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The Nocturne Brain The JR BARNYARD Hot Preamp (octal tube amp character pedal) is probably a bit of a rare guitar pedal category. I find this preamp pedal a bit different from other pedals I have tried, but quite useful in the tones you can get.

Many older tube amps from the late 1930s to 1940s used Octal tubes in their preamps. These 8 pin tubes have a different character than the later high gain 9 pin tubes like the popular 12AX7 (or 12AY7) that was first released for sale in late 1947. Early Gibson, Valco and Epiphone Electar amps played by greats like Texas Swing guitarist Junior Barnard (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys) and Charlie Christian (Benny Goodman) used Octal tubes that contributed to their unique tone and character.

Gibson EH-150 & EH-185, early Oahu-branded Valco Supreme and even some early Fender tweed amps are good examples of amps that used octal tubes. Newer retro amps like Tavo’s Nocturne Brain Moonshine ’39, Little Walter amps, Elektra Amplifiers Europe and Vintage47Amps are available in am modern version using Octal tubes.

Junior Barnard (born Lester Robert Barnard, December 17, 1920 in Coweta, Oklahoma – April 15, 1951 in Fresno County, California) was a pioneering American electric guitarist. He is best known for his work with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

Junior Barnard is among the first electric guitarists to create a guitar effect that anticipated the fuzz tone. The strength of his picking induced some slight “overdrive” in the low-power amplifiers typical of the times. Barnard had an overdriven tube sound decades before it became widely popular with rock guitarists. His main guitar, a blond Epiphone Emperor arch-top (occasionally Junior used a Gibson ES-150) and a Epiphone Electar Zephyr Octal tube amp.

Epiphone Zephyr DeLuxe guitar and Zephyr amplifier

Barnard was killed in an automobile accident when he was only thirty-years-old. Junior Barnard is still idolized by many roots, rockabilly and swing players today.

Before the Tweed Fender 5E3 Deluxe, and the use of 12AX7-type tubes in the early 1950s, Octal tubes like 6SN7, 6SJ7, 6SC7 and 6SL7 where used even in vintage Fender amps. Amps like the Octal Fender Princeton, Fender Tweeds, Epiphone Electar Zephyr, Valco and early Gibson EH-150 or EH-175 are quite collectable today. Many of these amps are 75 years old now and would need quite a lot of maintenance even after restoration. Not exactly, a gigging amp for most players. They were not loud or powerful in today’s standards.

What is an Octal Tube?
An octal tube is a vacuum tube that has an 8-pin base with an 11/16″ diameter keyed locating prong called a spigot in the center. This tube base was introduced by RCA in 1935 for their new line of metal tubes, which they called an “Octal base”.

Octal preamp tubes

The octal base soon caught on for conventional glass tubes as well. Until the introduction of miniature (Noval base) tubes, such as 12AX7 and EL84, the octal base was the most common and popular tube base. Some common octal tubes are 6V6GT, 6L6GC, EL34, 6550, KT88, 6SL7, and 5AR4.

The earliest incarnation of preamp tubes were of the “octal” variety, which represents the number of pins they had. Some of the most common were (and still are) the 6SL7, 6SN7, 5691, and the ECC35. Many tube amp builders still use octal tubes in the preamp section, as they sound bigger, warmer, fatter, and more pleasantly compressed than their miniature cousins. Octals were slowly phased out a few years after WWII, when the nine-pin Noval miniature tubes we know and love today were introduced by RCA in 1939. These encompass all of the 12A-7 tubes, and a few other tubes that were mainly used in televisions and radios.

These Octal tubes continue to be manufactured overseas until this very day, by companies in the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia, and China.

A few modern boutique amp builders like Little Walter Amps, Carl’s Custom Amps and Vintage 47 Amps are still building Octal tube amps. Since a good part of the sound is created in the preamp section of an amp it is no surprise that many are still chasing the tone from the earliest days of electrified guitars using Octal tubes. They tend to have a warmer fatter tone as heard on the early recordings from this era. These were generally low powered small amplifiers that were being pushed a bit with a hollow body guitar with an added low wound pickup.

Players like Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Larry Franklin, Andy Reiss all from then Time Jumpers, Brent Mason and James Burton are endorsees for Little Walter Amps.

I was sad to see that the 75th Anniversary reissue of the Epiphone Century amp was not using an Octal tube preamp.Theses Asian imports have a reproduced old style cabinet, but the amp inside is basically a modern 18-watt tube Class A/B amp using two 6V6, two 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and a diode rectifier with a filter choke (the original model would have had a tube rectifier). There were several styles of vintage Epiphone Century amps. Tthe original 1930s models with the art-deco cabinet made by Epiphone and the chassis designed and built by Nat Daniel, known later for Danelectro guitars and amps. The second series were less stylish but still had rounded top corners as well as a rounded front. These were made until 1954. Third style Epiphone Century amps were made shortly before Epiphone was purchased with Gibson around 1957. These look a bit like Lectrolab amps of the same era which were made by Sound Products, Inc.

The Nocturne The JR BARNYARD preamp pedal is a nice attempt of capturing these tones in a small stomp box. If your are after that Junior Bernard, Charlie Christian or even that Little Walter Chess record sound, this can get you closer without buying an old quite expensive and possible unreliable amp from the late 1930 or 1940s. Just add a hollow body guitar with some flat wound strings!

From Nocturne (Tavo Vega):
This FET based preamp uses a hand selected/spec’d NOS Motorola transistor and a mix of imported Soviet germanium & Fairchild silicon diodes at its core with other sexy components like NOS Mial Caps, NOS Cornell Dublier & Mullard and/or Wima film caps, Switchcraft jacks and hand wired up w Flying leads from the circuit board like a vintage american amplifier, no click n snap offshore junk builds here. This preamp was made to give your instrument and amp the character response of hot octal tubes and field coil type amplifiers of the 40s.

I’ve had players asking for a *junior barnard & *charlie christian type of “warm cook’n” preamp that will keep the transparency of the instrument intact and work w a variety of backline tube amps.. so thats what I ended up with here with this preamp pedal that was actually created for Upright Bass and Acoustic instruments to comp old vintage recorded sounds.

Turns out its badass for guitar too, and this is why it has a Body depth switch (deep & Flat) and Bright switch for a variety of guitars, mandos,ukes, banjos,dreadnaughts..it just flat out brings you into the front of mix with reedy vintage warmth and definition like you hear when the musicians of the *Texas Playboys were asked to floor it w/ a solo by ol’ *Bob Wills. I’ll even go so far to say it will help Gypsy Jazz players comp that snarly Django amplified tone.

Again to be fair, I first developed this for the Gorilla & his Upright bass, so he could get a warmer vintage pluck to his King Double bass, he he does w our 51′ Kay double bass. Then I found it was killer for my own instruments on stage. I added a hot stomp switch to it so I could dial in more texture and finger tone for my vintage style big bobbin single coil guitars. (thats the stomp switch on the left) too boot! I want that Fatboy Rag kinda low down n dirty sound from my guitars that I can click on and off at will from the fairly clean tube amps I perform with.

This pedal is True bypass of course, powered by a standard *boss style 9V DC adaptor but runs at 12V & 18v too if you need a bigger cleaner response for some reason, I want you to be ready for all situations. (no power supply adapter inc, requires audio quality (9v, 12v or 18v adaptor). Pedal box has a baked powder coated finish, & is in a limited “Dirty Snow White” sparkle w original Dakaware vintage style pointer knobs.