Nocturne The Jr. Barnyard Preamp

[clebergf]

I use a 18v without any problems with mine.

Here is a recording from yesterday using it with my AER Compact 60. Recorded from AER direct output.

[pingu]

We need a proper engineer on here !

but this noise on the audio
with different power supplies which goes
away when using a battery .... thing

is something to do with the 'smoothing'
or otherwise on the DC power output ....

i.e. the output is wavy or spikey

(A battery naturally has a dead flat
smooth dc output)

but it we need a proper engineer on here !

[entresz]

My JR Barnyard isn't excessively noisy, it adds a small amount of hiss. I'm using a Boss PSA power supply. It's not as noisy as the hum from my large bobbin single coil pickups! That said my LED for the 'boost' side of the preamp is dead which is kind of annoying. That said it's the pedal I use the most. I'm not aware of any easily available alternative for getting octal style tones in a pedal.

[pingu]

That sounds great man !
and very CC sounding too
is that an es150 you solo'ed on there ?

[sgosnell]

I'm not talking about hiss, I'm talking about very loud buzzing and other noises. There is some hiss with any power source, and that's not the issue. I don't know what the cause is, I don't have a schematic of the pedal, and probably not the knowledge to find it if I did have one. My LED also burned out, and was replaced by Tavo with a very bright amber LED. It developed other problems at the same time the LED went, and it was fixed, with no explanation of what went wrong. He said it worked when he got it back, so I don't know. I'm not trying to bad-mouth the pedal, it's fine for what it is, but the noise issue is somewhat annoying, because I have to make sure to get the right power supply connected to it. If I get it right, no noise.

[campusfive]

Hey, here's a great example of the Jr. Barnyard in action.
This was in Dènia, Spain on my Europe trip, guesting with my friend Enric Peidro's Quartet.
This is my 1937 ES-150 into the JRB into... a Bose L1 Compact speaker array. Crazy, right?

They had rented a Hot Rod Deluxe for me (since I've had such good luck using running the JRB into the efx return on those), but there wasn't really stage space at the first gig for the Deluxe and the Bose L1, which was supposed to be my acoustic amp. On a lark, I plugged the JRB into the Bose, and it sounded great, so we ended up using that for most of the tour to save room in the van.

[Webby]

Hey, here's a great example of the Jr. Barnyard in action.
This was in Dènia, Spain on my Europe trip, guesting with my friend Enric Peidro's Quartet.
This is my 1937 ES-150 into the JRB into... a Bose L1 Compact speaker array. Crazy, right?

They had rented a Hot Rod Deluxe for me (since I've had such good luck using running the JRB into the efx return on those), but there wasn't really stage space at the first gig for the Deluxe and the Bose L1, which was supposed to be my acoustic amp. On a lark, I plugged the JRB into the Bose, and it sounded great, so we ended up using that for most of the tour to save room in the van.

That sounds incredibly good!!!

I'm glad to report, that I got my Boss Power supply in the mail today, and with that one the pedal is finally quiet.
I still don't really know what's been going on there, but altogether I'm just happy to have it running now.
The noiselevel with my other power-supplies was that high, it would have made the pedal completely unuseble.

Now the pedal does a great Job with my acoustic amp, and I think I'll be able to put together a great acoustic/electric rig for my Swing Band.

Paul

[pcjazz]

I'm glad to report, that I got my Boss Power supply in the mail today, and with that one the pedal is finally quiet.
I still don't really know what's been going on there, but altogether I'm just happy to have it running now.
The noiselevel with my other power-supplies was that high, it would have made the pedal completely unuseble.

I usually run the pedal off a VooDoo Labs power block, but today I tried it with a Roland (Boss) PSA-120S "ultra clean" 9-volt adapter. The PSA was unbelievably noisy connected directly to the JB but when I plugged the power supply into my true-bypass tuner pedal and daisy-chained to the JB it was noise-free. The JB was also noise-free when powered by a cheap Behringer 9-volt adapter. YMMV - mine certainly has!

[pcjazz]

I use a 18v without any problems with mine.

