update on the NOCTURNE..those keeping score

Another jam from that night.

Pistol Pete wrote:

We jammed this at our last gig.
Gretsch-Nocturne-Analog Delay-Carvin 17W Tube Amp. Not the best sound or vision...or playing for that matter!! LOL !!! But another example of the Nocturne through a different amp.



PS... I pulled the high E off on the previous song and had to tune it back at the start of the song.

yeah sounds cool Pete................
but I thought ya looked like ya were sayin a wee prayer to the GOD of snapped string's
ha ha ha

matt wrote:

Pistol Pete wrote:

We jammed this at our last gig.
Gretsch-Nocturne-Analog Delay-Carvin 17W Tube Amp. Not the best sound or vision...or playing for that matter!! LOL !!! But another example of the Nocturne through a different amp.



PS... I pulled the high E off on the previous song and had to tune it back at the start of the song.

yeah sounds cool Pete................
but I thought ya looked like ya were sayin a wee prayer to the GOD of snapped string's
ha ha ha

Well to tell the truth it was akward place to play. Sloping ceiling and angle of corner meant speaker had to sit on floor with amp on top of the speaker. Little room for pedal board as well. I spent most of gig playing towards drummer as I had more room to move.

pete.. the upper mids sound better than the blues deville for certain, but I dont like a tweeds low mids on a gretsch hollowbody when the tubes start cookin and the speaker cone starts breakin up. Note separation becomes blurred...good for blues with a strat for sure, not so much for rockabilly unless you are after that post neobilly sort of social D thing.
(if that amp is yours then you could solder swap a few things to really improve stuff)

Mark.. good report, whats the word on the filtertrons? They are near and dear to my heart. ps. a bit of black sharpie on the tip of the LED will keep you from needing sunglasses.

Oh, i'm keeping that LED as bright as it is! I love it!

Anyhoo, i won't get the chance to mess around with the filtertrons until this coming week, as in one week from today. I'm out of town and the like. But I will make sure that i get some pictures of the Tenny with it's brother the cola sparkle.

I love filtertrons as well. I got my jet with dynas because i'm a huge fan of Cliff Gallup, and it's very good at what it does....but sonically, my Tenny blows it out of the water. I need a 6120 with filters now, just to have a rockin' out machine. The tenny is too....I dunno, JAZZY with that long scale length.


Tavo, can't remember if i asked, but i'm thinking about putting a master volume box in the effects loop of my Hot Rod amp...any idea on how this will affect the Nocturne?

mark t wrote:

Oh, i'm keeping that LED as bright as it is! I love it!

Anyhoo, i won't get the chance to mess around with the filtertrons until this coming week, as in one week from today. I'm out of town and the like. But I will make sure that i get some pictures of the Tenny with it's brother the cola sparkle.

I love filtertrons as well. I got my jet with dynas because i'm a huge fan of Cliff Gallup, and it's very good at what it does....but sonically, my Tenny blows it out of the water. I need a 6120 with filters now, just to have a rockin' out machine. The tenny is too....I dunno, JAZZY with that long scale length.


Tavo, can't remember if i asked, but i'm thinking about putting a master volume box in the effects loop of my Hot Rod amp...any idea on how this will affect the Nocturne?

While I dont want to reveal certain things about my preamp, I can say it pretty much
wants to annihilate most master volumes.. Its suppose to clone the -50db output of the
RE301 (as opposed to the -35db setting at the input of the RE301 that Brian sets it at)
Brian Setzer uses that space echo to be an extra gain stage to the amp to the tubes would saturate and provide that unique clip that blondes put out ( lows stay tight and upper mids slightly overdrive)... with that in mind.. sounds like a bog fest to a master volume amp?

Hmmmmm.....okay. I guess that i'll give it a whirl. Truth be told, I wish that the volume control on the hot rod wasn't so damn jumpy. I know that i could put another pot that's not quite as sensitive in there,, but i'd rather not mess around with the amp.

