Kemper EQ Block

  • Good morning! I currently have a little 59 in my tele bridge (given with it), but want it to sound closer to a tele twang. I understand they are different pickups and the definition control works a little but then gets too much. I believe an EQ block will work best. However, would love to see if anyone has messed around with humbuckers to get a great live EQ. Thanks!

  • Add a Treble Booster or pluck strings directly above the pickup. You can split the 59 if you want to go that route. If you are playing with gain then there is not much of a difference between single coil or humbuckers in a live band setting - the audience can't tell. Single coils are best for cleanish tones, IMO.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Add a Treble Booster or pluck strings directly above the pickup. You can split the 59 if you want to go that route. If you are playing with gain then there is not much of a difference between single coil or humbuckers in a live band setting - the audience can't tell. Single coils are best for cleanish tones, IMO.

    There is definitely a difference between single coils and humbuckers with overdriven sounds in a live setting. If I am in the audience, I will surely know the difference.


    You can try to EQ out some of the thickness but it will not sound exactly like a single coil pickup. To my ears the smaller humbucker like you have, I have one of those in one of my telecasters, is a little thinner sounding than the full size humbucker. Try boosting a little of the high end and high mids. It would be good if you have something with a single coil in it to try to match the tone of.

  • There is definitely a difference between single coils and humbuckers with overdriven sounds in a live setting. If I am in the audience, I will surely know the difference.

    Maybe you but not the non-guitarist audience members -which makes up 90% of your audience. ;)


    If I split one of my bridge pick ups playing dirty there is only a slight bit more saturation in the tone from single to both with the single having a a bit more chime. No one notices.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • the lil'59 is a great pickup - I have one in my Talman, actually it's the only pickup in there and I used it A LOT live.


    It is however pretty far from a traditional Tele bridge pu, it is voiced to sound like a P.A.F.
    ceramic magnet, humbucker, no metal base plate - honestly, if you want a Tele bridge pu (and who doesn't), get a Tele bridge pu.

    No amount of EQ trickery will ever sound consistent and natural.

  • If you are playing with gain then there is not much of a difference between single coil or humbuckers in a live band setting - the audience can't tell. Single coils are best for cleanish tones, IMO.

    I might say that the good properties of single coils are best preserved with cleanish tones. When I split my humbucker with clean sounds it sounds nice and sparkly compared to full humbucker and you can really notice, but as soon as I add gain the differences subside and it become less obvious to the point that the sound becomes worse. Singles under gain can become "wirey" and "scrunchy" (best I can describe). P90's do well though and don't seem to get that way, but in my 1960 LP they are very noisy if you get them close to anything electronic.

  • IME the sound will always influence the performance of the player, and the audience will pick up on that.


    Gear? No. A guitarist in the zone? Yes.

    Bingo. This is hugely important. Also invalidates all the "you can't tell the difference in the mix" arguments.

    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

  • If you don't already have a name for yourself and the audience doesn't have any preconceived opinions about you as a performer, they will take a look at you and judge your group within 1 min. Look like someone that just jumped off the barstool with camouflage trucker hat and Hawaiian shirt staring at their feet, and they might turn around and keep talking. Look like someone that belongs in a band, with stage presence and connecting to the audience, and you'll hold their attention. This is a 10x bigger factor than all your gear. I could put a crappy looking band with no stage presence using the best of the best gear with the best tone and put say, The Beatles onstage with a garage P.A, Gorilla amplifiers and tesco guitars and guess who will be the favorite. I see so many bands that worry about their beam blockers, pickups, and gear and then go out and look like a complete toad onstage. In a live setting looks and ability is equally important. If people just wanted it to sound good, They'd put on a CD. That being said I can't tell you how many times the stage sound didn't have me "in the zone" but I acted like it anyway. That's what a "Pro" does.

  • If you don't already have a name for yourself and the audience doesn't have any preconceived opinions about you as a performer, they will take a look at you and judge your group within 1 min. Look like someone that just jumped off the barstool with camouflage trucker hat and Hawaiian shirt staring at their feet, and they might turn around and keep talking. Look like someone that belongs in a band, with stage presence and connecting to the audience, and you'll hold their attention. This is a 10x bigger factor than all your gear. I could put a crappy looking band with no stage presence using the best of the best gear with the best tone and put say, The Beatles onstage with a garage P.A, Gorilla amplifiers and tesco guitars and guess who will be the favorite. I see so many bands that worry about their beam blockers, pickups, and gear and then go out and look like a complete toad onstage. In a live setting looks and ability is equally important. If people just wanted it to sound good, They'd put on a CD. That being said I can't tell you how many times the stage sound didn't have me "in the zone" but I acted like it anyway. That's what a "Pro" does.

    I don’t disagree with your sentiment, especially that a pro ‘gets on with it’ no matter what.


    But even the Beatles won’t hold a following long-term using sub-standard gear. A balance has to be struck.

    A pro can manage with problems and less-than-ideal situations. That’s part of the definition.


    That same pro should also know how to avoid as many of those moments as possible. So that being in the ‘zone’ has a better chance of happening. Or….at least make it so you don’t have to fake it all that often.


    Using quality gear you like is part of that.


    Faking it is when it becomes real work. Obsessing over gear means you’re never happy….and faking it anyway.


    Play and have fun. No one cares if you’re in the zone or not. That’s not what you’re being paid for.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Play and have fun. No one cares if you’re in the zone or not. That’s not what you’re being paid for.

    Agree.

    even the Beatles won’t hold a following long-term using sub-standard gear

    Maybe not for the times but most of the things Beatles did were on gear that might be considered sub standard now. Many home studios and most live setups now have better sound quality gear than they used. I'm pretty sure I could make an album that sounded as good as anything Beatles recorded in my studio except my productions wouldn't get automatic attention and I'm not the Beatles. (I'm not a huge Beatles fan, just using them as a reference).

  • I sometimes daydream and wish I could go "Back to the Future" and take my Kemper with to Eddie in 1976 or to Hendrix, Beatles, the Who etc. I often wonder if they played it, if they would immediately ditch all their gear for it. I'm guessing they all would.

  • Maybe not for the times but most of the things Beatles did were on gear that might be considered sub standard now. Many home studios and most live setups now have better sound quality gear than they used. I'm pretty sure I could make an album that sounded as good as anything Beatles recorded in my studio except my productions wouldn't get automatic attention and I'm not the Beatles. (I'm not a huge Beatles fan, just using them as a reference).

    The Beatles used the best gear available at the time. Can’t really compare the 60s gear with modern day.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • The Beatles used the best gear available at the time. Can’t really compare the 60s gear with modern day.


    They wrote many of the definitive songs for the time, and arranged them in a way that set the standard for the time. Can't really compare them to anything that has happened since them :)

    So the standards were lowered then? Because people thought they were the bomb.. Can't say that for a lot of acts now that have ultimate sound systems and monitors,20 autotunes at their disposal and not a guitar in the zipcode.

    I was attempting to get at gear is just the tool and the artist wields it in either a favorable or unfavorable way. Some of the details would get lost compared to performance and audience likeability.

  • The standards weren’t lower. Of course not.


    They were just as high as they are now. But comparing a recording from 1963 (the capture quality - not the content) to what a (cheap) cell phone is capable of?

    There is no comparison.


    If Please Please me as-is were released for the first time today? How would that recording quality be received?


    In 1963, it would be cutting edge. Today? A review might read “Wonderful songwriting let down by horrible production quality. It sounds as if it were recorded on two-track tape machines.” (Which they were).

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche