Ever want to go back to real amps?

had mine for over two years now use it live and in the studio ...sold my last amp last week and bought a second kemper as a back up ( and maybe to try dual amp style stuff..) I don't miss the extra weight the back ache ...the ear ache ( from the amp being cranked ..) not even the look of a cool boutique amp behind me ....it may change ...but I doubt it ...I really do

Soundwise no. but a wall of marshalls still looks so good on stage....

Quote from millstudios

had mine for over two years now use it live and in the studio ...sold my last amp last week and bought a second kemper as a back up

Same here. My last amp (Vox AC 30 HW) was sold last week.
I'm assimilated.

Never going back, can't even imagine a good reason to consider it.

Still use my Mk IIC+ and Tone Kings. Wouldn't consider getting rid.

Kemper is "just" another amp for me. Unless I can get the same EQ section response as the profiled amp (which is never), it's not the same, I use it for convenience reasons first and foremost, profiling my own settings of my amps is by far the best method to get a tone I like, nothing beats the Kemper in this area.

Other than that, being able to find profiles of the amps I don't have access to is a bonus, although finding ones which work with my guitars is quite hard.
I only sold one amp out of few I have and reason wasn't me getting a Kemper. I am going to buy one more amp pretty soon too.

Quote from jroobz

Has anyone else experienced the longing for a real amp while using the KPA?

Yes, I have. I confess.
I'm getting close to 3 years of Kemper fun and I learned a LOT about amps, amp sounds. I have a massive collection of rigs and I enjoy my Profilers every single day. Hmm, so why the above "yes"? Because I think I found "my amps", the amps that perfectly fit my playing, my taste, my fingers, my guitars. I know that I could have never had a chance to find "my amp" without the Profiler. First and foremost because I couldn't have ever tried/played so many different amps at guitar shops and friends ... and also I would have never had access to some famous, rare and vintage amps.

So now I'm happy because I have found "my amps" and there has been the desire to own the 2 amps I love most, of course.
Will I buy them? No!
Would I like to own them? Yes!
Would I use them on a daily basis? No!
So why would I like to own them? Because I would LOVE to use them every once in a while and because they are pieces of art and magic.

Contemplating the whole thing now for weeks I slowly get where I want and "find my peace" with ther following answer;I will always enjoy the "real thing" of playing with my favorite musicians and with my sound I know for many years (using my Dual Rectifier Rev F and my Steavens Pundcake) and which "has formed me" for any real and nice "hot" rock jam where I stand in front of my vintage orange cabinet with blackbacks feeling the power...I will never ever sell this stuff.

For the rest (studio,live gigs with PA/FOH and low volume rehearsals/practicing) the KPA is the future.No way back.

I don't believe in all the Voodoo about guitars and amps. And honestly for me there are not such huge differences between all the amps on the markets. Sure there are differences, but not like hot and cold.. The audience don't hear the difference in most cases. You can get a good tone with a Mesa, Marshall, TwoRocks, Fender . . .and all the stomp boxes. But most of the g.a.s. it is just the result of marketing and psychological things.
I am pretty sure, that I don't touch a real amp anymore in my live. Why should I? To get back to the unpredictability? To the massive loudness? To unwanted weight lifting? Making music is not a technical thing in the first place. It is an emotional thing for me.
The funny thing is, that most guitar player judge and compare tones from records. The only way to compare recorded tones is to compare with recorded tones or simmilar. That's the KPA.
The KPA gives me the independence of the technically side. Just one box with all the content. No - no amps anymore.

Still use tube amps - love them and will allways do.

Also like analog watches and old cars.

For recordings I use only the KPA.

I have a Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 which I love and wouldn't sell. Love the fender/vox like chime it can manage in clean and the thick driven mids it can get when saturated, lovely. But I can't see me getting rid of the kemper ever, well till there is another version that surpasses it.

You might compare it to cars.
The cars we now have are better designed than the cars from the 40s, 50s, 60s and so on.
They are more efficient, have convenient features like air conditioning and bluetooth but we still love the vibe of classic cars.
Most of those people who can afford having a classic car in their garage will probably drive a modern car to work but enjoy their classics with all the shortcomings at the weekend.
I think a big tube head can live happily next to a kemper, even if it doesn't get used for most of the gigs
At the end i think that most of the gear we buy is just for fun.
My gear is a LOT more professional than i am, but i have fun owning and playing it

In fact I still have my IIC+, but I had so many troubles during the last monthes with it that I am wondering if once repaired, after a long and intensive profiling session, I will not sell it. I mean, it is like having an old Ferrari 250GTO, it is amazing when it works, but you can't take it everywhere and finally as an old toy it has besome fragile...

I say that but my Kemper is at repair also for LED problem, hahaha !!

Honestly, I am 100% Kemper converted now and I think it almost sounds better that my IIC+ now, lol

Sometimes I look at tube amps as objects of desire... but it's just gas...

I always think about a comparison between Kemper and analog amps but as you can see in the list
below the pros are dominant:
Pro Kemper:
- All stuff in one case
- less weight
- All in one for Studio, Bedroom, Rehearsal and Gig and Monitoring
- 1000 Rigs with a click
- Including Pedals and most used effects with good quality
- Easy handling for FOH-Mixer-Guys
- possibility to profile every amp you want
- 1000 variations of tweaking till you get YOUR sound
- possibility to check out amps you never played before

Pro analog Amps:
- old amps are looking so good
- you smell the old times
- easy handling (plug in guitar, tweak the tone and that's it - no programming)

So for me there is no question about it but:
As long i'm able to keep my Fender Twin Reverb from the 70's or my Stramp i won't sell it even when
i don't play it anymore.

There are certainly benefits to both. After going to my most recent setup (still a WIP, will post pics in a few weeks), I find it's more tedious to program than my old Line 6 X3/Vox AC-15 combo. But I'm using it a heck of a lot more, so... that's certainly a part of it. Putting a Kemper in a rack with a Furman and a Matrix power amp and carrying a 2x12 cab doesn't make it any lighter than an AC-15 though (sadly ).

I still plug into my AC-15 when I don't have my Kemper set up at home (such as after I get home from a gig and just don't feel like connecting everything). It's also nice because it's simple - great for sitting down to practice and not fiddling around with knobs because I like how something sounds and I want more of it

It's another amp for me, too. Any amp, of course. And an FX fridge. I look at the KPA as a variable size in my signal chain. I still use a compressor and two drive pedals in front. So it would be something like:

• Real stomps + Stomp XY + Amp XY + FX XY + Poweramp + 2 Speakers.

For recording even more simple and hence efficient:

• Real stomps + Stomp XY + Amp XY + FX XY + Speaker XY.

Considering total recall on the KPA and the range of high quality sounds, no real amp can deliver. I even dig the vibe from that machine more these days than from heavy tube amps... I read reviews about amps though, then look for these as profiles.

I cannot sell my tube amps... The Kemper - for me - doesn't cut through the mix as my tube amps (especially the EVH 5150 III) do. I'm missing the dynamic range and the attack. I brought the Kemper a few times to the rehearsal, and the drummer said he couldn't hear me! It's not that it was not loud enough. It's something undefineable, maybe the dynamic range, I don't know. Missing the power of a real tube amp. For now, the Kemper stays at home (I'm using the built-in power amp of the Kemper).

Interesting that Dominic Howard of MUSE never complains about not hearing Matt Bellamy or Chris Wolstenholme.