Posts by Mario Severi

    These are indeed great profiles, the Gargoyle 2 is my goto profile for 70's-80's-90's hard rock. I did modify a few settings.


    First I lowered the noise gate (input) from 8 to 4. Not sure why you have it at 8, Chris, the profile doesn’t need that high a noise gate in my opinion.


    I also deleted the noise gate in the effect chain. And I lowered to Rig Volume from 2.4 to 0 to level it with my other profiles.


    Other modifications I did:


    Amp block:

    • gain from 6.5 to 5.4 (personal taste)
    • Definition from 10 to 5.2
    • Power sagging from 0 to 4.9

    Cab block

    • High shift to -0.8
    • Character to -1
    • Pure cabinet to 3.8

    I also added the Hot Knife – post EQ from Tonejunkie.


    And there you have it, my n° 1 profile for 70’s-80’s-90’s hard rock. The setting I described above are for playing with Humbuckers. When I use a single coil guitar, I throw in a Full OC (Drive at 0, tone at 3.5, Mix 100%, volume at 2.3).


    The real gem however is the cab (with the settings mods I did). Every profile I tried, sounded better when I replaced the original cab with this cab. I often see people saying a profile sounds dull or as if it was covered with a blanket. Well, replace the cab with this Ceriatone cab and the profile comes to live.


    I play through an oversized 1x12 cab with a Kemper Kone in it (imprints not activated) and/or through studio monitors (JBL LSR 305) and it sounds great through both.


    Just my 2 cents, YMMV.

    It seems I am the exception ;). I like the sound of heavier strings better, to me the sound is much fuller. Right after that vid of Beato came out, I tried 9-42's but the sound was way thinner to my ears, the difference was too noticeable for me so I went back to my 10-52's. I have them on most of my guitars (both 24.75" and 25.5" scale guitars), all standard tuning. Actually I played 11-52 for some time, still have them on a few of my guitars but they are too hard on my finger tips when playing lead during gigs. 10-52 is a good compromise for me.


    That Pedal Show also has a vid on string gauge, their conclusion was that heavier strings (they played 11-48's in Eb tuning) sounded better IIRC.


    As in most things, it's a matter of trying yourself to see what you like best :).

    Thank you for all the suggestions.


    I use both the power amp and the main out.


    The main out is at a fixed output level, not linked to the master volume and goes into a mixer and further to studio monitors. I control the volume with the mixer. Works a charm to balance the Kemper volume with backing track volumes.


    The power amp boost was at 3.9 dB and I changed it now to 0 dB. That did improve things, I didn't have to go as low with the master volume so I stayed in the more manageable region. I also set the Init Global to default (I bought my Kemper secondhand but never went back to factory settings); I am not sure it further improved the sensitivity, I seems it did, but it might be between my ears ;-).


    Anyway, it's a lot better now, thank you for your support.


    As for why I play on this low volumes: my music room is integrated in our living room, so when there are people around, I tend to play at low volume. Or late in the evening as well. To be honest, I enjoy playing at low volumes. 40 years of playing rock guitar made my ears go ringing constantly (tinnitus), I have this for as long as I can remember. When I play at "normal" volume, the ringing gets worse, and lasts several hours and even until the next days. On rehearsals, I wear ear plugs (at the cost of losing a lot of the feel of the music) to go easy on what is left of my hearing. So being able to play at low levels and still have a great sound is one of the reason that I like the Kemper so much.

    When I dial MASTER VOLUME, the screen with the bars of the five output volumes pops up and I can control the decimal places of the linked output volumes. Are you using the current OS version?

    Yes, I do every update, so I have the latest version on my Kemper powerhead. I also see the 5 output volumes. Sensitivity is OK between about -25 dB and 0 dB. Sensitivity becomes tricky when going e.g. from -35dB to -50 dB, I always seem to overshoot and the level goes down to -70 to - infinity dB, with just slight movements of the knob. I always have to go a few times up and down to get around -50dB.


    When you go to the screen where you link the different volumes to the master volume, you can see that the master volume is at 0.4 for -35dB; for -20dB the master volume is at 2. -17dB is at Master volume 3, that's the volume I use when rehearsing with the band. So I hardly use the Master volume range from 3 up to 10. And at home, the range I use is from 0 to 2, and most of the time below 1 (about -26 dB) for the master volume.


    For me it would make more sense that Master volume at 1 would be -90dB, at 2 would be -80dB, ...


    Unless I am doing something wrong, in which case I would be happy to hear how I can solve this, because that's about my only gripe with my Kemper.


    Edit: In all fairness I have to say I had more or less the same problem with my tube amps, I played my 50W tube amp (Friedman Smallbox type amp) most of the time below 2 on the volume and it was a bit of a fiddle to set the volume for home use. But I bought an attenuator to solve that problem.

