Posts by GASbag

Quote from Monkey_Man

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening unless Bert decides to borrow or hire amps specifically for this purpose.

He has, after all, shared (as far as we know) the profiles based on his amp collection that he's been using for years on his sessions. The refinement of the tones was borne out of practical session experience using these amps. Unless and until he finds it necessary to use different amps due to shortcomings of his existing "tone base", I reckon he'll continue to record with what he's got or the profiles thereof.

True, but I remember reading that this is how M Britt got started. His first pack was basically that.

In the case of BM, there are several amps in his pack that have very few profiles, like the Vox only 1, and I wouldn't mind a couple of more extensive single-amp packs on the basis of some of his amps, as long as there's enough non-overlapping profiles and the quality remains high.

Wow, that IS a great deal. I have each of these already and several are on my favorites list. I also like some of the effect-heavy extra profiles.

I'm also in waiting mode till there are some demos. Will most likely buy them anyway, but it would help to hear some sounds that complement the Fenders I already have. Between Andy, Armin and MBritt, I'm probably not far from 20 different ones.

Yes, that's also true. This intimacy about really getting to know a piece of gear inside out is something I miss. If I didn't have to think about neighbors, that's why I would otherwise still prefer to get by with 2-3 real amps. I DO have neighbors however, and it's great to be able to play at 1am with headphones, and still get great sound.

Come to think of it, I'll try by having only my favorites folder, and then load 1 complete amp, and nothing else. Then after a month or so, switch to a different amp. But no longer have 50 amps loaded, with as the end results that I rarely venture outside my favorites folder. I picked up the MBritt Jim Kelley pack this week, so that's a good place to start.

Could be, but pretty much all of the big names are there. I think they're good for sampling the wares, but soon I find myself wanting a full range of profiles for the big, iconic classic amps, and then exploring others that before I never considered but that were nice surprises (like Andy's 1968 Orange Matamp to name one). I spend money on a lot more stupid things than that. How much does a night out cost you, and does it give you more pleasure than buying, say, 10 amps?

One good thing about the Kemper is that it has mostly cured my GAS for other gear, including guitars. Profiles cost a fraction and don't clutter up your home.

Most definitely worth the money for me, especially the smaller packs. For instance TAF has plenty of great amps at 5 pounds per amp, and often at a discount, so why deprive yourself of that? Same with some of the others like Guidorist and the MBritt mini-packs. The only downside is that it's addictive and you'll end up with with more profiles than you need, but barring some bigger packs, I'd do it all again.

Quote from mwinter77

My suggestion is to have a sub forum under commercial for each seller and then have a separate thread for each pack or sale event within your sub forum.

Yes, I think that would be great, especially if couple with the ability to limit searches to subforums. All this discussion aside, I personally wasn't bothered that much by the way things were, and I for one am very happy that we have commercial profilers. Rather than seeing them on the back of Kemper, I see them more as mutually benefiting from each other. I honestly don't know if I would have bought a Kemper if it came loaded with a preset list of amps, like the Eleven Rack, and that's it. I might have, but the ability to try out new amps is what makes it such a fun product.

Quote from Ingolf

Quite the contrary.
Next time I feel inclined to buy new profiles I'll give it to charity instead.

It was obviously a joke.

I don't know if it would so far as disturb the image, but I think once the task has been accomplished of making people aware of the Kemper (which doesn't take all that much), they'll seek out information by themselves, probably tons of it, so I don't think it would be a good investment. Say if someone were in the market for a top-end digital guitar amp, would it make much of a difference to hound that person with Kemper banners everywhere they go on the internet? IMO, that person will do a very in-depth evaluation of the alternatives (Fractal, Helix...) and more superficial messages like showing the same banner a hundred times, beautiful girls in bikinis posing with a Kemper... are not going to do much to persuade people. That might work a little if it's very hard for people to differentiate between the products in the market, but generally not for more rational, elaborate decisions. Anyway, back on topic, don't want to derail this thread.

Quote from Sharry

absolutly correct. Ultimately, the success shows whether you off in the right way.

I could not make proposals to be successful

I always tell this to my Marketing students, and always get sniggers when I say with a serious face that marketing is a noble profession. For me marketing is really about market research and product design. Get those things right and the advertising and sales are a breeze (and vice versa). How many advertisements have you seen for the Kemper? I can't recall any.

I think the problem is to create too many rules that are subjective to enforce or very restrictive for the vendor. A word limit is clear and simple for moderators and sellers, and doesn't get into the murky area of trying to dictate what type of content should go in a title. Anyway, just an idea. I slink off to the day job again....

PS: screw those African kids, I'm buying more profiles.

