Posts by HamerJo

Well as you mention it,
I took Andy's Grand Finale and copied it amp by amp to the Kemper so that I had to try out not more than just one amp at a time. He took a lot of time to produce the stuff, I honour this much liked effort by taking time to know what he did. This is obviously true for all the good people (well, you know) selling rigs or giving them away for free. After a while you'll know who to trust so you need not ploughing through the lot (rig exchange). For me the crucial rigs are always the ones marked as CLEAR, CLEAR +, PUSHED or the like. Heavily gained rigs I normally don't take into account (can't here much sonic difference and also there are so many on offer...). If any, I select 5 rigs of an amp to "arm" one performance. This performance I seriously do test (active studio monitors) and compare them with similar amps. Then, they stay or they are binned.
Some of Andy's Grand Finale Rigs I didn't try because I'm not interested in metal gain sounds.
The last rig collection I checked have been Andy's (excellent) Grand Finale, M. Britts (excellent) Marshal 69, M. Britt (even more excellent Tweedy Pack) Twin, Fender Pro and ProJunior rigs. Last but not least I made four new performances of the (free) forgotten amps collection (M. Pausio) - really good stuff in there (e.g. Dynacord Twen Combo - sonic heaven!). If you compare Andy's Vibrolux 63, Soundside's Fender 57 or Bassman 59, M. Britts Fender 56 Pro and Dynacords Twen Combo you'll find excellent but not too similar clean sounds wich distort very musically if treated with a booster or the good old green scream (thats's what Paults was suggesting if I read him right). And for the more gainy sounds there's always M. Britts 56 Twin Reverb (something to play and dream).
So, not too many rigs "survive" this procedure and equally so I know where to look for rigs for the music at hands.
For me a certain amount of volume is absolutely necessary to hear what a rig is all about. If you play with not much volume they will invariably sound flat.

I hope that kind of answers your question.

Joachim

Hi rawberry2
Kind o' liked what I heard: Well done, and quite true to the era in mind.
Since I work with EZ Drummer 2 too I was quite delighted to hear something like this from an expierienced musician not only for the sake of comparison.
I don't own Squiers 70s Tele but I can't praise their 52 Tele enough. Never thought that Squier is that good. Your Squier-Side of sound does the music justice. No need to talk about Gibson LP in this habitat.

I'd like to hear your next steps with your "band"

Sincerely

Joachim

Hi Andy,
this feels like someone is pulling the plug from the amp. Since Kemper day one your wonderful profiles have made my day. Sure there's a lot of competition out there and I am sure you have perfect good reasons for closing down the factory. But I feel sad about you're not selling new profiles any longer. Then again: You always done your best and that evidently cannot be topped.
I want to thank you for your excellent profiles and the chance to enjoy your work. The grand finale is a must for me even though some of the amps are already in my personal factory collection.

Sincerely
Joachim

To whom it concerns and relating to a question Ingolf brought up.

After three hours noodling with different guitars, various rigs and assorted gain settings I am quite sure (anybody else might feel different) that

1. High frequency responses benefit quite a bit (Pure Cab Setting = 5/10). My ear likes it more. Then again I know how they will sound in real life (on stage) where mics are a must till now. This dirtyness is sometimes part of the game.
2. The effect is subtle but you'll miss it once you turn it off. (Did that quite often for comparisons.)
3. No extra eq-ing necessary to handle the high frequencies. Some of the professional rigs (TAF e.g) come with elaborate eq filtering. Still have to find out, if they need tweaking now. Maybe Andy will elaborate on the subject.
4. Simply breathtaking all in all.

Last but not least: Which company will give that kind of innovation away for free? Most of companies I know of would gladly have called it a day and offered it as KPA II with this new revolutionary sound and still all of the old goodies.
I am really deeply impressed by C. Kemper and his excellent team.
He did not only keep his promises but gave much more than could reasonably be expected.

Joachim
(Grateful aser and afficionnado)

Just what the doctor orders!!!

Can't wait to get my hands on the pure cab thingy. Thank you Kemper team this really is a nice one. Makes me wonder what more have you got in the box without letting us know!
Ingolf, I read your analysis with a lot of joy. I wished my doctors would explain some of the things that bother me time and again so well and conceivable. Thank you for letting us know.

Now, without further ado get the guitars out and let's roll.

Joachim

Hi Ingolf,

very well explained and well noted. As I was quite impressed by your rigid analysis I too bought a digitech mosaic. Sounds pretty - though not really convincing with a tele (too smooth) in my opinion. As someone put it: McGuinn would not sell his 12 string Rick in exchange for some digital voodoo. Then again a 6 string Rick or a six string Gretsch sound very convincing with lots of that sought after jingle jangle. I just put the mosaic between guitar out and KPA in. As far as I get it mini humbuckers or humbuckers sit well with the mosaic. Single coils need further research.

