Kemper Amps Forum

I've just come back from a two week tour with my Kemper. I'd be interested to hear other users' takes on these issues, but this is what I feel would be essential for the "ideal" floorboard for the Kemper:

• Up/Down 5 or 10 switches per bank - led for whichever patch is active stays lit
  
  
• Large, clear, BRIGHT display indicating the name of the patch and the patch number (so two-way comms with the unit)
  
  
• 4 x Stomp controls with colour LED to match the colour of the stomp available / being used and a separate on/off LED. Using two FS-6 momentary stomps got confusing, as I had to keep looking across at the KPA to see what was on/off and which effects I had loaded.
  
  
• 4 x XMDR controls (x, mod, delay, reverb)
  
  
• Takes its power from the KPA
  
  
• Does NOT have foot pedals for volume / wah, but instead has option for external controller in via balanced jack and feeds that signal to the KPA. Maybe they could do one with pedals for the home enthusiast, but the bulkier the board is, the worse it is for the touring musician. One top reason for me buying the KPA was to scale down without losing tone. If I suddenly have the equivalent of a G-system to tote onto planes again, it would defeat the object for me.
  
  
• Tuner button / mute button
  

I also presume performance mode will bring with it large patch numbers - it's very difficult to figure out what's going on in the heat of battle and know if you're on the crunch sound you set up on 32 or the one on 14, so accordingly aren't sure whether to go up or down. (not always, but I found myself losing my place every now and again - having the info clearly displayed would help avoid having to develop a personal braille librarian system for complex live performances).

Other things which would be useful: in future editions of the Kemper, consider putting a tapped hole in the base for attachment to a mic stand (similar to what they do with AER acoustic amps). It's always good to have the KPA within arm's reach and, much as I like the look of a Boogie stack onstage, it's overkill to have it there purely as a Kemper stand.

Note on levels: the 'boost' stomps didn't seem to do it for me in terms of getting up from backing level to solo level. Our engineer was constantly dissatisfied with the boost until I programmed a separate solo patch in each case with the output volume about +7db hotter than the rest of the sounds. It would be really nice to have a 'boost' stomp that affected that output level directly at the end of the chain with up to 10db of clean headroom. Maybe I have it wrong and that is exactly how it works already, but it didn't seem to be the case. The sound appeared coloured, regardless which boost I used.

Some of the venues we played had DI boxes without pads, so I had to manually dial my level down to minus 10db. It would be great to have a 0/-10/-20 pad on the outputs at the back.

I wasn't clear on whether the KPA defaults to mono with one output coming out of the left. I've been sending the outputs stereo to the house and, as a result, spending a lot of time modifying delays to fire down the centre (4:4). Obviously in a live situation, the last thing you want is guitar sounds in stereo with ping pong delays and panned effects. This is for the same reason as any other heavily panned stereo source in a big venue - someone to the front left of the venue will have a very skewed perspective of your sound compared to the engineer. Stereo panning is great for headphones / hifi, but is banned for big live concerts.

That's the crit, but let me say this - the Kemper has made touring a much more effortless and streamlined affair. Once the software is where it needs to be and the foot controller is out, it's going to be incredible! Every guitar tech we used on this last Australian tour was crouched down after the show, writing down the name of the Kemper and making notes. All of them, without fail, were astounded by the tone and the concept and had good things to say about it. I'm guessing, from the reactions I saw, that the KPA hasn't come out yet in Oz / NZ, but should do well there!

btw. I used the Namba bag for the tour and it was fine for carry-on. I wouldn't go sending the KPA in the hold in the Namba, but it was perfect for general portability. It's not 100% snug around the body of the Kemper, but a towel in the front to give the rotary encoders extra protection fixed that up.

pics

Oh - and I gigged with v1.04 - it seemed the most stable. I had no crashes the whole time.

Quoted from "carydad"

Bounce back would be a nice feature. Being able to press the button you are on to send you back to the other patch you were previously using. Useful for going from a clean tone to a mean tone for many songs. Or between a crunch and lead patch. Nothing wrong with taking what works on other units and incorporating them. That is a nice feature of the axe.

Now THAT sounds fantastic! +1 for bounceback.