f a
company is only ever going to sell to
the artist himself. With the RK 100
Cornford has not only succeeded in
creating a ne-looking head and
matching cab, but it has actually
managed to come up with something
unquestionably simple that should
appeal to a wide range of players. You
might be surprised to learn that, for a
player of Richie Kotzens versatility, the
ampli er features just a single channel.
No mess, no fuss, just a 100W single
channel ampli er of the purest
con guration. Its only concession to
modern day design is an attenuation
switch, but more about that later.
RK 100
When compared to the control panels
of many modern ampli ers the RK 100
looks decidedly sparse. There are no
push buttons or switches, no ashing
lights or MIDI store buttons. You wont
nd any voicing switches, reverb
controls or indeed anything other than
the gain, our ubiquitous triumvirate of
passive bass/mid/treble tone controls
and a master volume. An overall
presence control governs the nearness
of your tone, but thats your lot for the
front panel.
For all its modern attributes in terms
of styling and gain structure, this
ampli er certainly harks back to the
simpler amp designs of yesteryear. To
the left of the brushed stainless steel
control panel a single guitar input sits
above the jack socket for the
footswitch. Richie speci ed a front-
mounted socket to save having to ddle
about round the back of the ampli er
when setting up at shows. Above the
heavy-duty footswitch button the label
reads Hot, which makes one naturally
assume that it is some kind of boost
switch. In fact, the opposite is true.
Once youve set up a sound to your
taste this pedal reduces the output of
the rst gain stage and has the same
effect as rolling back the volume of your
guitar a predetermined amount. So
youre actually getting a cut, which of
course can be viewed as a boost when
approached from the other direction.
Geddit? Most valve amp players would
agree that the best clean tones are
often born of a dirty sound cleaned-up
by backing off the volume, and this
design supports that thinking.
In terms of nuts and bolts, the RK 100
follows the time-honoured, hand-wired,
point-to-point convention of all the
truly great guitar ampli ers. Not
a printed circuit board in sight, just
Tone is the name of the game
and Richie Kotzens new
Cornford is built from the
ground up to deliver 100-watts
of it
by Benji Bartlett
W
No mess, no fuss, just a 100-watt single channel ampli er
of the purest con guration
CORNFORD RK 100 RICHIE KOTZEN SIGNATURE 100W HEAD
£1,799
GUITAR AMPS

CD TRACKS 9 & 10
GIT257.cornford 131
GIT257.cornford 131
25/10/04 10:35:27 am
25/10/04 10:35:27 am heavy-duty transformers and ceramic
valve sockets bolted rmly to the
bombproof steel chassis. This
arrangement is then housed in a 19mm
lock-jointed plywood sleeve topped off
with a chunky, leather carry handle.
As you can see from the internal
shots, as much care has gone into the
layout and neatness of the electronics
as it has the external cosmetics. Both
front and rear panels feature additional
brushed stainless steel plates to help
distinguish the RK 100 from the rest of
the Cornford range. Richie Kotzens
signature unobtrusively adorns the
front and appears again on the plate at
the rear of the RK cabinet. Also round
back weve got a series FX loops with
respective send and return sockets,
twin speaker output jacks and a
switchable speaker impedance selector
(four, eight and 16 Ohms). Weve also
got a pair of output valve failure fuses
that protect your remaining valves
should one of the quartet of JJ Tesla
EL34s ever throw a seven. Should a
failure occur the amp will continue to
function but at half power (50-watts).
The ampli er head is covered with
Kotzen black Tolex as opposed to the
usual Cornford ox blood, and with a
black ampli er it was only tting to
create a black cabinet. Richies input in
this area resulted in a straight-fronted,
mono cabinet (hes not fond of angled
cabs) loaded with a quartet of Celestion
Vintage 30 1 x 12 speakers. The vintage
style woven speaker cloth is a bit of
a departure from Cornfords usual
punched-metal kick grilles and,
according to Cornford designer and
ear Martin Kidd, the cloth provides
just the right kind of ltering for the
voice of this amp. The metal grille
would have sounded too harsh for this
amp, adds Cornford boss Paul, who
proudly goes on to explain the choice of
speaker cable socket tted to the
cabinet. Richie played so loud during
testing that the air pressure created
inside the prototype closed-back
cabinet was suf cient to literally spit
out the speaker cable from its socket,
he says, adding with a wicked grin:
CORNFORD RK 100 RICHIE KOTZEN SIGNATURE 100W HEAD
£1,799
GUITAR AMPS

