My first gigs without the KEMPER!

Yesterday my rehearsal with my (very ) loud band confirmed a bit, what musicman65 predicted:

Quote from musicman65

You can't run an SS amp into saturation without creating square waves and ugly harmonics so you need extra headroom to avoid this.

Possible that only one Jensen Blackbird speaker is not enough for these volumes. So when I set the UNLEASH to the max it was quite harsh yesterday. With a second cabinet in parallel the total impedance would drop to 4 Ohms so that the UNLEASH would fire out nominally 180 Watts. This and the fact that there would be less burdon on each speaker might be a cure for this effect. ... Time will tell ...

Quote from guenterhaas

If you play in a club or on smaller stages (probably like fretboardminer) and maybe the amp is not even miked up, you will get a good guitar-sound with a simple tube-amp very fast. If you want to have the same quality with the KPA you need very good FRFR-cabs.

I have a RCF NX 12sma and a RCF TT08 here. Yes, for really small gigs a combo is still unbeatable (at least now with the UNLEASH for controling the volume). On larger stages all the features of the KEMPER are very enticing. I think I will soon sell those FRFR speakers. But not the KEMPER. There are a few things I have to check out first.

Now I had a gig with with my (very ) loud band. The setup was:

my custom made 2x6V6 amp
> UNLEASH
>> speaker out back to my amp's JENSEN Blackbird 12"
>> line out into a Twin
>> volmepedal (and FREEZE) into the FX loop of the UNLEASH

An alternative setup could have been this, but I did not test it because we arrived late and the soundcheck was a bit in a
hurry and I am more convinced that this setup will work fine anyway:

my custom made 2x6V6 amp
> UNLEASH
>> speaker out back to my amp's JENSEN BLACKBIRD 12"
>> second speaker out connected to only the speakers of the Twin
>> volmepedal (and FREEZE) into the FX loop of the UNLEASH

It was a great sound and very good feel to play. In bands with a more reasonable, moderate volume level the little-big-amp setup with the UNLEASH is already clearly my favourite now. This certainly puts my KEMPER a bit closer to ebay. But I will wait until it I see how the UNLEASH works on a gig with airline travel. Guitar and UNLEASH checked in in the suitcase and my Champ as cabin luggage.

Quote

First of all I would buy ear-protectors, if you play with a very loud band....

Shure I did!

Quote from guenterhaas

It's not that easy to find good FRFR-systems for the Kemper and it's hard to get a similar feel like playing an amp/combo. I've tried out several P.A/monitor-cabs and I found out that special FRFR-cabs like Atomic CLR, Camper CX112 and Matrix Q12a sound much better and give me more of the "real feel".

I concentrated on active FRFR speakers because carrying a KPA plus a Matrix Q12a (or some other of the sort) is way too much when you travel. Even on trains but certainly in airplanes. I can't afford to pay overweight fees. I never played in a venue that was able to rent one of these "guitar special FRFR cabs" for me. And I don't think it is possible at all to get them from any backline rental company. Also I never understood the need for "guitar-special" FRFR if the idea of FRFR is flat response full range.