Kemper journey so far!

  • Three and a half years in and still enjoying it. My wife bought me an unpowered Kemper rack in May or June of 2017. I took it out of the box and sat it on my kitchen table, hooked up a speaker cabinet and there it stayed for 3 years. After six months or so I finally loaded Rig Manager on a laptop and grabbed a few more rigs, didn't open Rig Manager again for about 2 years when I finally did my first updates.

    With extra time on hand this year I cleared out my old office about six months ago and moved my laptop to a small desk, hung my guitars on the wall and set my Kemper up next to the desk, having a proper place to noodle around has been absolute nirvana!!!

    So in a new space and feeling kind of giddy I started to actually look into the Kemper further, for years I've just pulled up a rig and played without doing much else except turning the delay or reverb down a bit or off and maybe adding a boost or overdrive, I'm not much for tweaking these days, I've had pedal boards or digital amps for years and got tired of messing with menu's and settings, if you lean to the side of OCD, which I do with many things, tweaking settings takes you down a rabbit hole you may never get out of, that equals less time actually playing and enjoying yourself. Therefore my pattern has been pull up a rig, wear skin of the end of your fingers then leave the room with a smile :)

    So on to the silver lining, the pandemic cloud opened a new avenue for me, Mbritt and Tonejunkie (other vendors may have too but these caught my attention) had some sales events due to lockdowns so I took advantage of them. I cleared my Kemper and loaded it with their profiles, I was fine with the free profiles off of Rig Manager, many of them were really good but the ones I bought have been fantastic, three years in and it's all new again, and that's the beauty of the Kemper!

    This week I did updates to the newest Rig Manager and latest OS and for the first time I dug into all the new delays, reverbs and dirt boxes. I know the delays and reverbs have been out for awhile, I've just never bothered to mess with them. I spent 5 or 6 hours playing around these yesterday and all I can say is WOW!! Thank you Kemper team, if nothing changes from this point forward I'm set for life! Usually you buy a product, get support for a while but the new and improved version comes out and you start all over again, but so far with Kemper it has been the gift that keeps on giving which is not really the norm these days, so again Thank You!

    There is still room for improvements in my setup even though I could stick with what I have and be fine, but with each change comes pretty sizable dividends. I still plug into the effects return of a Fender Mustang 3 lol, but it sounds really good, a different power amp and speaker would raise the bar even further, just can't decide what direction to go but there's no hurry.

    And lest I forget, this forum has been invaluable, thank all of you who take the time to share your knowledge!

    So the journey continues, I consider myself very fortunate that after thirty plus years of chasing gear but never satisfying the gear lust I have finally found a product that not only meets but exceeds my needs.

  • Thanks for sharing your story! And it's such a nice one. Great to hear how satisfied and happy you are with this incredible machine. Same here, same here for sure. I love it more and more every day...

    And lest I forget, this forum has been invaluable, thank all of you who take the time to share your knowledge!

    This! Can't emphasize enough what a big bunch of very friendly and polite folks is around here. Helping and sharing. Cool thing :thumbup:8)

  • thanks for sharing. You have a very nice wife

    Take it from a fellow who knows, that's the understatement of the century lol!

    Thank you for the kind words though, its beyond my comprehension but after 24 years she still comes home every day after work and stays home on the weekends. I know me pretty well and if I was her, I wouldn't ?

  • This week I did updates to the newest Rig Manager and latest OS and for the first time I dug into all the new delays, reverbs and dirt boxes. I know the delays and reverbs have been out for awhile, I've just never bothered to mess with them. I spent 5 or 6 hours playing around these yesterday and all I can say is WOW!! Thank you Kemper team, if nothing changes from this point forward I'm set for life! Usually you buy a product, get support for a while but the new and improved version comes out and you start all over again, but so far with Kemper it has been the gift that keeps on giving which is not really the norm these days, so again Thank You!

    Great story!


    I think this is the genius of the Kemper experience for me. Its felt like a longer term investment. Kemper can be knocked for not having the best interface, can't run dual profiles, no touch screen etc. BUT I didn;t buy the KPA for the upgrades and yet I'm so appreciative of the investment of the existing product....I don;t even use OD's but even I've started to play with them.


    I'm not a blind fanboy, but I have bought into the Kemper family of products and never looked at another amp - something that's not happened in the last 30+ years of playing guitar.


    Thank goodness no one has invented the perfect guitar....what else can I spend my money on!