Another gig/s report for the Punchline.
I. LOVE. THIS. THING!
Rock band gig on Saturday night went really well. This was only our 2nd time playing in this iteration, as 3 of us left a previous band to start afresh with a new drummer and 2nd guitar player. It was easily the most fun gig I've played in my life thus far. I again went from the Punchline 1/4' out into the instrument input of my TH500 and 2x GK Neo II 112 cabs. At this place their PA is fine for guitars and vox but can't handle bass, so I am carrying the load on my own. Seats about 180, in a semi-open-air environment as the floor to ceiling roll-up windows were open on this beautiful Fall night in Murfreesboro, TN.
I set the gain on the TH around 9 o'clock this time, drive at zero, and the EQ completely flat. I didn't touch anything but the master volume on the TH all night. I REALLY liked the little bit of "extra" with from the TH Gain at 9 in conjunction with the Punchlines, ESPECIALLY when I kicked on the drive! I didn't make any changes to the PL drive channel between the last gig and this gig, but adding in the touch more gain on the TH seemed to have a bit of a cascading overdrive effect and it was GREAT. It added more "chunk." I ended up playing a few more songs in a pick-bass style with the PL drive section on where I'd normally play them fingerstyle clean, just because it sounded so epic.
Last gig I had the gain a little lower. I think this combination of a little TH Gain and Punchline is just magical. It's not the same as if I had just added more gain or adjusted the tone at the Punchline and ran clean. Whatever other voodoo the TH Gain knob does just worked BEAUTIFULLY with the Punchline. I didn't adjust the compressor much, if any, between gigs. I DID add some more bass at the Punchline EQ this time, with it set to around 2 o'clock vs 1o'clock last time. Mids remained at 1 o'clock, treble at noon.
Our new guitar player was just below me (tiny stage, he was on the floor in front of me) and he kept turning around between songs yelling "THAT THING SOUNDS GLORIOUS!" "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME!" "OMG I LOVE THAT" and gesturing towards the bass/rig. Truly, having so much fun with this awesome and powerful sound had me playing with more joy and excitement, and the whole band was there with me. We made the most money of any gig I've played in 3 years, and the crowd stayed through to the very last song. When we played here last month, the bar owners told us it was the biggest night they ever had in terms of sales. I haven't heard yet if we helped them top that this weekend or not, but the place was buzzing the whole night, and we were all having a hekkin' blast.
I didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 Sunday morning, mostly cuz I was still so excited from the great gig, then I had to get back up at 6:15 for worship run-through at church. I took the Punchline pedalboard with me to that as well, and it was just as great there. We do mostly modern/contemporary songs there, but in a little less-produced, slightly more traditional style if that makes sense. No smoke machine and lasers, but we do have nice full color lighting, etc and really powerful PA. We don't go crazy with effects and tracks, but we do use some pads here and there when necessary. This morning we had 2 acoustics, an electric guitar for textures, keys, and our best drummer in his fishbowl. I played clean/sans-drive the whole morning, but with my Stingray-ish P bass build. This has the Seymour Duncan 90's style/more aggressive pickup and 3 band eq. It's got some serious funk and growl on its own, haha! I talked with the sound engineer between practice and service, and he told me he greatly reduced the compression he normally has at the board. I didn't touch a thing on the Punchline between the rock band setting and the church worship setting, other than just not using the Drive section at church.
Here are the setting I used all weekend
The Punchline is truly exceptional. If anyone is reading this thread and on the fence about dropping $500 on an old-school analog pedal, I highly encourage you to take the leap. I simply cannot stress strongly enough how great this is, and lightyears beyond anything else like it.
I am also interested in the new Tech21 SansAmp XB Driver. I DO like a nice HPF/LPF, which the XB has, and I had a Broughton on my pedalboard when I was using a Tone Hammer and UA 1176. I thought I'd miss the Broughton when I went to the Punchline-only setup, but I really don't. Not sure if the XB really offers much over the Punchline for my specific uses. Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with both!
