Posts by Tonerider

Hi All,

Just after any advice for using the 'traditional' braided 2 conductor wiring with my new set of PAF pickups. I know the black wire in the centre, that goes straight to the lug on the volume pot - no problem. Just checking with grounding the braided wire, I can go off the side of the braid, to attach to the back of the pot.

I'm not going to be cutting the wire to fit as there's plenty of space in the cavity - should I be concerned about the braided wire touching anything else accidentally in there when the cover is put back on?

Just wanted to ask, been up since 5am, so not going to solder today - will get a good nights sleep and go to work tomorrow - the hardest part is getting the screws/springs.rings and mounting holes all lined up without them popping all over the room!

Any info would be grand,

Thanks,

-Tonerider.

Just been looking over the site again, and really liking the 'coming soon' new pedals on the front-page. Any Skreddy Pedals in the offing?
What would you say is the smoothest sounding pedal for a 'Paul with PAF's - Xotic BB Preamp?

Cheers,

-Tonerider

REALLY looking forward to trying these when my new PAF's have arrived and installed, those clips sound great JerEvil.

Fero - thanks for putting out some great pedals so far - certainly look to grabbing a few when funds permit!

No worries,

Hoping they might be shipped today - so will let you know as soon as installed. REALLY looking forward to trying the Alnico IV magnets - gone for vintage paf with zebra coils, gold screws and normal slugs to fit in with the matt black / gold h/w finish of my EC-1000.

Hayden has been very helpful and knowledgeable when running through all my questions, and is tweaking the neck pu a little to go with the fact it's a 24 fret guitar so the difference between pu's is smaller.

I'm glad I decided to stump up the extra £ for what is essentially custom pickups - so will report back as soon as installed and up and running!

+1 - This amp sounds fantastic, very great smooth tone. Hopefully a perfect match for my custom wound vintage paf's when they arrive this week - loving this tone!

My one and only other guitar needs re-wiring and new strings. Better start singing the blues...

Here's a definition of Irony....

Set of Vintage Bulldog PAF's - ordered.

No strings on guitar. No pickups as old sold.

Kemper release beta 3.0......

Morning All,

Has anyone had any experience with the Irongear Blues Engine pickup? http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_016.htm

I'm selling my Seymour Black Winters as they are just too harsh and high output for my taste. My previous set were Alnico II pro's by Tonerider, which were really nice and warm, but missing the 'woody' nature and clarity that these Blues Engine/PAF/Alnico IV pickups appear to offer.

They are a great price here in the UK, and I'm hoping for a warm tone with clarity, and open 'airy' top end rather than the harsh compressed nature of the Seymours. I'll be using them in D-standard / C# tuning for post-rock/drone/doom and classic metal and hope they'd be a good match for the mahogany body/cap and ebony f/board on my ESP/LTD EC-1000.

If anyone has any experience or info, please let me know!

Cheers,

-Tonerider

I really can't believe the difference - to anyone who is having sound issues - just check your connections - your tone is only as strong as your weakest link! Got my guitar character back, things are cooking with gas, and I'm going to have to re-discover a LOT of killer profiles!

My guitar has weight and tone back, controls work properly - the screamer no longer kills my ears. Effects sound more prominent....

I'm thinking it was my patch-cables.....I don't care, how I ruined my ears with shoddy connections. doh!

PRAISE THE TONE LORDS!!! I'VE ONLY GONE AND FIXED IT!!!!!!!

So, besides swapping out my patch-cable connects for proper XLR's from the main out > Interface, I also bought a new plug with a 5 amp fuse. The original power cable that came with my Kemper had one pin all bent - so I just used an old kettle cable I had - and put a 5amp fuse in.

Now, my guitar is much more weighty and has more bass - had to drop the master volume to 0.5 and master out to -35.9db but by lord - something has gone right!!! Time to try profiles....WITHOUT THE FIZZ AND TOP END!!!!!!!!!

