Feedback Problem?

  • I have been playing my Kemper direct with IEM for awhile now and really enjoy it.


    However, yesterday I was at a different place and went direct and was hearing myself through an on-stage monitor wedge.


    I struggled with feedback the whole time and the wedge really was NOT loud at all. The only way to cut the feedback was to turn my volume pedal off or turn the guitar volume off, or else it would keep ringing. On higher gain stuff, the feedback would begin as soon as a turned the volume up without me playing anything.


    I was mainly using the Morgan AC20 with Green Scream. I like the Green scream so much that I have one stomp that has 0 drive and another stomp with max drive on the green scream. I couldn't really play the max drive green scream as it would feedback almost immediately.


    1.) I won't be able to test this for awhile since my normal location is IEM, but I will try turning up the noisegate. I might also try to add a noisegate into the stomp section too, but I can't see myself giving up a stomp since we only have 4 pre-stack spots. How high can I turn up the individual noisegates until it affects my tone or the dynamics of my playing?


    2.) Almost all my rigs have "Green Scream" somewhere in the chain and I read in a few other posts that the Green Scream is prone to feedback. Is this the case for you guys?


    3.) I am playing a Suhr Classic Pro with the stock v60lp pickups. I also noticed when I tapped the body of the guitar, I could hear the tap through the PA sound system... I never noticed this before with my other guitars, but that might have just been me noticing everything trying to solve the feedback problem. Could this possible mean that my input into the Kemper is somehow too sensitive?


    Keep in mind I did all the normal things to get rid of feedback.... get further away, angle monitor wedge away from me, etc.


    Any ideas?


    Thank you in advance!

  • if its mainly open string feedback when you are not playing then you can add 2:1 gate with threshold set at about 5.

    I will give this a shot! Thank you for suggestion. If you have any other input on anything else I mentioned, feel free to chime in. I will also post back here and let you know if your suggestion helps.

  • Have you tried other guitars?


    If you can hear a tap, the pickups might have gone microphonic...


    Definitely try the noise gate as that should help but sounds like you might just have too much gain with the green scream.


    It won;t be Kemper issue per se as I've had similar issues with valve amps ( ironically when using gain pedals, hence I never got on with them) which isusally just turned out to be too much gain at either front end or pre amp stage.

  • Thanks for the input!


    I have not tried other guitars. Currently, my Suhr is my only usable guitar.


    I know the #1 way to fix this (and from searching this forum) is to simply turn down the gain, but I love the sound of the Morgan AC20 with a max drive Green Scream so I am trying hard to maintain this, but I know I might have to resort to turning down the gain if I can't resolve the issue.


    I looked up a couple videos of microphonic pickups and it definitely didn't have that high pitched squeal... it was more normal, mid-range feedback that is typical of standard guitars. I will keep this in mind as I continue researching!

  • if its mainly open string feedback when you are not playing then you can add 2:1 gate with threshold set at about 5.

    I guess I should also clarify that I was sort of getting feedback while playing too. It's hard to explain, but I could almost hear/feel the feedback while playing and the MOMENT I would stop, the feedback would kick into gear and I would have to mute my sound.

  • I was re-watching the official kemper videos here

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    It would seem that if the problem is mainly the Green Scream (making an assumption that it is), I might have to sacrifice one of the four stomps in my pre-stack chain exclusively for a noise gate? And then I would position the noise gate after the Green Scream and before stack?

  • The cause of the feedback will dictate the best solution.


    The first thing is definitely to rule out the guitar/ pickups as the cause. Reading your initial post my first thought was microphoic pickups. However, your later posts sound as thought that is less likely. I would definitely check with another guitar though before you start hunting for an issue that perhaps doesn’t exist. If you don’t have another playable guitar just now borrow one but definitely tests that.


    The next thing could be room acoustics. Some rooms and stages are more prone to feedback than others. This causes problems with traditional amps just as much as the KPA does. Unfortunately, there isn’t mich you can do about this other than try prositioning you and/or your amp differntly on stage. Failing that it’s time for tweaking the sound.


    The biggest cause of feedback is too much gain. You should try turning down the gain to assess the impact. If reducing gain cures the problem then you need to reduce the gain (;)) or add a noise gate.


    The other part of the feedback issue though is frequency. Are you getting uncontrollable feedback at random frequencies or just one or two notes the always keep ringing? I am pretty sure one of the reasons the Grean Scream is prone to feedback is the mid range frequency boost. stick a Studio EQ in slot X and find the frequency or frequencies that are fedong back then reduce those until it stops. If it it is frequency related you should be able to set a pretty narrow Q so that you only remove the problem without neutering the sound.


    If all of that fails then it’s time to give in and use a noise gate. Don’t forget there is a noise gate in the input section that doesn’t use a stomp slot. If this isn’t enough and you need to insert a stomp gate you can still use you multiple Green Scream options by using morphing. Are you using morphing in your perfomances alrady for other purposes? Of not set your Green Scream base sound to the 0 drive version then set the morphed versionen to the full drive settings.


    Good luck sorting it out.