using 2 x 12AX7 and 1 x EL84, designed for recording but still loud enough to fill a big room. If used on a gig it would need to be mic-ed up. I'll never gig mine. Very well made in a solid pine (not plywood) open backed cabinet and covered in a burgundy tolex-like material. Mine has the new black grille cloth rather than the old CNC punched metal grille. For what it's worth, I think these new ones look much better. All the screws, washers, corner protectors and handle fixings are nickel plated and the handle itself is leather. All in all, a very simple but classy looking combo. Bigger than you'd expect for a 1 x 12" too; 600mm x 450mm x 250mm. The controls run along the top, ac30 style and are, from left to right, Inputs HI & LO, (HI should be regarded as the normal input - use LO if less gain is required), 2 position voice switch (seems to alter the mid-range) and then volume, bass, treble and master, on/off switch and fuseholder!! This is a single channel, single ended class A amp very much like a classic Fender Champ but with control over the gain and volume; with the Champ you had to turn it up to overdrive it. There's no reverb, no effects loop and no headphone socket,(please!) and i don't wish it had any of these as the stand alone tone is gorgeous. I use it for recording so 6w is plenty - believe me it can go loud if you want it to. Single 12" Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. I thought I'd miss a middle control but strangely, I haven't even thought about it till now. No need for one on this amp. I'm giving it a 10 rating because I feel it is a very versatile amp - it'll do clean, jangly, overdriven and Hi gain sounds - just remember that you can't switch between them; you'll need to use your guitar's volume and tone controls - like the old days!!

I use a few nice guitars with it; SG Std, Les Paul Std, AM Std Strat, AM Std Tele (I guess I'm a Std kind of guy - you know, no frills) and record my own stuff at home with various influences; Indie, Soul, Rock, Techno (OK, not much Techno) but you get the picture. The Harlequin suits everything I've tried on it so far perfectly but as I mentioned, you'll have to get to know your guitars well to use it properly. No more everything on 10 - subtlety is the key. You'll have more fun too, as you discover the sounds that have been trapped in your guitar all this time waiting to be unleashed through the right amp. I even recorded my Roland jp8000 synth through it (LO input) and it sounded absolutely fantastic!! It really thickened the sound up compared to going into my desk. If Paul Cornford reads this; Sorry Paul, it had to be done!! There's an ever present faint hum and at the highest volumes, there is a bit of hiss but these have not materialised on any recording yet and i use a Neumann TLM103 mic; very sensitive. If I really wanted to record the hum and hiss I'm sure I could but I'm too busy recording great guitar sounds. While your playing, there's no noise. The volume control (or Gain really) is characterful; up to the halfway mark it's clean thru to jangly; Voxy, or even Hiwatt-like, but it's definitely got it's own sound. From halfway on it quickly gets richer and more overdriven until you get to 10 or 11 and you're in Gary Moore "Still got the Blues" territory .(playing skills permitting). With my Les Paul there's a harmonic richness that's very reminiscent of 70's Bill Nelson (BeBop Deluxe) that I have never before got even close to. It loves pedals too, but I think my collection of overdrives will get dusty from now on. The amp gives me all I need in that area. It somehow seems to warm up Digital Delays like my old favourite the Boss DD3. Now that's a good echo anyway, but through the Cornford, it's much richer and organic somehow. Chorus and Flanger (I've got various types including Boss, and all are Analog) sound superb and my Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe sounds just awesome. A great "sound platform" for whatever you have FX wise and if you don't use pedals, a great sound. I plan on getting another one shortly for stereo recording. Well, you wouldn't buy a stereo with one speaker would you?!

I'll reserve judgement for a while as it's still new, and I'll never gig with it anyway, but suffice to say it's a hand built amp, not mass produced and there's not a pcb in sight, thank God. Cornford constructs these amps one at a time and they're made in a way that makes any service or repairs needed a piece of cake for any competent technician. It exudes an air of "Functional simplicity" which, when you look at some of the stuff out there these days, is like a breath of fresh air. No modeling here, just honest to goodness traditional construction methods. I will update this review in a few months time to let you know how it's going.

