gretsch 5420 users and kemper -easy to get a good rock- blues tone ,

    Hello,


    I'm living in an appartement and currently I'm playing with a boss e-band js 8 which I like very much (regarding the price) because it allows me to find a good tone without too much tweaking.


    I'm turning 40 YEARS old this summer and I'm considering buying a kemper amp. Ik will be using it mostly for bedroom playing and playing in my little holiday house (where I can play a little louder !!)


    Strong point seem to me that - in contrast with other higher end modellers- you can get a great tone without too much endless tweaking ( much more like a real amp) . Is this really true ?


    I'own a gretsch 5420 which is my main guitar now (because of some back problems this is the guitar I can play the best without having troubles) Are there any gretsch 5420 players out here who are satisfied with the tones they can find on the Kemper ? I realise that most users will play maybe a strat, tele or les paul and I'm a little afraid that the existing profiles are more "taylored" to "fit" these guitars ?


    Hope these questions are not too stupid too answer ;(






    Greeting from Belgium,




    Denis

    Hey Denis,


    If the listening medium is good (or if you like it) the profiles will sound as they were taken. This is no guarranty that you will like them of course, but considering the huge amount of available profiles this is a good starting point :D
    So, if your question is "shall I tweak like with the Axe-Fx?", the answer is a very relaxing "no"! :D


    Please keep in mind that the Profiler has no tone in itself. So asking whether a certain guitar will sound good with it is kind of a nonsense, so to speak (no offence intended of course!).
    But, just like any guitar, which doesn't sound good with all amp settings, expect to tweak the Profiler exactly the way you'd do with a real amp.


    If the listening medium (cab, headphones, monitor) doesn't faithfully reproduce the profiles, the result will be unpredictable: you might like the result or not.
    If you plan to use a guitar cab you like and already know, then it will be a matter of finding the right amp (profile) and settings you like best with the rest of the rig.


    HTH

    The Kemper profile respond like the amp. So the question is more what amp work the best with my guitar. Such as this is good for a gretsch...amp


    The amp cost much less than if you buy a kemper.



    Also is this using original pickups?

    Thanks for your answers!
    @ brusky : I live in an appartement so a real tube amp gives too much problems. I have a few low wattage ambo's that I can play in the weekend though. For the rest of the time modelling is the way to go.


    Pickups are stock but They are the upgraded version.in comparison to the 5120 series of gretsch.

    Hi Denis - many men use AC30 with filtertron. THere is good stock and commercial vox and fender profile such as TAF and Top Jimi. One of my favorite for Gretsch crunch is TAF evil robot. So like the sage tell you - start with the kemper and you can go on and on.

    I have the same guitar and there really isn't much that this guitar can't do with the Kemper. Very good blues,rockabilly,surf (although no spring reverb on Kemper) even does some hard stuff very well! As a matter of fact I just brought my Gretsch to church last Sunday for worship service and used the Bogner 25th Anniversarry profile I always use and had more compliments on my sound through the Gretsch than I did with my other guitars. I was on the fence with the Kemper for about a year and talked myself into it and it is honestly the best investment musically I have ever made next to buying my first guitar to get into playing. I also had the e-band and agree that for the jamtracks it is easy as it gives you the proper tone to solo with. With that being said, I still ended up selling my e-band and download jamtracks and use the Kemper for jamming to them instead. Hope this helps! :thumbup:

    I have a Gretsch with TV Jones.


    What you like with the Kemper has more to do with what type of guitar/PU and amp choice you like, than how profiles were made.


    You can make a profile with an LP and it's not going to be very LP specific. That is, you might adjust the EQ and all with an LP in mind that will not be how you do it with a Strat, but you can post process with an EQ to tailor to a Strat. It takes a picky person to really get into these differences. TAF made his first pack with EQ tailored profiles for Tele, Strat and LP. I just grab one and play all 3 guitars with them and they sound just fine.


    Just think of profiles as you would an amp, and set the INPUT Sense (Clean/Distortion) and EQ, GAIN, VOL to suit what you want to hear. The "tweaking" once you figure out what you like, takes literally seconds. If you really want more carving, the CAB shift parameters can get you little more beef your stock PU's are thinner than you want. Mine were, which is why I upgraded.


    But for most profiles, you won't need to do this. You'll just go through a bunch and keep the ones that naturally already sound good with your guitar.

    Quote from denishermans

    Thank you all for your answers. Is ee you are all very enthousiast about the Kemper !

    That's because the KPA is an awesome tool. ;)


    I'm a professional guitar-player/producer and I'm using the KPA all the time (home-studio, studio-sessions, live) and I used to play with a lot of amps (Marshall, Fender, Boogie, Vox, Dr. Z ect.) and cabs. If you own or buy good studio-monitors, you will have a perfect guitar-tone at low levels.


    Don't worry about your Gretsch, there are endless great profiles available. Before sorting out the 99% crap at Rig Exchange (sorry, but that's my experience), you should take a look at the 2 best commercial vendors (my opinion) here:


    - Soundside.de (Armin)
    - TAF (Andy)


    I'm playing all kinds of guitars (Strat, Tele, Les Paul, SG, ES-335, Hoefner Archtop ect.) and it's no problem to find great profiles. Of course there are also some good Kemper-presets already installed.

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de