Cornford Hurricane 112 Combo

I bought this amp from Andertons (Guildford) in early 2009. It really has very few features. One channel, nice FX loop and reverb. It seems a bit unfair to score the amp as a 'five' but the point of these sites is to compare products, isn't it? Can you trust a review of this amp that scores the features as a 'ten'? I'm not being critical here- it's just a matter of fact.

I play all kinds of styles and have tried this amp with an Tom Anderson Classic, a Les Paul and a PRS Custom. This amp suits the strat very well, particularly on clean to just breaking up. The reverb is one of the best I've heard. I have to say that I don't like the distortion at all, once you push the gain past 7. In fact, it's horrible. If you need to play modern rock forget it. The other problem is that the 20 watts is nowhere near loud enough if you're standing next to a loud drummer, so this amp is limited to bedroom players or studios. Having said that, Cornford are clearly aiming at that market, so if you make that mistake, you haven't done your homework. In short, great clean, not so great dirty!

Hand wired, so I guess the insides will go for a long time. Picked the amp up after about 4 weeks of owning it and the bloody handle fell off! Good job it only fell a foot or so onto the floor. Oh well, quick to repair but not very impressive I have to say. This amp looks great in the corner of the room but it's very light and I'm not so sure how good it will look after 3 or 4 years in and out of the back of a van! Certainly not half as robust as my Boogie.

Emailed the company with a query about the FX loop and using it chained to another amp. No reply. Stunning British service. Doesn't fill me with confidence if something major happened.

It may seem that I'm a bit down on this amp but actually I'm glad I bought it. I wanted a good clean amp for home use and this fits the bill perfectly. I'm lucky I have an understanding wife who lets me indulge in various guitars and amps. If you only have the space or money for one good all rounder, this amp has too many limitations.

I bought this amp brand new from www.tonemerchants.com. This is a simple, old school style amp with some updated features. It's one channel with Hi & low input and an FX loop. Also has a 8 ohm jack from 1 speaker and 2 4 ohm jacks to run a extra 8 ohm cab. Also includes a jack for footswitchable reverb. For a simple amp like this, it has everything it needs. Any more would just make it more complicated and probably tone would suffer.

I play all styles of music. I've been playing for 30 years and have owned many, many amplifiers. I won't go into a list of amps but I've spent anywhere from $1500 up to $4000 for mainstream and boutique amplifiers. This amp is the best sounding amp I have ever heard. The clean is fat, round and bell like with a nice chime. That's what blew me away when I first tried this amp. For a 1x12 it has a very full round sound. Then I started moving the gain up and the distortion is amazing. It's not brutal or harsh at all. It's got a nice open sounding british distortion. Very tasteful. I have been using it with a slight breakup. For clean I just roll back the volume on my guitar and it cleans up very nice. For more gain, I use either an OCD or BB preamp pedal and it ads some nice gain with out changing the tone of the amp. The FX loop works very well and with a little delay through the loop, it really ads a nice 3rd dimension to the amp. Again, I have to say, I've owned all the big name amps and this amp blows me away every time I plug into it. It's an instrument in itself. The way it responds to your guitar is amazing!

I've only owned it for a month. I've had no issues at all. The amp is built very well.

Haven't had to deal with this.

As I stated above. This is the best sounding amp I've ever played through. One of the coolest things is, it only weighs 40 pounds. It's very light and easy to take to the gig. Because it's only 20 watts, you need to mic it. That's never an issue for me because where ever I play, I'm always miced up. Since I bought this amp, I'm playing more than I ever have. It's made me want to play more. That says it all right there!

I purchased my Hurricane new from a shop. I spent many hours playing it and grew more and more on me.

It's a simple 18 W Class A/B EL84 driven single channel amplifier loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30. It has high and low inputs, a spring reverb and a series effects loop. The reverb is foot switchable with the included foot swtich.

The preamp stage consists of 4 x 12AX7's and the poweramp consists of 2 x EL84's.

The Hurricane is very carefully hand assembled and hand wired using the finest quality components. Even the transformers are hand wound. The whole thing just reeks of quality. I am particulary fond of the leather handle hehe :)

The amp is very versatile, and can do everything with great class. Blues, jazz, rock, metal etc.