Paul Cornford answered my E-mail personally (I was asking about linking 2 up for stereo) in a few hours, and I had a nice chat with Max in sales about the grille cloth/metal grille change. He told me they'll all be made with the black grille cloth from now on. We chatted for about 10 minutes and he was very helpful and genuinely pleased I'd called.. Try this with any of the mass producers!! Not so long ago, Yamaha denied ever having made a combo that I was trying to get a manual for!! It was 5 years old!! I think they eventually put the phone in a drawer and went for a coffee or something. I never did get the manual. I'm confident these guys at Cornford will sort any probs out.
Oh dear. Not sure about the warranty but for tubes, you usually only get a few months. I would hope the amp itself should be covered for a year at least.

I've been playing for 25 years and this is the best amp I have ever owned, and I've had just about all of them at one time or another. It's the sound I've heard in my head for all these years and I thought it was all studio done. Well, I can do it now as well. I put The Who "Live at Leeds" on and played along. I nailed the sound in 10 seconds. I tried it with the more guitary sounds on Jeff Beck "Blow By Blow" and nailed the sound in 10 seconds. I put Radiohead's "Hail To The Thief" on (and there are some lovely guitar sounds on that album if you listen) and nailed them. I love it's simplicity and it's versatility - it's simple versatility. If it were stolen (come on, I'm not gonna lose it!) I would definitely get another one when I got out of jail for killing the robber. I tried various low powered amps before this; Gibson Goldtone, Laney LC15, Orange AD15, Marhsall DSL201, Fender Pro Junior and Blus Junior and none held a candle to this one. The sound was just more open, more alive. It is more expensive but I honestly feel you're cheating yourself if you don't at least try this amp out, or if this one doesn't light yer fire, any of the hand made, dare I say "Boutique" type amps. Your guitars'll love you for it!! For me, it has everything; Tone, Soul, Character and it's own identity. Try and find any of those in a modeling amp.

As described by others.

I am writing this to tell the truth: Paul Cornford can design fabulous amps especialy if you need brown creamy distortion.

However, for some reason, my harlequin had 50Hz hum (and you can hear it) and also the cabinet sounded boxy ... not an ideal situation for a recording amp. Aparently the hum is kind
of normal, but cabinet was probably just my model ...

I now play Trace Elliott made Gibson GA15RV ...in the 6W mode
and it is better amp no doubt ... also THD Univalve ...

Good luck to you all ...

See above

This amp is number 566 built. There are no fancy features, it's a basic recording amplifier, with tone at just about any setting. No need for those Mesa hundreds of control pots.
The features it does have are great though, the slightest change in the controls gives different sounds. It has a solid pine cabinet which is very big, gives the Celestion Vintage 30 a lot of room to breath and achieves a big beefy sound. Point to point wiring, cathode bias, one EL84, two 12ax7s, in house hand wound trannys, custom made ox-blood tolex, speaker socket, tuned port cab and excellent build quality!

I use this with an Ibanez RG550, Dimarzio PAF in the neck with a coil switch, I never use the bridge PU. This is plugged directly into the Harlequin, at full volume with full gain there is hardly any hum at all!
I like many different styles ranging from blues, classic rock, instrumental, classical finger picking. It suits my style of playing perfectly you can use the controls on the guitar to get a wide variety of different sounds, use the volume to go from clean to dirty and everything inbetween.
The feedback is great on this amp, very tame and very musical.

The build quality is solid, the tone controls feel solid, the switches beefy. I haven't yet had a look inside this amp, but even when your playing through this amp everything feels solid.
This is certainly built to last.

Now this is one of the best things about Cornford, their customer service is simply unsurpassable! You can e-mail them and get a reply, you can phone them and they are friendly and helpful, not condescending and patronising like the big companies. You know the ones I'm talking about...

If this was lost or stolen I'd be devestated! I would buy this again, the people at Cornford really put effort into what they do.

I submitted the first review of corford harlequin here over three and a half years ago - it is still my only amp - so about time for an update of my tonal adventures.

How can i describe to people just how good the sound of this amp is! I have no problems with any hum that have been reported by some other reviewers here. I was lucky enough to obtain a small quantity of Mullard 12AX7s (8) and EL84s (4).
I was happy with the sound until i switched those tubes in now i would describe it as breath taking.
Firstly i position the amp diagonally across a corner of a room (8m x 4m) so the is a bout a 30cm gap from the wall corner, this helps re-enforce the punch.Ok, here is how i set the amp controls. I run the master volume fully open, and set the gain to just get a very clean sound, with my stock explorer bridge pickup this is just before the 9 o'clock setting, a little bit more with my friends jaguar. Hi input socket. Voice switch always down. Bass control max, treble set to about 1 to 2 o'clock. Sets up a good bell like chime to any notes played, perfect note seperation in chord work. Most importantly it sets the pre-amp tubes right on the edge of breaking down, and the power tubes are adding serious punch and weight to the sound. It is a seroiusly fat, sensitive clean tone.

