Adding a Fryette Valvulator gp/di to a Kemper’s loop.

    I’ve owned the Kemper for a long time now, and I love it. I really do. However, sometimes I do miss the kind of interaction with an actual amp that the Kemper doesn’t quite do. I’ve been listening to demos of the Fryette Valvulator gd/di lately, and I’m loving it. It really gets the “cr” part of “crunch” right. That’s something that I sometimes struggle with using the Kemper on its own. Maybe it’s something to do with poweramp distortion? Not sure. (The Valvulator is a 1 w amp)


    I guess my question is this. Set it up as it’s own thing, or marry it to the Kemper so I can still use Kemper’s effects and cabinets? Has anyone tried anything like this?

    Rent one and profile it?


    I've not had problems getting "crunch" with the Kemper, but it could do with a few more distortion effects, the Recti-Shaper and Green scream are great in front of profiles like the Morgan AC20, but those tiny underpowered blues amps like the Pignose are a little harder to recreate, the signal isn't quite as triangular as the Soft or Hard shaper effects, but they definitely do have that signature "crappy radio" cold biased tube crossover distortion sound. The "Tube Bias" in the Kemper isn't actually like a real biasing control at all, it just adjusts how much you have to dig in before things distort (I only realized recently that the first amp block page is about input and clean, and the second page only refers to distortion).

    Yeah, maybe you’re right. I’ve got a EH Cockfight and a Blackstar HT-5 Dual that I like. I often love the sound of a little Fender combo being pushed into preamp distortion with a pedal. Maybe recommend something?