Where are the Overdrive "pedals"?

  • Thread Author: I just bought my KPA rack on Tuesday 9/26 so I'm still a total newbie. I am currently using a real Maxon OD-9 pedal in front with very pleasing results. If you have any "real" pedals lying about, experiment with those guys.

  • In my opinion and based on my initial use of my new KPA, the distortion effects sound really fizzy and unusuable with the best profiles I've uploaded so far. My understanding is the KPA takes external pedals really well and I'm currently tempted to buy a JHS Andy Timmons Pedal.

  • Hmm that's what I thought.


    Guess I'll have to look for one of those pedals then. I'll try the ones suggested but am also interested in the Precision Drive. The one that is claimed to work really well with digital amp sims.


    Thnx for the replies humans.

  • I do only use the eq on the Kemper, all the rest are pedals, not that those from the Kemper are not good but I like to have all my knobs under my hand to tweak, and yes it takes pedals in front very, very well. i have sometimes hiss and distortion in the loop though, don’t know how to get rid of it ...

  • There seem to be 2 ways to achieve a good gain sound relatively clean amp with pedals or use the amps own gain.


    Personally I've never understood why you'd buy a £2000 valve amp and run a £200 solid state distortion/gain/overdrive pedal so I'm not a pedal person or see any need to run a pedal in front of it.


    Many pedals were created to make up for deficiencies of a particular amp but to me the Kemper has the versatility to manage that ( e.g. boost/change e.g. for solos etc..


    We are all different though :)

  • Though I own to KPA's I still have my analog Amps and 3 different Pedalboards. And I can tell that I am still a pedal-junkie especially with overdrive-stomps.
    And I also can tell, that my Okko-Diablo sounds really very very nice in front of my KPA - with a slightly overdriven profile loaded.


    But I really don't miss overdrive-models (as stomps) with my KPA because all sounds I can imagine at all, can be dialed in just by using a bit of the booster and the green scream together with one of the countless available Profiles.

  • I've to disagree with some of the above, as it's very convenient to sharpen my core tone with a real pedal in front/ loop.


    I really like to tweak on the fly as I record , and having all kinds of pots at the range of my hand ( pedal kept on my desk) is really fun, applications like band pass, leveling, bit crushing, fuzz, dirt ... available right there is much better than using the sub menus.


    The mix of analog pedals and KPA profiling is really impressive as it often react like the real amp would.


    I also use some profiles with internal FXes that give great results BTW.

  • I've managed to get better sounding fuzz by completely turning the Kemper gain Knob to the left for zero gain from Kemper. Once I do that the Fuzz Character becomes more in focus and any distortion pedal for that matter.

    This is funny because I did achieve great fuzz results with vintage amp profiles by doing the exact opposite : crancking the gain up to 3' o clock, but WITHOUT any FX engaged or real pedal.

  • For me stomp D is configured as a Mono Loop and I run a couple low-gain overdrive pedals through it. The KPA takes pedals very well in front but I like having a phaser and wah in front of overdrive pedals. The Distortion Loop didn't work for me but fiddling with the Mono Loop gave me what I wanted.


    I like low-gain tones and after I got everything dialed-in it's perfect for me!


    I wish the guitars input on the front of the KPA could be assigned to a stomp so a loop wouldn't be necessary but it's all good.