Cornford Hurricane 112 Combo

Manufactured in 2006 my Cornford Hurricane boasts the exact same features as all the previous reviews. Approximately 18 - 20 watts class A changing to A/B in the higher gain stages. It has the following controls all operated by the attractive chicken head knobs: Gain, Reverb, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master. In addition to these controls the panel also has a High and Low Input facility and an effects send/return and lastly a mains on/off switch. The EQ controls work smoothly and do have reasonable scope for tonal sculpturing. Both the Gain and Master controls are linear meaning there are no sudden increases/decreases in volume along their respective rotary movements. The Hurricane is equipped with a Celestion Vintage 30 12" speaker which given the speaker's sensitivity, makes the amplifier loud enough for most pubs and clubs I have ever played at. Rating this section under the general heading Features is difficult so my rating will be based on what the features do for the amp.

To my ears the amp is really quite toneless and I have spent many hours playing and fiddling to try and find what everyone else raves about. Played clean the amp is way off the class of a high end Fender or Marshall - those sumptuous squashy sounds(compression)associated with Fender and Marshall are just not there. The response from pick attack is also sadly lacking. Turning up the gain does not realise a very good overdrive sound either - its thin and fizzy and unmusical sounding. I suppose this is a drawback for opting to go with preamp gain. Some of you reading this who already own a Hurricane will probably be hating me for writing bad things about this amp. I am sorry you may just thank me in the end - go and find an amp which produces overdrive sounds from the output valves and you will soon hear the difference. Music shops are really not the best of places to try out amps. One is only too aware of making too much of a din and frequently there are many distractions and other noises going on. Had I had the opportunity to try this amp out at home, I would not have bought it - it is simply not worth the money. My rating for this section is comparitive to other expensive amps I own which I would rate at 10.

I would say this amp might be quite reliable, it certainly seems well built and the compenents look neatly soldered into their position. Everything looks good quality.

Never had to deal with company.

I have been playing a very intense ten years. I play a Cunetto Strat. I also own a Marshall Bluesbreaker Reissue (built in 1990) a Custom Shop Fender Bassman and Cornell Romany Plus. I would never buy a Hurricane again.

The previous reviews outline the features so I'll get right down to my review. I've tried really hard to fault this amp and its incredibly difficult. The only fault I can find is the previously mentioned lack of standby switch.

The day I bought this amp I took it to the studio, and it sounded so good we had to re-record my other guitarists guitar lines, because it made his Engl head/Marshall 2x12 sound nasty. A few days later I used it live in a small venue. It sounded fantastic here, but I feel if we played any where else 20w might be too little. But generally you are ok as the venue should have its own PA.

I use a Fender Light Ash tele with seymour duncan pro 2 pickups, then through a few fx (crybaby, small clone, delay) and it really sounds fantastic. Havent played it through humbuckers though so I dont really know how dark it would sound.

I really love the way the sound breaks up into distortion, its just amazing. I've only ever owned two other amps - a Park practise amp, and a Spider 2x12 combo. Now I've heard valve theres absolutely no way I can go back to transistor amps ever again.

I tested loads of amps before settling on this - Vox AC30, Orange Combo, couple of HiWatt combos, Mesa Boogie F50, load of Fenders. It came down to the Ac30 and the Cornford, and I chose the cornford as it was much lighter (seriously painful moving the AC30 around!) and generally sounded more sweet.

Havent had it long enough to talk about reliability, but I'd be confident to gig without a backup. Its incredibly well built.

Again, havent had to deal with them, but I left a message on their message board about getting a flightcase and Paul Cornford let me know that they supply cases. Not much, but I was impressed at that.

No doubt the support will go downhill when more people buy these fantastic amps!

I've been playing for roughly 10 years, but with a 3 year gap. I've got rid of my previous amp - Line 6 Spider which was a nasty fizzy cheap amp. If it got stolen I'd hunt the person down, firstly congratulate him on his impeccible taste, then i'd procede to throw him down the nearest set of stairs.

I love the sounds this amp can produce, and what I like most is their "useful" EQ. Its not extreme like you find on others, which makes it really hard to dial in bad tone, which is alright in my books! Like I say I must have tried 7-8 different amps before hearing this. Before dragging this amp into the testing booth I was just about ready to call it a day and just get the AC30, but then my jaw dropped at the sound of the Cornford (and how there are no PCBs inside! YEAH!).

