Hello everyone,
I'll try to keep it short.
I've been playing for 20 years now, mostly blues/rock/pop. For a time I was convinced I was going pro, like most of my family did, but economic pressure crushed that idea at some point. Anyway, I've never stopped playing and have no intention of doing so.
As I'm mostly after "vintagey" sounds I've always been a valve/pedals kind of guy, I was never convinced by the digital realm at all. Recently though, I'm playing a lot at home and have few occasions to let my 15w amp loose.
So the possibility to have a convincing sound at home and then using it live seems very appealing, and as I started looking at some alternatives. I quickly realized profiling was the way to go for me.
A lot of seemingly competent people seem to find modeling products such as the Helix at least on par with the KPA, some even prefers them. I really can't understand that. Maybe it's subjective, but modeling, of whatever brand, always seems to me to get the final sound somewhat right but not the feel. Like a polished sound you'd hear on a pop record where the guitar has a somewhat secondary place. Not what I'm after. I mostly judge an amp or "amp-substitute" by it's ability to get a very lightly, almost impercetibly overdriven sound (like a SRV "Lenny" or Clapton kind of sound), and the kemper is the only digital amp I ever heard doing this convincingly with an open, breathing sound.
Also, as I understand it, I can still make use of my pedals and they will sound exactly as they're supposed to. From my experience, pedals don't sound good at all through modeling stuff.
That said, I'm convinced I'll make the economic sacrifice in a few days, weeks at most.
The goal is to replace the whole rig keeping 2 or 3 of my pedals at most, unless I get the same results without them.
Still, I have some doubts about functionality and configuration that I'd like to address. Some before ordering, some surely after I start using it.
Still undecided on the version and some setup alternatives. But I'll bother you with this in the right sections of the forum.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