CD TRACKS 9 & 10
132

DECEMBER 2004
CORNFORD RK 100
PRICE: £1,799
ORIGIN: UK
TYPE: All valve single-
channel head
OUTPUT: 100W RMS
VALVES: Four JJ Tesla
ECC83/12AX7 preamp,
four JJ Tesla EL34 power
amp (also 6L6G
compatible)
DIMENSIONS: 260mm
(h) x 660mm (w) x
230mm (d)
WEIGHT (KG/LB): 25/55
CABINET: 19mm lock
jointed plywood
CHANNELS: One
CONTROLS: Gain, bass,
middle, treble, master
volume, presence,
standby switch, mains
switch
ADDITIONAL
FEATURES: Neutrik
locking speaker cable
connector
OPTIONS: None at
present
RANGE OPTIONS:
Cornford Hellcat
(£1,699) 35W 2 Channel
combo. MK50H (£1,399)
50W, single-channel
switchable master
volume head. Harlequin
(£599) 6W recording
amp. Hurricane (£1,199)
20W combo with reverb
SPEAKER ENCLOSURE:
RK vintage-style with
4 x 12 Celestion Vintage
30 speakers. £699 each
ACCESSORIES: 3M IEC
mains lead, two-foot
speaker cable, 20-foot
footswitch cable, high
quality instrument lead.
Instruction manual. RK
100 footswitch
Cornford
01227 280000
www.cornfordamps.com
The ampli er head is covered with Kotzen black Tolex as
opposed to the usual Cornford ox blood
Things are just as
smart and tidy inside
the amp as they are
on the surface
The amp comes
with its own RK 100
footswitch
CORNFORD RK 100
TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Features
Sound
Value for money

WE LIKED Unbelievably versatile for
a single channel amp

WE DISLIKED Youll need to invest in
a truss to lift it
GIT257.cornford 132
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25/10/04 10:35:35 am
25/10/04 10:35:35 am
DECEMBER 2004

135
The production cabinet remedies this
with a Neutrik locking speaker cable
connector, so you can play at trouser-
apping volumes all day.
SOUNDS: One of the more notable
features in terms of tone is the choice
of EL34 output valves as opposed to the
6L6 valves of the Cornford MK50 which
inspired this amp. On the whole the
EL34s seem to compress a little more
readily than 6L6s, are less hi- in terms
of EQ and exhibit more upper-mid
raunch, more British-ness. If we were
to relate the sound to EQ curves then
6L6s would be a smile with tons of bass
and high end and the EL34s would
show more of a swelling in the mid-
range. A simple bias switch enables you
to switch tubes to 6L6, 5881 or Richies
own choice of EL34 valves tted here.
To fully appreciate a 100W amp like
this its essential to run it at a decent
volume, so you can hear the tonal
contribution of the power output
valves. In that respect its obvious this
amp is aimed at loud live performance
and not bedroom players. That said,
it is possible to get a terri c saturated
gain sound (Cornfords brownest?) at
reasonable volumes for practice.
We began testing the RK-100 set to
a clean tone using Richies signature
Telecaster. In this instance the
attenuation from the footswitch is
already in place. By selecting neck and
bridge pickups simultaneously, and
with the humbucker in phase, the bold,
glassy authority of the tone is
unleashed. The sound is incredibly
clean and crisp with impressive
percussive attack in the low end and an
overall air of greatness that is as
satisfying in its immediacy as it is in its
promise of even better things to come.
When tailoring a tone its worth
remembering the way that passive
controls work. With all tone controls on
maximum the ampli er is speaking its
true voice. All adjustments are then to
your taste. We were genuinely
surprised at the vast array of tones on
offer from this simple set-up and were
able to conjure everything from jangly
rhythm parts to growling blues and
mean n dirty bar-room brawl.
With a quick toe-tap on the Hot
switch, the attenuation is lifted, the
brakes are off and this baby smoothly
accelerates to full speed. Playing the
RK 100 is enlightening in its purity.
With such an uncluttered vibe and
wholesome sound youre reminded of
the incredible versatility of a simple,
well-designed guitar, partnered with
a simple, well-designed amp. No matter
how much of the seemingly unlimited
gain you dial in the guitars character
shines through and note de nition
remains paramount. Individual notes,
even on heavily distorted chords, leap
out with a clarity and transparency that
few ampli ers can match.
Verdict
Guitar ampli cation like this can be
compared to a Formula