Hey everyone,
I'm all in now. I bought the Kemper and had such a hard time justifying the purchase that I was looking for everything wrong with it to justify returning it. However my first impressions were very different. Here it is...
"Yesterday my new Kemper and remote arrived in the mail and I got to try it out for the first time. I was skeptical as hell and didn't think it would live up to the hype but my god was I wrong. I cannot tell the difference, it sounds incredibly good. I upgraded from a stupid practice amp and an RP250 so anything is an upgrade but I do have experience with tube amps from friends and family so I know the sound and feel it should have.
I was struggling with guitar for awhile. I only played acoustic because I was so frustrated with the sounds I was getting from my set up that I thought I hated electric. Wrong. I played for 6 hours yesterday and even forgot to eat dinner. My fingers hurt from how much I was playing. The tone possibilities are endless and I couldn't stop creating.
I went with the Kemper over the Axe only because I liked the set up and idea of the Kemper better than the Axe, that's literally it. They both sound amazing and both have great effects that it came down to personal reasons. So no, I do not think one is better than the other.
Let me tell you about the Kemper now. The feel is unreal, it shouldn't feel and sound this good. It's picking dynamics fit that of a regular tube amp and it responds to me like it should. If I turn the volume on my guitar down, it reacts the same way as an amp should. There is no latency and the only thing missing is the amp on the room feel. I hardly notice because everything else sounds so real. Like seriously, it's not a big deal. I will say though, you can tweak the amp settings from a profile and still have a great sounding amp. Tweak it too much (still sounds great) but it reacts less like the amp and more how they think the amp should respond. I like it, and I don't tweak it anyways considering there's a profile for almost anything.
I like the effects. There are probably 60 delays in the damn thing and half of them sound really really good. The others not so much for a practical purpose but I haven't had a chance to tweak them yet. I'm satisfied with the drives and boosts and the reverbs are fine for now. I know they'll update them soon. The modulations and WAHs are great too. This may not have as many as the Axe but it stands up to it in my opinion in what sounds can be created.
Profiles- the presets are good. There are some that I absolutely love and then there are some that I won't think twice about removing. But hey, that's due to my play style and preferences, can't please everyone. I already have rigs lined up and I should have about 300 useful rigs once I switch them in and the ones I hate out. I know I already said it but goddam do they sound so good and real. I had the biggest and stupidest smile on my face the whole time I was playing, so good.
The remote is worth it imo. The morphing is a cool feature and I ended up using it a lot yesterday for solo effects. The tuner is useful but way too short. I may have to connect another.
Look- okay so I know it gets a bad rep for being ugly or weird looking and I agree. In pictures and in videos it does looks weird. In person though, it has this thing about it where it looks so fricken cool. Between the different colored lights and the shape of it, it just seems NASA future like. And it's built like a damn tank. It really is surreal seeing it in person because of how odd yet cool it is.
Okay so the reason I posted this is yeah I wanted to show my new gear to you guys because I'm super jacked about it and wanted to share here. The other reason though, is that I want to be able to answer questions about it because I know not everyone has a chance to play one before buying. So I posted this with the intent of answering any questions and helping people with their choice of a Kemper or something else. So ask away. I love talking about it."
I wrote that on Reddit during my honeymoon phase.
After having to it for quite some time now (only 3 weeks) I started to struggle with it. I though the high gain lacked hard and the tones I was getting we're just awful. I got frustrated with having to scroll for effects and I thought it was lacking from what I wanted. Again, I was looking for every reason to return it. I was reading this forum and others looking for all the things wrong with it and I started to find them. I started to hear the issues people were complaining about and started to get frustrated. But, I decided to look into more A/B videos and found the Kemper to only lack in the low low end and sound a bit midrange which can be EQd. I started to see that high gain does sound like that and I'll explain more below.
I've learned a lot about music the last few days of doing research and realize my expectations were a bit too much/ I was doing things wrong. I listened to songs and found their high gain to sound amazing but in isolation, it sounded like my Kemper. Would like a little more low end tbh but I'm sure I just need a good patch with it not mix ready. The songs other instruments hid the imperfections of the amps and filled in the other frequencies. And another issue I was doing was using my neck pickup for a rhythm sound. Yeah.... Dumb. I also think there's an issue with my les Paul pickups because it sound so good with my Tele.
I'm sold. It really does it all. My Taylor 814ce sounds amazing and even better through the Kemper and somehow pulls off distortions sounds. I wanted so much to hate it so I could return it and not spend so much but I can't. I play so much and can't stop. I've gone from maybe 30 minutes to almost 3 hours. I do have a couple of questions for some help. Of course there are downsides, like some profiles legit blow and the low end piece but it really is an amazing product. This thing has invigorated and revolutionized my playing.
I'm still within my 30 day return period and am sold on the Kemper. However, what are the odds of a Kemper 2 soon? I would stay Kemper but would rather spend it on the new one if there will be one in the near future.
Can someone give me tips on how to dial in high gain? I've gotten close but always end up sounding thin due to my choices, not the Kemper. Or even profiles not made to be in a mix but play in isolation.
Where do you go/search to find effects presets?
Im playing through ath-50x headphones, could this be why I'm missing low end in high gain?
Thanks for looking and I'm on mobile so sorry if there are errors. Autocorrect SUCKS.
