I can hear my pick size?

  • Maybe i should test this on the zoom multi effects i have or maybe even a helix again but


    I could swear that the kpa is the first amp i can actually hear the dynamic difference of pick size.


    Its been a while since I've had a regular tube amp around so i won't be as so bold to suggest that they are included in this idea. But i definitely remember my pod hd 500 and it didn't have that definition in pick size for sure. It was only a mechanical playing attribute.:/

    :whistling:

    :S

    Chairs!

  • Definitely a common thing. Picks make a huge difference. I'm a creature of habit myself and can't stray away from the orange Tortex so I just change the angle I'm holding it if I need a different tone. Seems to work okay lol.

  • I came up on old school Fender mediums but these days all manufacturers are using a different, cheap plastic feeling material. I finally found something reasonably close to the old stuff (InTuneGP.com). The blue celluloid is ever so slightly more glassy sounding than the white ones I have, there must be some minor differences in the materials.


    I particularly enjoy the M. Britt Friedman profiles and even the subtle differences between these two picks just leap out at me. I've always heard the differences in pick material with tube amps, but it feels like I'm getting even more detail and definition on the attack now then with my old Marshall, EVH, etc. Couldn't be happier.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • I was just agreeing with Gary_W in another thread that the Kemper "exposes" different guitars to a much-greater extent than the modellers he and I've used previously (Nobels Sound Studio, Ensoniq DP/4, Digitech Genesis & GSP2101, all PODs from v1.0 to HD500 and so on in my case and PODs and plugins in his).


    The first thing I noticed when playing through the Kemper, apart from the "tactile immediacy" and authenticity of tone, was that my $50 USD 2nd-hand Squire Strat sounded like ass. Until that point it had been fine, but it was absolutely-horrible through the Kemper. Thin, scratchy-sounding and noisy. Had it not been for this unit, I'd never have appreciated how incredibly-horrible the guitar sounded.

    Maybe i should test this on the zoom multi effects i have or maybe even a helix again but...

    In light of the experience I related above, I definitely expect that you're not just "hearing things". I also believe that the Zoom and to a lesser extent Helix won't "reveal" the differing characteristics as much, but having heard them through the Kemper now, you might be able to detect some subtle ones thanks to the Kemper's having trained your brain to know what to look for.

  • I think i need to mention and give praise to the Devin Townsend Fishman Fluance pickups. Lol


    These are monumental in this discovery. I've had the feeling about hearing the pick size in other pickups before but these really drive the nail and finalize the sensation of feeling this way about it.


    They also sound really good to be play :S;)^^

  • I won't swear it's the KPA, but I can agree on anecdotal evidence. I've been using 1.14mm jazz III picks forever and I nabbed a few 3mm dawman jazz IIIs recently and I can definitely hear a difference. The old ones are definitely darker, "chunkier", if you will. I have literally scoffed at custom pick companies claiming their picks sound different in the past because I honestly never noticed a whisp of difference. Not anymore.

    Just a guy who plays a little bit of guitar.

  • I used the same orange dunlop tortex for 20 years....and then changed to a jazz 3 because I wondered what all the fuss was about - and to see if it would make me more 'accurate' - when I listen to isolated parts from what I recorded in that time, compared to now, there is a huge difference in attack...and it now feels like I'm trying to play with a shoe or something if I happen to pick an old one up.


    I think the difference in picks is almost as pronounced on electric as on an acoustic...mad innit!

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

  • There is definitely a difference in tone when using different picks. Thickness and material matter the most IMO. There are no other digital devices I've owned/tried which would react as realistically to the pick as Kemper though, so for someone coming from pure digital world it may be a (nice) surprise.

  • I used to use ampsims for a very long time and when I purchased the kemper I could hear how much a difference different picks, guitars and pickups did. Oh, and how sloppy my playing had been with ampsims. I couldn't hide it anymore with the kemper.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • We spend a ton of time and money on guitars and pickups because the differences are very obvious. However, as others have noted, if your amp / sim / modeler / profiler / tin can with strings / etc. doesn't properly represent the picks , it's easy to forget about them and make selections solely on playing comfort (another significant factor with picks).


    I use celluloid mediums in part because I often dig in and snap out, so how the pick bends and gives obviously matters. I can feel that when playing and I can also hear the character of the pick material itself on acoustic, and also electric if the amp lets me. The Kemper puts it all up front.

    Oh, and how sloppy my playing had been with ampsims. I couldn't hide it anymore with the kemper.