The only thing I wish it had was a standby switch, so I dont have to keep turning the master down to unplug stuff. I really can understand why they neglected the standby switch - I thought valves sounded best when warmed up :)

With regard to the price, at first I thought it was a bit extravagant - compared with the #800 education price on the Vox AC30. Thats #400 difference, and to my ears worth every extra penny.

This amp has been made by people who really understands electric guitar and guitarists. The bass, mid and treble controls are all kept within useful ranges. The same goes for the reverb, which is equally good sounding, no matter setting.

The features of this amp is perfectly tuned and adds up to the overall playing experience. It's not possible to make this amp sound bad!

I'm using an Epiphone Les Paul Special and a Strat-shaped Blade with both single coil mics and humbuckers, and they both sound terrific with the Hurricane. This is without question the best sounding amp I've ever had the pleasure to play. And after playing for over 30 years, I've had quite a few. Marshall, Fender, Vox, Mesa, Soldano, Rivera and many more.

So many good things have been said on this page about this amp, and I just have to agree with every one of them. But the main point for me is that the Hurricane acts like an extension of my instrument. It follows me and my guitar like a shadow. Enhances every nuance.

I've had the amp too short to really have an opinion, but I bought it secondhand, and despite being two years old it's in mint condition. So judging by that and the fact that it's built quite sturdily, I think this amp will serve me well for a long time.

Living in Norway I will have to judge the Norwegian dealer and not the British builders. But I'm sure that the guys at Cornford will be pleased to hear that I've been treated very kindly and effectively by Sagevik Music in Stavanger, Norway.

As I mentioned I've been playing for over 30 years, and for the last few years I've been using a very plain solid state amp. I have kind of revitalized my guitar playing for the last year or so, and decided I wanted a better amp.

So I've tried Hiwatt, Budda and the Hurricane. All being of roughly the same concept, I found that the Cornford amp had a much nicer gain, warmth and equalization than the Hiwatt. And although the Budda was coming close to the Hurricane, I thought it sounded somewhat harsh in comparison.

The only thing that I miss, like many others have mentioned, is a standby switch. I just can't understand why they didn't put that in.

But that put aside, the Cornford Hurricane is a superb guitar amp!

This is an update quickly after my followup review. As mentioned I had not been completely satisfied with the sound, neither given by the Celestion Vintage 30 nor by the Jensen Alnico Speaker replacement I chosed. So I bought one of the new Heritage Celestion G12H Speakers and put it into the Hurricane. Boooooom fellows, thats the sound I had been looking for, powerfull and shining like the G12H must have been in the old days, and much moree better sounding then my original Pre-Rola G12H Greenbacks. I only can recommend to Peter Cornford, use this type of speaker instead the CV 30 and an already superb sounding amp will sound awesome !!!

This is the follow up of my first review I made in this forum directly after I had bought the amp, maily concerning the sound of the Hurricane.

Loaded with the standart Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, the Hurricane for me is one of the best amps for playing a Strat in a low - medium gain mode. Anyway, when it comes to guitars which are not as bright sounding as a Strat or a Tele, e.g. the most guitars with humbuckers, the Hurricane sounds for my ears way too dark. So I experimented with different types of speakers. Always amazed by the sound of Alnico speakers unfortunatly the Celestion Alnico Blue is a little to deep to place it into the combo. Thus I checked one of the new Jensen Alnicos, the P12R, rating 25 W. Whereas, loaded with the Vintage 30, the Hurricane sounded close to an old Marshall on stereoids, the tonal directions has drifted now more to a Blackface Deluxe on adrenalin. Funny, isn't it, how much different kind of speakers really influence the sound of our beloved amps ?
Summerizing this experience I would say, neither the Celestion Vintage 30 nor the Jensen P12R Alnico represent the ultimate ratio concerning the sound of the Hurricane. One is too dark, the other not focussed enough. On the other hand, when I use the now Jensen loaded Hurricane in combination with my vintage Fender Bandmaster cab, which hosts two Pre-Role G12H Celestions, the sound is top of the line. What I'm gonne test next is one of the new Celestion G12M Heritage 20 W speakers, which can be found for example on board the Marshall Vintage Reissue 1974X 18 W combo.
Maybe this will be the best solution for the stand alone Hurricane user due to the combination of a more focussed sound, a ceramic magnet speaker produces, combined with the less darker character of the Greenback.

