Posts by Alfi27

Really? I find the amp very fizzy, shrill and it has some really strange stuff going on in the highs. I thought it was due to the low volume, but even when I profiled it with volume at 6 it sounds pretty much identical. Certainly not useable with V30s, which are praised as «the ultimate speaker» for the Jubilee.. It gets worse the higher the gain though, and for some reason it gets much more fizzy at 50 watts compared to the 25w-mode.

But I guess whether an amp is dark or bright is very subjective. It might be dark compared to a JCM800. Slash loves a bright amp so I don't think the Jubilee would be his weapon of choice for so many years if it was very dark That being said, Top Jimi's profiles of his 2555 sounds much better and less shrill than my 2553.

Ah, cool! Really cool looking "mini" stack, and I bet it sounds as good as it looks when it works as it should. I have two sets of speakers and two cabs, which makes a total of four combinations. The amp sounds quite good with only one of the combinations, and horrible with the same speakers in another cab or other speakers in the same cab... And the Kemper sounds great with all four combinations

Quote from paults

Your Jubilee may have poorly biased tubes, worn out tubes, etc. They can be quite warm and creamy, when set up to sound that way.

But, there's no need to mess around with the tubes. If you want Jubilee sounds, there are plenty of available free and commercial rigs.

The Jubilee got new tubes and rebias a few months ago, and the guy I bought it from claimed that it sounded great and just as good as his 2555SL. It is being serviced at the moment, but the "amp tech" is not a full time amp tech so he has not even opened the amp after more than a week... If he finds something and it sounds great afterwards I might keep it, but it is worth quite a lot (I have the half stack 2553 + 2556A (2x12")).

Hello fellow Kemperians! Not sure if I picked the right category, feel free to move it.

So, I wanted to share my impressions of the Kemper after 9 months. I have always owned a tube amp at the same time, right now as well (but not for long). I started out with the unpowered rack, even though the entire idea of the swap was to move away from racks and my Axe FX Standard... I got the Helix at first, but I just could not get it to sound the way I wanted even with 6 hours of tweaking for 7 days.

I returned it for the Kemper, which they had to get from another store. I was so sick of tweaking that I did not even care for or touched one single parameter for several months, but there was no need to! It sounded great through my Atomic CLR, but running the EVH 5150 through the matching cab or even the Kemper through the poweramp of the 5150 was a much more rewarding experience!

I quickly figured that I craved for a traditional cabinet setup, sold the CLR and got a Zilla Modern 2x12" as well as a Matrix GT1000FX and a 4U rack case.

The rig sounded great, all of the thump and push of a cranked tube amp at every volume level! However, after some time I figured that the rack was as big, bulky and almost as heavy as a tube amp head. I could certainly live with it, especially considering all the other benefits, but I wanted every advantage I could of running digital.

I sold the rack eventually, and bought a PowerHead with the Kemper bag. When I got it and set it up, I just could not believe it! An amp head that clocks in at 6.5kg that blows away a 100w tube amp head regarding volume (at 4 and 8 ohm) with a built in high end pedal board and state of the art DI (studio profile to the FOH)!

Compared to the Matrix it sounds just as good, and produces a fraction of the heat. The Matrix had a defective fan, which the Powerhead does not require. One less thing that can go wrong! Someone on the forum have stated that the poweramp is made by Bang & Olufsen, but I have never seen Kemper confirm this. It is great nevertheless!

My last three tube amps and some others in the past have had issues. The EVH 5150III started to produce loud crackling noises out of nowhere. The Fargen Mighty Plex MKII suddenly lost all of its volume, but it came back by itself shortly after and have not occured again. The newest addition, a Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553 which I expected to be a great amp, only sounded good with one particular speaker/cab combination. Very shrill, fizzy and overly bright tones from an amp I was told should be quite dark sounding.

This is not a tube amp bashing post, at least it is not intended to be. Tube amps sound great and the Kemper would not have a job without them, but I think tube amps are an outdated an unreliable design. The Powerhead running beta firmware is ten times more reliable, never had an issue except the rare beta crash. I would never run a beta version for gigging either, and the 3.3 is rock solid! The Kemper is also much lighter, smaller and sounds great independent of volume.

One other great thing about the Kemper: if you have a Marshall DSL for instance, which has two channels and two modes per channel. The two modes are not footswitchable on the amp, but if you profile both of them they are on the Kemper!

One, and the only downside of the Kemper: does it have the mojo of a Marshall stack? Certainly not, but what does? Other than an actual Marshall stack of course! It kinda looks like some NASA space ship stuff from the 70's, which has its own kind of mojo!

Like I shortly mentioned earlier, I do not consider my Kemper a modeller. I see it as "the amp head of the future"! I highly respect people who still run tube amps, but in my opinion and for my use the Kemper is superior in every way. The Silver Jubilee will soon be for sale, but I will probably buy another amp for profiling causes only, and then sell it

When I first started this topic, I had issues profiling my Marshall SL-5 amp. After I installed the 4.0.2 firmware the exact same amp and rig was all of a sudden possible to profile! People told me that tubescreamers often don't profile well etc; sorry, but I do not agree. This issue of mine had absolutely nothing to do with the TS, and my latest amp (Fargen Mighty Plex) profiles exeptionally well with my TS! Unfortunately I cannot explain why you and I experience(d) this, I wish I could! But one thing do I know for certain: the issue is Kemper related one way or another, your rig is certainly not "unprofilable". I also think it is related to the software, and not the hardware. Could you please tell me, does this amp develop a lot of noise when you profile it?