I. LOVE. THIS. THING!
Rock band gig on Saturday night went really well. This was only our 2nd time playing in this iteration, as 3 of us left a previous band to start afresh with a new drummer and 2nd guitar player. It was easily the most fun gig I've played in my life thus far. I again went from the Punchline 1/4' out into the instrument input of my TH500 and 2x GK Neo II 112 cabs. At this place their PA is fine for guitars and vox but can't handle bass, so I am carrying the load on my own. Seats about 180, in a semi-open-air environment as the floor to ceiling roll-up windows were open on this beautiful Fall night in Murfreesboro, TN.
I set the gain on the TH around 9 o'clock this time, drive at zero, and the EQ completely flat. I didn't touch anything but the master volume on the TH all night. I REALLY liked the little bit of "extra" with from the TH Gain at 9 in conjunction with the Punchlines, ESPECIALLY when I kicked on the drive! I didn't make any changes to the PL drive channel between the last gig and this gig, but adding in the touch more gain on the TH seemed to have a bit of a cascading overdrive effect and it was GREAT. It added more "chunk." I ended up playing a few more songs in a pick-bass style with the PL drive section on where I'd normally play them fingerstyle clean, just because it sounded so epic.
Last gig I had the gain a little lower. I think this combination of a little TH Gain and Punchline is just magical. It's not the same as if I had just added more gain or adjusted the tone at the Punchline and ran clean. Whatever other voodoo the TH Gain knob does just worked BEAUTIFULLY with the Punchline. I didn't adjust the compressor much, if any, between gigs. I DID add some more bass at the Punchline EQ this time, with it set to around 2 o'clock vs 1o'clock last time. Mids remained at 1 o'clock, treble at noon.
Our new guitar player was just below me (tiny stage, he was on the floor in front of me) and he kept turning around between songs yelling "THAT THING SOUNDS GLORIOUS!" "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME!" "OMG I LOVE THAT" and gesturing towards the bass/rig. Truly, having so much fun with this awesome and powerful sound had me playing with more joy and excitement, and the whole band was there with me. We made the most money of any gig I've played in 3 years, and the crowd stayed through to the very last song. When we played here last month, the bar owners told us it was the biggest night they ever had in terms of sales. I haven't heard yet if we helped them top that this weekend or not, but the place was buzzing the whole night, and we were all having a hekkin' blast.
I didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 Sunday morning, mostly cuz I was still so excited from the great gig, then I had to get back up at 6:15 for worship run-through at church. I took the Punchline pedalboard with me to that as well, and it was just as great there. We do mostly modern/contemporary songs there, but in a little less-produced, slightly more traditional style if that makes sense. No smoke machine and lasers, but we do have nice full color lighting, etc and really powerful PA. We don't go crazy with effects and tracks, but we do use some pads here and there when necessary. This morning we had 2 acoustics, an electric guitar for textures, keys, and our best drummer in his fishbowl. I played clean/sans-drive the whole morning, but with my Stingray-ish P bass build. This has the Seymour Duncan 90's style/more aggressive pickup and 3 band eq. It's got some serious funk and growl on its own, haha! I talked with the sound engineer between practice and service, and he told me he greatly reduced the compression he normally has at the board. I didn't touch a thing on the Punchline between the rock band setting and the church worship setting, other than just not using the Drive section at church.
Here are the setting I used all weekend
The Punchline is truly exceptional. If anyone is reading this thread and on the fence about dropping $500 on an old-school analog pedal, I highly encourage you to take the leap. I simply cannot stress strongly enough how great this is, and lightyears beyond anything else like it.
I am also interested in the new Tech21 SansAmp XB Driver. I DO like a nice HPF/LPF, which the XB has, and I had a Broughton on my pedalboard when I was using a Tone Hammer and UA 1176. I thought I'd miss the Broughton when I went to the Punchline-only setup, but I really don't. Not sure if the XB really offers much over the Punchline for my specific uses. Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with both!
. These are 375 at Sweetwater right now and I set it up to pay over three months so pretty much a painless experience financially lol. I’m running into the same amp and will be in conjunction with an HX stomp. I’m hoping I don’t need much else and it sounds like from what I’m hearing from you I may be there 