Ok now the important part, the distortion tone. I use an external pedal, a Ibanez TK999 noise gate model (which is switched off), tube has been replaced with one of my magic mullard pre-amp tubes. Pedal settings, bass max (passive), mid between 12 and 1 o'clock (active) and treble 3 to 4 o'clock (passive). Now i find the vloume of the pedal to be extremely important to the sound, more so than the gain control. As the amp is configured so that the pre-amp gain is low, any larger signals than the guitar push the tubes into serious saturation leading to a massive all frequency fatness and punch. By increasing the amp gain and decreasing the volume i don't find that the punch and saturation is as good. Usually the pedal gain is around 50% any more and the musical feedback gets a little out of control. How to describe the sound. Heavy, crazy bottom end from a 1x12, fat, but not midscooped, the bell like chime has remianed from the clean tone, no fizz, buzz or fuzz to the sound at all. Guitar recognition remains though enough to tell the difference btween my explorer (500T) and a studio (498T)
Admittedly it is loud enough to be heard anywhere in the house, but i dont get any compliants from neigbours with party walls at all (old house)

How does the amp distortion tone (pre-amp gain) on its on compare, well its not as good, it can never compare to the pedal sound as it is not possible to hit the pre-amp tubes with the same large signal that a pedal can produce, and the effect any associated pre- pre-amp EQ has on the sound. But it has a part in the mix with the pedal to create that awesome tone

Still no problems, just gets better with age. Ive tried loads of diffeent pre and power tubes with no problems.

Only spoke to the guys at cornford when i ordered the amp all those years ago.

No been playing 8 years, the tone of this amp has kept me playing and loving everynote, that is probly the best compliment you can give. If it was stolen, i would be very annoyed, but would get another with the insurance. Tubes could be harder to replace though

As described by others: no loop, no reverb but OK.

Let me say immediately: I sold my unit. Maybe I was unlucky but
I doubt it - my unit had the hum and above all it had the 'boxeness'. Yes, the amp is great and surely can sing, but it was difficult to have very warm clean tone and avoid this boxeness.

My hope is that my unit was an anomaly. In any case apart from 'boxeness' these amps do produce 50 or 60Hz hum ...

I am warning prospective buyers not because I am against Cornford - I am not - but Harlequin is not exactly what everybody claims, or at least not every unit out there. I think that the problem is not the amp but rather the BOX that Cornford uses:
yes it is pine but simply doesn't sound nice ... period.

If there was no hum and boxiness the amp sound had a potential for 9+, but with boxeness it's 6 at best (rather bland).

So, the amp is 9-10, but the box only 2-3.

Paul Cornford is obviously a visionary and knowledgable and was probably unlucky with my unit.

Potentially great combo, but too big a box that sounds 'boxy'.

Hums at 50 or 60 Hz and you cannot remove it.

Test it before you buy. I sold mine and I do not miss it ...
My hope is that other Cornford models are better but I
remain very sceptical about their boxes - cabinets ...

I guess the way to go is to buy just a head only ...

I give it 6 in order to WARN people that not all units are as described by others and above all to warn demanding pros
like myself to verify the boxiness ... actually I cannot possibly give even 7 to my particuar unit ...

I give the Harlequin a 10 in this category because it does exactly what "I" want it to do, which is pure tone without a pile of tone sucking gadgets and pots. It has two inputs, one high and one low, a voice switch ( which is amazing! I'll get to that later ), volume, bass, treble and master knobs. It has one on/off switch with no stand-by and one 1/4" 8 ohm output jack for the speaker (12" Vintage Celestion 30 comes stock). 1 - EL84 power tube and 2 - 12AX7's in the preamp. All point to point construction with a large twin-10 sized solid pine cabinet. Pure simple tone circuit and it equals PURE TONE!! The full sized cabinet gives the tone depth like that of a 2X12 cabinet with absolutely NO boxiness to this tone! It will also easily push a 2X12 cab if more volume is needed. That takes on a whole new tone altogether. Also killer!! You will be so amazed by the combo cabinet's tone that you will probably never plug it into anything else. And I am a player who always HATED 1X12's!