Thanks again for the tips.

Quote from Per

To me the fender "twang" is a combinatinon of the right guitar, a tiny tiny touch of breakup in the treble, and biggest and most important - reverb. You gotta use the matchbox reverb on the kemper as that's the closest to a spring, but without it you will not have your fender twang. It's that slight predelay together with the original signal that gives it that tone and feel for me.

Hi Per,
hi Igantios

I cannot comment on the second part of Per's statement since I've only got a small Fender amp and thus am unable to compare it to something bigger of the fender family. But I absolutely agree to the first part of his statement. I'm quite sure that some reverb can be heard in Igantios jvm recording (thanks for it, I like it). I cannot imagine a twangy sound (Duane Eddy is a good example if not the very first example) without reverb. His sound especially on the deep e string is what I learned as the definition of twang when I was much younger. His was a fat bottomed (falcon?) Gretsch guitar and some kind of Fender deluxe reverb. Since he then was called the master of "twang" it's quite rewarding to dig into his sound when you want to know about the definition of twang. To my knowledge it's not that there is an abstract rule defining it; it just means sound like Duane Eddie.
Heinz, a somewhat minor guitar player and singer consequently got into the charts with "Just like Eddie".
Listen to Rebel rouser if you want to check for yourself:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGPG_Y-_BZI)
Naturally I don't have any rights on this Video.

Thanks for the reminder
Have fun
Joachim

Hallo,

da die ursprüngliche Anfrage in Deutsch kam, sage ich meine "zwei Sachen" erstmal in Deutsch. Ich habe eine Squier by Fender Classic Vibe Telecaster (Made in China ca. 350 €) mit Korpus aus zusammengeleimtem Kiefernholz (4 Teile). Diese Holzart hatte Herr Fender ursprünglich ebenfalls verwendet. Sieht gut aus, ist leicht und ist sehr flüssig zu spielen. Der Sound ist absolut telemäßig. An Einstellungsarbeit war nur die Saitenlage etwas niedriger einzustellen. Ansonsten war alles top verarbeitet. Ich kann die Gitarre mit einer 70er Jahre Fender (Japan) Telecaster vergleichen. Klar, da gibt es Unterschiede. Ich nehme beide gerne in die Hand. Nichts zu meckern hier. Bei Anderton's Music gibt es einen Vergleich (mit Captain und Chappers), der die Sache für
mich klar gemacht hat.
Aus Südkorea besitze ich eine der ersten Tim Armstrong Gretsch Gitarren (ca 1000 €). Das Instrument hat die richtigen (bezogen auf die Vorlage aus den 50ern) Filtertron Pickups, ist super eingestellt und verarbeitet und klingt so, wie es eine dicke Gretsch soll. Mankos: Die Kabel sind gesteckt und nicht gelötet. Die Potis und der Schalter knistern bei Betätigung, wenn man das Instrument längere Zeit nicht spielt. Das verschwindet aber schnell wieder, wenn man sie spielt. Die Dame ist halt empfindlich. Obwohl sie mit 11er Saiten bestückt ist, lasst sie sich flüssig
und leicht bis zum 15. Bund bespielen. Erste Sahne.

Gute Erfahrungen soweit. Aber dahinter steckt eine Kontrolle von Fender und ein Produktionsvolumen viel größer als 1. Ich würde keine Kundengitarre für mich fertigen lassen, die weniger als 1200 Euro kosten soll. Selbst die Hungerlöhne in China machen keinen so großen Anteil an den Gesatmkosten aus, dass Wunder zu erwarten sind.

Ich hoffe, das hilft bei der Entscheidung.

Short summary in English.

I can tell about my expierences with a China-made Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster. Body: Pine which actually is the original kind of wood Mr. Fender used for the first Broadcasters. The instrument was set up well (only the string action needed a wee bit of readjustment). She plays delightful and sounds as you would expect from a true Tele. I like it very much and nobody could guess from it's sound and overall build quality that it came for just € 350,00. In comparison to a 70s Japan Telecaster there are differences. But I take her out very often and always find her very
convincing. On YouTube you'll find a comparison done bei Anderton's music (Captain & Chappers) which settled the deal for me.
From South Corea I own one of the first Gretsch Tim Armstrong guitars (app. € 1000) which comes with real filtertron pus and the sound of a true, fat bottomed Gretsch. Overall build quality is very good. Two drawbacks though need mentioning: The electric parts are not connected by soldering but are plugged together. If you happen to leave her alone for a while she will voice a protest. Then the pots will be noisy when turned as will be the pu switch. That will completely vanish if you play it on a regular basis. So don't let her sleep before you take her to town.