Quote from JerEvil

Sorry to hear this as I am enjoying playing the high gain stuff quite a bit. I will say though, high gain is a little different to everyone. My ideal high gain tone is my Splawn Quick Rod pushed a touch with a USA made RAT pedal. I use it for everything from classic rock to In Flames, Hyposcrisy, Entombed, etc. I have not profiled it yet but I plan to.

One thing to remember about the Kemper is that you are at the mercy of the profile to some degree. I have purchased quite a few high gain commercial profiles from some of the "big names" that I can't stand and wish they had a return policy. At least they aren't very expensive. I have also gotten a few that are just STELLAR! It's a lot of trial and error. Once you find some you like, it's tonal heaven. Gotta be patient though.

I too came from the Eleven rack recently and it is certainly a noticeable difference i sound quality. I also went from 5" monitors to 8" in my home studio.

Care to share your guitars / profile recommendations? Is your RAT an actual pedal, or using the Kemper stomp?

Thanks,

Thanks for all the replies so far,

I do find profiles with 121 mics or a green/creamback speaker are much less fatiguing. As soon as I get recto cab with sm57 it's fizz hell for me.

Andy, I often turn the definition control down to 6-7 on profiles - a lot of high gain come loaded with 9-10 - which is far too cutting.

But, I have been thinking about my setup, and identified what *should* be the weak point. Ever since I have had my Kemper, I have only hooked it up directly to my monitors once. It's always been routed through my Eleven Rack > KRK's or into my trusty Edirol UA-25 > KRK's.

For going from my Kemper to either the Eleven Rack or UA25 I have always used some home-made patch cables that were just long enough. Previously they were used for things in the FX loop of my Eleven Rack (Torpedo Two-Notes cab.)

Now, it's possible that these are not the greatest cables, there's no buzz or hum - BUT there could be some filtering going on that's causing this issue to exasperate itself to my ears. So, I've dug out some rather long XLR mic cables to try out when I next fire it up - I'll also do an a/b with going Kemper > Interface > KRK's and going Kemper > KRK's to see if it's anything down to the UA25 itself.

I have a feeling that fw 3.0 and it's DI + match up to IR of your choice could help also. But for now, I'm taking a break from music for a week or so to let my ears settle down - and will record/report back my findings.

I don't get any fatigue when listening to music playback on other headphones or via the monitors and have had my Edirol, KRK's and ATHM50 cans since 2008 - this issue has only bothered me since getting my Kemper, and I'm really hoping it's something as simple as my cable connections as it really is an amazing piece of gear.

-Tonerider

Thanks Raoul,

I noticed the same issue with my old Alnico II pro pu's. I think part of the issue might be my perception of solo guitar jamming tone and in the mix tone. Not having any amps to profile doesn't help - I'll work with the cab and eq parameters after giving my ears a break. Will try hooking up main outs direct also in-case my s/card or cabling is affecting things.

*sigh* - here I am again.

I'm simply not enjoying the high gain tones on my Kemper with MY guitar. I have a feeling my guitar might be rather bright as the high end energy gives me ear fatigue quickly - and in order to get a half decent tone I'm dropping the Presence by around -2.2-2.5 and the treble - otherwise things can just be too cutting.

I've been through Tills cabs and discounted any Recto ones - they have an inherent fizz when combined with an SM57 - I should say that I am looking for good guitar tones when jamming - not recording parts as a band at the moment.

So, right now, I'm walking away from my Kemper and guitar for a week or so. It could be that my guitar is quite bright -

LTD EC-1000 with Seymour Duncan Black Winter pickups. E-standard tuning and 10-46 strings.

Or, perhaps my KRK VXT 4's - I don't know. But literally every high gain tone unless it's using a green-back style cab just doesn't sit well with me. I think it's the extra high end detail that the Kemper offers over the Eleven Rack that I had previously. I could use my headphones with no issues, but running some high gain profiles quickly aggravate my ears.

