Guitar input does not work (sometimes)

  • I noticed that sometimes when I power up my Kemper Stage, and then plug in a guitar, there will be no input... the tuner lights won't come on, it's just dead. Everything else on the device looks fine. Then, if I restart the Kemper while the guitar is already plugged in, everything works fine. Is this normal behavior? Does the Kemper sense what is connected at startup?

    Thanks,

    John

  • I startup my Kemper sometimes with the cable end plugged into the input jack but the other end is open (not connected to guitar) and starts up fine. So it should not matter when you plug in your guitar to get sound as long as it IS plugged in. Try another cable just in case.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Hi Don,

    Yes the cable is in the input, no offense taken!


    Thank you BayouTexan,

    With the cable plugged into the Kemper, here are the scenarios I am experiencing:

    - guitar not plugged in at startup... sometimes dead input after plugging in guitar (but not always)

    - guitar plugged in, but sitting quiet on stand... sometimes dead input

    - if I strum the guitar a bit while the Kemper boots up, it always works


    This made me think that the Kemper is "listening" for at least some signal to know whether or not there is something connected.


    In the first two scenarios, there seems to be no way to fix it without restarting... unplug and plug either end doesn't help, and changing the input source back and forth doesn't work.


    I am experimenting with the input noise gate setting (changed it from the default 2.0 to 0.0) and so far that seems to work but we'll see.


    I will also try another cable but I'm pretty sure I have seen the issue with both of my cables.


    Thanks,

    John

  • Update: the noise gate setting does not make a difference, and I also experienced the same issue with another cable.


    Summary: playing the guitar while starting up the Kemper Stage results in normal (awesome) function all the time. However, if the guitar end of the cable is unplugged, or the guitar is quiet (or volume pots turned off), then the input will not function approx. 20% of the time.


    Any idea what else I should try? Should I attempt a complete software reset (I am currently running the latest software)? Can someone from Kemper confirm if this sounds like a hardware issue?


    Thank you for the help.

  • I am wondering if it is your electronics of guitar. I had a new guitar that when you move the pickup switch from neck to bridge or vice-versa the guitar would mute unless I flick the switch around. So the switch was bad even though brand new. Can you check with another guitar? If you get the same problem with a different guitar then contact support as ST suggests.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I am wondering if it is your electronics of guitar. I had a new guitar that when you move the pickup switch from neck to bridge or vice-versa the guitar would mute unless I flick the switch around. So the switch was bad even though brand new. Can you check with another guitar? If you get the same problem with a different guitar then contact support as ST suggests.

    I had similar issue with 2-years old PRS - spraying DeoxIT helped (very common issue), but I doubt this is what OP is experiencing, judging by the peculiar way in which the issue is reproducible.

  • Hello jjmckeon !

    I have the same problem with my kemper since I install OS 8.2

    I have conatct with kemper and I did everything they told me to do... init flash, init & factory content and so on but I still have the same problem.

    Please, can you tell me if you solved the problem ?

    Thanks

    Bernard