90 days and about to roll it out live and retire the Carol Ann. After 30 years of nothing but tubes and ripping all things digital, I'm at peace. Funny, it was funded with the sale of a Friedman BE.......and then I picked up some BE profiles for like 5 bucks 
Are You Still Happy With the Kemper after a Few Months
- asimmd
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it depends on guitar and pickups. If these are good it sounds like good instrument played on tube amp. If these are bad it sounds like bad guitar played on tube amp.
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love it to death!
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Since you are primarily interested in using it for direct recording:
I've used mine for 18 months, direct into DIGI hardware with ProTools, for just about any genre that uses electric guitar or bass.
If you use the right kind of guitar and choose a Kemper rig of the right kind of amplifier for the music, it won't sound "close" to the real thing. It won't sound like a plugin. It won't sound like a modeler. It will sound like you have the amplifier miced up in another room, and you are listening to it through your studio monitors.
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18 months, still happy.
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Lance is damn right .
Tokai is not "the second best" on the World, it might be the "first best " if quality vs price tag ratio is considered .
How ?
Simple , my Buldog ( Les Paul platform, where all original LP mistakes in design were fixed) ) has a retail tag price of >$5.000 , OK .
(due to very rare, hand picked and expensive Maple top, standard models are cheaper)
Tokai "Les Paul " has a tag price $1.000 (I am not sure Lance, but let assume it)So, allow me to say that Bulldog is a little bit "better" guitar than Tokai .
But 5 times better ???? No fricking way .
Bulldog is not worth 5 times more than Tokai,period !
In numbers , very heavy to define, but say 10-20 % odd percent "more better" .
(per example , I forgot when I tune it last time , btw , it stays in tune forever , you can do 2 hours heavy gig -no tuner involved , which brings +10% by it self
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For 1.000 $ you get Tokai, fantastic guitar , nice tuning stability, nice sound, very ,very good finish, no mistakes etc...Al in all, for these 10-20% percent in quality one have to pay 500% of price , that's the name of the game .
If Tom Andersons are the best guitars in the world, then what are the second best guitars in the world?
Before you answer here's a clue, begins with T and ends with I.
You're too old to carry a real solid Les Paul around your neck, you can only handle a lightweight "Bulldog".
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22 months, still happy but in the meantime I know the weaker sides of the toaster, too.
It's still my Nr 1 for recording clean and crunch parts,
for hard'n'heavy recordings I use the Axe-FX only. -
i've sale mine yesterday
tired to wait a stable firmware and a real foot controler and an editori come back to a real amp plug and play great
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i've sale mine yesterday
tired to wait a stable firmware and a real foot controler and an editori come back to a real amp plug and play great
2.4.2 is stable for me
There are some foot controler options available
I don't know any tube amp with an editor - IMHO is the KPA UI this great that I don't need an external editor (would like a MAC rig manager btw.)Enjoy your tube amp - which one did you get?
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Over 2 years and still very very happy
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That in fact after having my KPA for more than a year I recently traded my Laney VC30 212 to an ES 335 copy made by Edwards. I usually hoard amps, buy and then keep them. However as time goes by I'm starting to believe what my logical self is telling me all along "why am I keeping the tubes?" More amps to follow.. I think
Out of topic but this was my first time to own an ES 335 copy and realized I should have this kind of guitar long ago. -
I love my KPA. What it's doing for me at the moment is simply inspiring me to play. We all get the fact that any non-players (like spouses) don't understand: that a reason for another guitar, amp or even stomp box is to get a different sound from what we already can produce and thus a different feel. This isn't just for the hell of it or through boredom, it's because different sounds inspire us to play different things in different ways, and this is why I LOVE the KPA. I can change amp to something I might not normally play and suddenly there I am using legato and tapping and sweep picking, then I change to a lovely Vox AC30 and I'm playing nice crunchy U2 sounding lines, then I change to a nice vintage amp (thanks Oraakkeli!!!) and I'm playing really nice old blues.
This device is so damn inspiring! I love it!
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i've sale mine yesterday
tired to wait a stable firmware and a real foot controler and an editori come back to a real amp plug and play great
So my big venue-tour (60 shows) using a KPA (2.3.3) with FCB-UnO4K having NOT ONE SINGLE PROBLEM was just a dream?