Very strange! When my rack was almost completely new (firmware 3.2.1 or something) I tried to profile my EVH 5150 and it sounded good, none of that subwoofer horrible low end stuff. My Kemper had issues with 3.3 only, but I have no idea if if is actually related because I assume the big profile makers need reliability in their making and still run 3.3. At least for you, it does not seem to be related. I do not have the same Kemper anymore, I sold it for a Powerhead which I updated to the beta straight away. Really hope you will find a solution, it is just incredibly annoying! Every time you make a new profile you think "maybe it sounds better this time!" but it does not... Keep us updated!

Which firmware version are you running? My Kemper was running on the 3.3 version when this issue occured, but after I installed the 4.0.2 beta version the issue completely disappeared! All of the studio and direct profiles now sound great and accurate at every gain level. At least worth trying!

Quote from Jimmyno

Probably the best thing is to unlink the monitor out (which controls the powered output) from the master pot, so you won't have volume bumps when you just want to raise the signal you send to the FOH.
Then consider that 600w should be at 8 ohm.
And finally be very carefull to not crank the monitor output.
How many ohms is your cab?

Not to go too much off topic, but I find it much more useful to unlink everything except the monitor out. The sound man gets a consistent signal to work with at the same time you tweak the stage volume with the master volume

On topic: If you have more than one speaker in your cab, and their power rating is 60-70w or more you have to turn up to truly hazardous levels of volume before they are in danger of blowing. Also some speakers, like the Vintage 30's real power rating is also closer to 70w which is why Marshall's Vintage speakers are rated at 70w even though they are pretty much the same speakers. Speakers are rated for tube watts, and the Kemper with power boost on full is probably on par with a 100w tube amp or possibly a bit more, at 8 or 4 ohm. It does blow my Fargen Mighty Plex 30w tube amp completely out of the water, so we are talking huge amounts of power still.

Welcome! I totally agree with you, all tube amps with more than 1w have to be cranked more than sensible for any home practice levels... Of course nothing is as awesome as a Marshall stack, but nothing beats the Kemper for flexibility! Family tells you to turn down? No problem, find your headset and continue with the same great tone

Quote from ashtweth

The Cabs are always going to be dark as he is from Norway :D.
Its EASY fixed with merged profiles, going to give them a go my friend, can i ask did you use single coils for any of these
or just HB's?

Ash

Haha! I did use my P90 equipped Les Paul Special DC to refine some of the profiles (cannot remember which ones though), but for the clips I used a Les Paul Standard DC only. And you are totally right, merged profiles can easily be tweaked! Which is why I always prefer merged profiles.

I do have a condenser mic (Blue Reactor) but I did not get very pleasent results with it. It is a very natural and good sounding microphone for vocals and acoustic guitar, but with the overdriven tones from this amp it was just thin and shrill imo. I might do some more experimenting like I said, with my new cab when I get it etc. Any eventual updates will be given to you who have already bought the pack, and of course any new customers!

I am sorry the micing was not for you, they work best with brighter guitars I have found too. The Creambacks are well balanced speakers, but I found them too harsh or shrill with the mic closer to the center. Early July I will get a new 1x12" cab with Creamback 75 (very similar to G12H30) or V30, so I might update the pack with some extras

Hello again guys, hope you who have bought the profiles are happy with them! An update: if you find the profiles a little dark, please do not tweak the EQ on the front, but rather adjust the definition knob. Especially the higher gain profiles (without TS) became much, much better with definition at 7-7,5! They are also a lot more realistic that way. The 60's and 70's nr 5 (no TS) in particular are great turning up the definition. I have also attached a document showing the settings of the different profiles! The amp's knobs go to 11 so...

Thanks a lot for your kind words, Paul! I am glad you enjoy the profiles. The Fargen is just the ultimate Marshall type amp, don't you agree?

The clips are out now. I used these profiles exclusively at band practice tonight, and I can tell you that the first boosted 80's mode profile (cranked JCM800) is worth the 10€ alone! Sits really nice in the mix. Hope you will enjoy these profiles as much as me

Finally made some clips! Please tell me what you think

Sound clips will be uploaded later today! I have found that I prefer the profiles without pure cabinet activated, but feel free to experiment!

Greetings!

My first commercial profile pack is now available, from the heart of Norway! The first one is also a great one, the almighty Fargen Mighty Plex MKII. It has three modes: 60's, 70's and 80's, respectably JTM45, Plexi Super Lead and JCM800. It is not "nah, close enough" but the actual circuits! The 70's and 80's are very accurate, the 60's is more like a modded JTM45 or more vintage voiced Plexi. The profiles range from clean to high gain, both unboosted and boosted with a Keeley modded Ibanez TS808. All DI/merged profiles were made with the official Kemper DI Box.

31 are merged and 31 are pure studio profiles, all mic'd through a Celestion Creamback 65M-loaded Zilla Modern 2x12" cabinet, with a Shure SM7b. The merged profiles have been tested with the Powerhead through the very same cab and they are absolutely stellar! And because they are merged, you can apply your own IRs if you decide my micing isn't for you. The profiles are 100 kr, or a little bit more than 10€ as an introduction offer! Hope you like them!

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You can find the profiles here

Thanks a lot, but I am not sure I know quite what you mean... I should turn down the return input level? There is no way to adjust the output level of the DI box

Like I said the results are equally bad without a tubescreamer in the front and gain high on the amp...
All of this being said, the profiles with less gain are f**kin epic and easily as good as the best I have purchased

Well, sort of, but like I said it should have nothing to do with the Tubescreamer as I have made great profiles with it at lower gain settings.
EDIT: Actually, no... I turned gain to about 3 o'clock and it sounds almost the same as the TS in front with gain at 12 o'clock... This is really strange, I understand Choptones also use the Kemper DI Box and they profile amps with Tubescreamers at much higher gain levels than I, with great results.