Interesting article on EQing tube amps. wondering if the same techniques apply to Kemper rigs of these amps. Good read either way.

    This from the article for instance;
    "Most classic Fender amps have 2 or 3 EQ knobs: Bass, Midrange, and Treble that go from 0 to 10. Seems simple enough. Most guitarists assume these amps work on the idea that “5” is a middle choice, and turning them up beyond this adds more of each frequency.
    Makes sense. But it’s wrong. In reality, these are cut knobs. Leo Fender actually designed the Fender circuit to be flat with all EQ knobs on 10!
    The tone controls on traditional Blackface Fender amps are passive. In fact, most EQ knobs on the best tube guitar amps are passive. The major exception is the graphic EQ on some Mesa Boogie amps. They are active which means you can cut OR boost frequencies.
    Have you ever seen a guitarist start with all the EQ knobs turned up and take them back slowly? Now you know why. I know it seems weird, but I encourage you to try it! It brings out other qualities in the amp you might not know exist. Most notably, the midrange on amps that don’t have a midrange knob."

    Intersting article to be sure.


    However, just because the EQ knobs only cut and don't boost, that doesn't mean that all knobs on max is the "default" sound. There are other tone-shaping parts of the circuit than the ones we can directly control, and an amp may sound horrible with all knobs on ten. It may well be that the amp is designed to sound the best/flattest/whatever when the EQ knobs are all on five, regardless if they are all cutting and not boosting.


    Kemper rigs are neutral at 5 (or in Kemper lingo: 0), and can be thought of as active EQ controls.

    The Kemper tone stack doesn't work this way, so to "answer" the question posed in the thread's title, no, that particular "technique" won't apply.


    In a way, the Kemper's at a bit of an advantage, 'cause not only is it more-intuitive for guitarists in that the central positions are neutral, but we have the ability to cut and boost.


    EDIT:
    Michael covered some of what I said; I was typing whilst he was posting.

    As some others have said already, the Kemper EQ doesn't work anything like a traditional valve amp.


    However, for people setting up their own valve amps in order to profile then it might still be interesting and useful to understand how a traditional tone stack actually works. This web site is full of great resources including this decsription https://robrobinette.com/How_The_TMB_Tone_Stack_Works.htm of the tonestack


    While much of the principle of the Sonic Scoop article is correct some of the statements about "flat eq" and mid range on Blackface etc aren't actual true.


    On most Fender/Marshall/Vox (FMV) also referred to as Treble/Middle/Bass (TMB) tone stacks the closest to a flat response is actually with both bass and treble set close to 0 and mid set on 10. It just happens that most folks don't find that a particularly appealing sound so "flat" isn't necessarily a good starting point.


    Although all knobs only cut frequencies they do it in a very interactive way. Lots of people say Mesa Boogie are hard to dial in because their tone stacks are interactive. While this is true it is the same for nearly all tube amps. The circuit actually works on the basis that the Treble is the most important control as it acts as a sort of "blend control" between the treble and mid/bass. High treble settings restrict the amount of signal which is allowed to pass through to the bass knob and the bass effects how much gets to mids. However, due to the interactive nature of the design the frequency range of each (especially mids and bass) actually changes as you vary the other two.


    With the 2 knob design the only difference is that the mid "control" uses a fixed value resistor instead of a variable resistor or potentiometer.


    It is really easy to see it at work on a graph in real time. The best way to understand how a traditional amps tone stack works it to download the Duncan Amps Tone Stack Calculator http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/download.html which includes the tone circuits for several famous amps already but you can look up the schematic online for any amp and substitute the component values to see how it changes the effect of the tone controls. It is fascinating how counter intuitive some of them really are.

    as @Wheresthedug posted, this information isn't correct (check out Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator for more info).
    also, even if it were, 'neutral' or 'flat' is musically pretty meaningless when it comes to guitar.


    The idea to profile a 'flat' setting and then trying to make it sound good/great with the tools provided in the Profiler seems unnecessarily complicated/pointless.


    Set the amp so it sounds great, use the right cabinet, the right mic in the right position and make a beautiful Profile.


    Check out the pre/post switch in the STACK EQ instead, musically much more rewarding.