Posts by lbieber

Wow!!!

We were simply discussing pots and rotary encoders, yet you have drifted far off topic. You even suggest that I might have a financial interest in discouraging preventitive maintenance. That fits well with my original post regarding your faulty logic. I would not fault you for inconsistency on this subject. Preventive maintenance is useful and I believe it is a good idea when it is acutally preventative. Labelling it preventative when it is not is misinformation.

To anyone that has read this far. Please don't think that that twisting the knob on a pot is preventitive maintenance. It is not. In the case of a dirty pot, deoxit or cleaning spray can sometimes help clear a scratchy pot. Turning the pot after spraying is a good technique to help clean the contact points inside the pot. Turning the pot on a well funtioning unit as preventive maintenance is a silly notion.

A rotary encoder is not a potentiometer. There are many different types and for some of these it is likely that infiltrating one with Deoxit or cleaning spray will damage or compromise it.

Please take the time to understand the design of the particular unit and follow the cleaning instructions recommended by the manufacturer. Some manufacturers clearly state that there is no suitable solvent for cleaning their units. One such example:

What solvents can be used to clean in the vicinity of the encoder modules?

US Digital has found that almost all solvents (besides water) will attack some of the encoder module parts. This includes alcohol and freon-based cleaners. US Digital has not qualified any solvent to be compatible with the encoder modules.

Thank you for the info. I've been to Basel many times over the years. I sent a request for quote to do a SS refret. Those prices are about half what I would pay in my area so would be well worth it since I travel with a guitar anyway.

Could you link to the site with that info? Thanks

Quote from Kellerblues

3 different builders (one of them is Gary Levinson) here in Switzerland...not really the cheapest country....

Interesting. I work for a Swiss company and will be in Switzerland in May and June. What area do you live, if you don't mind me asking. I'll be in Neuchatel and Lausanne. I often take a guitar with me. Maybe I should get it refretted while I'm there.

Quote from Kellerblues

Stainless Steel fret job (the most expensive variant) cost 250$...not 1000$

Please provide me with contact info where I can get a good stainless steel fret job for $250.

Right click over the amp/cab in RM and you can lock all, unlock all, or lock all but the amp. That is my recollection, but I'm not in front of RM right now.

I don't know what plating you are referring to? I rarely wipe my strings down, but I will after a gig involving a lot of sweating. Many times I'll only change strings on an electric when gunk builds up that makes the string to fret contact point higher friction. Or when they stop staying in tune. Or when a string breaks - then I change the full set. On an acoustice the strings are good for a few days IMO.

On most every guitar, I can feel the fret condition where the wear increases. With a new, clean set of strings a rapid sideways vibrato motion like Freddie King at al will create heat on the fret and this leads to a higher friction contact point that will wear the fret faster. I can replicate this on almost every guitar I have ever played. It is most noticeable with unwound strings. I can feel the friction increase with the heat.

BTW, just wanted to mention that guitarists have been experiencing fret wear for more than a hundred years. The more interesting question is how waraba has not experienced it?

Quote from Crispy Panther

As I result I have yet to have ever needed to change a faulty potentiometer or had a problem with a rotary control.

That’s over 57 years.

I appreciate your previous post.

Your statement "as a result" makes the claim that your preventative maintenance is the reason that you never had a faulty pot or rotary control. Period. Again, correlation is not causation. The explicit meaning, whether you meant it or not, is that periodically twisting pots or rotary controls prevents failures/problems. I've designed rotary control circuits and if you have ever used the scroll wheel on a Logitech mouse, then it is likely you have experienced my design. Twisting that scroll wheel(rotary encoder) has zero preventative value. Just one example of many. There are other types of encoders for which a twist will provide nothing preventative. My intent is not to quibble, but sending a general message to users that occasionally twisting a knob will result in never needing to change a faulty potentiometer or experiencing a problem with a rotary control is just not accurate.

Edit: not that it means anything substantial, but the mouse scroll wheel rotary encoder has been a viable product for than 25 years and has sold well over 2 billion units. The b is not a typo.

Quote: “I have experienced many pot failures”

I’m genuinely sorry to read that, perhaps some preventative maintenance might assist you?

I like sarcasm(assuming you meant it that way) probably more than most. Either way, your response has no basis in my reality since the majority of failures that I see come from equipment that someone else owns. It shows up in a failed state that I get paid to resolve.

Quote from waraba

RosboneMako I don't get it , how can you wear frets so fast , it never happened to me in 30 years of guitar ? Never had to do it , maybe once , my Yamaga SG1000 had two 'bending holes' on 5th fret as the original owner could maybe mostly play in A, but that's it.

I get it and have reached a similar conclusion as RosboneMako . I recently spent time leveling and recrowning frets on 2 Teles, 2 Strats, and 2 Les Pauls. As a result, I purchased what I consider to be a 'sacrificial' guitar which I have not posted on this thread. A sunburst Sire S7 HSS that was relatively cheap, $500 but not $55 cheap. I now do most of my playing on the Sire. BTW, the Sire is a very well done guitar for the price and I am also using it to gig with my rock band.