I have also noticed when using a EQ in the stomp section, it does not alter the tone drastically - is this right? I appreciate I should add a clip of it on / off - but right now I have packed everything away. I normally play at bedroom volumes, so this could all go away if I crank my Kemper, but that's not fair on my neighbours. I might try booking a few hours rehearsal space to craft some tones and play at volume. But I'm just frustrated I can't dial in some isolated guitar tones that I can enjoy.

I appreciate it could just be time for a break, I have been experiencing wisdom teeth issues and that can aggravate things, and tuning my ears to hear frequencies that I don't enjoy.

-Tonerider

Gah, oh well - someone got too excited with the Press Release - we can wait, just give us the spring reverb in the meantime

Straight from the Profiler News page on Kemper site -

'Pricing and availability

The Kemper Profiler Firmware 3.0 is available from January 22nd, 2015
– free of charge for all registered owners of a Kemper Profiler.'

http://www.kemper-amps.com/pag…ang/en/p/201/do/News.html

New DI profiles from TAF, Michael Britt and then long, long, long awaiting Michael Wagener Profiles!

'More than 50 new Factory Profiles
The new Rig Packs contain a selection of “Merged Profiles”, created
with the new direct profiling technology. Kemper have spent some
significant profiling time with studio legend Michael Wagener at his
Nashville based Wireworld studios and have profiled everything from
legendary preamps, amps and cabinets that have been used on numerous
platinum selling records.'

Crikey! Can't wait to try these out tonight - hope the new Cabmaker will go up for IR conversion also.

Have a great NAMM all @ Kemper - thanks for the on-going game-changing updates!

-Tonerider

http://www.kemper-amps.com/pag…ang/en/p/201/do/News.html

Thanks Sam,
After going through a whole bunch of cabs via my KRK's - It's the V30 speaker I don't like....going from one of these patches to D.Baldringers Mars 4*12 Green Pack literally tames ALL the low pass shaping I'm doing on the eq - yes, the presence and treble being dropped on the output section help - but for me, a Greenback 25w is much smoother and pleasant to the ears...time to sort my cab collection!!!

Hi All,

I'm currently looking at my Kemper setup as finding a LOT of profiles have too much high-end that does not translate well when playing on headphones. Using a wah lp before the amp and wah hp after the amp go a long way - but I'm starting to examine three things -

1) Kemper hook-up to audio interface (Edirol UA-25.)

Currently, this is just hooked up out of the master out 1/4" jacks into my UA-25. Each channel is hooked up using home-made patch-cables, previously used for connecting me Eleven Rack to Torpedo IR loader. Would a jack > XLR make any difference to quality? I use my audio interface 99% of the time when jamming with tracks when playing with the Kemper.

2) The guitar itself

LTD EC-1000 with SD Black Winters. Using a BKP paper and oil jensen capacitor. If I'm experiencing a lot of unwanted highs with the Kemper, could swapping the tone cap help tame them?

3) I just can't stand SM57 mics...

Sure, they might sound great in the mix, but for solo guitar play I'm simply not a fan. Thinking back to my Eleven Rack days, I never liked the representation of the 57 then - I always went to a Ribbon 121 off axis, or Condenser 67 / 87 - and the Dyn 421.

So, as a non-amp owner - I'll start swapping cab patches out for those type of mics. I might even try using the updated cab converter to run with the new f/ware 3.0 when it hits.

If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. And share your thoughts on the above - I'm not giving up on the Kemper, just aware it's presenting a LOT more high energy/frequencies than my old Eleven Rack. It's these I want to tame, to just get back to enjoying guitar. Another good move would be to lock the lp/hp setting and scroll through presets to audition them, as the grain / distortion of the 57 up close and personal just grates me.

Cheers,

-Tonerider

Had big plans for guitar to record today - but simply not happening - so back to some exercises and practicing - then found THIS -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKve3TyC0Sk

Need to get back to drum programming - if I can get 10% of this swing going........

Simply. Amazing.

And, I always wondered what happened to Dr. Lawrence Jacobi after Twin Peaks....

Almost makes me want to be a bass player - almost