Profiles are Great, Except That One Guitar-How to Fix?

  • I have 4-5 guitars. They all sound excellent for most profiles. There are always some that don't sound that great, but it is a very few that sound bad.


    EXCEPT: I have this one guitar that 99% of profiles sound horrible. It's an ESP sunburst tiger. So its a higher end guitar, and its heavy as hell. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan. Screamin Demon I believe. What options do I have to try and improve the tone? Most profiles sound muffled and muddy. I don't want to change settings if it affects my other profiles for my other guitars. Other that changing the pickup, what can I do?

  • An adjustment of the pickup height is your cheapest solution. Other things could be changing your strings or use a different gauge, use a different plectrum (V-Picks are killer - screamer sapphire blue ;) No, I'm not affiliated lol). Changing out the pots depending on what's in there? Your wiring harness may need upgrading?

  • Hi I'm new to the kemper profiler. I don't have a laptop or pc so could i dowload profiles from a apple ipad or is there a app for kemper user's ?

  • Hi I'm new to the kemper profiler. I don't have a laptop or pc so could i dowload profiles from a apple ipad or is there a app for kemper user's ?

    I'm sure you can. Sign in to Rig Exchange and DL from there, or DL links you find on the forum. For future reference, best if you start a thread of your own with your specific topic, question or what have you. This will help others to search and identify similar questions and keep existing threads on topic and the forum cleaner. :thumbup:

  • I had a couple USA Hamer guitars that had very similar construction to your Tiger. A maple body, Floyd equipped guitar will have a very focused, almost sterile sound, compared to most guitars. A high output ceramic pickup at the bridge will reinforce that kind of sound.


    If your rigs are EQed to sound great with mahogany bodied guitars, or with any vintage-style guitars, they will sound very bright with this guitar.


    You can try lowering the pickup pole pieces to get a lower output sound, without adding brightness. Changing the bridge pickup to an alnico dark-voiced pickup would change the sound of it some, if you want to try that.

  • Ditch that guitar 8) It can’t be worth the headache it’s giving you haha


    But another answer is to push the Input button and crank down the Distortion Sense parameter when you use that guitar. That should help.

  • I'd say your best bet is go profile hunting. Not all profiles work with all guitars :thumbup:

    I get that. I have hundreds of profiles. On ALL my other guitars, I would say that 75% of the profiles sound decent or better. With this guitar, it was about 3 out of a few hundred profiles that sounded decent. I am going to look at the pickup pole spacing. If that doesn't work I am going to try another pickup and see what happens.

  • I have a guitar that I've been pretty unhappy with lately (since buying the KPA). It's a PRS Singlecut, US model so I doubt it's a "quality" issue. On top of that, it was my main gigging/recording axe for years...I can't understand why I'm hearing things I didn't before, I don't know if something has changed, or maybe my ear is just better...I doubt that, hahaha. It's clangy, seems to give a lot of nasty undertones, and is in general just not a whole lot of fun to play or listen to.


    I tried adjusting the stock (#6) pickups, up/down, that didn't help. I noticed that the string spacing was not actually standard 50mm, but a little wider, so I bough a BPK Ceramic Nailbomb F-spaced, that matched the spacing better. Nice pickup. but the guitar still just sounds like junk to me. I think it has some intonation issues, which I'm trying to work out, but Christ on a bike, this is a good guitar, what the heck is going on? :D


    Selling it is not really an option. When I got the guitar, I badly wanted it in "tremonti-burst", which they did not offer outside of the Private Stock program. I got in touch with Mr. Miles, and he agreed to paint it for me (he ran a side business at the time, I doubt that's still the case), he did a phenomenal job on it, and it has quite a bit of sentimental value to me. But it's just not fun to play. Maybe another pickup change will do the trick, something warmer than the C-Bomb.


    Tag for any brilliant ideas...:D


    Edit: As far as profile-hunting, I can't speak for the OP, but that is not a solution to my issue. I have plenty of profiles...

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.

  • I have had a few guitars like this and changing pickups hasn't helped, until recently.


    I have this Les Paul Studio that was quacky and horrid sounding.


    Pick up a Jim Wagner Godwood pickup and wow, completely different guitar.


    I mean, I wanted to trash this thing, now I play it quite a lot.


    There is still an underlying issue however it is much less bothersome. The issue sounds to me as the A and D strings are vibrating in the wrong manner though I can't be sure.

  • That actually sounds like a decent description of what I think the issue may be, "quacky, horrid", weird vibrations between the different strings...I dunno. That Godwood is pretty pricy, but it'd be worth a try, since, as I mentioned, selling is not really an option, so it'd be great to resolve the issue...or at least find a good band-aid.

