Greetings to everybody reading this! You may ask: what is Schwerte? Schwerte is a small town in germany, only about 40km southeast from the Kemper company in Recklinghausen. Despite the really close distance, it took me way too long to find this 'magic tone machine'.
After reading this forum for several months, i'd like to share my experiences with you. I owe a toaster for 9 months now.
Before i had it, i was really skeptical about modeling amps. This was based on my experience with all kind of modelers, that i've tried and used in the past, starting with the very first line 6 pod. And i still am, with one exception 
. I'd never tried an Axe or an eleven rack, but i did try a helix before buying the Kemper. Not really bad, but not good enough to convince me. An almost complete effect section and a great gui, but almost all amps sounded liveless too me, at least after reducing it to the raw amp. This is in totally opposite to the Kemper. I remember when i used it the very first time, i played an AC 30 preset, the first one from the factory setup after initially booting, with almost no effects, probably a little reverb, and i was totally blown away. I wasn't expecting something so amp like and direct.
In the first place, i had bought the Kemper to practice and for home recording only, but after a few weeks i became very curious about how that device would work in a real band context. At that time i had a Tube Thomsen 5161 in my band, which sounded absolutely stunning, at least the 2nd channel, but was something like a one trick pony for me. So i asked a friend, if he would lend me one of his yamaha dsr 112 to check out the Kemper on a rehearsal. The result was to sell the Tube Thomsen and to buy the Kemper remote and a FRFR cabinet, here a Dynacord AXM 12 A. This decision was made after considering many opinions in lots of threads on this forum. Thanks so much for that!
This lasted for a few months and i bought a second FRFR (same model) to play in stereo. But to be honest, i'm not the FRFR guy. It simply does not sound and behave (and as a result: feel) like a real guitar cabinet. It does not match to what i've been used all the years before at all. I can't describe it technically, but to me there is something too less and something different too much in terms of frequency, especially in the low mids/bass. Hence i decided to renounce the flexibility to have always the amp's matching cabinets with the rig, since i prefer more to achieve my usual monitor sound. I'm using my old 1960A in stereo mode now which is driven by a vht 2502 and i'm absolutely happy with that setup! So are the other guys in my band. This is only for rehearsal! In order to avoid neck pain, the setup is reduced to a small power amp and a 1x12 cabinet when playing live.
Could have saved lots of money, but not without being sure to have made the right decisions for me 
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