Posts by 1badelement

Believe me I'd love go to a music store and check one out. However the closest one is Guitar Center in Atlanta/Marietta, a good 2-2 1/2hr drive for me. The other problem is, it's about impossible to listen/play anything in GC without being hounded by the salesman. Also, can't hear anything worth a flip with all the people banging outta time on drums, guy next to ya cranking a Dual Rec destroying Cliffs of Dover Intro...and can't tune a guitar....really distracting. Of course we all sucked at some point I guess..ha. I could literally see the salesman. "Well idk, headphones? Why would ya wanna listen thru that?" Haha, just joking but probably close to mark.

Dean_R, you hit the nail on the head. That's what I really needed to here, thanks man!

Thanks for replies everyone. I guess one main thing I'm trying to get a handle on is in regards to editing a distorted amps profile. Obviously I gotta use profiles in the amp and bought online, with no current amps at home. Kinda asked this earlier, but maybe this a better rephrasing: When editing, say a Friedman BE-100 profile, does changing the Kemper profiled EQ controls react very much like that amp? Oh yeah, I've read thru a lot of the manual and various reviews. I take it switching cab IR's doesn't really affect the originally profiled amp very much? I understand it's split into two. Also, say I buy a typical 3rd-party profile pack that has a preset for a great amp tone but with a tube screamer boosting it, called SLO-TB LD for example...is that usually hard wired and profiled into these commercial Kemper presets, or do the profiles typically let you bypass that pedal in the chain like a verb/echo. Just wondering. See a lot with OD pedal boosts in the profiles. Last thing here, if y'all have any links to some of what you think are truly the best mid-high gain Marshall/SLO/CAE-type profiles I'd love to listen to them. Figured the Kemper Forum folks would know where the best ones are. Btw I've checked out a lot of Choptones/M-Britt/couple others I can't recall.
Thanks

I'll def check it out asap, heard a demo of him playing a 5150 profile that sounded fairly good except again kinda dull. JVM profiles? Ha, honestly I loved a lot of tones on that amp but the super hiss defect everyone complains about, it just ruined any high gain tone. Ok let me ask, when adjusting the EQ/gain on the Kemper, is it only at extremes that it kinda strays away from the actual profiled amp's EQ/Gain characteristics? Or does this occur with minimal values too?

Ok guys, at a crossroads so to speak...I finally have a chance to get a real deal QUALITY amp, however im trying to decide which one: A Splawn Quick Rod/Street Rod, Friedman PT-20/Runt-20/50, and/or a Kemper Profiler. Let me say first, I don't gig out much any more, mainly a home studio/bedroom jammer. So a low wattage tube combo amp is ideal, also DI recording would be nice, play thru headphones often BUT I could just mic it if needs be. The sounds I like are only a few, but great ones: The old brown sound aka VH1/2, I love the Soldano/CAE +3 SE tone off For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge as well, oh and Steve Stevens tone off the Vince Neil "Exposed" album(but his current tone is killer too!). These three tones are my bread and butter so to speak. Not a EVH Cloner guy but I dig those sounds so much. Obviously, looking at my choices it's safe to say I need an amp that def gets the ideal hot-rodded Plexi-JCM800 and a thicker OD marshall-type tone ala Soldano/CAE. Now the Splawn amps, they def seem the ideal choice here, they nail a lot of those sounds. The Friedman PT-20/Runt amps...it's a shame, there's maybe 1-2 vids that actually demonstrate a real "Rock" sound, most all other demos are bluesy>clean>scooped metal. I just can't tell if they can do what I want. And nearest Guitar Center is 2hrs away, probably don't have em anyways.
So, the Kemper....I've certainly seen quite a few vids showing it nail an amp sound, very impressive. I've listened to a lot of profile demos like M-Britt, Choptones,etc...Some obviously are better than others. The one thing that concerns me regarding the Marshall-type/Friedman profiles I've heard is this: Can they really get that "crisp but not brittle" top-end bite common to the Marshall sound? Yeah a lot of that is the speaker too, I know. But can the Kemper get that speaker bottom-end "resonance/chunk" ya get when you mic an amp or are sitting in front of it? Mainly heard when Palm-muting. I realize these are all very subjective questions. But I'm hoping that y'all can convince me it can sound just like the amp being profiled (got no amps currently btw so I'll be buying profiles). Most all profiles I've heard just seem abit dark/slightly muddy, I've listened on various HP/Speakers and they're still kinda dull. Say I turn up the presence/treble on a profile, will it really sound like turning the dials on the real thing? Turning the gain up, will it retain the amps distortion vibe? I'm sure when cranked it gets further from the real thing. The reason I'm considering the Kemper is simple: I'd love to be able to play through headphones and get a "real amp" sound and hear it awash in my Eventide Eclipse delays/verbs. Itd be fabulous to buy some QuickRod profiles and get that amp's sound, then maybe the Friedman Stevens amp. This would be a godsend for me if it does nail the sound. As I said I don't play out much any nowadays, been using an Axe Fx Standard for yrs, running an Eventide Eclipse in the fx loop. It gets fairly close but not good enough. And I honestly don't think the newer AX8/Axe Fx II is much better. Those units seem to run 3-4 basic OD sounds and fine tune them to get close to the amp being modeled. I'm hoping the Kemper will nail an amp's distortion characteristics based on which individual amp it is, ya know? I know this post is lengthy, and probably a bit confusing. As I said, ideally a Kemper would be perfect if it really is just like the amp being profiled, I'd love that. But the main things deterring me via listening to profile demos (mainly Marshall-type amps) is I haven't really heard maybe a couple examples getting that characteristic Marshall bite/top-end and also the resonance/chunk of the amps speaker. Guys, I'd appreciate any advice/miracle stories/etc, b/c yeah, I'd love to have a hundred great amps in the box. But if it doesn't really get the feel of the real thing, I'd just settle with a great tube amp that gets 1-2 tones perfectly. Thanks for listening