How about limiting titles to, say 10 words and no all-caps unless in product names (like JTM45). That seems easy to implement (the word limit perhaps even via the forum software), and then let vendors do what they want. It would force on them some discipline to make the 10 words count and not be wasted on puffery that no one believes anyway. "Price of a coffee" is a good slogan IMO because it is a more colorful way of communicating an important decision factor (price). A word count would leave sellers free whether they want something dryly descriptive or something more colorful, without having to codify in forum rules what good taste or good form exactly means.

Guido, if I think about what made you stand out above the clutter for me and open my wallet, it's definitely not the loud marketing (more in spite of it), but more (1) your obvious experience (with many other commercial profilers, that point is not always clear and fair or not, I have this image of more hobbyist than seasoned pro), and (2) good product talking for itself (clips and user reviews) and last but not least (3) great price that makes you say "what the heck, why not?

For me to get interested in newbie commercial profilers, especially point 1 is important now. That's also why Bert Meulendijk immediately made a big splash IMO, while you see others trying and trying but not getting traction.

Anyway, really glad to see you got more than 1,000 customers as I think you deserve it.

I think for future searches, it's more convenient to have a thread per pack. Say I wanted to read discussions about MBritt's Dumble pack, it wouldn't be much fun wading through that long thread.

As for the "noise", I think we also have to accept that's the internet and a byproduct of abundance, which beats having too few commercial suppliers or being on one of those slow forums where 3 people post on the average day.

If a vendor had 20 threads and bumps them himself every day, now that would get annoying.

Vote for the really old Fender!

Quote from pamplemousse

I'm pretty new to the kemper world but so far there is something which puzzles me: no rigs ID or tags indicate to which guitar they are aimed. Playing a strat or a LP sounds way different, profiles needs different tweaks, at least tweaked profiles sound consider that. Without going into much details, single coil vs. humbucker and position (bridge, neck) should be indicated . This should be a must for commercial profiles IMHO.

The early TAF profiles have profiles for LP, strat and tele, but for me at least, you quickly run into the other drawback of having a lot of profiles to sort through. As long as a pack has a reasonable coverage of the tonal spectrum of an amp, I can find a profile that fits the guitar.

I had the same problem (for Thailand), and picked "China" from the list. Then at the next step you'll be asked to pay in Paypal and once there you should be able to enter the correct country. Worked for me at least.

It was becoming a bit much, some titles taking close to 10 lines on my iPad, so it's good to see the trend reversing. If we're here, it's because we're already hungry for information and news on our beloved Kempers, so a short, interesting, informative, relevant title is enough. I'll always be open to checking out the work of seasoned, full-time pros like Bert and Andy, and I hope many more come along. It doesn't take a 40-word title to get me interested in that.

I started writing about this first in Guidorist's thread, but then decided it's perhaps a bit off topic and I didn't want to hijack the thread, so I'll put it here. The pricing discussion also came up in another seller's thread today, so I think it's worth this having its own thread, and not just pricing but marketing tactics in general.

Things I like as a buyer:

• Small to medium packs -- enough of a range but I don't care for 50 profiles of one amp. YMMV if you're a professional or run a studio, but for me the differences are too minute and it becomes like 300 brands of tooth paste. A small pack will also be cheaper so it's a quicker decision to dip my toes in and buy more if I like it.
• Low price: of course I would say that as a customer, but the marginal cost of production is almost zero, so price it attractively and make it up in volume. Arguments based on value or the cost of the actual amp don't ring true to me when I already have $600-700 in commercial profiles and at this stage in the game am primarily shopping for entertainment or curiosity. So don't tell me that 20 dollars for 3 profiles is nothing if it helps you find your tone. Yeah right.
• Constant price throughout the year, rather than high base price and then deep discounts occasionally. In marketing parlance, EDLP (everyday low pricing) instead of high-low pricing. Or not a high price for the first pack and then a deep discount for the following ones. In the latter case, I may fill my boots once but I won't buy your new profiles one by one.

It's kind of interesting to observe the wide variety of marketing strategies of the different sellers, and which sellers/profiles get traction on the forums, and which threads get lonely fast. What I'm seeing is that large/huge packs are a tough sell. Even if they come from high-profile sellers, the discussion often fizzles out quickly. Same with new entrants with very ambitiously priced packs, and glowing buddy reviews, although those are more amusing than anything. Anyway, those are some of my thoughts that have been playing on my mind over the past year, watching different sellers' approaches. I'm a marketing professor, by the way, so this is something I'm inherently interested in.

Don't take anything too personally are as criticism if you're a commercial profiler. Deciding the optimal price for a new product is always mired in uncertainty. In the end, trial and error and adapting flexibly are best. Also don't ask me for advice because I said I'm a marketing professor. I'm an empiricist, and always prefer to make decisions based on observation, and have little time for the big mouths in my profession who have a one worldview that is supposed to solve every situation.