This is where you will fall in love! The tone this amp will produce absolutely defies explaination. Your mind tells you this is a 6 watt single EL84 amp but your ears are hearing something completely different!! The tone has to be heard to be believed. Plugging into the "high" input gives you a hot overdrive and the "low" input puts you into an amazingly vintage very responsive territory. The amp is extremely touch sensitive. Amazing for only 6 watts. It is chunky as hell and doesn't compress out until you really push her into high gain land. Then she sounds like a Soldano SLO-100. Maybe better. Trust me I know I have a SLO-100. The voice switch is another super feature. Position one is pumped up midrange in your face vintage British tones (vintage hot rod Marshall). Position two turns it into a clearly American / cranked hot rod Fender tone! You will not get "black face" clean out of this amp. Not surprising at only 6 watts. But the amp does get amazingly sweet and just ever so slightly overdriven when you role back on the volume knob or lighten your attack. When you dig in every note hangs until it slowly decays into beautiful harmonics. I have a pile of VERY expensive boutique amps and I find myself playing the Harlequin not because it sounds good without being loud as hell but just because it sounds SOOOO GOOOOOOOD!! Go to Cornford's website and listen to the sound bytes of the Harlequin. It will sound exactly like those sound bytes plus another huge array of great tones they don't cover.

This little beast is built like a tank. I am sure it will last forever with proper care.

Email or call Cornfordand and Paul Cornford himself will likely answer the phone or your email himself. He is living his dream. Creating great tone is his labor of love and it really shows. Yes, I would definitely buy this amp again. I will never be without one.

I have been playing far longer than most the pop guitarist today have been alive. I own a staggering collection of boutique amps and guitars. The tone alone places this amp firmly along side the best boutique amps out there at any price. The fact that it does these tones at a truly usable studio volume level puts it in a class all by itself! Yes, I would buy this amp 20 times over again if that's what it took to always have one in my collection.

Features are limited, as the original intention for the use of the amp. It's a 6 watt with 12' Celestion speaker. No line out, no effect loop, no reverb. For full features check out www.cornfordamps.com .

HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST! I'm in tone heaven. What more can I say if you don't hear it in person. Cornford amps sound very different from any standard mass-produced so-called tube amps. IMHO most of those amps sound pretty much the same (I know there're different, of course, but i mean they're in the same league...). THIS IS TUBE--capital T.U.B.and E. I know I won't use any other amps in a while...I haven't had a chance to listen to US boutique amps like Matchless or Dr. Z, but, man, do yourself a favour and check out some Cornford stuff. There are so awesome sound clips on their website too.
Even though I'm more of a guitar 'player' than guitarist, i.e. I mess around with guitars while my main job lies else where, I've got myself a PRS Custom 22 and I LOVE how they sound together. Plug it in, and I don't really miss reverd or any other effects. I'm sure my guitarist will appreciate it too. Just beautiful, from a dark-ish clean tone to Singing lead. The search is over, ladies and gentlemen! I'm just so excited!
Great tone at bedroom volume? You'd better believe it!

100 per cent handwired. One of the toughest looking amps around (but not too sure about the handle and the knobs...look pretty fragile). Well I won't gig with it anyway, so no worries.

Paul Cornford replied to my e-mail personally. WOW! It was like getting a message from the President of US of Tone, ahahah. He even told me that I can get my amp rewired for different voltage if I leave England, at no extra charge!

For home use and recording, this is as good as it gets. Well the price isn't too cheap if you wanna compare other amps in the same voltage level. But this is the guenuine article! I also have a Tech 21 Trademrk 10, well, I think it's great too (also quite expensive at 260 pounds) but there should be no comparison here.
Overall, yes, I think anyone who appreciate a good tone should hear the Cornford amps in person. If you're into lots of effects and death metal kinda gain then I guess you should look else where. Harlequin (and other Cornford amps too) gives you NAKED GOOD TONE. I'm beginning to suspect that anyone who ever owns a Cornford is likely to be an unofficial spokesman for Cornford for the rest of his/her life. Yes, it's THAT good.