So did I for about a year before the JB burned out and had to be rebuilt/replaced. Tavo is now warning to use 9v only, although the pedal description on his site still says 9v or 12v.

[Doug B]

Hi-I took delivery of a Junior Barnyard yesterday. No matter what i do it doesn't seem to change the sound much. My Xotic Soul Driven seems to colour the tone better than this.

What am I doing wrong?

Doug

[fep]

I found this which has the Junior Barnyard preamp plus reverb, by forum member Tim Lerch:

[Doug B]

I don't understand what your point is FEP. It's just a video of Tim playing.

[pcjazz]

Hi-I took delivery of a Junior Barnyard yesterday. No matter what i do it doesn't seem to change the sound much. My Xotic Soul Driven seems to colour the tone better than this.

What am I doing wrong?

Doug

What guitar with what pickups into what amp? I get the best results with single coil pickups and a clean solid state amp like a Clarus, SD pedal amp or (best of all) my old Ultrasound.

[jads57]

I believe the idea of these different preamp are to emulate old Tweed Fenders, Gibson amps and perhaps Rockabilly echo as well. Very nasally type of tone perhaps?

Also maybe they are direct to board type of application where they shine as well.
Just depends on what you are after, live or recording. There are great replica amps like Victoria Amps, Little Walter,etc. Or just buy an original?

[fep]

I don't understand what your point is FEP. It's just a video of Tim playing.

The description on YouTube of that video:

"This pedal has a great combination of Nocturnes Jr. Barnyard pre- amp and a really cool and unique reverb section. Thanks to Tavo for making this great pedal. The Guitar is made by Barry at Grez Guitars, the Pickups are Lollar 50s Wind P90s. There is a full transcription in Notation and Tab available at timlerch.com"

So, the Jr. Barnyard sounds like that.

[Doug B]

What guitar with what pickups into what amp? I get the best results with single coil pickups and a clean solid state amp like a Clarus, SD pedal amp or (best of all) my old Ultrasound.

The volume boost is about what you would get from turning a guitar up from say 4-->6 on both. In other words, barely noticeable. I get more of a boost from the xotic super sweet, a clean boost.


I also am using a warmoth partscaster with walnut body and 3 Pete Biltof's Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian pickups. My other guitar is a stock Samick Greg Bennett Royale:

Amp is a 1974 Fender Princeton and a Fender Super Champ x2 run in stereo. I also tried with only one amp in mono.

[Doug B]

The description on YouTube of that video:

"This pedal has a great combination of Nocturnes Jr. Barnyard pre- amp and a really cool and unique reverb section. Thanks to Tavo for making this great pedal. The Guitar is made by Barry at Grez Guitars, the Pickups are Lollar 50s Wind P90s. There is a full transcription in Notation and Tab available at timlerch.com"

So, the Jr. Barnyard sounds like that.

Yes, I already knew how it was supposed to sound, but it doesn't. That's why I started this thread.

[Doug B]

I believe the idea of these different preamp are to emulate old Tweed Fenders, Gibson amps and perhaps Rockabilly echo as well. Very nasally type of tone perhaps?

Also maybe they are direct to board type of application where they shine as well.
Just depends on what you are after, live or recording. There are great replica amps like Victoria Amps, Little Walter,etc. Or just buy an original?

I bought it because it is supposed to give you more of a sound similar to Charlie Christian's old Gibson Octal tube amp. It barely sounds like you turned up the guitar a couple of numbers on the volume knob.

[sgosnell]

On mine, there is a lot of boost, but both switches have to be engaged for that. Where are you setting the knobs? Below about 12 o'clock there isn't a lot of effect, and the amount depends a lot on the amp. Some amps are affected more than others, for reasons I don't really understand. I've pretty much quit using mine, and consider it wasted money. Jonathon Stout really likes his, so maybe it's my problem. But you should be getting a lot of boost with the left-hand knob turned up past noon, and the other switch engaged. You don't have to turn the right-hand knob up much to just get boost, but to get the semi-octal sounds you have to crank it past noon. At least that's how mine works, and it may or may not be representative.