The Hurricane is truly the best combo I have ever had the pleasure of playing through. My guitar is an american stratocaster with a PAF Pro in the neck and a BREED in the bridge. This thing just oozes the most beautiful tone and it's a joy to listen to. The guys at Cornford have voiced the Hurricane to perfection. It's so rich and full. The overdrive is wonderful. The typical characteristic is a delightful dark, smooth, creamy sound that has an amazing singing quality. As one of the previous reviewers mentioned, you almost want to eat the tone that flows out of this amp. Low notes are tight and defined, high notes are smooth and full and can break out into wonderful sustaining, singing harmonics.

It's so responsive and dynamic, it increases your awareness of how you are playing and it certainly isn't forgiving with sloppy playing. It brings you closer to your instrument. This amp will make you adjust your playing and will ultimately make you a better player.

The reverb is lovely. It's lush and plummy. Never boingy.

I'd say my search for tone is officially over. A deffinite 10

As I already mentioned, the Hurricane has been lovingly assembled to a fantastic standard using the highest quality components. The circuitry is completely point to point hand wired. I have yet to gig with this amp but I have complete confidence in it.

Cornford are still a very small company. If you have any questions or problems, you can just phone them up and you are usually able to speak with Paul Cornford himself or the other guy (I forget his name) that works with Paul to design their amps. They are extremely helpful and enthusiastic and are a pleasure to speak to.

This is just an incredible amplifier. It may seem expensive but it's worth every penny. In my opinion there is just no need to bother with effects or overdrives with this. All you'd ever need is perhaps some delay and wah. The tone is just so beautiful as it is.

As it's only 18W, you can drive it really hard and you can get a great sound at polite volume levels. There is plenty of volume on tap for gigging.

If it got lost or stolen, I'd get another immediately. I probably wouldn't be able to afford another but I'd try and claim on the insurance at least.

When trying out amps in the shop, I also played the Cornford Harlequin, a Cornell Plexi, a Kosch Studio Tone and a Mesa amp I can't remember. The Hurricane was my favourite amp.

My only gripe with it is that when gain is high along with the master volume, it gets quite noisy, but not noticeable when playing and nothing a good noise surpressor can't reduce. It's pretty much the same story with any other valve amp.

If you ever have the opportunity to try the Hurricane out, please do. It is such a wonderful amp. The dark, smooth nature of this amp may not be for everyone but the more I play it, the more I love it. If you are thinking of making a serious investment on an amp, deffinetly give this, and the rest of the Cornford family a try.

Thanks for reading. Peace :)

This has already been covered by previous users, features are at basic vintage level but don`t be fooled by all the knobs and buttons on so any amps out there, this baby does NOT need them.

The sound quality of this amp is mind blowing, using an old 70`s Yamaha Les Paul copy set on neck (single coil)the tone quality on a low gain/clean setting is superb. Just flick to the bridge humbucker and crank up the pre amp gain and again you have a sustaining and sweet lead tone to die for. Before you waste hundreds of pounds buying Mesa/Soldano top gear which you will NEVER get to crank up to a sweet level, just try one of these and save years of looking and blowing brass. Small wonder nearly all `Guitarist` mag players use and own them. I`m so p****d I didn`t shell out a bit more tosh years ago to grab one. I also tried my Schecter strat, again sweetest strat tone I`ve ever got. Combo`s generally sound a little boxy, this does not! The tonal character of each guitar is well defined, this is lost with chip distortion which will make every guitar sound artificially compressed and soul-less.

Simple and bullet proof hand wiring, no PCB`s to burn out, top quality components throughout. There can be no doubt the amp will last a lifetime and should a repair ever be needed it will be easy to do and not detract from the reliability of the amp in any way. Short of the odd valve change every few years this amp will last a century!

Can`t comment as yet as never needed to use, I suspect as a hand made boutique amp made by Brit guitar enthusiasts they will be only too pleased to advise. These amps are more like individually born, not mass produced. Long may it remain so!

Its like finding the Holy Grail after looking for 30 years! Its loud fully cranked but its useable, there is little point using a 50 or 100 watt valve amp gigging small/medium venues at levels 2 to 3. If you can1t crank up and saturate the power valves to make em sing, its a total waste of time. Even if you can`t afford one, try one so that you have a benchmark as to what the best actually sounds like.

This is a hand wired British amp/combo. A single channel,loud 20 watt all valve with 4 ECC83 and 2 EL84. Contains a 12 inch Celestion G12 Vintage 30 speaker. Comes with metal floor switch and high quality lead for reverb off/on. The build quality cannot be improved, it uses top grade components in all departments and will last a lifetime. It runs very quietly.

