Harsh treble overtones with Strats - all profiles - Powerhead and Kab

  • Looking for some assistance here.......


    I have a Powerhead and Kab and have been having issues with all profiles when using single coil guitars (Strats in particular). I’ve been getting terrible harsh quite high frequency overtones unless the guitar volume is backed off a bit. The gain of the profile does not seem relevant although it’s worse (more noticeable?) on edge-of-breakup tones. No issues with P90’s or Humbuckers. It’s been driving me crazy and Ive seen no mention of this issue in any forums.


    Yesterday, I went to the Output section and dialled in a HF cut at 8000Hz; problem solved!


    I have yet to check all my guitars to see they still sound good but looks ok so far.


    Questions:

    1. will this HF cut also apply to the Main outs via the XLR’s?

    2. Anyone seen this before?

    3. Could it be a speaker cable capacitance issue or similar? I can’t be sure but I don’t remember getting this issue when I first acquired my Kemper.


    Cheers.

    WildBillMojo

  • It's not as simple as a single value. Here's what it says in the Kemper Manual. It depends on your guitar(s) and pickups.




    Try adjusting the clean sens and distortion sens to see if this makes a difference to what you're hearing.

  • Some single coil pickups, particularly on strats, suffer from “stratitis”, which is the harsh trebly high end you’re experiencing. It can be down to a number of factors. Lowering the pickups can help, raising the action a tad can also help in some cases (though usually only if there’s fret buzz), but every case is different. There’s info on the internet about tackling the problem.

  • Thanks sambrox, I’m aware of the issue in general but I have a couple of Strats and lots of amps and Ive never heard it like this. Best solution so far is still the 7.5kHz - 8kHz hi cut.

    WildBillMojo

  • If lowering the guitar volume helps, lowering the pickups a bit, could help, worth a shot,

    Also remember that the Cab IR's are still active when the Kone imprints are engaged, perhaps a different cab IR/Kone imprint will loose the harshness.

    If all this fails, I would try is putting the Kone in a proven cabinet, (one that you know is solid and sounds great) and see if the issue is still there. It's possible the Kabinet is the culprit. (If you dont have another cab you could put a different speaker in the Kabinet and see if the problem persists)

    A problem with the cabinet CAN sound like an issue with the speaker.


    This thread interests me because, I almost sent out for a replacment Kone under similar circumstances - it was in a cabinet that had a problem (unknown to me), I put it in a different (proven) cab, and the issue was gone. Love the speaker now, will be buying another.

    The problem was an unpleasing high end distortion similar to what you are describing.


    If all else fails contact Kemper customer support.

    Shelling out the money for a "full range" speaker and then running it full time with a low pass filter is.... less than ideal.

  • Thanks Jason. I'll try more with the IR potential interaction. I'm reluctant to start messing around with guitars that sound perfectly good with a high end tube amp just to get the Kemper to work properly. I'll also try it on the floor; at the moment the Kabinet is on a low shelf which may be less than ideal.

    WildBillMojo

  • Thanks Jason. I'll try more with the IR potential interaction. I'm reluctant to start messing around with guitars that sound perfectly good with a high end tube amp just to get the Kemper to work properly. I'll also try it on the floor; at the moment the Kabinet is on a low shelf which may be less than ideal.

    try that.


    place the Kabinet on the same surface and height as your traditional cabinet - if the Kabinet's speaker is pointing directly to your ears, while the ones in your other cabinet do not, pretty much exactly what you describe can occur.


    Traditional guitar speakers have a very high directivity, having them pointed at your knees means that you get a much softer tone at ear-level.