[Hammertone]

Maybe, just maybe, it's not working properly?

[sgosnell]

The OP's may not be. Tavo says mine works as designed.

[pcjazz]

The volume boost is about what you would get from turning a guitar up from say 4-->6 on both. In other words, barely noticeable. I get more of a boost from the xotic super sweet, a clean boost.


I also am using a warmoth partscaster with walnut body and 3 Pete Biltof's Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian pickups. My other guitar is a stock Samick Greg Bennett Royale:

Amp is a 1974 Fender Princeton and a Fender Super Champ x2 run in stereo. I also tried with only one amp in mono.

I assume you are using a 9-volt adapter and going into the instrument input of the amp (not the effects loop). The left hand button needs to be engaged for the pedal to do anything. The boost is on the right hand button. But you are running into tube amps and my experience is mostly with clean solid state amps, where there is a very noticeable (and pleasant) effect on tone and response. I have a Koch tube head but did not find the JB to be much use in front of that. I have guitars with Biltoft CC, Lollar CC and repro DeArmond pickups and all three work very well with the JB into a neutral SS amp. Not so much with humbuckers or more coloured amps.

But as Hammer says, you may have a dud.

[Doug B]

On mine, there is a lot of boost, but both switches have to be engaged for that. Where are you setting the knobs? Below about 12 o'clock there isn't a lot of effect,

I tried with both switches engaged. Tried setting knobs up, down and all around the town. Didn't make any difference.

and the amount depends a lot on the amp. Some amps are affected more than others, for reasons I don't really understand.

As i said elsewhere, I'm using a Fender Princeton and/or a Fender Super Champ X2-hardly obscure amps.

I've pretty much quit using mine, and consider it wasted money. Jonathon Stout really likes his, so maybe it's my problem. But you should be getting a lot of boost with the left-hand knob turned up past noon, and the other switch engaged. You don't have to turn the right-hand knob up much to just get boost, but to get the semi-octal sounds you have to crank it past noon. At least that's how mine works, and it may or may not be representative.

Interesting. Tivo emailed me and asked me to mail it back to him and he'll send me another one. I'm so disappointed right now, I think I'd rather have a refund!

I'll keep the thread posted.

Cheers

Doug

[Doug B]

Maybe, just maybe, it's not working properly?

I would say so-thus this thread.

[Doug B]

I assume you are using a 9-volt adapter and going into the instrument input of the amp (not the effects loop).

Yes, that's right.

The left hand button needs to be engaged for the pedal to do anything. The boost is on the right hand button.

I know that.

But you are running into tube amps and my experience is mostly with clean solid state amps, where there is a very noticeable (and pleasant) effect on tone and response. I have a Koch tube head but did not find the JB to be much use in front of that.

Some of those amp limitations are quite major-I think Tivo should mention that before you buy!

But as Hammer says, you may have a dud.

Seems like it.

[entresz]

The effect is fairly subtle if you're using a warm sounding tube amp. That said you should definitely be hearing something. If you dime the gain on the right hand side and have the left hand side gain on very low you should hear some audible break-up from the pedal. (both foot switches need to be on).

Mine completely stopped working only a few months after I got it. It's actually playing up again, I'm getting a high pitched hissing sound from it now. Have tried different power supplies/leads etc. to no avail. Looks like I'll have to get it mended yet again.

It is a great sounding pedal though, I've found it a godsend for when I'm using backline amps. It gives nice bit of compression and takes out the harsh/shrill highs that many cheap amps seem to have in abundance.

[MAJackson]

The Jr. Barnyard is a good idea and when it works the way it's supposed to is a nice sounding pedal to achieve octal-like tones. However, the build quality is really not good and it's prone to breaking down. A dud out of the box wouldn't be a surprise.

[Doug B]

The Jr. Barnyard is a good idea and when it works the way it's supposed to is a nice sounding pedal to achieve octal-like tones. However, the build quality is really not good and it's prone to breaking down. A dud out of the box wouldn't be a surprise.

