How do I tame a set of hot pickups

  • Hey, so I’m new to the profiler, I purchased the stage model. I plugged my nearest guitar in, charvel San dumbass Jb bridge/59 neck, and heard some non musical preamp clipping sounds on all the profiles I tried. I read the input section of the manual and in not so many words they kinda say that if you’re running hot pickups you’re out of luck. I’m thinking of putting a pedal in front of the profiler to control input volume? I know there’s other people out there that have hot pickups and still like some clean tones occasionally....what do you do?

  • Thanks Paul, yeah I watched that video. I briefly played with the clean and distorted sens settings. I’ll give another shot and spend more time with it.

    I tend to have higher than vintage output humbuckers (Duncan Custom Custom, JB, etc) in the bridge position on my guitars. Instead of turning up the Distortion Sense to compensate for low output pickups, I turn it down for my guitars.

  • JB and 59 aren’t really high output PUPs so shouldn’t be causing any problems. You have to REALLY slam the input to make it clip audibly. Turn off the Stomp Block, Amp Block and FX Block completely. You will then just have the pure guitar sound. Play hard. Is it clipping audibly even with the clean sens reduced? If so I would contact support as you may have faulty hardware. Ignore the colour of the input LED it can go full read long before audible clipping occurs.


    If this doesn’t cause audible clipping then the problem is somewhere else in the signal chain. Look at the output LED. Is it red? If so the clipping is happening at the output rather than the input and you will need to reduce the level somewhere in the chain.

  • The Duncan JB is on the hot side but it's very smooth and not harsh. I have to echo the other sentiments. I have four guitars with JB bridge pickups and I don't experience any of the nastiness you described in your tones. Even both of my Charvel San Dumbass guitars sound great through my KPA. :)

  • Hi, welcome and have fun in the forum and with your Kemper!


    Agree with all the fellows above. JB is typically not too hot for Kemper. Have one here as well and even hotter pickups like the Häussel TOZZ XL do not make any troubles with the input of the Kemper.

  • Thanks to all that responded, I’m clearly in the beginning stages of understanding how this amp works. paults , I did play with the distortion sense and turned it down a bit. I also discovered the input light wasn’t even close to turning red or orange for that matter. deadman42  alerich  V8guitar  Wheresthedug it’s good to know that I’m not alone in my choice of pups 8) I guess I need more time to get things dialed and organized. I still have to play with the output, I’ve only played through headphones. Thanks so much for the support, you guys have given me more confidence in the KPA. Now I just need more time :/

  • Given that the input light wasn’t anywhere close to orange or red is sounds like a gain staging issue somewhere. I would learn how it works methodically by starting with everything turned off (as I mentioned above) then if that is clear turn on the stack section and play around with the amp, eq and cabinet portions. If that is still OK then start adding in Stomps and FX. That way you will get an understanding of where it is overloading.


    If it doesn’t sort the issue with just the unadulterated guitar then you have something clipping elsewhere in your system. The output from the KPA is pretty hot so it is easy to overload the input to any audio interface, mixing desk or powered speakers if you run it hard. Most people tick the -12db option in the output menu as a matter of course.

  • DonPetersen , I am plugging my headphones straight into the KPA. I think I sorted my problem though. I wasn’t using proper studio grade headphones, I was using Bose noise canceling headphones. I picked up a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones and everything is sounding really good. Headphones are my only option right now with a newborn at home.

  • DonPetersen , I am plugging my headphones straight into the KPA. I think I sorted my problem though. I wasn’t using proper studio grade headphones, I was using Bose noise canceling headphones. I picked up a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones and everything is sounding really good. Headphones are my only option right now with a newborn at home.

    Oh god, Bose makes some pretty sloppy eq for making their equipment sound good, and their noise cancel algorythm is sloppy in studio situations (say this from experience). DT770 are great (specially if you have 250 Ohm ones), they have wonderful headroom with the kemper out so you will do fine from now on. Also, they are like tanks, last forever. Good luck

    The answer is 42

  • so I am new to the Kemper , and I feel dumb for asking this , but here it goes. all my guitars with passive pickups sound fine, but whenever I plug in my brand new ec1000 with active fishman pickups, it doesn't make a sound, the tuner doesn't even pick up anything. put brand new battery in back and it plays through some amp sims I have. I'm wondering why the Kemper picks up my passive guitars but not my active ones? any assistance would be appreciated thank you