I cannot get "dry" signal through Kemper Head

  • Hi all,

    I've been happy quite some years now with Kemper... However, we just switched to acoiustic setup, and I just want to use my Kemper very subtle: as a start, just a volume switch...


    I just cannot get my acustic signal (Piezo, preamp included in guitar (Martin Dx1 RAE) completly dry through the Kemper. Its somehow distorted.

    I switched everything off, and checked also in Rig manager that everything is off. Input LED is green, distortion and clean sense on zero.

    Output level is similar to output level of guitar -> also the input of mixer is not clipping.


    But still: plugging my guitar directly into mixer sounds completly different than plugging it into Kemper and Kemper into mixer... Is there any idea, what I might have missed?!?

    I checked input and output section and cannot find anything, that might cause this..


    All the best

  • How are you connecting to the mixer? XLR to combi input? This often engages a mic preamp that the Kemper sognalmcan overload. Might not be as obvious with electric guitars as with acoustic. Try checking with headphones from the Kemper front panel to rule out the mixer as the culprit.


    If the problem is still there with direct from the KPA headphones try lowering clean sense. I routinely run Clean Sense around -6db to get the best balance between clean and dirty rigs and the most natural volume knob control from the guitar but it aso has the side effect of lowering the input level.

  • Very good idea!! Seems not to be the case here, though... Just tried it ;)

    Damn. On the plus side you are one step closer to solving the issue as you have ruled out another possibility.


    The next thing I would try is plugging into the alternative input just in case the issue is specific to the main input.


    also try turning down the output from the guitar itself to rule out overloading the input as a possibility.

  • I even get distorted signal, if I plug my headphonesto the headphone jack... and nothing else anywhere...

    Still, input led is nice and green...

    Reducing clean sense to -12 AND reducing guitar volume to very low, also does not solve it


    Also using Alternative input does not help


    Either does " reset globals "

    Edited once, last by CPHfx ().

  • holy....

    Think I am getting there now... battery indeed was running on 5v instead of 9...

    However, I did not think of that because the same battery was running fine, if plugged directly to mixer...