Considering A Purchase

    Hi guys!


    My name is Chris. I’ve been playing guitar for about 20 years and have recently joined a cover band. We Do covers from Alice In Chains, Godsmack, Seether, Shinedown etc. and I’m going to need some gear!


    For about the last 10 years, I’ve been playing with almost exclusively VST software (BIAS, TSEx50 and others). I’ve never really owned a “real” amp. My last head unit was a Line 6 Spider II which has AWFUL tone!


    The VSTs have spoiled me it seems. I’ve looked at so many amps and could find one I liked without going in to very pricey territory. The trouble I have is finding a rig that can do classic rock, modern hard rock, AND metal.


    Here are some of the setups I’ve tried:


    * Marshall DSL40C
    - Other guitarist in the band uses this 1x12 combo amp and swears by it. While the clean is really pretty solid, I really couldn’t get down with that gain tone.


    * Blackstar HT Club 40 / 100 Head
    - This one had some pretty decent gain tone and some fine cleans. Overall, wasn’t a bad choice really, but I feel that dialing it down to just a modern rock tone wasn’t what these amps were made for.


    * EVH 5150 III 50W
    - Now HERE’S an amp I can rock with. WOW! Only problem? The shared EQ and volume jump between clean and gain... seemed like a pain to deal with.


    * 5150/6505
    - Damn that’s got some gain, but really, where’s the clean??


    * Orange Rockerverb
    - I don’t know what it is about Orange in general. Lots of metal heads love these amps. I just can’t get over the creaminess of them.


    * Mesa Boogie TC / Mark V / Dual Rec
    - And here comes the winner in my rig search. These amps did practically everything I wanted them to and sounded damn fine with everything I threw at them! Problem was the price point! At this price point why not just go for the Kemper and steal the souls of every amp?!


    So now I’m down to this. I’m going to be gigging soon enough and need something that works nicely on stage that I can setup to specific songs in a set list. I’ll definitely need foot control, but not sure if the remote is necessary (over a midi foot switch).


    I already have a Line 6 L3T FRFR Speaker that I purchased recently (still within return period) and I was hoping to get away with the cheaper unpowered Kemper as I do not intend to use a cabinet. Will this approach significantly hurt my sound with the Kemper?


    Any thoughts on the other options around this price range? Helix? Axe-8? Headrush?


    Thanks guys for reading my long intro!

    Welcome to the forum! I play in a duo with little need for higher gain tones, but I find the Kemper covers all of my needs, and saves my back :D

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    Welcome to the forum from me as well! I can't answer all of your questions but maybe some.


    I'm pretty sure with the versatility of the Kemper you should find all of the tones you need. But if price is an important factor for you, I'm not quite sure it is the perfect solution for you, as very good tube amps can be had for well under 1000 bucks and for a Kemper you have to pay well over 1000 bucks. Which amps exactly would be a good match for you I can't tell (because I have no clue), but maybe someone else can help out there. At this point you will have to weigh your options: pay more for higher versatility, consistency and convenience or go with the lower price. And this decision you will have to make yourself :)


    If you were to decide on a Kemper: a FRFR is an perfectly accepted solution and real cabs are mostly (there are exceptions here everywhere, obviously ;) ) used by people who want the same live feel they had with their tube amps. Since you are accustomed to digital amplifying I think you should be fine with a FRFR.

    You seem to have thought it through logically, Chris.


    Compared to the alternatives you mentioned (and any others I'm aware of), I believe you'll find the sound more-sophisticated / organic / immediately-responsive and so on... just like a tube amp.


    Welcome, mate, and... pull that trigger!

    Quote from Karajan

    Welcome to the forum from me as well! I can't answer all of your questions but maybe some.


