hello and help me pull the trigger.(please)

  • One thing to remember, though;
    The KPA is only as good as the profile you have loaded. I've found that profiles that work/sound good for one person, don't necessarily work for me. It's very subjective. Then you add different guitars and monitoring into the equation!
    Rest assured, the Profiler DEFINITELY has the potential to be the be all and end all for you, but you might need to experiment to find profiles that are a good fit for you. Recently there have been a couple of users on here that have given up prematurely, I feel, but with the right profile you won't need to tweak at all. Try one out in your local music store. It might be that the factory profiles work for you right out of the box, it might be that you need to check out what's on the Rig Exchange, it might be that you need to buy a couple of commercial profiles, but you'll find what you're looking for.


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • l have spent an unhealthy amount of money


    If you have spent an unhealthy amount of time to tweak the hell out of your Line6 Pod HD and the other units you had before, it might take some change in your mind when you get the Profiler. The Kemper ecosystem provides so many great profiles/rigs, so much choice, that you need to get rid of your custom to tweak a bad basis to something acceptable. You will spend more time trying profiles/rigs than tweaking.
    Sounds like an easy task but it isn't for many who come down the digital amp modeler path. They are so used to "create" a tone from sub-optimal models and effects. Get rid of this thinking, then you will have the most enjoyable time of your (guitar playing) life. :) Of course, once you found YOUR tones, feel free to tweak the settings and use the internal effects. But the best suggestion I can give you is to enjoy the quality of amp profiling first.


    Also, if there's a specific music style, favourite band, preferred amp types, preferred guitar in your mind ... tell us and there will be many who can give you hints where to find great tones. :)

  • Varying a bit from the OT, I'm coming from a totally tube background. I played an ADA for 20 years, and even had this modded to run an extra preamp tube (3TM) for that oversaturated tube gain sound. I've recently bought a kemper after umming & arrring, and IMO, this thing sounds better than the tube amp I used to play! I too, hung out for a 2nd user bargain on eBay, but ended up buying new, simply because the damn things don't come up very often, and when they do, go for nearly the original purchase price! Same can't be said for the Axe iterations. Seems everybody offloads last years models for this years must haves! This too, isn't gonna be a problem with the Kemper!

  • Varying a bit from the OT, I'm coming from a totally tube background. I played an ADA for 20 years, and even had this modded to run an extra preamp tube (3TM) for that oversaturated tube gain sound. I've recently bought a kemper after umming & arrring, and IMO, this thing sounds better than the tube amp I used to play! I too, hung out for a 2nd user bargain on eBay, but ended up buying new, simply because the damn things don't come up very often, and when they do, go for nearly the original purchase price! Same can't be said for the Axe iterations. Seems everybody offloads last years models for this years must haves! This too, isn't gonna be a problem with the Kemper!


    Wise words! ;)
    It's true the profiler keeps its value.

  • When the very first POD came out I bought it and then sold it a few months later. It just sounded so bad. Last year I bought a POD HD thinking that they had finally put out a good piece of gear for recording. Nope. I will never be fooled by line 6 again!


    The Kemper is so far beyond the POD that it's unfair to even try and make a comparison between the two :)

  • Thanks for all your input. I read your guide meambobbo, l thought it was a fantastic piece of work, without it the pod was unusable as the l6 manual was useless.
    Ok. In summation for the kemper from what I've gleaned.
    1. It's the best out there
    2. From the almost ridiculous number of profiles out there l will find my sound.
    3. Someone else's opinion of a profile is not necessarily gonna marry up with my guitar, strings, pick ups, leads, speakers, plectrums and anything else unique to my chain.
    4. Only l can do the leg work to find these fundamentally tweak free profiles.
    5. The return policy won't be needed
    I hate tweaking ( just thought that was the way with digital stuff) but please feel free to tweak this list. Thanks again for the help. I look forward to owning a kemper in the new year.

  • Well i wouldnt say you have to do all the leg work to find good profiles. Rig exchange has a rating system and there are numerous threads on the forum for stand-out profiles. The best profiles tend to work for a variety of pickups, guitars, styles, etc. Many profiles are very basic snapshots of a rig. U can add a boost, fx, tweak eq, etc quite easily, rather than trying to find a rhythm profile, lead profiles etc. You can also find a few good cab profiles and save them as presets, then load them onto profiles that arent quite there.


    Also there are commercial profile packs that tend to be above average in comparison to the bulk of the rig exchange.


    Trust me, you will spend a lot more time playing and a lot less searching/tweaking. The kemper just sounds real - its much bigger and fuller than the pod, and the response is better. Pod patches i found required going for a specific sound using a specific guitar. Kemper profiles are essentially like having a real amp. U get different sounds from different guitars, but its not like one is good and one is god awful. Theyre both good albeit different.

  • Great post, meambobbo. That's my own experience, too. I've pretty much found a few rigs I like, then added/subtracted gain, EQ, FX etc. to build a performance of different sounds, much like you would with a regular amp and pedals.


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Like Meambobbo said about the pod. The KPA will blow the pod or any line 6 device out of the window. This is coming from someone who was a big line 6 fan boy for around 12 years when the first POD was released. I had the Line 6 vetta for 11 years and thought it was the bees knees, but when it broke and Line 6 said they had stopped making the parts and they were not sure they could fix it I decided to look for an alternative, which is when I stumbled on the kemper. Thank god I did as well coz its been the best piece of equipment ive ever purchased and the bands that record in my studio are blow away buy it. :)

  • Hello again, I wanna thank each and everyone of you for helping me out with my indecision. Earlier today a little package ( well, maybe not so little ) came through my front door. Dunno what to say but F***ING HELL! I have'nt stopped smiling all day. All I've done so far is plug and play, no fiddling with anything yet, just browsing through some stuff on there, and not too much of that either. I mean, why? It sounds so good. Got the rack version going through a pair of rokit 8" monitors and it's just brilliant. I'm really looking forward to the journey this Kemper is going to take me on. I want to thank you all for nudging me along to start it, and no doubt the inevitable help I'm going to ask for along the way. :)

  • Have found a nice pair of gardening gloves. Thanks for the warning Raoul23 lol. Sold the pod, meambobbo. Was gutted to find out just how well line6 holds its value. I guess once line6's marketing people have finished, then just the market knows best. Anyway after playing the kemper today, l felt guilty taking what l did for the pod. Hey ho.

  • I was coming from the 11R and it would take me about 2 hours to get it EQ'd to sound like A tube amp, not THE tube amp I wanted.


    When I got the Kemper, it didn't have the same stock profiles it does now (which this past year have been awesome) But I found 5 great ones that showed me the potential. I got home, purchased a commercial pack people were raving about at the time and THAT blew me away!


    So what I'm saying is if you are THIS impressed now, it will only get better! The honeymoon for me is still ongoing 2 years later, and this is not an uncommon experience. It's the most amazing piece of gear I've ever purchased.


    Glad you're on board! Everyone brings a fresh perspective that enlightens us all!

  • Thanks db9091. I thought when l played earlier, how much better can this unit get? I mean l've read a lot of threads here where this isn't right or that's wrong. I haven't touched anything bar the on/off and browse, it sounds awesome, l haven't even eq'd. Can't figure if I'm easily pleased or incredibly jammy so far. Really looking foward to learning the kpa and ultimately grow as a player.