Posts by charvel1984

    Can’t wait for this one.


    $ sent J, thanks man!


    Also this....I was going thru a bunch of stuff last night deleting things, trying to condense my recording folder down to 3-4 profiles....I ended up with a Mark IV for cleans, a Dual Rec and the Cameron stuff and that's it. This stuff is the friggin best.

    If I may ask Steinmetzify, which Mark IV and Dual Rec profiles are you using? Trying to fill in a few gaps on my KPA as I have every Marshall, Fender and nearly every German high gainer I could ever ask for covered.

    I had similar reservations myself. Having a unique perspective in that I worked in music retail when Line 6 first introduced the AxSys and working all the way through the Amplitube modeling software days I was incredulous over another digital product. I owned a Fender, Marshall, Boogie, Jet City and a 5150 III, no less than 50 pedals and of course....wanted more. I had an opportunity to buy a Kemper with 30 day return policy under a great financing rate so I bought it.


    My initial reactions were not great. When I received it, I tried it through headphones (for the heck of it) and it sounded like the best digital amps I'd heard, but....still digital. I then tried it through studio monitors and it was better but not great. In the KPA's defense I had budget 3" Mackies and they just aren't of the caliber needed. Being a gear hoarder I tried a Mooer Baby Bomb Class D power amp into a traditional guitar cab and it was much closer but still slightly off. Bare in mind all of these trials were using the profiles that had been factory loaded and I didn't do any tweaking. Out of curiosity I tried plugging the KPA into the FX Return on my Boogie and through a cab and WHAM! There it was. "In the Room" tone.


    *Spoiler alert* ....I still have the KPA. I don't have 50+ pedals, I don't have the Fender or the 5150 iii but I do have a vast library of paid profiles and access to a library of stunningly accurate amplifiers that I could A.) never financially afford and B.) possibly never find the "real" amp due to rarity. Sure I have Fenders, but I have Jimi's Marshall, Doug Aldrich's Marshall, EVH's rigs for the first 6 albums, Slash's AFD Marshall, David Gilmour's album tones, a Diezel VH4, a studios worth of rack gear used on everything 80s and 90s including the famous Jerry Cantrell Bogner Fish. For the couple grand I've invested, I can tell you firsthand that I have the tones of a colelction that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And YES, they all sound as real and accurate as having the gear in the room.


    The bottom line is YES the KPA is worth every penny. HOWEVER be prepared for a learning curve and realize that it will take you time to tweak profiles or find the correct rig for the KPA to sound good to your ear. This forum is an excellent resource of knowledge and some great free profiles as well. I only have one regret in buying my KPA....I really wish I'd have bought it years ago. So much wasted time and money on other gear that it's depressing. Love the KPA and you will too.


    Signed,

    The biggest digital naysayer ever !!!

    Mark's approval is the main thing. I agree his profiles are absolutely 100% usable immediately with no tweaks. They just plain feel great with my rig. Really looking forward to the AJ VH4 profiles as well as all of the others you've teased us about :P


    I'll keep a look out for them here or the Bay or I'll just email Jason directly for payment :thumbup:

    Oh man, I have been dying for the VH4 Adam Jones tones and as someone who can honestly say I have purchased every single profile/pack from @SuckerFreeGear I gotta know when the VH4, IIC+ and Dual Recto tones hit the webs. You guys should have an e-mail list so we can get up-to-the-minute alerts :D I heard a little rumor about another coveted tone that involves a certain artist's actual amp and guitar who is sadly no longer with us. Waiting on that one as well !! The SuckerFree profiles are my absolute faves and it's not even close. Adding all of these other amp tones to the mix is just icing on the cake friends.


    Seriously, if you want great Heavy tones and you don't have the Aldrich profile from SuckerFreeGear you have no idea what you're missing :evil:

    Hey guys looking for some help here from the veteran KPA guys and specifically those with familiarity of the Diezel VH4 amplifier. I searched this topic without much success here on the forum so if it's been addressed already forgive me and kindly point me in the right direction. Now since tone is both subjective and in the "ear of the beholder", I'm running my Kemper into my Mesa Boogie 6L6 50 Watt power amp and into a Boogie Cab loaded with Black Shadow speakers to get the famous low end grunt since there's no way to adjust the "Deep" as on the VH4 (and the Bass control only does so much) and I'm using a Gibson Les Paul with a Motor City Pickups Angel Dust (will swap to Afwayu soon) .


    I have the paid packs from several of the best profilers like Deadlight, Lasse Lammert and Guidorist etc and while they are all great and usable I'm wondering if I'm missing any really great profiles? So for those who record and gig with VH4 profiles or better yet those who own or have played a real VH4, which is most accurate to your ear? I'm specifically aiming for Channel 3 ala Adam Jones and to a lesser degree James Hetfield. Mainly targeting the Tool sounds and for those who will ask, the Lateralus, 10,000 Days and Aenema albums. Also, should any Tool fans suggest as much...yes I also have a modded Marshall amp and a Mesa Rectifier and an ABC switch so I could theoretically run a 3 amp setup but going for simplicity here with the Kemper :D


    Thanks in advance,

    Oh and I forgot to mention....this thing has impossibly low action. Effortless to play and you could sneeze out a chord without buzz. A shredder's delight and better than any of the ESP customs I owned including several 90's MIJ Custom Mirages and M-II's that I loved and thought were supremely playable. This one beats everything I've ever touched. It's truly otherworldy

    Wow killer quilt. I really like the brown finishes on quilt tops. How heavy is this magnificent beast?

