Posts by lbieber

Quote from V8guitar

I still think that is too strong but it depends what, as a guitarist, you want to do ( blimey this is getting very philosophical !).

I'm not regularly writing my own music. I'm too old to become famous and I'd rather play in front of large crowds playing other peoples music than struggle with my own music. I get very little satisfaction creating something that few people listen to. Yes cynical but I think realistic. Music is a hobby I have to relax

Regardless to be able to play well, its not necessary to know theory as Tab and explanation videos exist and you can use your ears to both work things out and play around/improvise.

Now what I TOTALLY agree with is that theory and fret board knowledge (which I think goes well together) opens up options, choice, creativity and definitely makes you a more complete guitarist. So its not mandatory for any guitarist BUT its highly beneficial. The exception I think would be session work where the lack of theory but also sight reading I imagine would be highly restrictive in that context.

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Yes, this is getting philosophical and off the topic. Sorry to the OP for that. I don't want to derail it any further. It seems this discussion comes down to what we each consider to be an accomplished guitarist. There are certainly exceptions to every rule. Musical savant comes to mind. The human brain is certainly interesting.

I agree, mandatory is too strong of a word. There are certainly a group of talented guitarists for which these things are not mandatory. There are guitarists that have an innate talent for the instrument which allows for circumvention of traditional knowledge and teaching. So, I should probably reformulate my statement. I believe these things are mandatory for the majority of guitarists to become accomplished, well-rounded, professional guitarists. BTW, I don't count sight reading as mandatory for the great majority of guitarists.

Quote from V8guitar

...In the same way I know I should learn the fretboard, its sheer laziness/priorities if I'm honest and I think to get maximum benefit, you need to be able to translate it to the fret board.. I'm not one of these people who thinks that somehow learning more theory will ruin my playing but I'm also not someone who enjoys that part - it makes it hard work.

Nothing to do with the harmonizer, but it is interesting how differently we guitarists approach our craft. I can't imagine playing the instrument daily and not knowing where all the notes are! And, in my view, more theory expands creativity and improvisational skills in a significant way. I believe these are mandatory skills that will ultimately make every guitarist a more efficient learner and a better musician overall.

All good points except the don't use your ears bit...that's irony.

Quote from Ruefus

... It is especially difficult with Gibson style controls (2 volume, 2 tone, no master). If you mix both pickups (which I do frequently) - turning down ain’t gonna work. 😁

I respect your viewpoint, but I do it on every gig. Yes, it takes a little getting used to, but it does work for me.

Quote from DonPetersen

this sounds like some basic live/band issues to me:

• if it's solo time, the other guitar player should be in support mode, playing- and level-wise; his job is now to not let the perceived level of energy drop without encroaching on the soloists territory
• guitar is a mids instrument. kick and bass will cover up your lows and the cymbals will mask the high-end - mids are your friend
• set a solo sound and then turn down the volume pot on your guitar to create a rhythm sound - I use this often live. You can of course also use a negative boost (Booster Stomp, Level <0) to make it foot-switchable (while activating a nice delay at the same time)

This is right on. IME, these basic concepts are not put into practice very well. The volume and tone knobs on our guitars are there for a reason and they actually work. Low cut is a great tool and 170Hz is not brutal in any way. The majority of guitarists employ too much low end. I really dislike playing bass with those guys. Invariably, it is a muddy mess. Many musicians don't know how to allow space in the room. For me, it all starts with the drummer. The drummer sets the basic level in most cases. I love it when I ask the drummer to play louder, but it almost never happens. How to achieve a dynamic, balanced mix with space is different in every band, but it is almost always a combination of the points Don(and others) mentioned. YMMV...

Quote from Ibot39

I like solid state amps, but they all share some characteristics like crumbly fading out tone, when you let it ring...

Bolding added by me...

Quote from Ibot39

So this is basically a sophisticated solid state preamp with nanotube power section. I like solid state amps, but they all share some characteristics like crumbly fading out tone, when you let it ring...

The powered toaster is a solid state amp and it does not have the 'crumbly fading out tone, when you let it ring...' issue. This is one reason why I decided to go with the toaster.

Quote from musicmad

Yeah. Strings are dead for sure.

The squeak could simply be the pick material.

And pick technique. How much edge is used, type of pick slant and how the pick escapes is critical. In fact, it is a huge part of why we guitarists sound different from each other. Every amp responds to picking differently. Some drastically so. No surprise that Kemper profiles would too.