Main problem with mine is that hardly anything happens. Mild is the word-to the point that I sent it back today. We'll see what happpens.

[clebergf]

Hello there friends. We recorded a new video for Quarantine Session and I used Jr. + AER Compact 60.
I hope you enjoy it.

[Webby]

I tried to make the best out of the current Situation with all our gigs cancelled, so we recorded a full 20 track Album at home. For all my electric parts i used my Jr. Barnyard through a cheap ibanez amp for acoustic guitar, surpassing the built in preamp.
Here is a small snippet from one of the tracks, and I honestly feel like this is one of the best guitar sounds i ever recorded.

I really like the tone I'm getting with my Barnyard!

Paul

[One_Note]

Wow, that does sound good, great playing too!

[clebergf]

That's sound great. Barnyard is an incredible pedal.

[clebergf]

Hello there friends, here is new video with Barnyard and a custom guitar inspired on L5/ES-150.

[ruger9]

I want one of those Nocturne El Pescadoros.... it's the Junior Barnyard Preamp with a Chess-style old school reverb.

[citizenk74]

nice!!! enjoy... tavo @ nocturne tried to give a little true vintage octal tube tone to modern amps...with a pedal

he's also got a new model that combines the barnyard with a reverb...the el pescadoro....his tribute to early classic chicago electric blues tones..



cheers

Just finished ordering one. Thanks, neatomic!

[neatomic]

Just finished ordering one. Thanks, neatomic!

hey nice!!! tavo vega of nocturne is a great fellow...loves the music...a kindered spirit...known each other a while now..top gear guy

congrats and enjoy...

let us know what you think!! i think you'll be happy!

cheers

[neatomic]

tavo's nocturne el pescadoro

tim lerch style

tommy harkenrider smokey

cheers

[ruger9]

I still want a hollowbody with P90s.... everytime I hear one, I consider putting P90s on my Gretsch Hot Rod (would require drilling holes)... but then I play it and like it for what it is.... but it still doesn't cure my GAS for something like an ES-295/ES-350.... or even a 125/150 style....

[campusfive]

I posted this on another thread, but it's much more relevant to this one.

I was doing a recording session with my 1939 EH-185, mic'd with a BK5 ribbon mic about 2 feet away. I split the signal and also ran into the Junior Barnyard into a DI. I did this so I could have a little extra signal in my headphone mix, but I didn't intend to use it in the final mix, but I have to say, it sounds great.

Now, important caveat, this is the pedal DIRECT, not also coming through a speaker into physical space. And so much of what I hear in Charlie Christian's sound (which is what I'm going for) has to do with the amp and speaker being "heard" in a physical space (usually by a ribbon mic a few feet away). All that said, it still sounds great.

The soundcloud embed for the playlist is a little wonky, but it's in the is order:
- 1939 EH-185 mic'd with a BK5 ribbon mic
- Junior Barnyard DI
- a 50/50 blend
- blended approximately 80% amp with 20% DI

[customxke]

Yes, I already knew how it was supposed to sound, but it doesn't. That's why I started this thread.

You didn't start this thread.

[clebergf]

I posted this on another thread, but it's much more relevant to this one.

I was doing a recording session with my 1939 EH-185, mic'd with a BK5 ribbon mic about 2 feet away. I split the signal and also ran into the Junior Barnyard into a DI. I did this so I could have a little extra signal in my headphone mix, but I didn't intend to use it in the final mix, but I have to say, it sounds great.

Now, important caveat, this is the pedal DIRECT, not also coming through a speaker into physical space. And so much of what I hear in Charlie Christian's sound (which is what I'm going for) has to do with the amp and speaker being "heard" in a physical space (usually by a ribbon mic a few feet away). All that said, it still sounds great.

The soundcloud embed for the playlist is a little wonky, but it's in the is order:
- 1939 EH-185 mic'd with a BK5 ribbon mic
- Junior Barnyard DI
- a 50/50 blend
- blended approximately 80% amp with 20% DI

Great tone there Jonathan.
The Jr. sounds amazing in the DI and it's looks like a great way to use it live without an amp.

