Tweaking profiles for different guitars?

    I am having some trouble getting some hi-gain tones I am happy with from some of my guitars. They are all Carvin guitars with passive pickups. Out of my 4 differnt guitars only one of them sounds really good and it is in standard tuning. The other three are all different tunings. half step down and two are whole step down. It seems the lower I tune my guitars the 'muddier' the sound gets from any given profile in my Kemper. I dont know if my pickups on my Carvin are not very good or what.


    What is the best process for tweaking profiles for different guitars? Maybe that will help? I wa also considering maybe looking at getting some new pickups to replace those in my Carvins, maybe that can also help get those scorching metal tones I am after.


    I should also say I do get some pretty good sounds but they all seem to miss something. Most of the guitars all have the same pickups and three are even the same model guitar but none sound the same on a given profile.


    Thanks for any suggestions.

    Quote from JeffTD

    I'm going to say that your issue is with your pickups. Carvin pickups aren't known for being particularly great; you'd do well to install a good aftermarket set of Duncans, DiMarzios, EMGs, Bareknuckles, etc.

    I don't know about carvin pickups, but i find it difficult to believe that anybody can market a bad pickup in there guitars post 2000. I have a yammy pacififca, the really cheap one as my beater that i keep at work. It sounds just as good as my american standard (1996) if not better through the KPA. I have wound my own pickups to great success as well, its really not that hard to get right. Just my thoughts :rolleyes:

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    I did start fiddling with some profiles paremeters and ended up getting some good sounds from my guitars. I think that I have just not been exploring the full capabilities of my Kemper up until now. I would go to a profile and play. I now see that I should customize profiles for my guitars. I actually found a profile the other night tweaked it and it sounded so good with my downtuned Dc135 guitar. SO I think for now I really need to learn the ins and outs of the Kemper and take it from there.

    Use different snapshots for each guitar? I have 5 Ibanez guitars with different pickups in each, so I know what you're talking about. The tone zone in my rg3570 is very mid happy compared to the d-activator in my Eb S470, but the d-activator is more loose in the bottom end compared to the crunchlab in my rga121. Not to mention the differences between the emg81 in my HM Strat and the MoJoe in the s540 or stock pups in the rg1570 :P


    As for tweaking, someone had posted about using a stomp graphical EQ and then one again in the X slot to pull and then re-add frequencies. Adjust to taste.

    Quote from linck

    I've set up an EQ for each guitar and stored it with the 'name' of my Gtarre ("Red Strat EMG" or "Gilmour Black Strat", etc.). Now I load the EQ - depending on guitar - in stomp A.


    Whoa, I have never heard about this. Can you describe how I can do this? Thanks.

    You can always spend a money and have a new, "better" pickups , but I am sure nothing is wrong with the pups you already have .


    If you want to play one profile/rig with 5 different guitars and you also want the best possible tone from each of them , the MUST is to have 5 different set ups for each rig/profile .
    No way you can be happy with the tone of all 5 guitars using the same set up on that particular rig .


    I have a few guitars , and they are pretty different as well , so what I have learn is to DO NOT tweak one profile to 5 different setting for 5 different guitars .
    I've learn it by loosing 3 moths time in tweaking :whistling:


    No way I can have the same thick , high gain sound with my YJM Strat(very famous low single coil output) as I do have with say Anderson Bulldog -LP based guitar (pretty hot but warm and smooth humbuckers) .
    If I want that high gain with Strat , I have to push the gain, EQ's , to push the booster settings , even to change a cab .
    But still, no way Strat could sound as Bulldog in the area of high gain !


    From other side, no way I can have the same SRV/Hendrix tone with Bulldog as I do have with YJM Strat , doesn't matter how I tweak it .


    To make long story short , this is one of the best thing with Kemper - response to the guitar is almost as real tube amp response to guitar.


    Verdict : Strat stays the Strat and LP stays the LP , single coil pickup cannot become humbucker, mahogany wood cannot be transformed to Maple or Alder , whatever you do .


    Good luck , and don't spend money on new pick ups, just find appropriate profiles for each guitar and do not try impossible.


    Just my 2 c . 8)

    1988 Branko Radulovic Hand Made Strat in Macedonia (SFRJ)

    2006 Steve Vai vwh moded with SS frets and Sustainac 2006 (Japan)

    2008 Fender YJM , moded (USA)

    2010 Tom Andersons Drop Top 2010 (made in California)

    2017 Charvel GG sig Caramelised Ash (USA)

    2022 Gibson ES 335 2011 Custom Shop Cherry of course ( Memphis)

    Edited 2 times, last by Rescator ().

    Agree with Rescator, even in real life I don't like the sound of a LP in to a Vox, no reason it should be different with the Kemper....

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    exactly, isn't this why we have more than one guitar in the first place? we want these differences. this is one of the things that i find compelling about the kemper, we can also match the best guitar with the best amp without hauling the amps around.