Tone issues.

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I played it on a fender strat, I believe it's called an American standard, but I can't remember for sure.

3 single coils.

I honestly don't think the tone sounds anything like the sound clips you guys posted, that is exactly the sound I want. You can tell it's a strat, but when I'm playing it doesn't sound like a strat.

Have you gone thru the system reset in the meanwhile ?

I think the tone is right, appart the dull sound when you switch Pick-up on a particular position (neck from what I hear, maybe you dimed the neck tonepot ?)

if you use my rig (chordal.lead) this one is designed for lead phrasing, if you want to play chords or arpeggios you'd better use the chordal one (better definition & clarity than the lead one) .

You 'll have to work on your phrasing and enhance the nuances and dynamics in your play style to achieve the examples on the 1st vid : the strat can handle huge differences in touch and feeling, so go for it and beat the beast ! I think it takes years to achieve your own style and touch, I know it's frustrating, but we all have gone thru it.

Quote from Sorrelity

Can you upload that to media fire or something? When I download from dropbox it tries to open it in the kemper manager, but for some reason it never gets added too it, it just opens the manager and the profile isn't inside.

Don't know mediafire. Anybody care to relink?

Yeah it's sure in the guitar man, go & buy a squier !

I had a similar experience with a 1994 American standard (it got stratisys after meeting a dirty Les Paul ) and I couldn't get a good tone out of it on my KPA while it sounded great on my JTM amp. I got a classic vibe squier neck & body for 150€ put Jeff BecK pickup on it , good electronics and voilà !! A killer strat for the third of the price I sold my US Std a few week later

here is a recording done with the squier (I've done countless recordings on this strat)

At this address you'll find a dry guitar track. Reamp it using a Factory rig at its default settings, so we can compare the result and exclude there's anything wrong with your Profiler\settings.

Quote from Sorrelity

What strat do you use? I don't think my strat is very good, it sounds nothing like yours when I'm playing clean or with any effects added. It just sounds like any other electric I have. It sounds very digital when I switch to the neck pickups as well which I really hate about it.

I use Mexican Strat (don't remember the exact model). The only thing that I changed were pickups. I put Suhr ML into the bridge and neck positions. But as far as I remember the stock pickups were not all that bad.

Obvious things to check on the guitar:
1. pickups height. It should not be too close. My neck pickup is actually very low.
2. Put a fresh set of strings. Old strings can sound muddy as hell.
3. Check if the tone pots are working properly.
4. If you have volume knob down put it to max and see if it will change the sound.
5. If you have long guitar cable or bad guitar cable it can drop highs significantly.
6. Check the model of your guitar (there is a serial number and you can contact fender to get the model name). Check what others are saying about this specific model.
7. If you use light gauge of strings consider going for a heavier strings. It has almost nothing to do with a britness but the tone is thinner. I use 10th.
8. Take your guitar and go to any guitar store in a neighborhood to check if it sounds good in a real tube amp. Or download demo version of the Positive Grid Bias. Check whether it sounds the same as Kemper. If it is sounds the same the problem is with the guitar.

With Kemper you may want to reset settings. At least try to check if you have Pure Cabinet turned on. What profiles do you use?

Quote from Sorrelity

Other than that for my own use or live playing, kemper goes into my giant speaker. Either way they both sound the same.

What is this giant speaker. Make, model.

Quote from Sorrelity

What profile should I use? I'm not sure what you mean by reamp.

You can use any of the factory profiles. Just tell us what you have used. reamping is sending recorded dry sound back to your Kemper input (I use alternative input) and recording from master as you usually do. Look at the manual it is well described there.

Quote from Sorrelity

I'm probably gonna look into buying a better strat, what would you recommend for a steve ray Vaughn type sound?

Don't rush. First check what is wrong. Your start could be perfectly fine. For SRV tone I'd recommend 13th gauge strings

Quote from Sorrelity

I just used guitar rig with some jimi/srv tones and it sounds way closer to the tones I'm looking for compared to kemper.

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Btw my guitar was out of tune a little bit, I didn't notice and I'm not really playing much, just small bits of songs or attempting to improvise which I'm not that great at so a lot of crappy sounds,. But you can really hear the strat's tone coming out in this way more.

