The Amp Factory Pack 4 Review by Leroy Miller

Hi all you Kemper maniacs I just finished recording all the clips for The Amp Factory Pack 4 and wow what a smoking collection of amps! First before I get into my review of Pack 4 I just want to thank Andy for all his hard work!!! Providing us with all these superior profiles of great amps is essential for us all to sound our best! I have owned the KPA for a year or so and have loved it from the first chord played! I liked some of the profiles that came with it but after downloading a few from the Kemper website I noticed a big difference in quality (sound and feel) from profile to profile. After downloading some of Andy's free AC 30 profiles on The Amp Factory's web site I was blown away on how good it felt and sounded. We'll that got me thinking maybe I should buy some and see how they sound. As expected they all sounded killer and to my ears much better than most of the profiles I already had in my KPA. Move forward a few months and my relationship with Andy and The Amp Factory started right here on the Kemper fourm! I posted a sound clip and thanked Andy for his profiles and he replied "we need to talk". After a email chat I agreed to record the clips for Pack 4. There are 23 amps with 4 examples per amp. Clean, a little dirt, a little more dirt and full tilt. I played a 57 Nash Strat with Lollar pick ups. I used an Octavia, Fuzz, and Tube Screamer as well as the Vibe, Wah, Phase, Flange, Green Scream, Fuzz, delay and reverb from the KPA. I did not try to copy anybody else's riffs to show the amps, for instance playing a U2 riff on the AC 30 bla bla. I played what I would play with these profiles as I'm looking for my sound not anyone else's. I highly recommend all of Andy's profiles and I hope my clips inspire you to check out Pack 4.

Over all this pack is exellent and very diverse. It spans from funky old combos to modern 50/100 watt Heads. My top favs from Pack 4 are:

1- Fender Deluxe - This type of amp always seems to win overall for me.
2- Selmer - I'm going to explore new terrain with this amp!
3- WEM - Awesome amp what can I say... "I get no respect"
4- Orange Matamp - The ultimate crunch tone and leads that kill.
5- Mesa MKIIB - This amp suprized me. It's perfect tone.
6- Quo JCM- Quo is just one of those great Marshall amps.
7- Watkins - The Watkins is in the Selmer, WEM club. It's just has a lot of character.

Now I just want to say that these are my favs. All of the other amp profiles in Pack 4 sound terrific as well! Here's is what I thought of the whole lot:

1- 64 Selmer T&B
Nice and chimey, great crunch
2- 66 JTM
Killer all around Marshall sound good for all things rock and blues
3- 66 Vox CT
Sweet chime and great crunch and compression
4- 73 Orange
Killer rock amp with great full tone cool for blues too.
5- Fender Bandmaster
Nice sounding Fender very clean, great amp for all things clean. Gets crunchy too if you want it to.
6- Fender Deluxe
One of my favs, it has tons of attitude and also is very sweet. This amp can be clean and also scream.
7- Gibson
This amp surprised me with how good it sounded for clean and with a Gain stomp can scream!
8- Gilmore HiWatt
Great sounding amp. The clean is really nice and the crunch surprised me. The lead tone is killer takes pedals well.
9- Hayden
Really nice all around amp. Great for blues, rock and metal.
10- HiWatt Studio 50
Sweet sounding amp would be great in the studio. Cool for blues and rock.
11- Orange Matamp
Monstrous sounding amp! One of the best sounding amps of the pack. Great for all things rock and good for blues too. Lots of character.
12- Mesa MKIIB
I really liked this amp it just was hitting all the right places. Really fat tone but not the typical Boogie tone more like a modified vintage Fender. Loves pedals.
13- Mesa TA
Pretty good sounding amp. Typical Boogie fatness
14- Orange OR 50
Killer amp with lots of attitude. Fat tone but still cuts, takes pedals great!
15- Quo JCM
One of my favs from the pack. It's just a really great sounding Marshall. Takes pedals great. You could use this for blues, rock or metal.
16- Selmer
I loved this amp! I wish I owned one. This is one the best amps in the pack. You can do anything with it. Takes pedals great. Lots of attitude but still sweet.
17- Soldano
My least fav of the pack. I like the clean tone. The crunch is good but it's very stiff feeling. It's just a little to modern sounding for my tastes. This would be a great amp for hard core metal and 80's rock.
18- Tone King
Nice cleans, great crunch and opens up good with pedals.
19- Fender Twin
Great sounding Twin! Big bold cleans and tons of attitude when cranked up with a gain pedal. Great for blues and country.
20- Vox Blue Top 50
Very cool sounding amp. Very vintage crunch and great chimey Vox tones to be had. Lots of attitude when cranked up. Takes pedals great.
21- Watkins
Killer blues amp. You can hear the tubes baking on this while playing. It also turns into a total beast with a gain pedal cranked up.
22- WEM
This amp kills! One of my favs from the pack. It works great for blues but can keep up with anything out there today for rock! Major amounts of mojo and attitude from this great amp!
23- 1970 HiWatt 50watts
Killer amp nice crunch and great sustain. I never really got into HiWatts but this and the DG HW have changed my mind!

