Hi from England - Chris O'Leary

  • I'm a singlecoil kinda guy these days although I always bring the Les Paul along, it just looks so great on the stand on the stage as a backup lol


    The S. Mehl and Siggi Mehl amps are great and I tried these and liked them so went from there but I'm used to my vintage Fender bassman, Blackface, 1966 which I love to bits but haven't had a chance to profile yet. Nothing sounds quite like this beast cranked up to me but everyone has different preferences.



    Garrincha, you're the man! I've just tried that vibroverb, sounds great... problem is every time I find a sound I like, I lose half an hour of my life playing with it lol.
    I'd like to call it rehearsing, but lets face it playing John Mayer albums from start to finish is hardly gonna get me laid by Jennifer Anistan, Cameron Diaz, Taylor Swift oh and Katy Perry now is it.




    and oh Viabcroce always buy 6 eggs, regardless of how much milk someone has, you can never have too many ;)

    Guitar + Kemper = Heaven


  • The S. Mehl and Siggi Mehl amps are great and I tried these and liked them so went from there but I'm used to my vintage Fender bassman, Blackface, 1966 which I love to bits but haven't had a chance to profile yet. Nothing sounds quite like this beast cranked up to me but everyone has different preferences.


    I think we have a Blackface Bassman in the Rig Pack 2 from July. I remember seeing it when I installed the rigs on my KPA, but I haven't got around playing it since my current project just commands Marshall sounds ;) But you could try if it works for you. The rigs are called "Black Bass". They used a Mojo 2x12 cab with Celestion black shadows for that amp so I suggest swapping the cab for a vintage Fender 2x12". I think And44's first pack (the one free of charge ) has some nice Fender cabs. I use his Fender cabs a lot with Fender-style profiles on the KPA.


    The best non-tweed Bassman for the KPA is the blonde '64 Bassman from Andy (www.theampfactory.com). But it's one of his commercial profiles although a single amp pack is not that expensive. Anyway, the Beatles used a blonde Bassman much in the studio and there have been longstanding rumours that it was this blonde Bassman that Eric Clapton recorded the solo of "while my guitar gently weeps" on. After trying Andys Bassman profile I was convinced the rumours were true. It nails the sound of that Clapton solo - minus the tapeflanging of course. But if you use a plugin for that (I tried a UAD Ampex tape sim with high wow and flutter values) it is exactely the sound of the record. It's acutally spooky how close you can get to classic recordings with the Kemper as soon as you have the original amps and cabs available as profiles.

  • crunch = not good at all, very harsh edges, very digital sounding (any tips anyone to smooth this out?)


    As you know, the KPA profiles amp sounds 99.9% correctly, and the remaining 0.1% can be mostly seen on a frequency spectrum analysis only, but not heard for sure.
    Sometimes I'm not entirely sure whether it's about the mindset of knowing that the Kemper is digital, or just playing through a different speaker enviroment that creates these kinds of opinions in us.
    The KPA is not meant to, and will never sound like an amp in the room. It's supposed to sound like a mic'd amp going into the mixing board.
    Yes, of course, crunch tones is where it all gets interesting and where most of the modelers and digital stuff falls, but trust me on this, the KPA amazingly does justice on the crunch tones as well. Get deep into it, do some cab changing, reshape the amp, use EQs, etc. You'll find more than a bunch of amazing crunch sounds, trust me on this one.

    Use your ears, not your mathematical sense.

  • ?( ?( ?( Of course it will, switch the cabs off and run it through a power amp and a guitar cab...

    Theoretically you are still playing through a profile that you did with a mic; the mic adds its own characteristics; as far as I know the cab can't be completely removed from the profile even if you switch the cab section off.

    Use your ears, not your mathematical sense.

  • Well, Richard, I'm not talking theory. I did it at rehearsal just to try it, a MS profile, cab off, running in the fx return of a Marshall head sitting there. It sounded really good and like an .... Amp! Not a mic'd one.

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


  • Well, Richard, I'm not talking theory. I did it at rehearsal just to try it, a MS profile, cab off, running in the fx return of a Marshall head sitting there. It sounded really good and like an .... Amp! Not a mic'd one.

    Hmm :)
    Strangely enough, I didn't get good results when I tried putting mine through a power amp and cab, maybe running through the power amp of an actual good tube head would make a difference. :thumbup:

    Use your ears, not your mathematical sense.

  • Sadly back then my bassman doesnt have an effects loop, shall try my Marshall but I hate the celestion gold in my anniversary 6101.


    Guess I'll stick with my active PA or either of my two sets of studio monitors. It definitely sounds better/more like my amp in the PA from a short test. In fairness my monitors cost £600 my PA cost £6000. 8|


    Thanks to zappledan for helping me find some better tones for my use. Im not a huge fan of the factory rigs. I think quality over quantity is a better idea for the pre installed ones. I'd love it if we could audition rigs off of a USB stick without having to install them in to the kemper. Has this been mentioned before?

    Guitar + Kemper = Heaven


  • Thanks to zappledan for helping me find some better tones for my use. Im not a huge fan of the factory rigs. I think quality over quantity is a better idea for the pre installed ones.


    The original factory presets weren't my taste either, with the exception of Uwe Bosserts Rigs. Uwe is the guitarist of one of the biggest german bands and I can hear the sounds I know from his records in his profiles. But the rest was a bit mediocre.


    But I think I got much better with the two Rig Packs they released later. Those were really my taste and I found many tones among them, I was previously only dreaming about. When I bought my KPA the Rig Pack 1 was already released, so I was mostly working with those Rigs (S. Mehl and all those nice rigs).


    As you mention you are playing a Bassman, I had a look today and tried the blackface Bassman from Rig Pack 2. I think those might be exactely what you are looking for and the 2x12 with Black Shadows suit the amp fine, changing the cab is not required on this profile. When working with a Strat the "Black Bass Cream" is probably what you want. With a Les Paul the "Black bass crunch" is already crunchy enough ;)


    I also found a recent user upload on Rig Exchange fantastic for crunch:
    Harlequin OD Pedal by Paco Mata
    That's a beautiful warm crunch sound that works well with single coils.


    Check them out and let me know if those are closer to what you are looking for.