I believe part of the problem stems from that fact that the Kemper is essentially software/firmware driven. As such, many of these discussions are analogous to complaining about how MS Office or any other piece of software is implemented. I think there are valid, unanswered requests for new functionality, but these decisions are made by Kemper, period. I prefer honest communication, but there is sometimes a fine line between honest and nasty. Getting nasty is not going to help IMO. Or do some of us think otherwise?

Personally, I had one customer support interaction with Kemper. It was less than satisfactory. So, I do think they can and should be more informative and diplomatic in their responses. A bit more focus on making the customer feel as though they are valued would have helped in my case. The 'tone' of Kemper support often appears to be condescending. Perhaps this is an English as a second language problem?

I'll offer $40 for it since it's not as good as a $49 amp. Let me know and I'll provide shipping info.

I'm not playing straight FOH generally.

I have played the Bert profiles. They are thin to me all the time - medium or high volume. I like the Britt 69 profiles for the most part. I find that they are a bit fizzy, but full bodied. My main complaint is that the Britt doesn't clean up well with the guitar volume knob. Gets a bit muddy for me in that situation. I recently started using the TJ 45/100. I have to tame the treble and presence by a dB or so, but less than the Bert and Britt profiles. The 45/100 cleans up nicely from the guitar. I really like this a lot as I am working the volumes from the guitar frequently. YMMV, good luck.

It seems we probably use sounds that are in similar gain ranges. Coincidentally, I brushed the cobwebs off my very old ew100G2 for my last gig. I made no changes. It worked and sounded great. I'll have to experiment with the input senses a bit more to see if there is anything better for me. Thanks for the info.

I find that recording and mixing in the box can be a big distraction. I suffered with this for a bit before I decided to approach recording and mixing more as an analog flow. I don't do reamping, detailed editing, don't put off decisions for later, etc... It is easy to suffer from paralysis by analysis. Too many choices for me. I commit and get on with it. This has helped me a lot.

Glad to hear your enjoying the fruits of your labor, BT. Music can be a bit of a roller coaster. Enjoy the ride.

Quote from Kim_Olesen

Playing single coil strats i’ve always had both the clean and dist sense at 6

That's interesting! I always have clean and dist sense at 0 for humbuckers. For single coils, clean sense 0 and dist sense at 3 to match. What kind of music do you mainly play? I play country, blues, jazz, 60s/70s rock, no metal. It seems there are a wide variety of KPA settings that are in use. I love the tone of all the profiles that I use, but I had to sort through a lot to find them. I find Kemper's description of the sense inputs lacking in detail. A block diagram along with a description would be instructive for me. I've read the manual and watched the input settings video quite a few times. I am able to get settings I that I like, but the description would further my understanding.

Other forums I have been on have a feature for sticky threads that stay at the top of individual categories. It helps users to efficiently find information related to common questions without browsing through multiple pages in a category. I could argue that the search function is enough. A couple items that come to mind are removing fizz or profiler not booting. I am aware of Kemper videos that address some common issues/features. These are helpful, but there are 'holes' that could be filled. Is this possible and is it worth it?

That's an interesting, yet worrying set of circumstances. I'm guess I'm a pessimist because I would not be nearly as positive as you seem to be. You don't know what caused the fizz and you don't know why it's gone. If you're lucky, it'll stay gone. If not, the fizz will return and you will be back where you started. Curious if the fizz returns if you remove the remote from the equation? I typically use the high cut for fizz reduction, but I have found profiles that don't need nearly as much cut as others.

I use a powered toaster with a 2x12 Darkglass cabinet. I typically am playing in small clubs and not feeding the PA. The volumes tend to get too damn loud, but the unit keeps up quite well. I use the B15 and SVT(CLN and DRT for both) profiles with a Fender Jazz and Precision. I play finger style blues, jazz, rock, funk... Those profiles get me into the right territory for what I prefer. I'm very happy with that setup. BTW, I use and rely on the low cut and high cut filters. For me, these are mandatory for bass and guitar.

I briefly looked at the patents that I could find. I see a description of a method that employs two linear transfer functions and a non-linearity to create a 'profile'. It seems to me that a post processing algorithm is possible to create an improvement in the gain function across the full range of a set of profiles, but I have not seen mention of this in the patents that I ran across.

Modeling methods directly account for non-linearities in the amplifier stages. This is one big difference between modelling and profiling. I'm a Kemper owner and use, so I know which method I prefer. The side-effect of these differences might be the behaviour of the gain knob in question.

TJ released a JTM45/100 pack recently. I got it a few weeks ago and have been very impressed with these profiles. I generally find Marshall profiles to be to fizzy for my taste. Not to knock others, but I've tried many on the exchange and from commercial profilers - always high endy, tweaky fizz. This pack is really different IMO. Cleans up really well too.

Not associated with Tone Junie in any way.