jj-150 pedal JR BARNYARD® EH-150 /185 octal tube style Preamp – The Nocturne Brain

jj-150 pedal JR BARNYARD® EH-150 /185 octal tube style Preamp – The Nocturne BrainThe JR BARNYARD (( color: Cola these ship June 30) Pre War Hot Preamp ( 1930's 40s octal tube amp character pedal). Inspired by my Moonshine'39 amp a repro of the 1939 Gibson EH 150 185 pre war tweed amp and its octal tubes. I've created a textured hot club style preamp to garner those early Charlie Christian flutey reedy amp tones to Texas Playboys Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin dirty octal tube swingin texas blues. More or less designed to

The  JR BARNYARD® (( color: Cola these ship June 30)
Pre-War Hot Preamp ( 1930's-40s octal tube amp character pedal). Inspired by my Moonshine'39 amp a repro of the 1939 Gibson EH-150 /185 pre war tweed amp and its octal tubes. I've created a textured hot club style preamp to garner those early Charlie Christian flutey reedy amp tones to Texas Playboys Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin dirty octal tube swingin texas blues. More or less designed to emulate the preamp circuit of the Gibson EH-150 / EH-185.

Looks like we've got more than just jazz and blues guitarists using this lil amp in a box character pedal, now. Blues Harp players. acoustic, country, alt rock and steel guitarists, as well as bassists and keyboard players are plugging into the Jr. Barnyard hot pre amp!

Standard model (single stomp), a new single stomp version w a blend control between the normal and mic channel plus a smaller compact size!! Much more versatile to boot!

With so many players gravitating toward easily mobilized rigs, be they compact nice solid state amps like Quilter, Milkman,etc or direct to house units (FRFR) like the Strymon Iridium, helix stomp,etc w IR (impulse response) tech.. the player can feel removed from the tactile response they've grown accustom to w a tube amp's dynamic interaction and interplay between clean and "edge-of-breakup" w the guitarists fingers and speaker. Even more so with roots musicians who crave that tweed response, or even further back with octal tube amps reedy bark.   

I've come up with touch sensitive solution with both my Jr Barnyard Hot Preamp and its flagship the El Pescadoro, that adds a pre-fender, Chess records era dual channel reverb that brings chamber and plate reverbs from that late 40s-50s era of reverberation. you can read more about it on my website here: https://www.thenocturnebrain.com/collections/pedals/products/el-pescadoro-reverberant-hot-preamp

the ultimate jazz, jump blues & western swing pedal. some are using it for honky, surf and shoe-gaze. :) 

(handwired original version is also avail as an upgrade option, choose from dropdown window)

Some folks call this a vintage Octal Tube Amp in a box as you can pull off the classic 30s Gibson octal tube sound from most any amp or even straight to a PA system (assuming you have a decent soundman). It aims at giving you the texture and dynamics you hear and feel from that pre world war II era gibby ES150-185 amps. (if you want a full on replication of an actual tit for tat octal tube amp, I make the Moonshine'39 octal tube amp based on my vintage EH-185 amp built late in 1939 which literally has the EH-150 stamp on it still.)

https://www.thenocturnebrain.com/products/moonshine39-combo

the basic sound easily dialed in from this class A discreet preamp is that punchy honky almost reedy/flutey (no more eee's pleeeze) late 30's and 40s swing sound, like Oscar Moore, CHarlie Christian, and (contemporary) Whit Smith are found here. ..or crank it up for full on chess era wooly 50s chicago rhythm and blues. (be sure to check out the EL Pescadoro if you want that leonard chess studio chamber/plate verb added: 

https://www.thenocturnebrain.com/products/el-pescadoro-reverberant-hot-preamp

This Transistor (BJT not FET, edit) based preamp uses 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, (NOTE:handwired version uses pcb through hole components, standard version uses mini component SMD circuitboards) Switchcraft jacks and hand wired leads from the circuit board like a vintage american amplifier. 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 into the 50s. Think Chicago Chess and Checker label recordings as well as Memphis Stax recorded amps.

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.

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.
  I added a second channel that blends in the hotter mic channel of the EH185 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 (no power supply adapter included, requires audio quality 9v DC power supply ONLY!! ) 

Non-USA players note: if you are in EU/ UK, 230v mains want to see the Boss PSU230 9v DC power supply.

vid demos

(this link shares the control features of the V2 Jr Barnyard)

https://www.facebook.com/100005950302191/videos/1768128690062124/

FWIW regarding control set up:

I keep it in bass mode for the guitar honestly, as it makes it more authentic "wooly" in the low end, and I keep the switch flipped up as that cuts some of the presence but adds another gain stage in that frequency. W the volume at 11 oclock to 1 oclock w the blend control around 10 oclock, thats pretty much heaven for me.

This is what the controls are all doing:

left switch is a presence cut, right switch is bass or guitar mode. Left knob is volume, right knob is a blend knob between two channels. all the way to the left is the clean/normal channel and all the way to the right is the hot/mic channel. At about 11 oclock the hot channel begins to blend into the clean channel.

 JR BARNYARD® trademark serial number 90540584 - 6612906

These are built per order, no returns. 1 year warranty on all parts and labor, shipping not included, no power supply included