    For me, it's mainly the Master Volume knob that is way too sensitive. I have a powerhead and at home I play somewhere between -20dB (when there's nobody around) and -60 dB, typically around -35dB. But the slightest movement of the master volume knob makes the level jump from -20 to -70 or even -infinity and up again. It's always too much fiddling up and down to get to the volume I want.


    Yesterday I searched the manual hoping to find some solution but no luck. So indeed it would be great if we could set the sensitivity of at least the master volume knob.

    I was just fiddling around with the Kemper kone settings in the new beta software and even through my two 1x12 cabs (one with a G12T-75 and one with a V-type) it sure sounds good. Actually I am quite surprised by the effect of it, even on regular guitar speakers. I even prefer the sound with the Kemper Kone setting active, I didn't expect that to happen with regular guitar speakers.

    I have the Behringer FC600 expression pedal, and I use it mostly to morph (e.g. volume and/or gain). However, the first and last third of the sweep does nothing, it goes very quickly from minimum setting to maximum setting somewhere in the middle of the sweep. I calibrated the expression pedal (I think, no visual confirmation the calibration worked), I played with the minimum volume knob on the pedal, but nothing seems to help.


    It's not really a problem when I go from minimum to maximum setting but them I can use the switch on the remote as well. But in some cases I want the be able to go to a setting between the min and max and that's very awkward to do with this limited effective sweep of the Behringer FC600.


    Is this typical for expression pedals and morphing or are there better expression pedals which respond over the complete sweep ?

    When I started playing guitar 40 odd years ago, I used 8's. Somewhere mid 80's, I read an interview with Gary Moore who advised to use heavier strings so I switched to 10-46's. Never looked back, sounded way better (fuller/fatter) than the 8's and no more string breaks.


    About 2 years ago I switched to 11-48, and a little bit later to 11-52's and it sounded even better to my ears. For long gigs with a lot of soloing, the 11's are hard on the fingers, so I now I use 10-52's on my work horses and 11-52's on guitars I play less.


    After seeing that video a few days ago, I restrung one of my Les Pauls with 9-42. They are a joy for the fingers, but also feel kind of toy-like to play being used to 11-52's. Yesterday I tried the 9-42 during a rehearsal, and I didn't like it. Too thin sounding and not enough feel when playing a solo. So it's back to 10-52's.

    Greetings from a new Kemper user. This is how I ended up buying a Kemper.


    About 2 years ago I decided to try the modelling stuff (bad back) and after studying all the options, I decided to go for the Line 6 Helix mainly because of price and interface. The Helix interface and editor are a joy to use, but finding a good tone has been a long lasting struggle and a steep learning curve. I first tried the FRFR route, going through a pair of Alto TS212’s but I didn’t like the sound at all. Next was the Matrix Q12A, sound got better but still not even close to what I wanted. Things got better when I started using a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 700 and a guitar cab; the sound was now acceptable and useable, although still not on par with my valve amp. Playing the Helix through the return of my valve amp gave the best results. I used the Helix with the Powerstage 700 for rehearsals, but when gigging, I used my valve amp with the Helix for effects only.


    A few weeks ago, the other guitar player in our band said he was thinking of selling his Kemper Powerhead (he used it 1 or 2 times for rehearsal but I didn’t pay too much attention then) and I asked him if I could try it before he sold it, just to get a feel of what the Kemper was capable of. I played it through my guitar cabs and was a Kemper addict within less than a minute. I was instantly blown away with the sound, just couldn’t believe how good it sounded, a totally different league than the Helix.


    I also profiled my tube amp, a Kauffmann MkI 50W, a Dutch amp that is very Friedman Smallbox-like) through the line-out of the amp, so just an amp profile (I have put them on Rig Exchange). I played the profile through 1 half of my Marshall 1960, the Kauffmann through the other half, using an A/B box and I just couldn’t hear a difference. At a certain point, I even didn’t know whether I was playing the tube amp or the Kemper.


    So I decided to buy the Kemper (actually within minutes, even before profiling my amp) and sell my Helix, my tube amp and effects. I just love the Kemper, it’s a 1-piece-solution, the effects are more than good enough for my needs (just a bit of reverb and delay and sometimes a phaser or chorus) and it sounds like a valve amp without the con’s of a valve amp.


    I also play the Kemper at home through my studio monitors (JBL 305) and again, it sounds way better than the Helix ever did through the same monitors. In fact, I really like how the Kemper sounds through the studio monitors (although I often change cabs in the profiles to one of the few cabs I prefer). It obviously sounds different from going through a guitar cab, but not worse. So when gigging I use 2 light 1x12 cabs (I could do with 1 but 2 look nicer ?) for having my sound on stage and go straight from the Kemper to the FOH. Super light set up, and super easy and fast to set up. Life has become a lot easier ?.


    Greetings from Belgium,


    Mario