Set the bass and mid to full, the gain to 75% and back off treble to 3 or 4. Master vol to 75% and plug in a humbucker guitar and enjoy. Pure bliss, you will be hearing the tone you have spent many years and a lot of money trying to find. It is small wonder these amps are used by those in the know. It is a combo that in medium to small venues will produce a big creamy distortion tone, yet clear and full of harmonics. THIS IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS THE WORLD OVER!!!! The amp will be best used live A/B with another valve amp set for clean sounds. This amp will produce a superb clean tone with vast amounts of reverb but in a live setting A/B is the only way as you will have to redail the eq and gains. This is how the pro`s use it. As a single channel amp this amp has it all and is the perfect studio amp.

Owing to the circuitry not requiring a PC board and that it is hand wired using NASA quality silent running components with ceramic valve inserts, reliabilty will never be a problem. Electronically it is bullet proof.

Doubtful if customer support will ever be needed, but someone who has hand built such a beauty will always be proud to advise.

This amp is a mind blower, try one out before parting with your cash on any other boutique amp at around ??1000.

This amp was made in January 05 as it says inside the chassis, The amps is quite versitile but it's limited by being single channel but I prefer the whole single channel thing anyway, im not a fan of stepping on a million buttons to get good tone.

Same features as all other reviews

The overdrive is very smooth it's just about enough gain to quick leggato lines and alternate picking runs it's not a shredders amp but believe me I can shred on it ;)

Such a nice warm tone.. there aren't enough superlatives to describe the tone that leaves that speaker cone.

I compared this amp to the following amps;
ENGL Screamer, Orange Tiny Terror, Splawn Competition, Marshall Vintage Modern.. Whilst looking for a new amp I was sick of buying boutique stuff because it wasn't worth the extra cash so I was looking for something good and solid since I thought my ideal tone didn't exist. Well it does.

I will gig without a back up, it's EL84 loaded so if i blow a tube I just pull a spare set out of my pocket and slap them in and fire it up again, ready to gig!.. I don't see this amp failing other than tubes expiring, built like a tank if anything went wrong it's such a simple design Im sure cornford could repair it very quickly. So it gets a 9.

I've emailed the company about the warranty, the warranty covers the amp for the first year, and is none transferable. I'd have thought an amp of this quality would have a life time transferable warranty.. My only gripe.

I've been playing since '93, I own a Splawn Competition as well as this amp.

I'd buy this amp again if it were stolen

Features are straight forward tonestack, two inputs, effects loop, etc... Would have given a 10 if it had a standby switch -

This is THE most toneful combo on the planet. Bad Cat, Dr Z, etc aren't even on the same plane as the Hurricane. Don't get me wrong - they're all great amps with some work and some tweeking, it's just that the Hurricane was AMAZING straight out of the box! I've loved my Fenders (Super Reverb, Blues Jr), Marshalls (JTM 45 with KT66's, JCM 2000 DSL 100, Vox (60's Royal Guardsman) and various and sundry other tone machines over the years. All of them had room for improvement, and went through tube and speaker upgrades, all trying to find their optimal tone. The Hurricane had it straight out of the box. NOTHING at three times the price has "eclipsed" this little tone machines sound.

It's been completely reliable for the two years I've had it.

Haven't needed any customer support - Don't know -

I started playing in 1972, and I've heard all the "vintage" amps and guitars before they were "vintage". I think memory fails lots of folks, cause there were good "sonic" and reliability reasons why they sold those things off in the first place. The Cornford has a sound of its own. It's the sound you all will never quite reach tweeking those Marshalls and Fenders. Tweek on forever, or just get a Cornford and get on with playing -

A recently-made Cornford Hurricane combo. To be honest this amp is not very versatile. Single channel. Standard three band EQ. No standby switch, quite a big omission to make. EQ controls are fairly responsive, more than a Marshall or Fender but less than a Laney or Mesa.

For a boutique amp I would have expected a standby switch and some kind of second switchable gain stage or second master volume to increase versatility. And I'm not too keen on the Vintage 30. I don't think it suits the amp that well.

I tested this with two guitarist friends of mine, several guitars and two bottles of whiskey. We mianly used a Gibson Nighthawk, Fender Strat (mexican, pickups changed), a Fender Tele with dual P90s and a Fender Jaguar (fitted with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups). The cleans were best with the Strat. The best gain tones were given with the gain on about 6 using the Nighthawk.