    Jeez, I'd have to break out the scale to get an exact weight but I will say it is the heaviest SOUNDING guitar I own (of 12) and by far the LIGHTEST one I own. It's perfectly balanced and to me as light as a feather because it's handmade with a lot of smooth curves for weight relief. Tom Smith Sr. doesn't make many guitars a year, but the ones he makes I swear rival any PRS or custom axe I've played or felt. As someone that worked at Sam Ash for a decade as guitar department manager....trust me....I've played more guitars than most people will ever see in a lifetime. Check him out on Instagram as Tsmithguitars . Ridiculous eye candy, taking custom orders and does payments and no....I'm not TSmith haha. No affiliation, but he's a cool guy that makes killer axes.

    My custom TSmith guitar. Insane thick quilt maple top, mahogany back sandwiching rosewood. Jet black ebony board, jumbo frets rosewood and purpleheart neck. Hipshot hardware, Duncan Nazgul and Sentient pickups. Would really like to swap out the pickups I think but the bridge cavity only fits the F style Duncan baseplates and the black poles look great on the guitar. Lucked out getting it used for well over half of new and even luckier that his son passed on it because it's a 6 string and Tom Smith Jr. only uses 7 and 8 string guitars made by his luthier dad in his band The Acacia Strain. Bought online from a guy in the Northwest and brought this beast back to New Jersey where it was born and now tries to play nicely with it's adopted Gibson, Fender, Washburn, ESP and Ibanez brethren.



    For me, I had a pretty well-rounded musical upbringing. My dad listened to classic rock radio daily and has a pretty awesome vinyl collection and cassette tapes...mind you the vinyl he has is original first pressing stuff like Led Zep, Moody Blues, The Who, VH, Pink Floyd etc. My mother on the other hand is a massive Elvis Presley and Motown fan so that introduced me to a lot of cool music. I grew up digging rock n roll and my dad being a world class (air) guitarist always made me focus on the guitar tracks. I can easily point to two specific things that made me want to play guitar.


    1.) The Dukes of Hazzard. As young boy (born in '75) I loved this show. Loved the car, but seeing Waylon Jennings plucking that black Tele in the beginning theme music always made me want to try guitar.


    2.) Christmas 1987. My family was decorating for Christmas and my dad had put on the local classic rock radio station who was in full holiday mode. They played Little Drummer Boy by Jimi Hendrix and while I was familiar with Purple Haze etc, I had never heard his version of the Christmas classic. I was pretty amazed by it and I expressed my immediate love of this version to my dad who pretty much replied with "You've never heard that before?"


    Wanting to not look uncool to dad I explained that I knew Hey Joe, Little Wing, Purple Haze etc.....then my dad says his favorite was Jimi's version of the Star Spangled Banner. Being a schoolboy I chuckled thinking he was pulling my chain. He asked me what was funny and I sarcastically asked what he was talking about and how that song could possibly be his finest moment on guitar.


    I'll never forget the look on my dad's face. Probably the same look most kids get from dad when they let a curse word fly accidentally. Or the fear when a child says he doesn't believe in Santa. My dad literally drops everything (armload of Christmas lights) dashes to the record cabinet, pulls out Woodstock on vinyl, puts it on the record player, POINTS at the stereo staring at me disapprovingly as if I was a dog that had soiled the carpet and was to be shamed and made me pay attention. The next 5 minutes would completely alter the course of my life as I heard a man take a Fender Stratocaster and somehow simultaneously convert it into a human voice, bombs, fireworks and feedback and brought an entirely new meaning to the American national anthem. One which seamlessly told a story, somehow transported my mind not only to Woodstock, but a moment in the 1700's as I could never have imagined. I'm not sure I blinked in those 5 minutes. I AM certain I made my dad play it two more times after that. Got to experience (no pun intended) Richie Havens impassioned acoustic playing on Freedom and just knew I needed a guitar. Unfortunately being just inside 12 days of Christmas, probably around 8 maids a milking day it was too late to write Santa a new letter asking for a guitar for Christmas and it would instantly become my personal Red Rider BB Gun I'd prayed would be under the tree. Alas....it didn't happen.


    Luckily 6 months later for my birthday I received a white Harmony guitar for my birthday and began learning Zep, Jimi, VH, Metallica, but sadly......I still can't stand country music so I'll never learn the Dukes of Hazzard theme. Sorry Waylon, but thanks for the youthful inspiration nonetheless.