In the first mix is there any acoustic tone on it?


P.S.: I'm looking forward to hear Campus Five new album.

[campusfive]

So the BK5 was about a foot away from the guitar and 2 ft from the amp, so it was definitely catching some of the acoustic sound of the guitar.

[clebergf]

Nice, I supposed that. Thanks!

[ruger9]

Johnathan,

To me, that JB sounded a tiny bit cleaner/clearer, without that trademark CC "woof" he gets from the amp/speaker, BUT... still sounds great, and IMO a great testament to just how well Tavo nailed this with his JB pedal!

[Petimar]

I bought the El Pescadoro as I wanted the Jr Barnyard and a more vintage reverb option than most amps have. I LOVE it! Using it for just a slight breakup. Closest sound I'll probably ever get to the Charlie Christian Minton recordings. Plus when I play Western Swing, If I want Jr's sound, just juice it up a bit more. Can't wait to play a gig with this!!

[christianm77]

So bought one of these fellas - the El Pescadoro as I’m a sucker for a cool lo-fi reverb. I have to say it sounds great with every guitar I own, even the one with piezos... sign of a great pedal. Bit concerned about what people have said about the build quality, it’s not a cheap pedal especially after import taxes, but we’ll see.

With my Fender Princeton I get a really nice tightening and ... errr .... clankification? Thunkification? Of the bottom end. I can’t wait to try it on tunes with unison bass riffs like Such Sweet Thunder

(I get a lot of hiss but I’m using a crap power supply until it goes on my board.)

Building on what Jonathan did, the sound of the DI can be made to sound remarkably natural with the use of an IR. for this I used one for a small room with flat surfaces and a ribbon microphone backed away a little, with the Two Notes Wall of Sound plug-in (which is inexpensive and bloody marvellous), but I suspect you could get a similar effect from a subtle slapback or, of course, a low setting on the built in reverb on the El Pescadoro.

Sounds like this... (Sorry about the Insta link.)

Even got a nice comment from Tavo himself!
Login • Instagram

Hoping I will actually get to gig this in 2021....

[ruger9]

With my Fender Princeton I get a really nice tightening and ... errr .... clankification? Thunkification? ...

I think "thunkification" is a good word. "Thunk" is definitely what I here when listening to Christian or Banard. The Junior Barnyard is still on my list...

[christianm77]

If Dutchbopper gets ahold of one, the universe may implode from too much thunk density.

[citizenk74]

So bought one of these fellas - the El Pescadoro as I’m a sucker for a cool lo-fi reverb. I have to say it sounds great with every guitar I own, even the one with piezos... sign of a great pedal. Bit concerned about what people have said about the build quality, it’s not a cheap pedal especially after import taxes, but we’ll see.

With my Fender Princeton I get a really nice tightening and ... errr .... clankification? Thunkification? Of the bottom end. I can’t wait to try it on tunes with unison bass riffs like Such Sweet Thunder

(I get a lot of hiss but I’m using a crap power supply until it goes on my board.)

Building on what Jonathan did, the sound of the DI can be made to sound remarkably natural with the use of an IR. for this I used one for a small room with flat surfaces and a ribbon microphone backed away a little, with the Two Notes Wall of Sound plug-in (which is inexpensive and bloody marvellous), but I suspect you could get a similar effect from a subtle slapback or, of course, a low setting on the built in reverb on the El Pescadoro.

Sounds like this... (Sorry about the Insta link.)

Even got a nice comment from Tavo himself!
Login • Instagram

Hoping I will actually get to gig this in 2021....

I got the EP as well, thanks to the good offices of our friend neatomic. Incredibly fun pedal, not the least fun of which is the Jr.B. And the virulent verberliciousness is just so, so nice. Ten/ten I'd buy again!

[christianm77]

Well I realised I hadn't actually plugged mine in since I got it and... phew it worked... allowed myself 10 minutes of sheer playing pleasure, before having to do stuff.