Kemper Stage unpleasant noise (HW issue confirmed - Unit replacement in process).

  • Hi,


    Just bought a Kemper Stage. Sounds are fantastic, BUT I am having a very bad noise which kills a pleasure of playing. Here are the symptoms:

    - when I am not strumming strings there is no noise

    - when gain is 0 there is no noise if the volume is low

    - when Gain is more than 3-5 lights noise appears

    - on high gain profiles noise becomes harsh and very loud

    - if I strum 6th and 5th strings I can hear that it is catching radio signal a bit

    - when strings stop noise goes away

    - input noise reduction removes it to some extent, but sound becomes dull

    - noise is the same when I use external speaker or headphones. I thought it should be so on headphones for sure...

    - changed guitar cables from long to short - does not affect the sound - all cables and guitars are not cheap, so I am sure about the quality

    - on high volumes even with no gain noise appears

    - noise does differ a lot when I change profiles. Some has more, some has less.


    Changed guitars (Fender Ultra HSS Strat and Gibson Les Paul Classic):

    - noise exist both playing single coil and Humbuckers and in-between sounds


    Kemper Stage is right out of the box. No updates etc. Any advices are welcome.


    P.S. I did experience in the past for example radio signals through an amp, but that kind of noise is not harsh and loud. It does not kill the pleasure of playing. It may drive some crazy, but not me. I am speaking on a more hard and present noise which is pretty pushy and you can not ignore it really.

  • UPDATE:


    I took another guitar with P-90's that were in my past memory more noisy to see what happens.


    1) noise started to happen all the time

    2) when I touch the browser or volume buttons noise becomes louder

    3) when I touch switches noise goes lower

    4) all the way I hear radio.... on any rig including even cleans

    5) effect is the same through amp and speaker Celestion 70/80 and through Audio-technika earphones


    LOOKS LIKE A GROUNDING ISSUE...


    to be fair I had noises when I used my amp but, so it might be my appartment.


    PS> in all threads that I read hear I did not find a solution.


    Most of time people recommend noise gate and grounding switches. both do not work great.


    I guess in the beginning I had a wrong conclusion because Ultra Strat has noiseless pickups and at the same time they are hotter than normal, so I got impression it is silent when not playing and than when attacking hard I was getting all kinds of noise. With Humbuckers on Gibson the difference was to the way that it really depended on a rig selection whether they did a lot of noise or less and it was a bit less harsh...

  • I have a lot of anoying noise too! I have asked the question several times, but no conclution. I can turn up the noisegate but the tone goes dull and even then the noise is there. Groundlift makes no different.

    Wonder if cables can be an issue. Is there any ground shielding device to put into the power socket?

    Its not realy a problem live with high wolumes in a band, but home at low volumes its anoying. i like twangy fat sharp cutting trough mix sound. (Fender Delux/super reverb) and thats when the bussing Noise is worst!

  • Have you tried another (better) cable?

    Any electromagnetic stuff in your house like computer , screen, refrigerator,

    air conditioner, fan, WiFi, wireless phones, light dimmers, light tubes ....

    Neighbors air conditioner, Tesla charger, railway, power plant ????

    Have you tried to take your gear to a friend and test in his/her house/apartment ?

    Just some thoughts .........:/


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

  • I would like to take it out to a friend. I would actually would exchange my camper for the right to do so, but I cannot go to the streat because of pandemic situation...i am sure the problem is most probably not in kemper. Some guys on other forum recommended to put electric conditioner (advanced network filter) etc...

  • I have a lot of anoying noise too! I have asked the question several times, but no conclution. I can turn up the noisegate but the tone goes dull and even then the noise is there. Groundlift makes no different.

    Wonder if cables can be an issue. Is there any ground shielding device to put into the power socket?

    Its not realy a problem live with high wolumes in a band, but home at low volumes its anoying. i like twangy fat sharp cutting trough mix sound. (Fender Delux/super reverb) and thats when the bussing Noise is worst!

    i have changed several cables. I have tone of them. Some make it a bit better some worse, but for sure it is not a root cause... i have found that if playing through the amp and speaker I can seriously lower the output from kemper and use amp to bring the sound on. It definitely brings much less noise. But through earphones which I play the most it is a real pin to ears...

  • Would like to say big thanks for Kemper for such a quick turnaround during pandemic crisis. Even though I am sad with the issue, I totally get how complex are this type of HW, and grateful, that everything was cleared pretty fast.