    I wouldn't say "better" but definitely different. The Snorkler has more of that German flavor in the mids and growl,but the Alrdich mod is simply the most pissed off sounding British amp tone I've ever encountered. I've always lusted after the Rich Ward type Marshall tones on the Stuck Mojo early albums, Rising, Declaration of a Headhunter etc. If you're not familiar, whether you like the style or not, check out a few tones and listen to the snarl and spit of Rich's Marshalls before he was in Fozzy. Just insane tone.

    Hello all !


    Figured I'd just introduce myself as I get familiar with the forum and my new KPA. As someone who's played guitar for the past 30 years and spent a decade in music retail I can honestly say I've seen, heard and played a ton of gear. I've owned hundreds of guitars, dozens of amps and probably close to a thousand pedals. As the unfortunate soul who is cursed with a love of all rock bands and guitars from Anthrax to ZZ Top and Angus Young to Zakk Wylde I've been on a never ending quest for the holy grails of tone, but my huge library of tasty tones is not proportional to a bank account required to play musical Pokémon and "collect them all".


    As a guy who worked in music retail during the birth of digital processing, having seen the first Line 6 AxSys amp and getting out after Amplitube and Guitar Rig hit PC and MAC I watched "modelling" grow from a neat fad into a legitimate tool with great power. Unfortunately every iteration got better than the previous but none truly sounded like good ol' fashioned tube amps. I had heard of the Kemper in various articles and on YouTube, but sadly dismissed it as "just another modeler" and never researched it. A couple of months ago I watched a YT video of @BenEllerGuitars showing the correct way to play Runnin' With the Devil by VH and Ben took a minute to note he was using a Kemper with a profile pack he downloaded from TopJimi. Sadly I watched that video 3 times in a row and couldn't tell you what Ben was teaching because I was mesmerized because of the fact that he had THE tone. He was nailing that all-time great Brown sound and I needed to know how.


    After reading reviews, plenty of things here in the forum before I was a member and a 48 hour YouTube binge of Kemper vids as I searched some of the grail tones I was consistently impressed. 2 weekends ago I pulled the trigger and after a 24 hour period where I had to figure out if this thing was as good as people say it is, I can unequivocally and emphatically say YES! Initially I tried the headphone jack, I knew it would be a weak point but thought if that blew me away I'd be thrilled otherwise. As expected, the headphone jack was uninspiring, though a great practice tool. Secondly I tried my reference monitors and was disappointed (low end $100 Mackie CR3 monitors which aren't flat response and have small woofers). My third option was a Mooer Baby Bomb class D power amp into a 1x12" cab which was better than monitors....but still didn't sound like an in-the-room-amplifier. Having further options I tried the KPA (unpowered toaster) into the FX return on my Marshall DSL and well well well....that's much more realistic. My last test was sending the KPA into the FX return on my Boogie Rectifier and WOAH !!! This thing is amazing. I am absolutely taken aback but how much it can sound like the real thing. I can now simply invest a few bucks here and there and have any (and ALL) of the amps and tones I've ever wanted.


    In a couple short weeks I've amassed the catalog of sounds I've drooled over for decades thanks to TopJimi , @SuckerFreeGear , @LasseLammert, @Deadlightstudio , @BigHairyProfiles, @FastRedPonyCar, @SilentUndergroundStudio and many of these guys I've followed on YouTube for years. I'm beyond grateful for these profilers I've mentioned and can't express how amazing their work is.


    Bottom line is, I kick myself for not getting a Kemper years ago because it would have saved me thousands of dollars. It's an entire studios worth of amps and a music store of famous tones and I find myself renewed, re-energized and refocused on playing now knowing that I can literally cop all of the sounds I have wanted my whole life. As a very incredulous guitar tone hunter I often found myself uninspired to learn songs when I couldn't get the tones right. Too often I'd quit practicing a song and give up because I just didn't have the right gear...I end up spending time and money buying new gear to get a sound only to find the motivation gone weeks later when I could get the sound close. Now? Pfft, 60 seconds and I'm jamming the right tone for the job and absolutely loving it.


    Looking forward to interacting with everyone here, learning and growing with the KPA and getting deeper into what it can do. Thanks for letting me share my story but a massive heart-felt thank you to those profilers I've mentioned above, you have absolutely allowed me to realize a lifelong dream of having access to the gear and the sounds I've loved forever.

    Just purchased on eBay, I now have all of the Cameron profiles except the newly released Ocean Blue mod. Of all of the profiles I have saved / bought the Cameron profiles are by far the best as I play direct to a power amp / cab. Absolutely killer amps and painstakingly accurate profiles. Looking forward to more in the future, keep up the great work ! Thanks!


    Update: I now have ALL of the available Cameron profiles and Jason tells me there is a VERY cool profile upcoming that I will definitely be adding to this powerful stable. There really isn't a bad tone in the bunch but the Aldrich mod profile absolutely slays. It may be the ultimate modded Marshall tone and it's simply crushing. Can't say enough great stuff about those guys.