Tavo,

You probably covered this a zillion times, but there are too many pages to look back through:

If you are using a delay (Danelectric, etc.) do you put the Brain last in your pedal chain before the amp?

Sharky wrote:

Tavo,

You probably covered this a zillion times, but there are too many pages to look back through:

If you are using a delay (Danelectric, etc.) do you put the Brain last in your pedal chain before the amp?

If you are using a Gretsch guitar with filtertrons and your amp is a non master volume
amp with a presence control or bright switch (how I initially designed it) the
Brain is the FIRST thing your guitar plugs into.

Over the last year it seems 80% dont have a nice non master vol Fender or Vox amp
but rather that irritating fender amp called a "hotrod or blues deluxe/deville" and these
things sound like dark balls with the Brain Seltzer....Unless.... you place a
FET bypass pedal (boss.ibanez.maxon) in front of the Nocturne. The high presence built into these fet bypass pedals stays on always and causes the Nocturne to "preamplify" that signal along with the guitar yielding some more "sheen" to the tone.

Since then I have created the Dyno Brian and it tones down the bass, adds highs and gain to the signal for those using those sort of modern fender amps OR gretsch guitars with high DC resistance pkups like DYNASONICS or say Gibson 490T's or P90s.

Paul Pigat now has both the Brain Seltzer and the Dyno Brain on his pedalboard but
still keeps his Boss CS-2 compressor in front since he is playing a gretsch country club w dynas mostly.

btw... I know i posted this on FB but I think I'll put it here too for those who dont do FB.

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Tavo,

You probably covered this a zillion times, but there are too many pages to look back through:

If you are using a delay (Danelectric, etc.) do you put the Brain last in your pedal chain before the amp?

If you are using a Gretsch guitar with filtertrons and your amp is a non master volume
amp with a presence control or bright switch (how I initially designed it) the
Brain is the FIRST thing your guitar plugs into.

Over the last year it seems 80% dont have a nice non master vol Fender or Vox amp
but rather that irritating fender amp called a "hotrod or blues deluxe/deville" and these
things sound like dark balls with the Brain Seltzer....Unless.... you place a
FET bypass pedal (boss.ibanez.maxon) in front of the Nocturne. The high presence built into these fet bypass pedals stays on always and causes the Nocturne to "preamplify" that signal along with the guitar yielding some more "sheen" to the tone.

Since then I have created the Dyno Brian and it tones down the bass, adds highs and gain to the signal for those using those sort of modern fender amps OR gretsch guitars with high DC resistance pkups like DYNASONICS or say Gibson 490T's or P90s.

Paul Pigat now has both the Brain Seltzer and the Dyno Brain on his pedalboard but
still keeps his Boss CS-2 compressor in front since he is playing a gretsch country club w dynas mostly.

btw... I know i posted this on FB but I think I'll put it here too for those who dont do FB.

that is goooohr-jus!

I'm kinda floored by the sparkle, its not subtle and I have to find a way to reproduce these without the ridiculous labor

Is it just us as a band, or does anyone else out their take requests from punters and not have a f**king clue how to play, or more importantly, decide how to finish a song?????
Oh well, as long as I can laugh at my poor attempt at playing. so can you guys!! Enjoy.....

yeh i know what you mean! as a result we squirm out of requests even if we can help it!
What I dont get is when punters request something TOTALLY out of kilter with what you're playin!
My rockabilly band was giggin recently and towards the end of the second set, some guy asked us if we could play "comfortably numb" by Pink Floyd - then again maybe there could be a rockabilly version out there somewhere and he was more on the pulse than us!

Hey Booty,now that would make an interesting song!! I never really have a solo/fills worked out so I just do everything off the cuff on the fly, but comfortably numb would be a killer to try to rockabilly up!!

ha! go for it! you're a braver man than me, tell you what tho there's a cracking rockabilly version of 'Walk this way' by a guy called Dick Brave - check it out if you can find it.

