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JHS Punchline
- Thread starter chiphaleonbass
- Start date
I ordered ones from a different Amazon seller, these were a little more expensive but they have more colors. I went with silver for most knobs and red for key ones.
Great playing, and great tone. Mine (bought used on here, yesterday) should be here this weekend. Super excited.
By the way, I love the snare on the America tune!
Loving the updated knobs! Now I can SEE what the dadgum settings are! Adjustments are easier, too.
I played around for about an hour finding new tones/settings after having zeroed everything out for the knob swap.
This pedal is friggin great. I have to calm down and gig it some first, but.... I may have a ToneHammer, MojoMojo, and some other stuff for sale soon.
I played around for about an hour finding new tones/settings after having zeroed everything out for the knob swap.
This pedal is friggin great. I have to calm down and gig it some first, but.... I may have a ToneHammer, MojoMojo, and some other stuff for sale soon.
That looks really good! Mine will be here on Monday, and I’m thinking of doing the two color knob scheme as well. Maybe black for EQ and Amp Sim, and aged white for Drive and Comp.Loving the updated knobs! Now I can SEE what the dadgum settings are! Adjustments are easier, too.
I played around for about an hour finding new tones/settings after having zeroed everything out for the knob swap.
This pedal is friggin great. I have to calm down and gig it some first, but.... I may have a ToneHammer, MojoMojo, and some other stuff for sale soon.
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Y’all got me going on a new set of knobs. I live in Portland near Love My Switches and snagged these over the weekend. These RCA style knobs keep the original look and vibe but with better position visibility:
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So, my initial reaction was okay, but thought my board sounded better with just my Humboldt. Second run-through may have changed my mind. EQ section is quite usable, and the EQ points seem dead on. I can get a really nice grunt out of the drive section, not too fizzy or over the top, just a really nice thickening and punch, which is what I'm looking for. The compressor is stellar! Easy to dial in, and very transparent.
The section that puzzles me, is the amp sim. It just seems really dark and lifeless to me. Way too muddy. But I have my CabZone Bass, which provides great cab and amp sims to my chain, and gives me a headphone out, so might not be a deal breaker.
Anyone have any tricks for using the amp sim section?
The section that puzzles me, is the amp sim. It just seems really dark and lifeless to me. Way too muddy. But I have my CabZone Bass, which provides great cab and amp sims to my chain, and gives me a headphone out, so might not be a deal breaker.
Anyone have any tricks for using the amp sim section?
I usually use the amp sim on my direct to FOH with IEMs gigs and I set it like this for passive p-basses and short scale Sereks:
I really crank the presence to counter that dark / lifeless character you mention.
I really thought it was too “voiced” the first few times I used it on that gig, but one week while futzing with the drive, I kicked on the amp sim and the drummer and MD audibly reacted and so I started using it. That led to the above settings and now I use that when going ampless, or when backline is a sterile solid state amp.
I decided to bite the bullet and order one. I was debating between the Source Audio Zio Bass, and the Origin DCX with a radial JDI, but the Punchline just seemed like exactly what I want.
This looks GREAT! Awesome choice!
@Johno Dunn Yea, I had similar thoughts/feelings. Like @kazuhank said, cranking that presence knob wakes up the amp sim.
You are also spot on with the EQ points being just right. Normally I'm not happy with a 3 band EQ because the mids are just never right, and I find myself wanting at least a 4 band or semi-parametric eq. But this mid knob is JUST RIGHT. I guess maybe it's a wide Q? Soft slope? It doesn't seem overly powerful or sharp, it just lifts exactly what I want in the mids in a really natural way. You almost can't get it to sound bad.
Paired with the surprisingly (to me) awesome overdrive, I have found a fanstastic grindy-dirt that is simply amazing for my classic rock band setting. Before this I hadn't found a drive I was happy with outside of my Tone Hammers (amp and peamp pedal) and I didn't even buy the Punchline for this purpose. I expected to just never use this portion of the pedal, but now I have it on like 80% of the time!
