Posts by lbieber

+1

I was gonna heart this but couldn't bring myself to use it...sorry

I don't want to pick on HER, but I pick at my own playing so it is somehow fair.

Made my ears bleed too. I have a particular dislike for what I call nervous vibrato. Makes me think the player isn't really listening, but just going through the motions. I've always wondered why guitarists can't figure out that the speed of the vibrato should somehow be aligned with the tempo of the song. Habitual vibrato is all too common and not pleasant to listen to.

Purple Rain solo with the notes that were blatantly out of key. Then the amateurish pentatonics that don't follow the chord sequence. The sequence in that song provides so many target notes, yet she hit almost none on her own. Although, she did hit some when she aped some of the Prince parts of the solo.

So, not playing her ass off IMO. She seems to be a creative songwriter and a gifted singer. Wish I had that vocal talent. Needs a lot of work on the guitar.

I heard her mention that she liked the Lucite guitar cause it showed off her outfit. And Fender stated that they made her the sig strat because she is a guitar influencer. That's interesting language that I interpret as a subtle back-handed compliment.

To be clear, I am not criticizing her out of hand. I listened and I read. My $0.02

Quote from V8guitar

Yep, totally jealous!

Did either shine above the other? Interesting to get your view on both of their playing and what you heard?

I'm jealous too!!!

I saw two of the shows when they toured together. Stevie was great! Jeff stole the show both times IMO.

Quote from christianbad

the other side of the coin: i used to practise and play a lot like that, but i found that when i plugged back into the amp my playing got less dynamic control, and i also missed a lot of noises that my left hand created but only amplified.

That can happen and is why I mentioned that I know how to mute an electric.

I like that kind of showing off! You were there? Took the pic? Tell us more if so.

I wouln't characterize going from 'cheap stock tubes' (whatever that is) to JJs as a significant upgrade. Perhaps none at all. Going to something like 50s and 60s Sylvania, RCA, Telefunken, CBS, Mullard, etc... will result in a more significant difference, but those differences do tend to small. I've designed, built and seviced many tube amps over decades and there are tube differences to be had based on the design and particularly where the distortion is generated. For instance, preamp tubes in Dumble type circuits and power tubes in Trainwreck Express circuits are important.

A big side benefit of the Kemper is no more dealing with increasingly hard to get and increasingly expensive tubes that have a limited life.

Paul is intelligent, presents info well and is a solid player. Kudos to him. Many guitarists will find his content useful, but this is all relative. He is not going to teach me anything about music or guitar but it might have helped me 30 years ago. Of course, we are all on are own journey, so YMMV.

A decade or more ago, I might have been amazed that Paul could cover those songs with a single unit, but not anymore. Good on Kemper, but it is firmly established that a Kemper can be used in that way. That's what profiling accomplishes.

I see both sides of the debate that has been made above. This is just my opinion.

Quote from V8guitar

...but I live on delusion...nothing worse than hearing my raw playing ha!

Seriously, a good exercise I've found is when recording with your plug in, you can of course remove it to hear just a clean guitar...then you really know....

I've played long enough to know how to get the sounds I want from an electric rig, analog or digital. So, I don't spend much time tweaking rigs. I also know how to mute an electric, so no need to be plugged in for that. The great majority of my playing is done unplugged on an electric. No place to hide when unplugged in that scenario. I know that if I can perform well on an unplugged, electric I won't have any issues when plugged in. A side benefit is that it saves my ears and I enjoy the playing through an amp that much more when I do plug in.

I also play quite a bit of acoustic which keeps me honest. But I view acoustic as an almost completely different instrument than electric.

Quote from V8guitar

I mainly agree but...

Sometimes sounds are more forgiving...playing a fast run with a lot of gain is easier than playing it clean....of course the technique is the same but a more forgiving sound covers mistakes, making you "feel" like you can play faster. I suspect this is what is going on.

Alcohol has the same effect

I remember many years ago trying out a crate amp in a shop...loads of gain, and harmonics were flying out. At that moment I felt like Steve Vai was an amateur, I could dust Paul Gilbert and Yngwie...well I could send him back to Sweden with the fire coming from my fingers.