    Yeah, and that, too. :)

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • I used the same orange dunlop tortex for 20 years....and then changed to a jazz 3 because I wondered what all the fuss was about - and to see if it would make me more 'accurate' - when I listen to isolated parts from what I recorded in that time, compared to now, there is a huge difference in attack...and it now feels like I'm trying to play with a shoe or something if I happen to pick an old one up.


    I think the difference in picks is almost as pronounced on electric as on an acoustic...mad innit!

    Those are the same Tortex I use. I have a pack of red Jazz 3's I haven't touched cause I'm a creature of habit. It feels weird holding something so small lol. I like the tortex a lot when playing like punk rock.. but might try and wean myself into Jazz for more precise picking styles. Trem picking does feel kinda out of control with the tortex lol.

  • I used to use ampsims for a very long time and when I purchased the kemper I could hear how much a difference different picks, guitars and pickups did. Oh, and how sloppy my playing had been with ampsims. I couldn't hide it anymore with the kemper.

    I feel the same way now. Back to regular metronome sessions and slowing down a little to tighten up :D

  • Those are the same Tortex I use. I have a pack of red Jazz 3's I haven't touched cause I'm a creature of habit. It feels weird holding something so small lol. I like the tortex a lot when playing like punk rock.. but might try and wean myself into Jazz for more precise picking styles. Trem picking does feel kinda out of control with the tortex lol.

    They make a Jumbo jazz 3 and Jazz 3 XL's if you didnt know already. They also make Tortex III's which are full size, jazz 3 shape, but with all the colors and gauges of the regular tortex's!

  • Let's not forget, guys, that this thread's about how the Kemper can open one's ears to such differences when "lesser modellers" can't or don't.


    I say this 'cause we already have at least 2 big threads discussing pick types:


    What kind of Pick is everyone using? - 15 pages - Should be used for research only as it's been replaced by the newer one linked to below. "Finished" now 'cause it's old-enough that the forum software throws up a warning above the posting window that requests one start a new thread instead.


    Guitar picks. Which one do you use? - 6 pages - The current one. Most-recent post last month.


    Plus, I keep a database of pick info from here and elsewhere, and splitting it up into too many threads gives me a headache. :D8o


    With this in mind, if anyone would care to share "new" information that he or she has presented here but not posted Here, please add it to the current pick thread for everyone's benefit. Thank you! :saint:<3

  • Those are the same Tortex I use. I have a pack of red Jazz 3's I haven't touched cause I'm a creature of habit. It feels weird holding something so small lol. I like the tortex a lot when playing like punk rock.. but might try and wean myself into Jazz for more precise picking styles. Trem picking does feel kinda out of control with the tortex lol.

    I know exactly what you mean, and I almost gave up! It took about 2 weeks of daily playing to stop 'losing' the jazz3 in my fingers - but now it feels like the complete opposite and I can't imagine how I fit ALL of the tortex one in my hand hehe

    PRS Custom 22's - Fender Strats - Diezel VH4 - Carol Ann OD2 - Toneking Imperial MK2 - Colin the Kemper - CLR Neo ii.

  • For me, the KPA accurately reproduces the voice of the guitar. I use normally 2mm Wegen mandolin picks but ordered 1.5mm versions by mistake. They sounded less balanced and ‘pingy’ when unplugged and the same through the KPA

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

  • With the Kemper, I’ve certainly noticed subtle differences between plectrums. The time I noticed a ‘not so subtle’ difference was when I tried a Vpick diamond which looks more like a blingy award you’d give to a Barbie doll than it does a traditional plectrum. I’d seen various bits of online buzz about these and decided to try one. It certainly does sound profoundly different to my usual suspects (herco 70’s and other similar ones) but it wasn’t a similar I liked. To me, it was the one time I’d managed to make the Kemper sound like a modeller as opposed to sounding like a traditional amp. It seemed to bring out a piezo electric vibe that I didn’t like at all but of course some folks would no doubt like what it did - they get a lot of love out there and I’m sure they deserve it but they weren’t to my taste :)


    I think the Kemper is excellent at listening to absolutely everything that you put in at the front end. What it reproduces from this depends on the profile of course and, if you’re putting a ton of gain and effects on then you mask the differences going in the front end but that’s exactly the same with a real amp. Keeping it simple with a low-mid gain profile and just a bit of reverb? That’s when the subtleties have more chance of coming through and when choosing different picks can be the extra few percent to sweeten (or not!) a particular sound.