If you like the sound of vintage Marshall amps (e.g. model 1962 or 1987) but are missing the gain control then check the Cornford Hurricane. To me one of the best sounding amps for Blues and/or Classic Rock I've ever played in over 35 years. Works great in combination with pedals (I mainly use a TS 808 for leadlines. Don't be fooled by the 20 W power rating. I play small to medium sized clubs (100 - 800 people. In a small club the Hurricane is loud enough on its own, larger venues always have a P.A. so the Hurricane already will be miced. My 100 W and 50 W Marshall most time had to be played on 3-4, so there ain't no powertube saturation. With the Hurricane you'll always play the powertube section between 6-8, so you'll really get the great sound our heroes had in the old days when they played large venues with Marshall Super Leads running on 10.

Gain control,treble,mid,bass,reverb,Hi Lo inputs,effects loop,2xEL84 output tubes,Ax-7 preamp tubes,20Watts Class A, Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, Reverb foot pedal, 3 speaker outputs including 1x12(you can run 2 additional 8 ohm speaker cabinets.

I took a while before reviewing this amp. At first listen I wasn't blown away, but after a while getting to know it I can now say confidently that this amp rocks - literally. One important thing that I wish the manufacturer would explore is speakers. I took out the stock Vintage 30 and tried a Celestion Blue, Celestion Century, and Eminence speakers. For my ears the Eminence came in. In partular the Eminence Tonespotter and Wizard. The Tonespotter now resides within the Cornford because it is a very warm speaker with the ability to sound angry or chimey,or clean. The Wizard was much the same only louder. I think the Cornford guys should try the Heritage Vintage 30 G12H speakers if they are locked into Celestion - this was the speaker of the seventies rock guitar heroes and the Eminence Wizard is modelled on and they are CHEAP by comparison. I digress but this is important guys. This is a killer amp - more so with the my 1960 Strat, very chimey(Little Wing, Sweet Home Alabama) but beautiful breakup when needed(Blackmore Machine Head era), I found my 1960 Les Paul to be good as well with a bit more tweaking(Billy Gibbons pre 1980's). Right now I cannot think of a better clubbing or studio amp. No wonder Satriani loves it so. I've given it a 7 because of the amount of difference a good speaker makes to the sound and the expense added to an already pricey amp. Now it sounds like a 10.

So far so good -

Cannot say enough good things about these guys, they have always been extremely patient and helpful with my somewhat anal questions

Been playing for 30 years, I use USA boutique pedals, a 1960 strat with bareknuckles "Irish Tour" pickups, a Gibson Les Paul 1960 "Classic" reissue with Bareknuckles "Mule" humbuckers that were custom wound, and George-L cables. The only effects I use are Wah(Reece RMC-3)Analog Mike stuff, Roger Mayer Octavia(signed by the man himself)Arion Stereo chorus, Sweetsound ultravibe.

Follow-on to my earlier submittal -

Time for the 10. This amp just keeps sounding better over time. I've used it through a 2x12 cab with Celestion Blue Alnico's - with both open and closed back - and it sounds great. But here's a surprise: I found it sounds better through my broken-in Marshall 1960AV with the Vintage 30's. I expect Paul and Martin voiced these amps for the V30's.
I'm currently using a new Eric Johnson Strat through it and it sounds GREAT. I love the sound of the Les Paul and the Flying V98, but the strat sounds amazing too. Most amps favor the single coil OR the humbuckers. The Cornford loves them both.
Kudos guys - you've got a GREAT amp sound. If I ever decide to look for another, I have no intention to look any further than Cornford.

No problems so far, and with the build quality I really don't expect any.

Martin always answered emails promptly

Have owned Marshalls, Fenders and Vox, and played through Dr Z, Bad Cat's, etc., etc. I'm only interested in what Cornford is putting out these days.

All has been said. Very simple but tonefull amp. I have it since 7 months ago. Cornford has no distributor in France so I've ordered it at the Oxford guitar gallery in UK (very cool shop, very trustworthy). So I have it with the original english plug, a true english classic !