    I'm pretty sure with the versatility of the Kemper you should find all of the tones you need. But if price is an important factor for you, I'm not quite sure it is the perfect solution for you, as very good tube amps can be had for well under 1000 bucks and for a Kemper you have to pay well over 1000 bucks. Which amps exactly would be a good match for you I can't tell (because I have no clue), but maybe someone else can help out there. At this point you will have to weigh your options: pay more for higher versatility, consistency and convenience or go with the lower price. And this decision you will have to make yourself :)


    If you were to decide on a Kemper: a FRFR is an perfectly accepted solution and real cabs are mostly (there are exceptions here everywhere, obviously ;) ) used by people who want the same live feel they had with their tube amps. Since you are accustomed to digital amplifying I think you should be fine with a FRFR.


    Thanks for the reply! The wording I chose my have given you that impression. It's not the money at all, it's the bang for buck that I wonder about. I'll drop 5K if it meant godly tone lol.


    No, my point was that at the price point of the Mesa's, I may as well get something that can do the Mesa's AND everything else too.

    You can do pretty much anything you've described. But this is not to buy.


    The Kemper is a versatile tool for musician. However, you have to invest a lot of learning work and become friendly with the operation.
    You can forget a computer at the moment. There is no editor. Just a management program for your sounds.



    If you get involved with the kemper concept, there are many possibilities to realize great sounds in the studio as well as on the big stage.


    Addendum: I think Line6 L3T Speaker is a good FRFR cab.

    Edited once, last by Sharry ().

    I have only recently bought my KPA (had it 3 months) and the reason i bought it was for all the reasons you specified above its convenient and has everything i will ever need in it! I got the un-powered rack and the remote and as much as it cost me £1700 for all the effects i use you would struggle to have the versatility that the KPA offers in a tube amp!


    As soon as you start adding pedals to a set up, as you may well know the price can jump significantly and a lot of guitarists i personally know have spent more on pedals than the amp itself! the other reason i bought a kemper is because i don't just play one specific genre of music, I play everything from death metal to country and blues so i would need a few amps to cater to all my needs and that would be a damn sight more expensive then the kemper! obviously you can get a multitude of tones out of one amp but a a Mesa MKII-c doesn't sound like a VOX AC-30 and therefore the kemper satisfied that need for an abundance of amps.


    So depending on the sort of guitarist you are and the style/styles of music you intend to play i think the kemper is the best thing since sliced bread!


    Just to add to the FRFR aspect of this question i run my KPA through a line 6 firehawk 1500 which i also use as a back up (if need be) and i feel it gives that amp in the room feel that everyone searches for! bearing in mind the only other thing i have played a KPA through are an orange cab and a Atomic CLR wedge, so my ear isnt as seasoned as some on this forum!

    I'm not sure what the bolded line is supposed to mean?

    Are you a patch tweaker or a set-it-and-forget-it kind of guy? Meaning that a few amps and a few settings for those - delays, boosts, etc- would make you happy? If so, yes, TONS of options out there and once you've dialed things in, you are good to go.


    Sharry above wrote that there is no editor, which can be a big deal if you've used, or plan on using, a computer to dial in patches.


    In other words, if you want to tweak, for instance, a delay setting, there are 5 screens to toggle between, and 4 knobs to turn options within each page. If you are using a preset and want to change the amp that you are using, you will need to hit a button and turn a knob to change your amp preference.


    None of this is uber difficult, but if you are a tweaker who likes a computer editor, you need to be aware of this limitation. I was not, and coming from Line 6 products and the Atomic Amplifire, I was rather bummed out about the lack of an computer-based editor and find myself using a Fractal unit because of this issue.


    Despite a few years of rather heated discussion over this missing feature on these boards, Kemper has not officially responded to this request other than a passing comment last year that a software engineer had been hired to work on an editor.


    If any of the above is of interest/concern, best recommendation is to watch some YouTube videos on building a patch and also how to build a performance, which is a bundle of patches (intro/verse/chorus/bridge/solo, for instance) for use with a foot controller. If any of the above is incorrect, folks reading can eel free to correct me.