Giving it up!!

    Just had a thought! I played a little demo on you tube a while back now using a Two Rock jet 35 and 2x12 with a G system, like the moron I am I sold it! I loved this sound looking back, if the kemper could have done this I would have been over the moon! I'm sure it could have sounded like it but not felt like it, I think that's what I was missing the punch! If you go to you tube and type in two rock prs I'm about 4 down with a light green T shirt on, there's a few more as well with the overdrive I was craving out of the Kemper, maybe another time!

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    :)

    Nice licks, Markyboy. That tone's definitely achievable with the Kemper. Feels another thing, though. As quite a few folks say around here, it's not easy to adjust to not having a big 4x12 behind you. However, you could always investigate one of the powered KPAs and pair it with a quality guitar cab. Maybe next life, eh? ;)


    Cheers,
    Sam


    Edit : oh, you had the PowerRack! Did you never try it with a regular 4x12?

    Eyactly, no need to get lost in profiles.


    Everytime I switch my KPA on for fun - I use only profiles from one amp - and then learn how they react to different guitars.


    Next time I try another amp.


    And then I just play - I have a lot of fun this way.

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    Great Profiles --> soundside.de

    Yes I used a cab direct from the back of the kemper but I only have a 1x12 mesa boogie wideboy to try it through, that's why I bought the yamaha too get he true profile sounds only I think they produce a harsh sound unlike speaker cabs! Unless you have access to lots of speaker types and combination your stuffed and end up spending thousandst the desired noise, goo

    Sorry to keep moaning, but I get what Markyboy is saying. I don't want to twiddle and the Kemper is REALLY logical to use so not complicated.


    It's just instantly finding the sound.


    It might be physcological but I honestly find it difficult to determine if its a profile is a good one as a basis to start from. I've tried ones recommended on here to me they don't sound great so I think:

    • I must have dodgy ears/bad taste
    • A different/poor set up.

    BTW I have fund a couple of sounds I like but they still feel like a bit of a compromise.


    With a 4x12 cab with celestions, I would expect some difference with othe peoples suggestions but not to the extent I have experienced.


    For me it's 90% there and hence I will stick with it ( and am selling my other gear). However, I have an important gig with it next week and I'm still stressing whether it will cut it. Becuase i know if it doesn't, it will be becuase I've not set it up properly.


    It became most noticable when I profiled my Laney GH100L. Not played it for years but it was " oh, there it is"...I know the Kemper could cover it, possibly better it ( my profile of it is OK but not the same), but not got there yet - so you have to have some belief.


    The main thing keeping me going is you guys and everyone saying how good it sounds...but I think I am missing something or doing something wrong as my confidence isn't there yet.


    Anyone live near Derby UK that has it sussed as easier to swap views/experience directly?

    Ran out of ink again!!


    Love to have tried the Atomics but 3 months and £2000!! I've got another song on you tube with the ideal overdrive sound I was looking for which you could find with my other video, born to be wild and all day all of the night

    Guy I thought you had cracked it! I found myself taking the kemper out, putting it away, reading this then putting it away again, I was doing my own head in with it, is it just us? Get an atomic for the alternate test or just borrow lots of speakers:-)

    Haven´t read all the answers but I really get what markyboy means. Many options isn´t always a good thing. After a while you get lost and don´t know what sounds good or not if you are tweaking for a long time.
    I think kemper sounds amazing. But at a gig last night a brought my mesa boogie express and pedalboard. To me nothing beats the simplicity and feeling of a great tube amp with some pedals. Plug in, turn up and there you go.
    But next week I will need to use the kemper for my first gig. Will be interesting. Plan on using it the same way as with an amp. Just a good clean and then use my pedalboard as I normally would.

    Not walking round Derby in those shorts are you?
    Only joking mate, what type of sounds are you looking for out of interest?
    Maybe one of us can point you to an amp/patch that will suit.
    Mike

    One thing the Kemper confirms, most real amps sounds very similar to each other.
    That's why I don't buy the story that in order to really hear the diversity of tones in the Kemper you need to play through a FRFR.


    Is a Fender cabinet with V30s going to sound different to a Marshall cabinet with V30s, two amps on the opposite sides of the tone spectrum using the same speakers?
    I've plugged a Powered Kemper into a Marshall cabinet, and the VOX Profiles sounded like a Vox and the Fender Profiles sounded like a Fender, the Mesa Boogie Profiles sounded like a Mesa and the Bogner Ecstacy Profiles sounded like a Bogner.


    In any event, guitarists that use real amps live usually use the clean channel and a pedalboard.
    What happens when you add a distortion pedal or a TS9, you change the sound of the amp and the speakers, no different to playing a Powered Kemper into any cabinet with whatever speakers.


    Does every FRFR sound the same, no two that I've played sound even close to the same.
    One is boomy, the other one has ice picky high end and another one was too middy/honky.


    When markyboy tells me he plugged his powered Kemper into a 2x12 cab with a basic speakers like V30s and couldn't get a tone like I'm hearing in his video, then I'll concede to "giving it up". :)

    I ran out of ink but I managed to find another pen. ;)


    When I go watch a cover band and the guitarist is trying to emulate the tone/FX of each cover they're playing then I know it's going to be nasty tone night.
    When I go watch a cover band and a guitarist with some serious playing skills is playing a Marshall TSL 100 clean channel with one or two OD/Distortion pedals, a Delay and a Chorus, it turns out to be a tone heaven night.


    Does David Gilmours rig sound like a Hi Watt?
    Not to me it doesn't, it sounds like a loud clean amp with a bunch of pedals completely changing the tone of what a Hi Watt really sounds like.
    I bought Andy's Hi Watt rig pack, Gilmour's actual Hi Watt used on the Wall album....I get better Gilmour tones using the Kemper Factory AC30 Profiles.


    Point is, the Kemper isn't incredible because we can try out 7000 "authentic" sounding Profiles, it sounds incredible because we can find 10 Profiles that sound brilliant live or recorded, in many cases better than the best tube amp can sound.


    IMHO


    I disagree with your assertion that all amps pretty much sound the same. I also think you'll find that most pros prefer natural tube overdrive/distortion to pedals. You can get great sounds from OD pedals (provided there is a tube power section) but in my opinion tube preamp distortion is tops. I think the point is that a FRFR cabinet has less of its own coloring characteristics that a guitar cab.

    I agree with both:


    The last guitarist I worked with in a band used a Marshall JCM900 half stack and only used clean channel on the amp, all dirt was done with pedals.


    He had the best tone of anyone I have played with up to that point, and he is a producer who has worked with a lot of pros so I studied what he did and how he tweaked his eq's and such, and he basically would have been very happy with the powered Kemper into his cab but hated the idea of a digital amp and was completely against it..


    BUT, I use the Kemper through Atomic CLR and I find that because my main guitar has such unusual tone (very thick walnut body, rosewood neck with ebony fretboard, and H/S/H config) that different amps bring out the guitar's tone better.


    When I played through my old Hughes and Kettner Access/ VHT 2/90/2 setup, the tones were good but I was never satisfied and now I can get the tones I was looking for on any song (we are a cover band) and I can nail every tunes sounds near perfectly.


    The profiles of amps I have (a ton of commercial profiles) all sound vastly different.

    After several years of using these units through many different 4x12 and 2x12 cabs, I find that the higher gain profiles all sound very similar, especially through a v30 setup. I got a bit more definition with the greenbacks. Still though, obviously nothing like running through a good FRFR setup.