We do a version of Walk This Way!!! I'll see if I can post it. Our singer and drummer were in a band called Funky Monks (a RHCP Tribute band) and they wanna do Brave's version of Give It Away!!

Can I hear a freakin original song now... c'mon boys are ya
a rockabilly band or a barmitzvah band?

ps. I think its time for a DVD

I think we can open for you when you tour Down Under to promote your new album. And you can make a dvd.

Hey Pete, you've got an awesome sound. Are you just plugging your guitar into the Nocturne and then in the Amp, or is there something in between to get that Overdrive?

-Paul

webelvis wrote:

Hey Pete, you've got an awesome sound. Are you just plugging your guitar into the Nocturne and then in the Amp, or is there something in between to get that Overdrive?

-Paul

Hey Paul!! How's it goin'?
For this gig I used the previous guitarists rig. Gretsch-Nocturne-DM2-amp with a little soak on the amp, no other overdrives. The other thing you need to remenber is that it's a 17W tube amp cranked pretty much open as well, that made the tubes sweat a bit as well. I agree, I loved the sound that night as well. Now if only I was a decent player, I'd be happier!! LOL

Pistol Pete wrote:

webelvis wrote:

Hey Pete, you've got an awesome sound. Are you just plugging your guitar into the Nocturne and then in the Amp, or is there something in between to get that Overdrive?

-Paul

Hey Paul!! How's it goin'?
For this gig I used the previous guitarists rig. Gretsch-Nocturne-DM2-amp with a little soak on the amp, no other overdrives. The other thing you need to remenber is that it's a 17W tube amp cranked pretty much open as well, that made the tubes sweat a bit as well. I agree, I loved the sound that night as well. Now if only I was a decent player, I'd be happier!! LOL

That video there Pete with your tone is probably one of the BEST examples of
how a gretsch with that nocturne preamp can really make a tube amp DO that
thing. The whole point is to enjoy TUBE overdrive, not crappy pedal overdrive but
REAL VINTAGE sounding gretsch and tube amp saturation!!

although I am sure giant banana hands also contribute to the tone. Jimi Hendrix mitts were the size of baseball gloves... whole helluva lot more bone density going to the fretboard there.

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

Pistol Pete wrote:

webelvis wrote:

Hey Pete, you've got an awesome sound. Are you just plugging your guitar into the Nocturne and then in the Amp, or is there something in between to get that Overdrive?

-Paul

Hey Paul!! How's it goin'?
For this gig I used the previous guitarists rig. Gretsch-Nocturne-DM2-amp with a little soak on the amp, no other overdrives. The other thing you need to remenber is that it's a 17W tube amp cranked pretty much open as well, that made the tubes sweat a bit as well. I agree, I loved the sound that night as well. Now if only I was a decent player, I'd be happier!! LOL

That video there Pete with your tone is probably one of the BEST examples of
how a gretsch with that nocturne preamp can really make a tube amp DO that
thing. The whole point is to enjoy TUBE overdrive, not crappy pedal overdrive but
REAL VINTAGE sounding gretsch and tube amp saturation!!

although I am sure giant banana hands also contribute to the tone. Jimi Hendrix mitts were the size of baseball gloves... whole helluva lot more bone density going to the fretboard there.

Glad to be of service!!

oh ya.. how comes yer not up right now?

here's video demos of me explaining/showing how the newer Dyno Brain differs from the Brain Classic (formerly Brain Seltzer). this first one is the longest w/ an SSU. second and third are with tvjones t-armonds/ dynasonics.

Nocturne Dyno Brain vs. Brain Classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqoYhqGpkds

here is part 2 with tvjones t-armond dynasonics with the sugarpine rutters guitar body tele

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvE2v_1KwSo

here is pt 3 w/ the dynasonic "t-armonds"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGpQwOduHk

Just to defend my crappy amp, Tavo, the Hot Rod doesn't have a master volume control. :-)