The sounds it does unquestionably well are blues and classic rock. In the middle ranges of the gain control the amp seems to be in it's element. Few amps I've heard do low gain sounds this well. But overall, the amp has a fairly limited palette of sounds. The clean is pretty flat and uninteresting even at higher volumes. It doesn't even have enough gain to do good hard rock sounds in my opinion; I can't get the Van Halen first album tone I like. Metal tones? Forget about it.

Lack of versatility isn't the only problem. The EQ seems uneven in the bass ranges; on the clean you can turn the bass to full and with singlecoils it still sounds thin. Then, as soon as you start cranking the gain a lot of bass comes into play. Also, the difference between pickups seemed huge on the Cornford. It would be hard to balance the amp if you planned to gig it with a handful of different guitars. Even when adjusting the EQ severely.

I've got better results out of Laney amplifiers costing half or a third of this. They balanced their palette of sounds better and were very tolerant of pickup differences; bringing out the changes while still retaining a signature amp tone. With a Laney LC50's clean channel and the Jaguar's neck pickup, tone rolled off, I got a great jazz sound. On this Hurricane the same setting sounded really thin. I had niggles like this with all the guitars I tried through it.

The amp's construction is immaculate. It's not printed circuit board, it is a handwired sandwich board style often seen in original 50s and 60s amps. This means even if there is a problem it'd be easy to fix. Also the tolex was thick and nicely applied. It was all screwed together well too.

I've always been more of a amp freak than guitar freak. I've owned a Vox AC30 with bluebacks, Fender Twin, two Marshall JMPs, three Laneys (LC50, VC50, GH100L halfstack), an Orange Rockerverb 100 halfstack, and many others. Among them this amp is weak. If it was at a cheaper price point it might fare better, but when there are amps costing significantly less coming off the production line it doesn't make sense to favour a less versatile handmade model like this.

One of my favourite guitarists, Hal Stokes of The Theives, uses Cornford MK50 stacks live and often on record. Those are also good amps but again, they really don't have enough of a signature sound or advantage in terms of price to make me choose them over my current favourite, Laney.

Overall, Cornford amps are nothing to write home about. What also alarms me is that guitarists will pay for these amps and then spend more money changing out the stock speakers... if you're paying this much the amp should be perfect out of the box! More money than sense perhaps? Just my thoughts of course. Any questions don't hesitate.

2004 Hurricane, single channel handwired 1 x 12 22 watt combo.Comes with reverb and built in UK.

Designed (I assume) to be the next step up from the Harlequin and something you can gig with. Nice sound at low volumn however things get noisy as you turn the knob past 12 O'clock regardless of wether its single coils or Humbuckers.
Not a bad sound but the amp is very underpowered and there are many many amplifiers out there that sound a damn site better for a fraction of the cost ( i.e. Peavey Classic 30).

Seems very well built and would last a lifetime.

Emailed them a few times and they responded very quickly.

A very rugged and well made amplifier that would last any owner a lifetime.
A word of caution however.Don't expect to be able to compete with the drummer if you plan to gig with it.Very underpowered and very little headroom and very much a studio type amplifier which begs the question as to why they didn't make it 35 watts and make it usable in a live environment.
As a yardstick it's no where near as loud ( or as versatile)as a Mesa Boogie Subway Blues which is what I eventually swapped it for.
The guy who owns it now plays with a jazz trio and has it miked!.

This section has been covered by most of the previous reviews and my Hurricane is no different in its layout. The stuff I do the amp hosts all the features I need so its a ten out of ten from me.

Like the previous reviewer, I too am left somewhat dissapointed by the amp's delivery of sound - luckily I bought second hand and saved a packet of money. Mine was a "blind" internet purchase and so I did not try before buying. Clearly Conford have gone for an original sound as the voicing is really nothing like Fender or Marshall (don't let anyone tell you any differently). The previous writer is absolutely right about the Hurricane being way off the class of an old Marshall or Fender - I can only describe the Hurricane's sound as being gagged and not free and open and in the end, it just annoys me. Dialling in overdrive is simple and there is plenty of it too (sadly it is not terribly good). I have tried many different output and preamp valves and my experience of this is the JJ Teslas supplied in the preamp section are about the best for the money and importantly the quietest. The Sovtek output valves really need to be removed as they are harsh and don't handle overdrive well. To sum up - far from breathtaking!

Had it three months and everything is fine.

Never needed to contact their customer support.

Brand new - way over priced. Second hand at ?800.00 not exactly a bargain either. Will probably sell it in time. Have a Boogie and Tech 21 - the Hurricane is no better than the Tech!