I use it with a Gibson '61 reissue SG (with Wagner crossroad pickups) and this team sounds fantastic. The tone is very warm, dynamic and responsive. This amp can do a lot of different sounds, from bell like clean tones to creamy distorsion. All the reviews are right, the tone is really great. With the SG, think Black Sabbath or Cream. With the hurricane you can play a lot of different styles. It's mainly a classic rock amp but it works wonderfull with blues, pop, reggae, jazz, hard rock etc... It's not an amp to play pantera or korn style. But if you like some vintage rock tones a la AC/DC, led Zep, Kravitz etc... it 'll be difficult to find a better amp.
And 20 W is far enough to play in a band situation ( and I play loud...).

Point to point hand wired, very well built and smells good. What else ?

First class. They answered to all my e-mail very fast and recommended the Oxford guitar gallery to me. Very friendly and serious.

Nothing is perfect but this amp is a really a bomb. In french I would say "ph?nom?nal !"
Send me an e-mail if you have some questions.

Usual cast of characters already outlined below. Simple, straight forward tonestack, 1 - 8ohm and 2 - 4 ohm speaker outputs. Two changes would get this a ten: 16 ohm speaker output and a standby switch.

This is the "initial" review, as I've only had it three days and have about six hours playing time on it.

Day 1:
Initially I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. I was comparing it to my Marshall DSL 100, and before you say "WHAT???", let me say the DSL isn't quite stock. I run it with G12AX7M "Mullard Reissue" preamp tubes, which are very musical, and the EL34's are gone, replaced with either two THD YellowJackes with JJ EL84's for 20w "Class A", or with four of the same for 40w. I'm running the 20w or 40w through a 212 Avatar cab with Celestion Blue Alnico's (using either open or closed back), and the overall tone is REALLY nice.

In comes the Hurricane. I initially fired it up, and was a bit disappointed in not getting the high end I was used to with the Marshall. Felt the voicing may have been lacking in the treble department (that's intentional - by design, by the way). The cleans were really nice, but it seemed to lose articulation with volume/gain added to the mix. Played it for a while, and considered shipping it back to the dealer and spending some bucks on a Mercury Magnetics output transformer for the DSL and adding another 212 cab with G12H30's to fill in more low end.

Day 2:
I'm using three guitars through this amp: Gibson Les Paul Custom and Flying V'98, and a Fender Eric Clapton Strat with the Vintage Noiseless pickups. While playing the "V" through it yesterday, the amp really seemed to start "opening up". It brightened, but not in a "harsh" way at all - a really nicely voiced high end thats clear, singing, but not "painful" to hear - even at higher volumes. I played more with the tonestack and the articulation was there. I then plugged the 8 ohm vintage 30 into one of the 4 ohm speaker outs, and plugged the 16 ohm 212 with the blues into the other 4 ohm (comes out to about 5.33 ohms), and MAN this thing started singing.
I know there's something to dealing with some component, output transformer, and speaker "break in" time, and perhaps thats whats happening here. All I know is that three days into playing through this, my home is about to become a "Marshall Free Zone". Doesn't look quite as cool as my DSL 100, JTM 45 (yep - it's going too), and the 1960AV cab all piled up together...

Lessons learned - I used a THD Hotplate with this amp the first day so I could wind up the Master to 8 and the Gain to 7 in my music room at home. The Hotplate seems to squash some of the tone. Found out this amp sounds great even without cranking the el84's, so out goes the Hotplate. With the Master on 3 and the Gain on 7, and through the Vintage 30/Blue Alnico speakers, this thing sounds great.
Also - give the Hurricane a few good hours of "melodic mayhem" and though it sounds really good right out of the box, it will, in short order, open up and really start singing.
I'll write another review after I've beaten on this a few months. If the trend continues, and from the user reviews below it looks like it will, I'll be entering my "10"s on "Sounds", Reliability", and Overall Rating".
Stay tuned -

Don't know, as I've not had it long. From the build quality, which is clearly VERY good, I'm not worried.

Martin Kidd is prompt and helpful in answering any questions I have. These guys care, and keep up with all their babies they're sending to us whacko musicians around the world. He and Paul would probably beat some of us if they knew how we treated their amps...

ALSO - I live in the Dallas TX area, and there's no Cornford dealers nearby. Gary and Shawna at GuitarX in Denver (bought the Hurricane through GuitarX) were the BEST to work with in this "long distance" purchase. Look no further than them for Cornford amps.