Seriously:
1) The KPA is made in Germany (very solid mit premium components) by CK and his "1st-class"-team
2) There are many foot controllers available, some fit perfectly to the KPA (f.e. with UnO4K / Eureka-chip)
3) FW 2.3.3 and 2.4.2 are absolutely stable
4) There's an editor (Rig Manager) available for Windows, Mac-version will come soon
5) You can't compare the KPA with ONE tube-amp, using the KPA you can have ALL tube-amps on this planet
6) Tubes often get busted on tour, you'll always need spare-ampsSometimes I also like to have a simple setup (tube-amp and a few pedals), but your statements are simply wrong and you never can compare the KPA with a tube-amp, it's just a totally different story.
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Nine months and I'm very happy. It's great to be able to extract sounds that work well in recordings without much effort, especially for someone that doesn't have a lot of time on hand.
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So my big venue-tour (60 shows) using a KPA (2.3.3) with FCB-UnO4K having NOT ONE SINGLE PROBLEM was just a dream?
i HATE when that happens!!
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To the OP's original question:
Response: Oh f*** yeah!!!
And this is every single time that I have a moment between travels (cross-countries) for work to isolate myself in the basement and power-on my KPA, it is one of pure bliss.I have been a KPA owner for 1.5 years now and I still cannot believe what I hear, feel and how much better a guitarist it has made me.
I finally stopped searching for sounds, tweaking devices endlessly (Many Pods and one VG-99) to finally just play what I can hear in my head and focus on just that, playing guitar.
I do have to tweak the profiles in the KPA obviously but now it takes me only 2-3 minutes to get into the 95% ballpark of what I am seeking instead of hours of never being satisfied.
I just love my KPA. It let's me focus on my guitar playing (attack level, technique), tweak the guitar knobs more to hear subtleties I wasn't able to appreciate or hear before.
Mind you, I have never owned any decent real tube amp before as I was not a good guitar player and the tube amps were actually intimidating me because they were showing blatantly how bad of guitarist I was because they are so loud!
Now I can appreciate a real tube amp because of what the Kemper has brought to the table.
Even then, I will not trade my KPA for anything... Too many possibilities.I still love my KPA, the best investment I made for music with my Tokai ES-135 guitar. Excellent combination.
Cheers
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I've had my Kemper since January. I can confidently say it's been the best music-related purchase I've ever made. Of course the tones are amazing, but the amount of time I don't have to spend on tweaking sound has been priceless. It's a no brainer, zero regrets!
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I finally have a real amplifier in the digital age. I have refused to spend money on a real amplifier. The last amp I bought was a flextone 2 and before that I had a Galien Krueger ml250. That little Krueger was a beast but with all standalone devices it was limited. Mesa Boogie=1 amp, KPA= 20 amps, you figure... Now I have a Kemper running thru a top notch FRFR solution, what more can I say. I have amplifiers for days. Now just waiting for a Variax solution so that I can have guitars for days. Remember the POD started it all!
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To my ears the Variax is less of a success than the Kemper, but it's still a killer tool.
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2.4.2 is stable for me
There are some foot controler options available
I don't know any tube amp with an editor - IMHO is the KPA UI this great that I don't need an external editor (would like a MAC rig manager btw.)Enjoy your tube amp - which one did you get?
2.4.2 is stable for me
There are some foot controler options available
I don't know any tube amp with an editor - IMHO is the KPA UI this great that I don't need an external editor (would like a MAC rig manager btw.)Enjoy your tube amp - which one did you get?
2.4.2 is stable for me
There are some foot controler options available
I don't know any tube amp with an editor - IMHO is the KPA UI this great that I don't need an external editor (would like a MAC rig manager btw.)Enjoy your tube amp - which one did you get?
yes i would said rig manager for MAC
kemper have great sound for sure but a dedicated footcontroler is essential and a better routing and effect section is needed
and it's not very serious to speak about something since a lot of time and nothing come
idem for rig manager forget Mac user it's simply a big mistake
i had use a fcb 1010 with UNO 4KEMPER eprom it's for me the best solution
but you have to use 2midi cable no phantom power without customise it and no phantompower outpout by the Kemper
since this time Fractal use RJ 45 ,have a dedicated footcontroler but the sounds isn't so good
i prefer come back to tube amp and more simple rig
my next will be a DR Z MAZ 18NR 