It sounds way better live, guitar rigs record dulled the tones down a bit. But with my headphones it sounding amazing.

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Well, maybe you'd be happier with Guitar Rig? If youre still within your 30-day warranty, maybe you should return your Kemper and get your money back? Music should always be about the simplest, easiest solution when it comes to technology. Anything that is stopping you from playing, being creative and inspired isn't worth the hassle

Makes sense, provided that there are no bad settings or defects in his Profiler.
That's why I had suggested a reamp from a shareable dry track.

@Sorrelity I think at this point you should open a support ticket and follow their recommendation.
You deserve it, and everything else here is pure speculation.

Quote from Sorrelity

I'm not sure what you mean by reamp

Quote from guitarist1977

Sorrelity wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by reamp.

You can use any of the factory profiles. Just tell us what you have used. reamping is sending recorded dry sound back to your Kemper input (I use alternative input) and recording from master as you usually do. Look at the manual it is well described there.

Listen, I get you're frustrated, but you're not doing any of the things that the group here suggested. You just seem to not be listening to suggestions (I might well be wrong, this is just what I'm perceiving). Or maybe you're doing the things but not reporting back, which is of no help anyway.
As Cromwell said, "trust God, but keep the powder dry"

I don't know how to help you any further. Perhaps you're just left with the option of opening a support ticket as Ingolf suggested.

Hope you'll work it out tho, the Profiler is a great machine.

Quote from Sorrelity

I'm so demotivated to play and practice when no matter how well I can play a song it just doesn't sound like it does on the record.

There's one problem right there ^ (it just doesn't sound like it does on the record). You are being to hard on yourself for the ultimate tone. I take it you've been to concerts and heard your favorite musicians play, the nuances from that guitarists style will always be there but it will never sound like it did on that record out of the studio, close but not the same. Man, you got some of the best peeps on this forum trying to help you. The tone is in that $2500 investment you made but you have to listen and learn about tweaking it a little bit. It's not your guitar to that extent. Are you using Rig Manager to preview different profiles? If so there is no way that all the cleans sound exactly the same or all profiles with a certain amount of gain sound muffled unless there are some wrong settings on the KPA in which, do what @Ingolf stated and open a support ticket so that they can take a look at a backup of yours.

You'll be happy when you get it sorted out and these guys are trying to help you get there. It's not advertising hocus pocus with the Kemper, the tone is in there with that "amp feel" you're looking for. Be patient and good luck!!

Quote from guitarist1977

Obvious things to check on the guitar:
1. pickups height. It should not be too close. My neck pickup is actually very low.
2. Put a fresh set of strings. Old strings can sound muddy as hell.
3. Check if the tone pots are working properly.
4. If you have volume knob down put it to max and see if it will change the sound.
5. If you have long guitar cable or bad guitar cable it can drop highs significantly.
6. Check the model of your guitar (there is a serial number and you can contact fender to get the model name). Check what others are saying about this specific model.
7. If you use light gauge of strings consider going for a heavier strings. It has almost nothing to do with a britness but the tone is thinner. I use 10th.
8. Take your guitar and go to any guitar store in a neighborhood to check if it sounds good in a real tube amp. Or download demo version of the Positive Grid Bias. Check whether it sounds the same as Kemper. If it is sounds the same the problem is with the guitar.

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The above are the best tips!

To the OP: Thanks for the clips. They do not sound digital in any manner. To perform a reset is not a wise advise.

You have found some nice profiles with a bright distortion, that might match your preferred sound pretty well. However, it is clearly noticable, that your clean tone coming from your guitar is very dull.

Here are my additional tips, if not mentioned yet:
(Dont do all at the same time

- Try different pickup settings
- Take care that your guitar tone control is all the way up
- Increase the Definition parameter in the Amp menu
- Place an equalizer before the amp into the Stomp Section and emphasize the high frequencies (this might make it)
- Take your Profiler and Headphone to your local guitar dealer and check other guitars, to check what different guitars and pickups will do.

Be aware that the experienced guitar heroes have a naturally stronger pick force that will produce a brighter sound, even on a strat.