OK – Nocturne pedal 007 (
!) has travelled a few thousand miles around the globe and has now arrived safely in my hands (thanks for the excellent packaging Tavo!!)
Out of the box first impressions are of a normal sized enclosure put together very neatly and built like a tank – I am very happy to say the quality of construction and finish is just as good as pedals I have in my collection from boutique manufacturers such as Fulltone and Barber
.
Well does it work and what does it sound like? – yes it works and the short answer is that is does indeed sound awesome (more comments on this later) but first a quick comment on the LED. What about it I hear you say - all pedal come with them – yep but this one is purple and VERY bright – it really surprised me but is very cool. I think it will look great on a dark stage!!
OK – to demo the Nocturne I used my usual “small club” rig consisting of the following:
- Gretsch G6116PTV Power Tenny to
- SIB Mr Echo delay pedal to
- 1967 Fender VibroChamp (converted into a piggyback head) to
- 2 x 12 closed back cabinet by JDesigns (with one Weber ceramic Blue Dog and one Silver Bell 50W speaker wired for a 4 ohm load)
The Nocturne was inserted before the delay pedal and away I went – The VibroChamp was set at its usual gigging level which is volume at 9 out of 10 into input 2 (the lower gain of the two inputs)
After a while of playing I thought it may be of some interest and use for people to hear what this pedal does to my particular rig. As such I have done a few quick (and rough) demo’s to give you an idea of how it reacts with my set-up and improves the overall sound – I will go into more detail of my own impressions but please visit the link below where you can either stream or download 5 short demo pieces. Each demo starts with the Nocturne off and the riff is repeated with the Nocturne switched on (you can hear the switch being activated).
Nocturne demo filesA quick note about the recording process – it was done very quickly and simply by using my Edirol R-09 portable recorder placed about 10 feet (3 metres or so) away just to get an ambient room sound (on some of the quieter bits you can hear the acoustic sound of the guitar as well). These raw files were just trimmed on my computer and the files were normalized. No compression, reverb, other effects or digital trickery were used – what you hear is what I heard in the room (for better or worse).
Do I think it makes a positive contribution to the sound of my rig – absolutely! – it enhances, thickens, boosts, and enlivens the sound that comes out of the speakers – this is very much an inspirational sound and makes my playing more enjoyable. In contrast the sound without it is thin and lifeless in comparison (it’s a really good sound on its own but when you have just taken the Nocturne pedal out of the rig you can’t help to compare the sound with that you have just heard).
I found that I need to eq The VibroChamp a bit from my standard setting (treble on 7 and bass on 3) as it was producing a lot of bass - with the revised eq (treble 7 and bass on 1) the bass stayed defined - I also used Tavo's treble cut knob (i liked it a 1 o'oclock ) and the gain control was set to 3 1/2 for these recordings. The Powertron pickups iin the Tenny mean that any higher and the Champ went into Tweedy /Fuzzy overdrive heaven.
It is also very reactive to the guitars volume knob (as can be heard at the end of the “country style” example!) which will make it very stage friendly – controlling everything the old fashioned way without resorting to a myriad of stomp boxes to give varying levels of distortion or overdrive – cool!
Having said that the pedal makes a really positive contribution to my sound do I think its good value for money or is it one of these over-priced boutique pedals? – its great value for money – especially considering its all handmade by a one man business – I wouldn’t have been particularly surprised if the price was $299 considering the amount of R&D time and the fact that it is hand made in such small quantities – the fact that its just over half that means (in my opinion) its great value for money.
Overall I can only congratulate Tavo for his selfless work and devotion to providing us with a sound that really is something else man!
As an aside I have an EP-PRE pedal whcih basically mimics the front end of an EP3 Echoplex (also known for its tone enhancing qualities) - I did a very quick experiment running the two units before the delay - the result? each individual pedal worked fine on its own - both on together and they cancelled each other out to the point that it was like neither was on - interesting!!!
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Subject: Nocturne 007 has landed - review and demo 
Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:12 am