So far I was not disappointed, really. Then again there's the big player Fender keeping a close watch on things. Where there's much more than 1 Instrument in question you cannot win by cheating. Since even chinese meagre wages are just a small part of the overall costs I would not order a custom shop instrument that is offered for less than 1200 Euros. Thank you!

Hope that helps.
Have fun

Joachim

Hi,

most things that could be told about the remote are being told by now. Setup ran smoothly, handling is just fine and the direct approach to performance mode and it's slots is just what the doctor orders. Very handy for rehearsal and gigs. All my rigs have a graphic eq (neutral with vol = 3 db) to help me switch to lead mode instantly. The other fixed button is delay on/off. Some rigs get a treble boost (vol = 0.5, tone = -2.0) to help me when switching guitars. Everyday I like it a bit more. I wonder why it is that the kemper is ready much quicker than the remote. Well not a real bug but one has to watch it when playing in public.
I would prefer synchronized ready status if possible.

Have fun

Joachim

Quote from metalmike

Ignantios is comparing the twang of his real deluxe to a kemper's direct amp profile of the same amp (or similar fender amp with crystal clear clean sound) played through every guitar cabinet you can imagine, not through a FRFR. A fenderish clean direct amp profile through every guitar cabinet doesn't twang and it won't, because twang is a characteristic of tubes.

Thanks for putting this straight. I did read your comment more than once and always understand twang is a characteristic of tubes (not sure wether this is without exceptions). Thus a direct amp profile of a tube amp does not produce twang. If this is what you said then I'm even more confused because the tubes definitely don't get lost in the amp when profiled directly. I am quite happy with studio profiles or merged profiles so maybe I sholuld be quiet in this specific context. Those clean (merged with cab off) profiles I tried with the kemper and a solid state amp and a proper guitar cab produced all the the twang I asked for. I would not use the kemper that way fpor real though.
I sometimes get the impression that a considerable part of this discussion here is about amps and profiles driven to Desperation gainwise. So some of the real or believed results (including mine) may not be true for lower gain usage.
I like Christophe Seyler's plain and reasonable summary of the question in question. If this is true (and some results seem to endorse that notion) it chould be checked by Kemper or otherwise falsified.

Have fun

Joachim

Michael Mellner wrote
\Quote i have to be honest........technically speaking, I mean fully technically speaking I kind of admit I didn't fully take advantage of my kpa. I know several things but feel like at least a good 45% is still uncovered. this is normal though because when I plug my guitar I think about......playing guitar. \quote

Same here after nearly three ears, if it's not one of these days where everything I try to get out of it sounds like shit My ears though. Unbelievable . It's a favourite "waste of time" bringing different guitars to the kemper and comparing the sounds.
I did not dig deep into the kemper and thus can relate to the things Michael Mellner wrote.
Since there is a lot of feature requests (some of which seem a bit exotic to me), I hope that CK and his team will check thouroghly wether to implement new features because everytime it gets a wee bit more complicated with a good chance of implementing unwanted side effects. All my expierience with long and meandering computer source codes tells me to tread very lightly when it comes to enhancing or giving way to featureritis. So far the kemper team did an excellent job in keeping the unit running without serious bugs. I hope it stays that way because I could not stand to play music without it. The few days for led exchange were just enough.

Have fun.

Joachim

Hi Dorrus,

most time when I need a rig for my acoustics (nylon strings or steel strings) I come back to Peter Fischer's AER PIEZO 60 which does a good job. It's part of the factory rigs so it's free. Maybe you'll have to dig a bit deeper to find it because it's there for some time. So better start looking in the legacy rig packs.

Have fun

Joachim

Quote from IGNANTIOS

i totally agree too......I can't find a clean profile to sound decent....or close enough to my deluxe.Every clean profile that i hear with the new method...there is no twang at all.....and in comparison with my real fender amp loses every battle.

Well, dear sir I beg to differ.

Profiles (my own and commercial ones) of my fender amp (bjr) or my peavey deltablues or.. don't loose any battle with the kemper. There is of course a difference when hearing a real amp with a real cab and no mike (amp in the room) and the kemper. There has to be, runs with the territory.

Twang? Even my kemper driven cheapo squier classic vibe tele delivers twang in every quantity. The old 70s strat does a better job, true. That is to be expected.
Clear sounds distorted? Yes there are such profiles but there are also perfectly clean ones. Since I'm not a friend of leaning on the gain I would have sold the kemper three years ago if it hadn't mastered this chore. Elementary is it not?
So if you want to follow Hank Marvin or the likes there's lots of stuff to do it with. Andy's Vibrolux 67, Armin's Fender 57 are always worth a try. I could add some rather refined examples of MBritt and M. Wagener. But I don't want to talk you into sth., just to speak my mind.

