Hello
Got my Kemper last week. It looks beautiful so better than on youtube and web images. However when the package came I thought: "wow, is it that small...?"
Anyway - I started this thread to get some help from you guys, more experienced with KPA. To give you snapshot what kind of player I am...have musical ear, don't have a band, don't have youtube channel with awesome songs, I'm just room player noodling around - hard to say but haven't recorded single song (maybe one) because.......... because of tone.
Tone.
I had numerous effects: LINE6 POD 2.0, Vox ToneLab, Rocktron G100, ZOOM g9.2tt, Eleven Rack, some USB interfaces (EMU, TC Electronic, Focusrite) paired with VST modelers (Guitar Rig, Amplitube, some freewares + cab loaders). But I always was missing the right tone.
Tone.
Cleans were sometimes acceptable (Eleven Rack), effects not so bad, hi-gain presets... uhhmmm... just hi-gain, crunch tones? the ugliest from all. Never ever, heard the difference between crunch amps in my case. Just small difference, but not what I see on youtube, where Kemper's AC30 crunch is lovely, Marshall Plexi crunched is the only tone I would live for, etc etc.
To help you judge anything, this is my small rig in small room:
[Blocked Image: http://i41.tinypic.com/35a2n9x.jpg]
1) Ibanez PGM301 (basswood body, DiMarzio PAF Pro bridge position, DiMarzio FS-1 single coil, DiMarzio PAF Pro neck position) - with Paul Gilbert autograph on back side of body
2) Bullet cable and Monster Rock Cable
3) Kemper Profiling Amplifier
4) Tannoy Reveal 501 active near field monitors
5) Last chain of this rig is me
Is Kemper better than any previous devices that were sitting on my desk? YES. It is one huge step above. Like CD-Audio over tape. Like HD over VHS.
In Kemper (firmware upgraded to fresh 1.07):
- the gain knob reacts like gain should,
- picking strings harder gives more bite,
- turning volume pot on guitar cleans the dirt,
- strumming on crunch profiles allows to hear every single string.
So what is wrong? Maybe the factory presets are not the best - "Mr Nice Guy" was the one that make me noodling for 20 minutes. Most of them sound like in a paper box, or covered by thick blanket. Please could you send me some nice profiles and instruction how to upload it? If the best profiles with best cabs will not make much difference, I think I return KPA, however never thought this could happen, when I heard youtube and soundcloud samples.
Thanks in advance!
skoczy