Temporary kemper owner

    Hi everyone,


    So I finally bit the bullet and got myself a nonpowered kemper from Sweetwater. Right now I'm in the early stages of the 30 day return policy. So far I'm finding it pretty awesome, just a few questions:

    -Is there an agreed upon safe volume level for headphone output? I have a pair of sennheiser hd280s and have read some scary stuff about prolonged headphone use causing hearing damage.


    -Is there an easy way to add some low end thump or kick for lack of a better term to some of the high gain metal profiles? I understand that when isolated from a mix, guitar tracks don't really have a big low end to them, but im playing solo in my basement so I find myself missing that low end compared to my 6505mh with a 1x12 cab. Is that just the nature of playing through studio monitors? I have a pair of jbl Lsr305s that I'm using, I don't expect Earth shaking bass or anything out of them but it feels like the low end is missing on a lot of profiles?


    -I tried hooking up to the return of the fx loop on the 6505 and liked the tone, but I did find that I had to turn off the cab on the profiles for most of them. If I was to get an active PA speaker, would I still be turning off the cab or at that point do you just run the profile as is through one of those? Does it make a huge difference compared to running it how I am now? Would the sound be similar to the studio monitors and just louder, or would it automatically add that missing thump that I was asking about above?



    Basically I have three ways that I play guitar, either through headphones because the wife and baby are upstairs or for playing along with backing tracks, through studio monitors for when I can get a little louder or just get tired of headphones, and through the 6505 mh turned down when everyone's asleep or out. The Kemper has blown away my other options for headphones and has at least matched my 6505mh head for use through the 1x12 cab. So now I'm just looking for tips on the above before moving on to phase 2 which is figuring out what gear to sell to pay off the Kemper and keep it.



    Thanks for any and all help!

    Welcome!
    You ask questions which together require an experience period of about 6 months. The decrease to 30 days is demanding.


    For your first question:
    I don't understand them. But under the Output-Button you can control your headset settings, very well and individually.


    For your second question:
    Check out other Cabs under the same Amp under the Cabinet-Button in the Stack-Section.


    Last question:
    With the Kemper you're setting on an other technologie as till right now. It's not sensefull to use your old cabinet. My hint: take a look under FRFR-technology.
    Most Kemperians use active FRFR-speakers. It's to much to explain all of this here. Use the search-funktion.


    My hint generally:
    Take a look (with headphones) to the Kemper. You will see it is a complex-theme. Check out if you can handle it, if you are happy with. If yes, take your decission. If you buy, then solve your questions step by step in the next 5-6 months. Sell your old gear after this time.
    You should know that many things will change in you experiences with tube-amps. You're reach a new guitar-epoch. There is much to learn new. ;)^^

    Hi and welcome, duffman.


    As Kulle said, try changing cabs (lock the amp section and whatever else you wish to remain the same, and scroll through Rigs, thereby changing the cab to whatever they're using).


    Also you could simply raise the bass level using the EQ-stack knob. Then there're the stomp EQs as well, but I don't use them as I find the stack EQ perfectly-adequate. Many here do use the various other EQ's to shape their tones 'though.


    Headphone levels - you should intuitively know when you're going too loud. Trust your judgement. If it's way louder than it needs to be in order to properly hear what you're playing, it's probably too loud.

    Quote from duffman1183

    -Is there an easy way to add some low end thump or kick for lack of a better term to some of the high gain metal profiles? I understand that when isolated from a mix, guitar tracks don't really have a big low end to them, but im playing solo in my basement so I find myself missing that low end compared to my 6505mh with a 1x12 cab. Is that just the nature of playing through studio monitors? I have a pair of jbl Lsr305s that I'm using, I don't expect Earth shaking bass or anything out of them but it feels like the low end is missing on a lot of profiles?

    You play through 5" woofers which might be the problem. You could try to use bigger studio monitors or PA speakers / monitors like the Yamaha DXR series.

    Welcome to the forum! Something to keep in mind: One of the immediate things people comment about is the Kemper doesn't sound like an amp (lacks low end, etc). Obviously, if you play it through headphones or small studio monitors, you aren't physically pushing as much air as a 1x12 or larger guitar cabinet, especially at lower volumes. My real amps were waaaaay louder than running my Kemper through my studio monitors like I do now. A 15 watt 1x12 tube amp will really move some air. So the feeling will be different, you need to kind of factor for that and get used to it.


    If you play through the 6505 cabinet, you will probably want to turn off the cab on the Kemper (you can try it both ways, some people like it better with the cab on) because you don't need the cabinet emulation, because you are using a real one. If you play through your studio monitors and on your headphones, you may want to play with the 'purecab' control. That can help the sound coming from a full range system to sound more 'amp like'.


    Good luck, I hope you keep it!

    Thanks everyone! So far so good, I picked up a couple commercial profiles and started getting into the habit of adding an eq with a slight boost to the low end on the ones that I felt were lacking and all is well so far. I was actually switching on and off between the kemper with the 5" monitors and my 6505 mh head/cab last night at a decent volume and found myself liking the kemper sound more, even through the small monitors. It just sounded fuller from where I was sitting.