I do respect and value your observations and also your conclusions. But I had to comment on it. Could not Keep my mouth shut.!
And maybe: Hearing with ones own two ears is really not comparable to other peoples state of mind when hearing. I always have days when everthing sounds terrible. But that's me, not the kemper.
I also liked and valued sinmix, metalmikes and deadlights efforts and thoughts. and hope they won't give up. If there is room for improvement we should find and name it.

Have fun
Joachim

Welcome to the forum and the happy crew in it. Even if you will stick to the axe eventually there's a lot of helpful and expert soundfreaks to give excellent ideas in the forum.
Clearly I thought (3 years ago) I just profile my amp collection and be done with it. Now I find myself most time hooked to Andy's 61 Twinreberb (full) or MBritt's releases of the Dumble amp family. Not sure what it will be next year. So there's is a whole world of sounds at your doorstep just a few turnings of knobs away.

Have fun. I did and I never regretted it

Joachim

Hi Steeldragon 72,

sorry to hear that. Since there have been times when I thought I never would get where I wanted to be guitar wise I sometimes thought about selling out. After I while I realized that music and making music even if not on a satisfactory professional level has proved a valuable remedy for me when I felt sick about this and that. Playing in a band is a steady mood lifter for me. Maybe you'll might rethink your decision. If not, best of luck.

Joachim

Hi there

no need to worry about this. I fixed it myself.
Thanks

Joachim

Quote from andyg_prs

Ok, so I've updated my OS to 3.0.1, Rig Manager to the latest and downloaded the latest packs: Merged Profiles, ACE and the 10 recent TAF ones.

1. There is a local rigs area in Rig Manager. Is this where I would pull in my current rigs that I have modified on my Kemper? I tried to import from the most recent backup file but it failed.

2. If I have modified rigs differently in my various Performances, what do I see in Rig Manager? Eg, how do I manage my performances and/or different versions of the same rig?

3. What is the best way to audition the latest packs I've downloaded....can I identify the packs in Rig Manager or do I have to mount these / import these into Rig Manager first and then sync to the Kemper?

Cheers,
Andy

Display More

Hi Andy,
as far as I know you cannot "see" performances in rig manager. Hopefully the next update of the software will be up to it. The only way to deal with these rigs in rig manager for now is to follow Pault's advice.
And yes, you always can create extra folders in the local area of rig manager to keep track of changes you made and want keep for a while. Just copy and paste the rigs from the KPA or from your KPA usb stick it is always on view in an extra folder (if you named it, you'll find it at once) to the newly defined folder.

I do not know about the best way to audition newly imported rigs. I just import (kpa has to be in browse mode) via the usb stick share folder and turn on "latest imported" as viewing option in browse mode. The ones I'd like to keep (after tweaking) get renamed and thus are easily identifiable. Afterwards I delete all the stuff I don't need any longer. All this caneasily be done with the kpa and the rig manager too. Most time I use the "old way" without rig manager. You even may import rigs from your computer into the kpa. (Sometimes the kpa is very slow on importing...). I don't know if the rigs will show up as imported though.

I hope I answered your questions and did not tell you things you already know.

Have fun.

Joachim

Herzlich willkommen,

der Spaß mit dem Kemper hat gerade erst angefangen. So ähnlich war es bei mir vor 2Jahren auch. Kein Vergleich zu dem Gemurkse und Geschleppe vorher! Ich spiele auch (hin und wieder) Bass und sonst Gitarre, Singen wird unterstützt von TC Voicelive 2 (scharfe Sache). Es gibt inzwischen eine ganze Reihe richtig guter Bassprofile. Für die eher cleanen Sachen kann ich eines der Bassmann (59 oder 61) Sachen von TAF oder Soundside empfehlen. Einfach aber sehr effektiv.

Viel Spaß

Joachim

Hi,

I do recommend updating to FW 3.01 and downloading the merged pack of 49 factory rigs that are part of the package. Mind you, I'm not talking about installing all of the rigs that come with FW 3.0. For a little snifter the separate download of these 49ers is just the thing to do. You will find top profiles from CLEAN to HIGH-GAIN that work just fine and in no way are inferior to the commercial rigs the producers of these rigs have on offer.
So you get to know as well what to expect from top of the line producers (M. Britt, TAF, Deadlightstudio, B. Dinnies) what to expect should you think about buying something from them. I did that and never had second thoughts about it.
Amps involved are (as far as I can guess) Groove Tubes, EVH 5150, EVH Engl, Mesa Stiletto, 3rd power MB100, Honky Tonk Deluxe, Orange, Marshal JMP, Evil Robot, Rivera and many others.
Trust me, tt will be enough as a famous banker worded it.
I tested all of them with a standard tele (excellent), a standard strat (ditto) and a les paul (ditto) for all but the high-gainers these I don't need for the kind of music I like.
In my opinion the easiest way to get up to date.

Have fun

Joachim

Welcome here to the most times happy Crew!

Joachim