It's that magic mid-eq knob that really lets the overdive shine in a way I totes dig. So glad Josh included the blend knob for the drive section. All the beef!
Yes, the compressor is really good as well. I don't miss my UA 1176.... much. The 1176 has JUST a little more "grunt" or color on tap. That only shows itself when I'm not running the Drive section of the Punchline as well. I also prefer the 3 color LED of the 1176 in helping quickly dial in threshold, etc, between basses. The single red LED of the Punchline is a little less-useful for this purpose. I will say, though, that the Punchline's compressor sounds more flexible and less-critcal regarding settings than the 1176. The "sweet spot" is maybe a little more forgiving in the Punchline.
I also just got in a UA LA-2A compressor yesterday for a pedalboard I'm putting together that I'll leave at church. I'm excited to see how it works/sounds. My hope is that the simpler controls of the LA-2A will make it easier for the roster of bass players to use/dial-in every week. It will be fun comparing & contrasting the 3 compressors!
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I’ll let you know and give your sellers remorse when it arrives and it’s the best thing ever.
Man... I wanna put these on my Stingray with black pickguard now.
I hope you love yours as much as most everyone here. Congrats!
I'm ordering one. Not so much for EB, as I have two great Genzler amp heads that already sound awesome alone (one with tube preamp that is just wow, my Kinetix).
I'm actually interested in seeing how it will pair with my DB pickup and hoping to get some better tones out of my beeg girl.
I'm actually interested in seeing how it will pair with my DB pickup and hoping to get some better tones out of my beeg girl.
Just had a bass buddy who is a Nashville touring & session guy and let him play with the Punchline.
"This would shrink my fly rig even smaller! Awesome!" he said, followed quickly by faux angry eyes because he's mad at me for showing him another piece of gear he needs to buy.
We had fun going from vintage warm to modern clear/bright clean tones, then playing with dirt, and going from mild to more heavy-handed compression. It's an oft-overused phrase, but it's true that it's almost hard to get a bad sound out of this thing.
"This would shrink my fly rig even smaller! Awesome!" he said, followed quickly by faux angry eyes because he's mad at me for showing him another piece of gear he needs to buy.
We had fun going from vintage warm to modern clear/bright clean tones, then playing with dirt, and going from mild to more heavy-handed compression. It's an oft-overused phrase, but it's true that it's almost hard to get a bad sound out of this thing.
This is a pedaltrain nano. There is just enough space for the Punchline and a full size tuner. I’m hoping I won’t have any issues daisy chaining from the power-out on the Peterson tuner into the power-in on the punchline. I guess we’ll find out. I still haven’t plugged in and tried it.
Ok first impressions… P bass with flats: I absolutely love this thing so far! I like every function on this pedal, including the amp sim (even going into an amp, which can be hit or miss). I have an outdoor gig tomorrow night at a fairly large venue with a dedicated sound man and house sound system. It will be a good “sink or swim“ test for how this pedal sounds direct. I know people have been complaining about the lack of features for practicing at home (headphones, aux in, etc), but I view this as a professional working musicians tool… That being said, I would have liked to have seen an unaffected parallel output in case you want to use this pedal for FOH, but not into your amp. Like I said, it sounds great into my little practice amp so far, but I may run into issues when trying to set the EQ to work for both my stage rig and the front of house. I guess we shall see. I’m extremely happy with my purchase so far. I like it better than the Origin 64 black panel that I used to own. The punchline is very similar, but I feel that it’s better executed. The box is also cool…
@Texican - I've had ZERO issues in getting a great tone for both my stage amp (a Phil Jones Bass Cub Pro) and the FOH. Gigs have ranged from indoors with 100 people to outdoors with 4,000 people. People I trust state my FOH sound is the best it's ever been. Yes, I'm using the Punchline D.I.