Sometimes, huge things arrive in extremely small packages. At just 3.5″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″, today’s featured pedal packs a big punch while taking up minimal real estate on your pedalboard. The Oscar from Night Owl Industries is an all-tube preamp, designed to boost your signal, overdrive a distortion pedal, bring out the best in your amplifier and more, fitting in to any rig around.
The Oscar uses either an EF86 (the one we have is an NOS Svetlana) or EF806 pentode tube, with the quality of the tube having an impact on the quality of the sound produced. Operating at 18V DC specifically, there will be signal loss with lower power and an oversupplying of the tube filaments at higher voltages, so the correct power is key as well. One lone knob lets you set the output, and the range from quiet to loud is remarkable.
For the demo below, we showed off how Oscar sounds as a clean boost, and as an extra driving force coming after a pedal, in this case the Dumble Drive from CNZ Audio. It can also be used as a boost BEFORE a dirt pedal, in the FX loop of an amp as a power amp boost, as a preamp for tracking, re-amping or distorting studio signals and more. It adds warmth and presence to anything it touches, and has no internal transistors, chips or digital emulations of any kind.
Small. Powerful. Tone-enhancing. Wicked awesome-sounding. The Oscar, using a REAL tube, is a great little preamp that has many uses, and adds a shimmer to your sound that might just be lacking in some rigs. Great for recording and studio use, as well as in a live setting, its versatility comes shining through wherever you use it. Thanks to the folks at Night Owl Industries for letting us check this mini bad boy out – they make a super cool 3-10W amplifier as well, so be sure to check out their website, and don’t forget to watch the demo video of the Oscar on our YouTube channel as well!
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