First gig with Kemper last night

    I've had my Kemper PowerRack for a while for home use and last night decided to use it at a gig.


    My usual rig is PRS Custom 24 through Drop - Tuner - Overdrive - Wah - Phaser into a MESA Dual Recto or Diezel Einstein with Delay in the loop into a Marshall or Genz-Benz 2x12.


    Last night it was just PRS into Kemper into 2x12. So compact, so light, so quick and easy to set up!


    I wasn't going through the PA, just through the cab, and it worked brilliantly. My main worry had been the posts about people struggling to get enough volume in live situations or destroying their cab. No problem there! We play rock/metal (Hendrix, Floyd, Metallica, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Sabbath, etc) and have a reputation for being a LOUD live band and the Kemper coped admirably.


    Several people commented on how good my sound was, better than the MESA or Diezel!


    Any issues? Well the switches on the remote are a little bit too close together for my liking so I had to be careful when making quick changes on the fly. In the live situation the Kemper phaser didn't sound as good as my trusty MXR Phase 90, but that will just need some tweaked parameters I guess. Worst problem was when I accidentally switched the looper on mid-song and, never having used it before, didn't know how to stop it - that was rather embarrassing! This morning, thanks to this forum, I've seen that you can disable the looper switch so I've done that ready for next time.


    Apart from that it was an excellent gig. I had two other guitarists come up afterwards and ask what amp I was using, no-one could believe so many great sounds can come out of such a small light box. I'm now seriously thinking about selling off lots of gear that will be gathering dust from now on!

    Just for interest sake, if you don’t mind me asking, which profiles were you using directly through your cabinet?

    May I ask why you wouldn’t plug your Kemper to the PA with one easy connection?

    I used the Bogie JPC2 - DI Pack from Chop Tones. Some great sounds on there, well worth the money.


    I may well go thru the PA in future, but was just interested to see how it worked using just the cab.

    Don't sell your Tube-Amps !

    From time to time (during getting your Profiler known better and tweaking your sounds en detail) you can check and compare the amp-sounds to your Profiler-Rigs and proove your conviction, that the Profiler actually is the best Piece of gear you can buy.

    The "looper incident" was really funny. We were playing "Man in a Box" by Alice in Chains and when we went into the chorus I could still hear guitar playing the verse. My immediate thought was that the other guitarist was screwing things up and then I realised that it was me! Having the verse AND chorus both coming out of my amp at the same time was not exactly ideal!

    I liked your story as well and I was laughing out loud in the end, because I had similar pros and cons when I was gigging the first time with KPA:))

    Sound: perfect!

    Dealing with the remote: I accidentally stepped on the tuner couple of times and muted my signal unfortunately. Because i programmed the most right button to be the "solo boost button". Next day I found out, that there is an option "mute signal" for the tuner, that you can disable....

    I’m with you on the majority here. I started playing my kemper around Labor Day. I gig a few times per week. It’s easily the best piece of gear I’ve ever purchased. I’m not going to sell my SLO or Splawns etc but they don’t go to gigs anymore. I play mainly jcm800 tones and the kemper easily smokes the marshalls I’ve personally owned. It’s just great, consistent tone that you can constantly improve. It’s light and powerful. I still run mine like I ran my amps. Through a stack. I love it but I had a learning curve, once I got ahead of that, it’s been smooth sailing.

    Wellcome and congrates to reach the 21st century. ;)


    But now without kidding - you will see, with more experience it will become even better.

    We all have the luxury problem what glory sounds which are available should we use.:)


    I sold almost all my amps. (The rest will go when I get a good price)


    BTW: My problem is and was that I often used the wrong Rig button to switch on/off the morph-function. I'm a lousy tap dancer. :)

    I spent an additional foot switch.

    If possible, I try not to use the stomp- or any other button during a song. For most purposes I can solve changes with the morph function.

    Quote from Sharry

    If possible, I try not to use the stomp- or any other button during a song. For most purposes I can solve changes with the morph function.

    I´m gonna go your way, too soon. Right now I use the remote like a pedalboard. 3 Slots of one performance have the same amp and settings. Only the effects differ from each other. That´s too much tap dancing:)

    Hi Mike,


    Great story, glad you are happy. I started with a cab and eventually went direct but you do need to set it up ready (rather than just turn up at a gig and try to make it work). However, once you have it set up, no messing with mics and your sound guy will love you ( consistent sound etc). My guitar is sound checked in seconds these days.


    Couple of things I suggest:

    • Check your profiles through a PA in advance - I changed ALL my profiles because cabs smooth them out. Profiles that sounded great through a cab sounded terrible through a PA ( although not the other way round).
    • Set your output level to around -18db - otherwise you'll fry the desk
    • Unlink volumes. This means you can control your on stage volume without affecting the PA signal

    Finally, look into morph...I use it a lot as an additional boost for some sounds and to bring in additional effects.