I've been playing since 1972. Owned Vox, Fender, and Marshall amps. I've played, and tried to like the Bad Cat and Dr Z amps, and although they're really great amps, the Cornford sound, in my opinion, is better. This one is rapidly moving out front of the pack of my favorite amps.
I'd really like to see a Cornford dealer here in the Dallas, TX area. Maybe "Charlies Guitar" (Charlie Wirz did lots of guitar building/repairing for SRV in the old days), "Brook Mays", "Larry Morgan Music", or "Guitar Center" (Sponsored the Clapton "Crossroads" concert here in Dallas?). BUT - until there's a Cornford dealer down your street, talk to Gary and Shawna at GuitarX in Denver.

I bought this used in Jan 2004 from a store selling it on E-bay. The features have been outlined in previous reviews. Here are the basics: one channel, master volume amp with controls for gain, reverb, treble, mid, bass and master volume. There is also an input and output jack for the FX loop. Pre-amp, power amp and reverb are tube powered with a solid state rectifier, 1 Vintage 30 Celestion speaker. 4 12AX7 and 2 EL84 tubes. Large cabinet for a single 12" speaker. A very basic, useful, simple and toneful combination of features.

I waited almost a year after getting this amp to write a review. This is the best sounding amp I have ever played through. I first played through a Huricane at Fazio's music in St. Louis about 3 years ago. I was looking for a 1 x 12" combo that could do a Marshall OD sound well. I have a bad back so a 1 x 12" combo is the biggest amp I like to lug around. I tried for about 18 months to find an amp I liked as much as the Hurricane, but at a lower price. I tried some really nice amps: Dr Z Maz 18 and 38, Carr Slant 6V, Mesa F-30, some Marshalls, but I could not find anything that compared to the Hurricanes crunch and distortion sounds. Luckilly I found a Hurricane on E-bay.
I have a Fender American Telecaster and a Parker Fly Deluxe (guitars at opposite ends of the technolgy scale) that both sound great through this amp. I love to play classic rock, blues, a little 80's metal and funk in that order, and the Hurricane has a range of tones from clean to hi-gain that can do each of these styles well. My only current regular playing out is about twice a month at church for a contemporary service. I have never heard an amp that can do both beautiful cleans, all ranges of OD all the way up to Marshal like distortion sounds. I usually play the humbucker equipped Parker throught the hi-gain input. With the volume about half way up, the Parker stays really clean up until about 4.5 on the gain knob. From there on up you can add mildly overdriven sound with the gain knob. The kind where you dig in and the amp barks back with some hair on it, or dial back your guitar volume to clean it right back up. Increasing the gain further gives you a singing lead tone and chunky rythThe Tele w/ single coils throught the same setup stays really clean up until about 6 on the gain knob and can do crunchy rock sounds with the gain even higher. The amp tends to emphasize the midrange (due to its circuit and its speaker) and the usually bright Tele takes on a more rock sound than with a Fender amp. The 20 watt rating is a little misleading, this is a loud 20 watts. The efficient Vintage 30 speaker probably has a lot to do with that. The sounds I am describing are for the the guitar straight into the amp, but the Hurricane responds well to all my pedals, that include overdrives (VL Sparkle Drive, Barber Direct Drive SS), modulation effects (Line 6 MM-4, MXR Phase 90) and delays (Line 6 DL-4).
I just got a Celestion Neodymium Vintage speaker for Christmas and had it installed. I have only played about 2 hours on the speaker, so it is not broken in yet. The sound is very similar to the Vintage 30 (which what I wanted since I liked the original tone)but this new speaker is about 7.5 lbs lighter than the old! I am pretty sure in 10 years almost all instrument and PA speakers will be made with this new material because its still sounds good but weighs about 33 - 50% of an iron magnet speaker.

Because of the hand wired construction, quality components and excellent design, I will assume the Hurricane will remain trouble free. I won't take a backup amp to a gig, but always carry spare power tubes in case of a problem.

I have e-mailed them several times, most of the times with quick responses from one of the amps two designers. They also sent me a copy of the Manual in Word at my request. Seem like a stand up group.

I have been playing guitar for about 17 years and this is the finest amp I have ever played or owned. I own several other amps including 3 Fenders, a couple of more guitars and a bunch of pedals. I could do almost any gig for the style music I play with just the Hurricane and my guitar. The best part about the amp is the incredible tone and versatility from clean to high gain. I would definitely rplace this amp if something happened to it. I wish it weighed about 15 lbs and cost around $500. but you do get what you pay for.