I would recommend Pack 4 to anyone using the KPA.
Peace,
Leroy

Quote from andrewwarne

I have been a huge fan of Andys work since he first appeared on the kemper 'scene", and was delighted to help instigate the vintage pack through my association with Vintage and Rare. Your hard work and comments are also hugely welcome, I think he is getting better and better, I cannot wait for the Lazy J pack, which takes its heart from one of our best new amp designers, just ask Pete Townsend!!. Thankyou for your hard work in opening up the detail, I hope it encourages more people to take the plunge, Andys work is worth every penny

Quote from guitarmania62

Thanks Leroy!
Great work and very helpful!

Quote from db9091

I think, last I checked, that I have all of Andy's work.

Every time I'd review packs, I'd lean towards his each time for the majority and I've not regretted it.

At this point, with pack 4, it's probably luxery over need, but that Deluxe and Gilmour amp each remind me why I am an AFA (Amp Factory Addict!)

Quote from clarkydaz

bring on the lazy j's!

Right on guys Andy's profiles are what keeps my KPA as my main tone source! I'm signed on to do the clips for the Lazy J and Pack 5!!! I'll be making some videos as well to show my process of how I go about making these clips.

Quote from MadH

In my opinion this pack is the best so far. I really like that Andy concentrated his time on getting the best tones from the amps exclusively compared to previous packs where he also used pedals.

Btw, all your clips sound great Leroy. I hope you can continue making all the clips for as long as Andy keeps doing profiles.

I agree 100% I tend to go for the raw profiles. I'm doing the Lazy J and Pack 5 demos too!

Quote from DocLine6forum

Thanks for all the thoughtful descriptions, Leroy!

Thank you for reading!

Quote from AlexanderDoyle

Looking forward to seeing how you go about recording some of these clips and what tweaks you do from the raw profiles. Your demo's are excellent quality. It would be nice if some of them where shared with the raw profiles where possible (minus any of your external pedals) hint hint

Cool it should be fun to do a little show and tell about the process of recording the clips. Most of the clips are the raw profiles but I did use some pedals and KPA stomps to show what the raw profiles are capable of doing.

Quote from lightbox

Just bought the '53 Fender Tweed Deluxe and the '68 Orange Matamp based on your demo clips and your recommendation.

First impression after a couple of minutes:
Tweed Full and Matamp Solo and Matamp Drive ... yet another night without sleep!

Orange Matamp Demo clip, 1:38 - 1:43 ... This AMAZING steaming sustain makes me see smoke coming from the amp, when I close my eyes.

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I know what you mean, I like the bit after that where I have a KPA Fuzz stomp on and when I played light it's brighter and louder then when I played harder it changes and compresses. It's very Sabbath like! I was like... "cool that sounds bad ass!". I'm stoked you liked my clips and recommendations.

Quote from db9091

Man, I love Andy's profiles so much I want to have his rig's babies!

Seriously, I want to have an annual subscription, and whatever he profiles, I just get automatically.

Andy44, have you made any videos of you doing a profile so I can drool over your studio equipment and technique? (don't worry, I have a protector over my keyboard)

...

Quote from and44

Thanks for all the comments. - nice to hear such good things.
I cant begin to tell you how busy things get with all this, and Leroy was a massive help this time around for stepping in last minute to do the amazing clips for this pack and the ones beyond this pack also!.
He cleary has a newfound talent for such things as this. so much respect, great guy and great player (one that Ive wanted to work with for a while I might add, on a personal level)

@DB
I will do a video one day. - I keep meaning too, but life is hectic and keep forgetting... its on my todo list for sure.

lightbox
Yes that Matamp is very special, very versatile amp....and seriously has some juice. - but the Tweed is my personal fav from this pack, something very magical about those old small tweeds. and not forgetting the Selmers too. incredible if you like that vintage rock sound!...think I'll stop here as I shouldn't talk about my own profiles.

LazyJ will be up and running soon as I have the time to sort a few lil things out first..(please bear with me a lil longer) will get to it as soon as I can.. its high on my list.

Manlove to you all!

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You heard it from the man himself
"Manlove to you all"

Quote from pacocito

Tweed Deluxe, tweed Deluxe, tweed , tweed Deluxe, tweed Deluxe, ... aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

Awesome profile. Can't stop playing. I'm playing while writing this post...

I've just recorded a short demo.
https://soundcloud.com/pacomata/kemper-the-amp-factory-tweed

Cool clip Paco! I done lots and lots of playing and recording with the Tweed Deluxe profile and I have tried to find something that gives me what it the Deluxe gives me but as some as I find something cool like the Trainwreck or the Tweed Bassman the Deluxe always just has everything I want from an amp where all others amps though great sounding have fallen short. One thing I notice about the Deluxe profile that always makes it the winner for me is its attitude. It just screams like nothing else and makes everything I play sound raunchy and I like that!