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.

  • Firstly I've found the KPA to be very sensitive to different guitars - I think that's partially the FRFR aspect because cabs smooth everything out and hide artifacts you may not hear...I think its a trade off for getting the best sounds..


    The point here is don;t be surprised if the Kemper (like any really good amp) highlights the different. The price we pay for hearing the true sound of our guitar :)


    Anyway, only 3 possible issues:


    Duff pickups/not suited to the guitar
    Duff set up - do not under estimate this. I had a guitar that sounded awful (Hamer Diablo), nasty over tones always sounded slightly out....then a really good set up...boom, sounds amazing - I include strings in this as well...
    Duff guitar - sometimes some guitars sound bad due to woods cross resonating etc. I think this is unusual but not a lot you can do with this except get rid..


    Hope you nail it...

  • I don't want to change settings if it affects my other profiles for my other guitars. Other that changing the pickup, what can I do?

    Ok, my suggestions here may seem really obvious, but since I see no mention of it I am going to suggest it anyway.


    1. What gain level are you using on the Kemper? Perhaps that SD pickup just needs less gain.


    2. Before you go changing the pickup and/or chasing more profiles (an endless quest if there ever was one), I would say make a copy of a profile for the ESP that you can tweak to your heart's content and see if you can't get it to sound good/useable/tolerable. For example...let's say it's a Marshall JCM 800. Call it something like "Marshall - ESP". Now take that profile and tweak the living crap out of it until you get it to sound useable. That way, you don't ruin the "default" profile. And if it goes nowhere? Just delete it, go back to the original profile, save it again with the "ESP" name and start over.


    I have a Fender Twin sound that I have different profiles saved for each of these guitars: A Gretsch Duo Jet, a Schecter XXX, and a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid.
    Sure it's still a Fender Twin for each, and they all sort of sound similar, but since he pickups/woods/body thicknesses are different on each one, I like having a profile for each that I can literally press a button and change to that setting at will.


    Give it a shot :)

  • I am with Sam. Gain down and hear what definition in the amp section can do for you.


    Adjust the pu hight.


    You dont have to turn down your gain kevel globally when all your other gits fit. Choose some profiles with lower gain just for the tiger and name them. If the tiger is no longer your tone and you are happy with the other 4 gits, sell it.


    I also tried many diffrent guitars and many of them. @ this time I have seven ones ( 3 ibanez jem, 2 gibson, 1 american stratocaster, 1 peavy wolfgang). I play 6 of them with the same rigs and performances and for the strat I have diffrent profiles.

  • I have 4-5 guitars. They all sound excellent for most profiles. There are always some that don't sound that great, but it is a very few that sound bad.


    EXCEPT: I have this one guitar that 99% of profiles sound horrible. It's an ESP sunburst tiger. So its a higher end guitar, and its heavy as hell. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan. Screamin Demon I believe. What options do I have to try and improve the tone? Most profiles sound muffled and muddy. I don't want to change settings if it affects my other profiles for my other guitars. Other that changing the pickup, what can I do?

    Yes if one guitar out of 5 guitars sounds bad on all profiles just SELL IT !!!! And with the money buy something that helps your overall sound... (profile remote expression pedal whatever) But INVEST on what is working and get rid of that crappy guitar that should sound bad on an amp too anyway...

  • Thanks to you all. But I cannot sell this ESP tiger as it was custom made for me back in the early 90's. I will try the gain idea listed here. But I believe it was more than just profiles with high gain. I am also looking at adjusting the pickup height. Let's see what happens.

  • Thanks to you all. But I cannot sell this ESP tiger as it was custom made for me back in the early 90's. I will try the gain idea listed here. But I believe it was more than just profiles with high gain. I am also looking at adjusting the pickup height. Let's see what happens.

    Change the pick up is a solution too. Find a RADICAL solution The important thing to remember is that if it sounds like s--t , which seems to be the case with this guitar, you have to do something radical about it coz if it doesnt sound magical to your ears nobody around will like it Consequently people will say that you sound like s--t . I would definitely sell it if i was in your shoes , or change the pick up , so goodluck

  • I also have one guitar that doesnt respond well to the kpa.
    Its an excellent guitar...works great on amps..but on the kpa it sounds like there is an impedance issue.
    Kinda dull, roling down volume eats more then usual amount of treble.
    It has active electronics, but even with those switched off it occurs.


    Are there any known impedance requirements / issues with kpa?