Quote from Crispy Panther

So, any equipment I have that uses rotary controls (and gear that uses regular potentiometers) are sure to have a turn or two, whenever convenient, especially as most of my gear is in store.

I consider the trouble it takes to do this to be standard operating procedure and regular preventative maintenance, with an annual plan.

As I result I have yet to have ever needed to change a faulty potentiometer or had a problem with a rotary control.

That’s over 57 years.

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Sorry, but that's a failure in logic. Correlation and causation are not the same thing. And anectdotal evidence is just...well anectdotal. You may be a statistical outlier, but that's all.

I have serviced and built many(too many to count) tube amps over the years. I have experienced many pot failures and they fail for many different reasons. Giving a knob a twist is not a guarantee that a pot will not fail. While exercising the wiper across the track can be helpful in certain circumstances, it is not a panacea. I've had many high use pots fail and high use is in fact a failure mode for many pots. Dragging a metal contact against a softer conductive surface will eventually lead to problems.

I don't know what kind of rotary encoder is being used in the Kemper, but there are different types. The video linked above is incomplete and describes only one type. Without knowing what type you have, shooting a liquid 'cleaner' into the device may or may not be a good idea. Perhaps Kemper could recommend something beyond filing a ticket.

BTW, this thread does have a comment from Kemper

Pots working erratically. Would Deoxit fix the problem? - Profiler related issues and trouble shooting help - Kemper Profiler Forum (kemper-amps.com)

There is good Bukovac video where he does blind testing of quite a few OD pedals. I found it interesting.

Homeskoolin’ Special Episode, “Uncle Larry's Hearing Test” - YouTube

I doubt there is a problem. There are many ways to implement a LPF. I wouldn't stress over it. Recognize there is a difference, which you have, and use the one you like the best.

It seems you have found something that you can accept. My experience led me to conclude that a PA monitor(FRFR?!?!) is the best solution. BTW, I don't buy into FRFR dedicated solutions. I see it as a rebranding of a good, neutral speaker that you pay too much for in the end.

I view the defintion control as a critical knob for all profiles. The PA monitor(and the FOH by extension) has a bit too much high end for me in general. The high cut and presence are the next two main controls to tame any profile. The benefit of the PA monitor is that if it sounds good on stage, it should sound good in FOH. Tweak less, play more... I hope you get it sorted soon. Rooting for you.

Not posting issues here, but posting them on FB is pretty dumb IMO. Just another example why FB is a useless POS that isn't meant for living things.

There used to be quite a lot of valid issues regarding RM, but the vast majority of them have been resolved. IME, copy/paste is sometimes greyed out if I try to access it too quickly. Many times a second right click will reveal an active copy/paste.

I have also experienced what I believe to be a memory corruption when editing performances where the text does not accurately reflect the data. I have seen this when doing 'heavy' edits of performances using RM. I am aware of it so I reboot everything when it occurs and all works normally until next time. It is not frequent but it does occur.

This can be explained and you can find it in the manual with diagrams of how to set it up. I would suggest that you will not have it sorted for a gig tomorrow since you don't have it sorted today. It seems you need a plan B or something approaching a miracle.

We don't have enough information to state whether it is hardware or firmware, unless you know something I don't. It can easily be a hardware problem. Just because the LED is functionally able to flash does not rule out a hardware problem that might influence the frequency of the LED flashes. Not sure what IT(information technology) expertise has to do with programming a microcontroller or a DSP?

Quote from JohnnyBee

Well, I don't say it in your words.

But it's really not understandable that this error has not been fixed for so many years now.

You have to get the impression, that it can't be fixed because of a hardware problem.

This is for me the only reason that could explain the long time of not being fixed.

And if so, it will never be fixed !!!

The link I made above has a statement from Kemper that it is not a hardware problem. If that is true, then it should have been fixed. IMO, the only logical conclusion is that the statement was wrong and that there is a hardware problem. Either way, the right thing would be for Kemper to make a definitive statement to stop the pontification and put this to rest whatever the situation.

In fairness, you should be blaming HW since he is the guy that made the pseudo, clickbait announcement tease. Kemper hasn't said anything.

As mentioned, I tried a few different monitoring solutions. I didn't think any of them were bad, but I wanted my monitor to be a close match to FOH. At some level, I don't obsess about the tone. I prefer to spend my time PLAYING guitar. It sounds like that would give the OP the best benefit.

Truth is that I spend ~80% of my time playing electric unplugged. I concentrate on the intrument. I know what any amp, including Kemper, is going to sound like. I have the Kemper tweaked up and ready to go when I want and I know what it will deliver. Which is pretty much anything in the known guitar universe. I work on me.