Very dissapointed with reliability of Kemper on the road !

    Love my Kemper sound but don't think this is very reliable for touring, at least you need a backup Kemper, or 2. Which is costly for the budget musician


    I'm gigging in Morocco, brought my Kemper with me, and it broke down after a week. Was working great the previous night, then come the next day, nothing....since then been diagnosed to have to send it for repair, and will be without my Kemper for the whole tour most likely as it's very difficult to send and receive stuff In Morocco.


    I miss it like hell, the sound , the tone, that's why I'm so heartbroken.


    Stuck with playing thru a shitty Fender modeller mustang amp for the rest of this tour. My line6 Pod HD didn't sound half as good but never broke down on tour...

    Edited 2 times, last by kriswylde ().

    Sorry to hear about your bad luck! Mine has never failed on the road, even flying within Europe and using it through whatever speaker (4, 8, 16 ohm) the venue has for me to loan. What a bummer

    It does indeed suck that you are going through this. Let me provide some insight that hopefully will ease your mind a bit.


    I've had $3000 tube amps - built by extremely reputable builders - break down on me at gigs. One time my Reinhardt SHG - an amp that was built like a tank - had a bad resistor that just gave up. And these amps were never subjected to the rigors of a tour. Even under the best of conditions, gear we take on the road is going to get bumped around and sometimes damaged.


    This is why pros take backups. I would personally never tour without a competent backup in place. You always have to prepare for the worst.


    One other thing - The Kemper is a very sophisticated piece of gear, but at it's heart it's basically a computer, right? Circuit boards, processors, etc. I would never subject my laptop to the types of conditions I am sure we put our Kempers through.

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

    Like 2

    I'm currently qualify as a 'local musician' with aspirations of becoming a regional act. Sort of doubt I'll ever go national as a cover band but who knows?


    Coming from a professional background in IT, I can tell you one tried and true axiom as stated above: Redundancy: ALWAYS have a backup.


    Even locally, I almost always take my (shitty? LOL!) trusty Fender Blues Deluxe reissue as a back up. Its a pain in the ass to haul around but until I can afford a second Kemper (and trust me, if we go regional I will) it does the job.

    Quote from Raoul23

    sorry to hear this, but i disagree with you. Ive been using mine live for over 3 years and it has not once let me down. its done over 500 gigs. I always carry a USB with the FW OS in the root folder just incase, but ive never needed to use it :) I feel as though the KPA is just as reliable as any other amp if not more reliable as its always a good good :)


    Have to agree with Raoul completely 3 yrs and going strong.


    Just to add. I didn't mean to come off smug because I've had no problem. I'm sorry to here of your problem andhope you get it sorted soon

    I went to Dubai last year 6 nights a week for 6 months, not a hiccup , gigged all the time back home, no problem, but this one, after a week break down , I'm totally screwed,
    Until it happens ...
    I managed to get a passable sound upfront but F me, I miss my fucken Kemper . So use to playing with it. Just the feel , the sound every night , God damn It Pisses me off not to have it!

    I guess I feel like this cause I can't just swap out parts like an amp that's why I questioned reliability. I wish Kemper could send me a new analog board or whatever it is that is defective an be able to swap out the defective part and get my amp working again asap.


    you can't just go buy the part ... Like an amp. , Reason for my quote . I have to send it out and shipping in and out of Morocco is a real pain apparently. I mean Kemper is a computer, I've built and swapped parts from computers all my life, even built amps, preamps, pedals... But now I can't do nothing ...

    I have to agree with many that my KPA is way more reliable than my tube amps ever were. I have a 2nd one that I've never had to use and I've been using it for about 2-3 years now as well.


    That being said, it is true that tube amps have the benefit of (usually) a part swap will fix it. If it's a tube, or a fuse, or maybe a loose connection somewhere it's user serviceable on the gig.


    For most digital devices, if one little part fails the whole thing is down and you're not going to get it working again in the field.


    Before I had my 2nd KPA, I had an old Boss GT8 as a backup. It wouldn't have been awesome, but it would have gotten me through had I ever needed it. If I had to do it again I'd build something around a little FlyRig 5 and have a serviceable backup for the price of a good set of tubes.

    It sounds like you're a professional musician. IMO even semi professionals should always have acceptable backup solutions. I mean, even if you've got a £5k Gibson, its not like you'd travel without a backup in case it had some kind of issue right?


    Its clear the KPA in general doesn't have reliability issues, you just got unlucky, it happens unfortunately :(

    Yes I am pro , means this is my income.. been gigging for over 20 years, but these are club gigs and still on a certain budget.
    when you travel in planes, you are limited to the amount of gear you can bring , and bringing 1 kempers and a guitar on board luggage , is the limit in baggages, I bring them onboard...
    I've dealt a bad hand for sure. I do have backup, but it ain't like my Kemper I'm using the house amp which is a Fender Mustang 3 which is kinda like a pod soundwise I suppose


    And as for guitar , if something screws up , I know how to fix it ...

    Is this your first Kemper you've had that had issues? If so, than I don't see how you can jump to the conclusion that the Kemper is not a reliable unit as a whole. For all you know you were just unlucky to have gotten a bad unit. No piece of equipment out there is immune from the occasional defective unit. If you've had multiple units that all had issues that would be a different story...


    FWIW, my Kemper also suddenly stopped working a while back. I got in touch with Kemper and they got it fixed in a reasonable amount of time (I believe it was 2-3 weeks) and paid to have it shipped both ways. Haven't had any issues since.

    Quote from kriswylde

    Yes I am pro , means this is my income.. been gigging for over 20 years, but these are club gigs and still on a certain budget.
    when you travel in planes, you are limited to the amount of gear you can bring , and bringing 1 kempers and a guitar on board luggage , is the limit in baggages, I bring them onboard...
    I've dealt a bad hand for sure. I do have backup, but it ain't like my Kemper I'm using the house amp which is a Fender Mustang 3 which is kinda like a pod soundwise I suppose


    And as for guitar , if something screws up , I know how to fix it ...


    Well, with a guitar the issue isn't knowing how to fix it. If your guitar breaks mid set you don't fix it, you grab your spare and carry on.


    As i say, you got unlucky and i feel for you there. My band is in a similar position, if a KPA breaks then our sound will suffer, but honestly if we played as often as you we'd find a way to have a spare KPA ready to go at all times :)

    From my professional experience on professional audio sector, in North African countries the electric net is not stable, and it often gives power peaks to electronic products that can result in failures of the products. In this case, I am not able to tell if it was a problem of the Kemper or a power failure, but I strongly suggest to use a voltage regulator before the Kemper (or any other audio device) in case you have to play again in Morocco.

    Quote from esotericmetal

    Is this your first Kemper you've had that had issues? If so, than I don't see how you can jump to the conclusion that the Kemper is not a reliable unit as a whole. For all you know you were just unlucky to have gotten a bad unit.


    FWIW, my Kemper also suddenly stopped working a while back. I got in touch with Kemper and they got it fixed in a reasonable amount of time (I believe it was 2-3 weeks) and paid to have it shipped both ways. Haven't had any issues since.


    Its not a bad unit, have had it for 3 years without a hitch, but now it just quit on me! And waiting 2-3 weeks is a long time when your playing 6 nights a week! All I'm saying is I need a backup ! Might have to buy 2nd Kemper