Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

  • A guy I know ( great player ) bought a KPA after I recommended it to him back around 2015.He kept it about 2 weeks and then sold it.


    Thing is, the continual upgrades are great and probably make it more 'ampish' all the time but guys try it and if it isnt exactly what they're looking for ( before they move knobs even ) then straight away move it on....their loss I guess


    Such is the human condition.

  • today, in Pro live show, there's no more Space for Real Cab(s) on stage because it's reccomended that the stage is ''quiet''

    Which IMO is the reason every "modernized" show (where they hide the backline and everything is ISO) is not as cool as when bands stacked their stuff up and just rocked. Everything is too sterilized, normalized and lobotomized now. Sometimes perfect isn't better. I want to see those amps!

  • A guy I know ( great player ) bought a KPA after I recommended it to him back around 2015.He kept it about 2 weeks and then sold it.


    Thing is, the continual upgrades are great and probably make it more 'ampish' all the time but guys try it and if it isnt exactly what they're looking for ( before they move knobs even ) then straight away move it on....their loss I guess


    Such is the human condition.

    I think there are 2 other factors at play, which definitely applied to me:


    1) Takes me ages to get used to new sounds. so when I got my KPA I gravitated towards ENGL because that was what I was used to...so if you don;t find that immediate sound, negative reaction..

    2) I had to stop looking at the KPA and listen, as my brain was telling me "valve good, digital bad". Just like eating a good meal, you start with your eyes and in the case of the KPA although it looks fine, it doesn't look like a Plexi so of course cannot sound like a Plexi...

  • I guess this is just because Kemper didn't pay them :D ... Because, i remember this video

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    where Slash was so amazed by ... Amplitube on ipad :D

  • I say this since years now.We guitar players still live for the biggest part of us in dark medieval ages.Still most of us hunting the holy grail.Monty phyton style..burning witches,doing crusades and other "more traditional" stuff.Spinal tap style.


    This volume knob thing...How can some pro guy who obviously has no clue about the matter (since he obviously never tried it seriously) talk about this issue when you have THE volume knob player of all the volume knob players of the universe using the KPA on his tours and everyone agrees that his sound is absolutely the same every night.Same as it has always been.With his pinky on the volume knob.All the time.Untill the last note.


    But here the crusaders come in and tell me again again for some time now that I should not mention Mark Knopfler.And all the others.Or they will burn me like as a witch/magician/warlock?


    It is REALLY all about to have an open mind.Dont listen to anyone.Dont believe anyone.Just your ears & fingers.THIS is the "science of music"..admitting what you hear and what you feel.If you hear and feel it..all is good.No reason for denying.Do the blind test again.Relax.Do the blind test again.Acceptance takes time.But then you will be ready to leave 10 tons of tube rigs at home..?

  • Maybe it is a generation thing. When I was young we often lit fires in the woods and we used a lighter on concerts. Our kids - or rather the kids if my kids - might be never experiencing anything but the leds of smartphones in concerts. Same but different.

    So going the tube alley is a feeling we are used to due to our experiences in certain ages and the given possibilities.


    Saying that, if you are growing with technology you might go for the comfort and ease provided and that is not tubes. Current technology provides us all the sounds in one box. And if it is made right we are no longer able to distinguish but in the look of the gear.


    For me it still took a while getting used to a mic‘ed guitar amp but after „overcoming“ that I was really impressed by the KPAs abilities. Still happy since three years.

  • Definitely.


    Seriously now,guitar players have been to long mostly "rehearsal audio" type of musicians.As rock musicians in general but in opposite to drummers,bass players and ofcourse vocalists electric guitar only and exclusively sounded good under inhumanely loud conditions.Ofcourse this is the same with bass players and drummers but we guitar players always had this "cranked" thing which most bass players I ever met did not have.Only a few.

    So the volume knob thing is really a serious issue.One channel,many,many sounds..this was the classical tube thing.Together with one,two "essential" pedals.


    But today even plug ins..have become good with the volume knob.It is only a matter of time until this discussion ends once for all.

  • Wow, that Slash sim sounds like ass. :pinch:


    Instead of listening to the plugin I can only assume that the sound he was hearing was, "Ka-Ching!". :D

    He didn't like a Kemper but LOVED that??? That love obviously did not develop from sound quality or amp tone. It does have a good looking skin, but I'd rather have a ride that put the money under the hood and suspension instead of flashy rims and paint job.

    I could replicate his "amp" here with a pedal into a speaker sim.

  • I would shill Indonesian Squires if they were willing to pay. Slash knows how to pay the bills, by selling his brand. If Kemper started paying big artists to promote the brand, profilers they would cost a lot more. So it's fine with me.

  • I was thinking the same thing Nicky....yuk......but then I'm not a Slash fan so I'm not that interested in what he says.

    He always sounds like shit when he plays alone.This is him.He should never play without a band.Alone he sounds awful.Every single note is a waste.


    As he he sounds unique and "like him" when he plays in a great band.Then he is fantastic.One in a million.


    I don't know how often I heard a new rock song in the radio and said "hey..this sounds like Slash"..and you know what...it was indeed always him!


    There are only a very few players left like him.

  • Without getting into what makes a guitarist great....is he a great song/riff writer ? Yep. Is he a great guitarist, as someone who makes a living out of it, he's not. In my eyes, good but not great.

  • In my book he's got the time feel and note choice of a great guitarist :)

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • I would shill Indonesian Squires if they were willing to pay. Slash knows how to pay the bills, by selling his brand. If Kemper started paying big artists to promote the brand, profilers they would cost a lot more. So it's fine with me.

    I agree, I would sponsor Gorilla amps and say they were great if I was paid well enough. But that's the point, Fortin & Slash's opinions were obviously influenced by something other than sound when they said Kempers don't work for them. It would be like me saying KPA doesn't do it for me and then turn around and gush over my Rockman Ace.

  • I just can not see where Slash is saying he uses an iPad App live?


    (The Slash amps and gear in Amplitube 5 version sound pretty good btw).


    Maybe there are zillion better guitarists out there on the planet than Slash from a technical point of view. But they just don't ROCK like him 8)


    And hey, my main guitar is a (modded) Indonesian Squier!! ?


    If they pay me enough, I have no problem grinding off that Fender logo from my other Strats and replace it with a shiny Squier decal ?