Cornford amps in trouble?

[Fretwired]

Cornford haven't existed as a company for years, straight edge have been building them to order for Andertons and coda music and covering any warrany issues.I suspect this is the last run of this line unless someone resurrects the brand.Shame really

Apparently Straight Edge were building Cornford amps/cabs for years. They make amps and cabs for a number of well known UK-based brands.

[hotpickups]

Still, they are fantastic amps. Shame I'm selling mine but needs must etc

[cacofonix]

Gosh. Think I'll keep my hurricane after all. Soon to be come rare and collectible. Wish it was bigger though.

[cacofonix]

Sad news if that's the case.

I'm not up on their range - what's the 20w amp?

I remember a Tele into one of those at full volume at Mr Arrowhead's house; it was hugely impressive. Oh, and loud.

Hurricane. Great amp. It's the only one of the range that didn't sound harsh to me. Same with BKP Irish Tours.

[Tuscan777]

I had a Cornford once, worst amp in terms of reliability, best in terms of sound. Shame.

The worst part was dealing with Cornford themselves, no reply to phone calls or emails. In the end I rocked up at their 'factory' and got to speak to someone there. Luckily I only lived 10 mins away.

I'm not surprised that they've gone under with such poor customer service. Still a huge shame though. Looks like Martin Kidd's rock covers band is still busy though, I'll try to catch him a a local pub soon and find out what is going on with his new venture.

[jpfamps]

I had a Cornford once, worst amp in terms of reliability, best in terms of sound. Shame.

The worst part was dealing with Cornford themselves, no reply to phone calls or emails. In the end I rocked up at their 'factory' and got to speak to someone there. Luckily I only lived 10 mins away.

I'm not surprised that they've gone under with such poor customer service. Still a huge shame though. Looks like Martin Kidd's rock covers band is still busy though, I'll try to catch him a a local pub soon and find out what is going on with his new venture.

I think it's common knowledge that Paul Cornford has been very ill and that Cornford Amps suffered a fire that interrupted production. From what I understand one of the major problems caused by the fire was that the pots Cornford used were destroyed and as they used non-standard CTS pots with a long lead time, production was held up further (one reason why it's a good idea to employ standard parts).

I can't comment on Cornford's alleged poor customer service, but I suspect the above events are related to it.

Cornford probably only had a few employees, and I expect with the above problems the main focus was trying to keep the show on the road.

Customer service is not free; has to be paid for by someone.

In the past this was taken care of by the retailer. An untended consequence of the internet is that by erroding retail margins customer service has suffered.

Generally given the choice punters want cheap.

[Fretwired]

I think it's common knowledge that Paul Cornford has been very ill and that Cornford Amps suffered a fire that interrupted production. From what I understand one of the major problems caused by the fire was that the pots Cornford used were destroyed and as they used non-standard CTS pots with a long lead time, production was held up further (one reason why it's a good idea to employ standard parts).

I can't comment on Cornford's alleged poor customer service, but I suspect the above events are related to it.

Cornford probably only had a few employees, and I expect with the above problems the main focus was trying to keep the show on the road.

Customer service is not free; has to be paid for by someone.

In the past this was taken care of by the retailer. An untended consequence of the internet is that by erroding retail margins customer service has suffered.

Generally given the choice punters want cheap.

A guy on the Cornford forums did a Companies House search on Cornford Amps and Straight Edge Engineering [the firm that now builds Cornford amps] and found out that the MD of Straight Edge is still listed as a director of Cornford. Maybe Straight Edge will continue to build the Cornford range, or build a new range of amps based on the Cornford designs as Martin Kidd is currently working on a 'new' amp range for Straight Edge. It could just be that the poor customer service may have damaged the Cornford brand too much - it would seem that Cornford spares are being sold off on eBay.

A shame given Mark Tremonti was raving about his Cornford RK setup last year in Guitarist.

[Tuscan777]

I think it's common knowledge that Paul Cornford has been very ill and that Cornford Amps suffered a fire that interrupted production. From what I understand one of the major problems caused by the fire was that the pots Cornford used were destroyed and as they used non-standard CTS pots with a long lead time, production was held up further (one reason why it's a good idea to employ standard parts).

I can't comment on Cornford's alleged poor customer service, but I suspect the above events are related to it.

Cornford probably only had a few employees, and I expect with the above problems the main focus was trying to keep the show on the road.

Customer service is not free; has to be paid for by someone.

In the past this was taken care of by the retailer. An untended consequence of the internet is that by erroding retail margins customer service has suffered.

Generally given the choice punters want cheap.

Yep, all true. However, my purchase and problems were way before either the health or fire concerns.

I know for certain that Cornford did only have few employees, but surely one of those should have picked up the phone over the 27 times I called, or 17 emails I sent (yes, I kept a record in case things went pear shaped and my cash return looked shakey!).

More worrying, and what put the final nail in the coffin of the purchase, was that it went back to the Cornford factory for repair, was returned as fixed but then went terminal again within a week. Maybe just unlucky but enough for me to pull out of the deal.

As I said, it sounded fab, but I'll take reliability every time and my experience didn't suggest Cornford would give that.

Real shame they seem to have gone under though.

[Dave_Mc]

^ that sucks. I was sorta thinking of getting a cornford a while back, but the scare stories about the customer service scared me off (it does suck about paul being ill and the factory going on fire- i'm not saying it's all their own fault). Also I finally managed to get to try a (second-hand) carrera and didn't really like it.

I agree with you regarding the reliability... something that sounds awesome but which never works is not much use. Granted something which works forever but which sounds horrible isn't much use either, lol, but a happy medium of something which sounds good and which is reliable too is normally the thing.

[jpfamps]

Yep, all true. However, my purchase and problems were way before either the health or fire concerns.

I know for certain that Cornford did only have few employees, but surely one of those should have picked up the phone over the 27 times I called, or 17 emails I sent (yes, I kept a record in case things went pear shaped and my cash return looked shakey!).

More worrying, and what put the final nail in the coffin of the purchase, was that it went back to the Cornford factory for repair, was returned as fixed but then went terminal again within a week. Maybe just unlucky but enough for me to pull out of the deal.

As I said, it sounded fab, but I'll take reliability every time and my experience didn't suggest Cornford would give that.

Real shame they seem to have gone under though.

Out of interest (and not in any way excusing Cornford's customer service or lack thereof), why did you not take up any issues with the retailer?