I got home, plugged into my home amp and boom I'm back to my cack handed noise....I was convinced that amp had some voodoo magic!

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I hear what you are saying. Your Crate story is making my point. If you can't play cleanly on an unplugged guitar then you can't REALLY do it just because it is plugged in to a hot amp. All the distortion, gain, harmonics, compression etc... will not change that. It may make it more likely for you to believe your fantasy(drunken or not) that your playing is better than it actually is. A hot amp will allow for certain sounds to be accentuated, such as pick harmonics, feedback, etc... but in the end your picking is what it is. You will not play any faster even though you may be deluded into thinking you can.

Quote from Tony G

This is what I'm thinking. I love tinkering with electronics and if you had something like tone stack calculator that can be interfaced with liquid profiling where we can experiment with the values of the resistors and capacitors this could be an incredible tool for electronic tinkerers and ultimately amp builders. You can hear the sound and feel the attack before building the amp and know when you have a winning situation. Has to be worth something to the electronics engineer.

Just a thought...

It's a reasonable thought, but I'm not sure I would implement it with electronic components. I think a graphical interface in the frequency domain would be much more inclusive to all users. Many can't do filter analysis correctly or at all and will therefore be excluded. The tone stack calculator has limitations as well.

In any case, DIY seems like a good idea on the surface. In thinking about it, developing a tool for this will require work and there will still be continued requests to change it for myriad reasons. It is likely to result in a similar situation where Kemper is inundated with requests. I'm on the fence on whether it is a good idea.

The most direct solution to all of these requests is to implement a tonestack creator so users can DIY. We are now in 'give a man a fish or teach him how to fish' territory.

ckemper - have you considered this?

Quote from thisamplifierisloud

To be honest - I´m not a professional musician.

I´m a hobbyist - maybe a good hobbyist, but not more.

So I´m not professional enough to keep my left and right hand in good sync under all circumstances.

Of course LP cannot fix my old hands.

Somehow it helps and it makes me playing more with more fun.

And if it´s placebo only - as long as it works for me ...

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Thanks for the thoughtful clarification. I totally understand the more fun part! It is all about fun for me. And I get that the mental aspect plays a big role. Cheers to having fun and whatever adds to that!

I agree the knobs behave differently with LP than without.

Playing faster and more accurately is conflating technique with sound. If you can't play faster and more accurately when not plugged in, then you won't do be able to do it because of LP. I think I know what you are trying to say, but come on. Your left and right hands are either in sync or not. This is true whether you are plugged in or not and LP isn't going to fix it.

Does it sound more fantastic than any well designed, linear solid state amplifier?

If so, I am curious to understand why.

OMG...the heart emoji for the reactions is silly. I like that my fellow Kemper forum members heart me. It makes me feel validated.

I believe the pdf info is in the zip download from Kemper's site for each collection.

Wanted to follow up on this thread.

Contacted support. Received help via email. I provided info (situation, cables, OS, log files) as requested. Problem was determined to be hardware. Fortunately, I am in Colorado and relatively close to the repair center. Unit was under warranty so no charge. Shipped unit to repair center (one day shipping via standard UPS ground), they repaired and shipped it back. Process took about 10 days in total. Very happy with overall response of the Kemper team. One small complaint: Colorado repair team communication was lacking, but the unit was successfully and efficiently repaired. Can't say what failed or how it was repaired because Kemper has not provided that information at this time.

Thanks to the Kemper team for the service!

Quote from Wheresthedug

I deliberately play quietly to try an get the rest of the band to come down to a sensible level. Instead of them turning down they always say “turn up we can’t hear you” 🤦‍♂️

LMAO...this has been my experience as well. Can't fix stupid.

I've tried many different monitor configurations for stage sound. Including a handful of guitar cabs, Kab, and PA monitors. I consider a good PA monitor to be the best solution. It offers the most consistency, as far as reproducing the sound, between the stage sound and FOH. I want the guitar sound I hear on stage to be exactly what the audience hears. At least as much as possible.

I should mention that I don't believe in the 'in the room' concept.

After the failed Kemper 'upgrade', I feel like him.