anyone not in the states get your Box yet(up to #25)? Its been
sort of quiet.. I know Webby was wrestling with them
to get his, I think he put one in a headlock and told
him the threat level was "orange beyotch" if they didnt hand over
the blue box of Brain Seltzer.

Yeah got it from the stupid tax-guys yesterday (they charged me 25 Euro), didn't have a lot of time to play with it though! Gonna be back with a review soon!

Okay, I played around with that little blue box this afternoon, and I realy really like that thing!
At first I had my problems to get behind it and to find a good tone, but after experimenting a bit I do now have an awesome tone, that puts a huge smile on my face!!!! It's like there had always been something standing in front of my amp, and the nocturne removed it. I'm playing a Gretsch Electromatic equipped with TV-Classics into a '59 Bassman, and I have the feeling, that I sounds much more "tube like" now, I just love it! I'll be experimenting a lot with it now the next time, but it's definetly the right direction to that tone I have in my ears!

Thanks a lot Tavo, not only for developing that Pedal but also for giving us soo many advices, helping out with every Gretsch/Tube amp problem, and just making this all happen!

yeaaaaa you finally got it..man that was a journey eh? If I can say this.. About that reissue
amp. Use Input #2 on the less bright channel.. Leo Fender supposedly used this Db dampened
input for high output instruments but as it turns out, it works really great for humbucker equipped guitars.. that is if you are trying to have as much clean as possible.

I noticed when I plugged into my friends 59' bassman reissue I had to do the same thing
I do with my blackface princeton and that is plug into input#2 and turn the bass to level 1 just barely on. Plus the way that the tonestack works in a bassman is that if the bass level is above 3 or 4..all the mids clarity gets garbled..almost like the bass control starts fighting
the treble and presence controls.
The nocturne introduces a very large low mids attack to open back cabs so that bass cut
has to be TOTALLY employed (dialed back to 7 oclock which is full cut). ..and remember
that gain control wants to sit right around 4 oclock for some "gritsch" but still clean and twangy.


side note:
Also I dont know if you are running a tube rectifier but a solid state rectifier plug
will increase the headroom quite a bit ($15 at a decent tube store). Early reissue
59 bassman amps came with them and you had to get your own tube rectifier..at least
mine did. As brian setzer has said in interviews..strat and tele guys like that squish of tube rectified amps but a big hollowbody needs a SOLID STATE rectifier and closeback cab
to properly talk back the the amp... So if you put your amp up agains the wall and use the solid state rectifier you will see/hear in a different light what I was going for in the design-build of the nocturne.

I'm definetly gonna try that!

I managed to pick up the box from the local customs office last Friday just before they closed for the weekend, No big problem, I picked up some guitars from there and it´s always the same. Dark old building from the early years of the 20th century and except from the people working there you really feel warped back in time. After I laid down 26,80 Euros (it took the guy about 15 minutes to calculate and before he mentioned that this will REALLY be expensive) I went home ready for the first test.
At home I can´t play loud at all so - don´t laugh - I plugged the SSLVO in and from the Nocturne it went right into a Roland MicroCube. Even with this litle amp you could tell that it really beefs up the tone, everythings sounds a lilttle more ... (lacking the right words) - I guess you know what I mean from the other posts.

To give you more of that "Amelie" garden gnome feeling, here is where this brain´s at:



No, actually it found its new home here taking the place of my old TS9:



OK, the real magic started on Monday evening when we were rehearsing and recording some stuff. Signal goes from the guitar into the tuner > Nocturne > FBM-1 > Tremolo > RE-20 hooked up to a Blues Jr. (My band doesn´t want me to get a real Bassman and made me go down from the HotRodDeluxe to the Jr. which sounds OK, I only use the HRD for bigger venues). After some tweaking I ended up with that sweet sound, sparkling clear but with enough bite (FBM off) and the perfect "sweet spot" sound (FBM on) that starts breaking up yet not being distorted - so great!
After some time we noticed some blue shimmer with a shadow of my guitar neck on the ceiling - a nice feature to have is the extra light show from the LED, this is REALLY brighr!
I hope that someday I will find the time for recording some nice sound samples, at the very moment we are quite busy with recording and I can only do it in between.

Tavo, thank you so much for this great little box (and of course for the smooth transaction)! How about next thing you could do is building a 15 watt blonde Bassman clone? I would greatly appreciate it...

Got mine the other night as a 40th B'Day gift from Pony and his wife Anu!!! Thanks guys!!! And to Tavo and my wife Tania for keeping Mum on the whole deal!!

This baby RAWKS!! Playing through my early 90's Fender Blues DeVille 4x10 allows me to drive the rythem channel and then crank it for sweet solos when I kick the foot switch and get the other channel happening!! Gonna try it through a JCM Marshall tonight!! Let ya know the outcome!!
Cheers Pete

P.S. My Hot Rod is a '99 model and the colour is pretty spot on as well!!

I have to say my family is having a blast getting to see the picts and hear the stories. My 6 yr old
never knew what a "finland" or "germany" was let alone a "sweden" or "norway".. those words sound
magical to him(Australia is a well known one since grandma comes from sydney).
All to say its such a great thing sending these things from our house over to yours.
I guess the wife is gonna get a map of the world and little flags to pin on all the places
y'all live that are part of the Brain Seltzer army of Nocturnes. ( 52 so far )


ps. is that genuine "barkclothe" there Pete?
I've got some of that on my tiki bar, looks like this:

My pedal is on the way, been trackin it on the mail. Apparently it is in customs here in Finland.
I expect to hear about them on the comin' week.

as long as we're sharing.

nice! but where is the photo of the pedal being held up in front of say the Coors brewery, mile high stadium or
Mork and Mindy's house.. you know, the epic stuff in Colorado.

Got the stomp box an hour ago!

Had top pay 24,80 € customs.

Did a little test drive and I think it does what it suppose to,
kinda hard to tell/hear since my Bassman is way out of whack.
Hot wrong tubes, wrong speakers etc...



The next thing for me is to fix the Blonde.
That's gonna cost me muchos pesetas but WTH,
the amp really needs to put on repairs anyways.

Thanks Tavo, the pedal and instructions are great.

hello my friend
You have a link to translate the note( instruction france) delivered the nocturne -?
It is a big very very pedal, I advise has all the guitarists to get one itself
thank you my friend
elvis