I am starting the final straight on my next amp purchase. It is either a Soldano or a Cornford. Leaving the Soldanos aside for now, I have a few questions about Cornfords The Hellcat is possibly too vintagy for me so I am looking at either the mk50 or RK100. Is the RK100 very similar to the mk50 in terms of overdrive? Does the RK100 have an fx loop? Does it have reverb? I wish cornford would update their site to include the rk100 and also some sound clips of the hellcat & rk100. The shop I am testing in on Sat morning only keeps hellcat/mk50, no RK100, so I'd be taking a risk going for the RK. I heard PatrickJPS clips of the rk100 and it smokes, but I wonder how it compares to the mk50.
hey I'm interested in how that Hellcat sounds, can you give me a review? Is the MK50h more towards uberschall? (ive got that, i'm looking for a lesser high gain)
Not to my ear. It's more hot classic rock with strong mids. Uberschall has high gain like sawing cars in half. Uberschall is actually more versatile, but MK50 has it's charm. Neither one has a clean to write home about. I've never come across an RK100 so I can't say anything about that.
The Hellcat has a character of its own - it has an el84 powerstage which gives it a wiff of ac30 with a cranked marshall vibe. I tried one through a cornford 2x12 and was delighted by it, however when I tried it through a marshall 4x12 t75s it didn't sound as good. I think all cornfords sound better through v30s. The two channels have different vibes to them - vintage is more plexi-ish, kind of a brown sound - modern channel is similar to mk50, but obviously the el84s give it a different flavour. I seem to remember the reverb had an effect on the tone too. The mk50 is a straight forward overdrive amp imo. I would probably set channel one to be crunchy-ish and back off on the guitar for clean, and set channel two for full overdrive - boosting the loop for volume boost for solos. I'm going to test the mk50 & hellcat tomorrow so will report back
There's a review of the RK100 in a recent (can't remember which month) Guitar Buyer. I don't have the review to hand right now but from memory I think the RK100 is single channel, no reverb, serial loop with a high/low gain footswitch. The blurb said the design was initially based on the MK50 but then they modded the pre-amp quite a lot rather than just upping the power stage to 100W. If Sounds Great don't have an RK100, try emailing Cornford to check who has one in stock. They're ususally pretty good at responding to emails.
Good plan fuzzface. Shame the boost isn't adjustable. Does it give much volume boost or is it akin to switching an OD pedal on before the amp?
I've had the extreme pleasure of playing the RK100 in California (Tone Merchants)... The amp is very loud, thick, and open sounding with less compression than the MK50H... To me, the RK100 is probably the most traditional style amp head that Cornford makes in the sense that it's a single channel job with a very straight forward control panel... It has more low end than the MK50H... It has a footswitch labeled "hot" that pushes the amp to earlier breakup for leads though I think it sounds great on all the time... Personally, I would love to see an RK50 model with two MV's like the MK50H...
Personally, I think Paul Cornford makes some of the best amps on the market right now... What I really love about both the MK50H and the RK100 are that the amps are very dependent on the player... What comes out of these things depends on what the player squeezes out of his hands and his axe... The amps are very touch sensitive and have a voice all their own... Very British sounding (naturally since they are UK made) in which Paul Cornford takes the characteristics of all the great British amps and tosses them into one package while giving them their own voice... To me, the Hellcat is too compressed... It sounds great with other people giving it a go but not when I plug into it... It's the way I play I think... I like my amps to sound nice and open like a Hiwatt or an old Marshall Plexi... That's why I say RK50 with the 2 MV's... That would be my dream amp... I really love both though... Great stuff and I love that grill... Very cool looking amps to boot...
here is a dreadful quality pic of my Hellcat / 2 x12 with V30`s The Hellcat is an astonishing amplifier in my opinion. If its chuggah chuggah death metal depth you want, you wont find it in the hellcat. Its vintage channel has the sweetest cleans, add a little reverb and its just glorious to behold. Turn it up and your into marshall plexi crunchy territory , superb for rhythm gtr duties. switch to modern and the thing takes off. Hellcat has gain by the shedload, and its sweet, fat and doesnt know when to stop sustaining. You wanna hear still got the blues thru a hellcat !! The V30 spkr is the one Martin Kidd of Cornford intended to use with the hellcat and it is a match forged in heaven......truly.I used mine with a Marshall cab that has celestion 75`s, the cab blows and the speakers suck ............yet it still yielded respectable tones. You buy a Cornford.....you use V30 speakers , thats the way Martin intended em to be used. Build quality on any Cornford is without peer , just lift a head, combo or cab and see for yourself. I dont have a 100 watter cos youd never get to open it up without attenuation , which i dont like. The hellcat is a LOUD 35 watts and in a gig you can use it from 7 thru to 11 and cut thru a mix like a knife thru butter. only big venue gigs require you to mic it thru a PA. So, in short, the sweetest cleans, glorious reverb , marshall crunchiness thru to sreaming sustaining overdrive with nary a hint of harshness is what the hellcat is truly about. I adore mine as much as I can adore an amplifier, with my R9 , she almost brings tears to my lil ol eyes. I hope this helps you. jimmy
The MK50H is actually a single channel amp with a boost switch and a two master volumes... You could get some great overdrive with the boost and then switch to the second MV during leads so there is no tone change... Just volume increase... Probably my fave Cornford but that RK100 is pretty damn cool...
hmmm I was talking to the guy in sounds great and he was saying that it is a 2 channel amp since one of the channels has a different gain stage or something? I didn't catch his exact wordings because I was too busy drooling over the amp. So the mk50 is really a single channel amp with 2 masters similar to a SLX???
The MK50H is indeed a single channel amp with 2 MV's but trust me, it's not like the SLX... I think it cleans up beautifully and has it's own vibe going... I think the guy at Sounds Great might have been confused and was talking about the Hellcat... I know that one has 2 channels...
no, he was defo talking about the mk50. He said that although most people thought of it as a single channel amp, one of the "channels" has a diferent gain stack to it so you could argue that it is two channel with a shared eq?? So long as I can set one channel reasonably clean and one channel balls out rock, I;ll be happy
My MK50 is a one channel amp with two masters but it plays like a two channel amp with two similar channels. I don't know the SLX but compared to single channel with two volume amps like Dual Professional, the MK50 feels more like a two channel amp with shared EQ.
The RK100 is the amp on top of my must try pile. This thing looks exactly what I would love in an amp. I can't stand too many bells and whistles, I just want flat out balls to the wall For everyones info here is an article done by the UK Guitarist mag. Pretty good write up me thinks. http://www.coda-music.com/cornford/git257.cornford.pdf
The MK50 is a single channel amp but since it has foot-switchable gain boost and master vols, by jumping on both switches at once you can get pseudo-channel switch. A lot of amp makers actually do this with a single button and call it channel-switching. But like "class A" it's a mis-applied term and I know Cornford are very clear about the MK50 being a single channel amp (albeit with some clever bits thrown in). BTW, some of the newer guys in Sounds Great aren't the greatest techie experts - most of them are players not amp techs. Speak to Gary or Rick if you can.
