Cornell Romany, amazing home/studio amp – Review

Cornell Romany - 10 watt single tube amplifier

Cornell Romany

The Cornell Romany is a 10 watt tube amp, designed for the home and studio.

• Switchable between 10w, 2w and 1/4w
• Tweed finish
• Single 10" Jenson Blue Label speaker
• One input
• Treble/Bass

Retails around £730.

Build Quality

These amps are handbuilt in the UK, the attention to detail is amazing everything from the nice badges to the mesh has quality written all over it.

I can't see any issues with either the finish or controls here and they are styled to match the retro vibe.

Ease of use

All controls are clearly labeled and well laid out and I haven't had any issues locating them in both a well lit and dimly lit room.

The Romany employs chicken head knobs for all of the controls except for the power, which is a single switch.

When its on there is a red light, thats as complicated as it gets and it doesn't need to be anything else.

Sounds

Think Stevie Ray Vaughan and thats where this sits for me, a classic tone which is well suited to the blues, I have used a variety of guitars including a Les Paul and Stratocaster and it doesn't disappoint.

The amazing thing with this amp though is it's remarkably versatile, I've had it cranked using both the natural distortion (aided by the 2 watt change so not to annoy the whole street!) and using an OD pedal and it's got such a nice crunchy sound to it.

I've always thought that this class of amp was built for blues but I stand corrected, for home use this is going to be just fine for many styles.  Speaking of the home you aren't going to be gigging with the Romany, it needs to be thought of as a home / studio amplifier.  Big amps are a pain for home levels though, it's hard to keep your tone at low levels and the Romany is hard to fault for this and it makes you want to stay plugged in rather than dig out all the cables for your main rig.

Check out the video for more on the sound demo.

Value for money

I think this amp is remarkable value for money, especially when you remember its been handmade here in the UK.

As already mentioned this is going to be great for the home and studio in which is shines, I would happily trade a big 4x12 stack at home for one of these.

Overall

As you can tell I love this amp and would happily use it at home, I would much rather keep it simple and have nice tone at low levels than try to control my normal 100 watt rig at home.

My video has shown its versatility and that it can be thought of as the perfect amp for home / studio use rather than a perception that it's just for those lovely vintage tones, which by the way it nails.

G | H rating 5/5

Thanks to World Guitars for the amp.