I get about 2 months of shiny sparkly string sound from coated strings, and 1 month of normal strings. I used to use blue steel until I saw them eating my frets, now I use GHS 9 in most guitars, and sometimes when I find a good price, NYXL on my gibsons (on strats they are too treble loaded). I have no particular problem with my sweat, but when I gigged, I used to change strings each 2 weeks. Mind you, I use the strings sometimes up to 1 month after they lost their shine, worn strings also have their charme when recorded.
Posts by Alfahdj
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Yeah... but a factor of 6 is ridiculous...
Branding goes a long way in the price, you can buy the same module as the PS 170 (Which is a 50ASX2 BTL from icepower) plus make your tone stack and case with the balance to unbalance converter, by around 100 bucks and a unit with the same characteristics. Tons of people have made their own, so it is not arcane magic. Seymour duncan + the nice case and manufacturing should have a 200 bucks influence on the prices. Harley benton is... well, not the best quality, but good enough.
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why is this Harley product so inexpensive and the Seymour Duncan PowerStage 200 so explansive? (6 times the price of he Harley)
I know the Harley is 130W and Duncan 200W and some more poti's but what makes it worth?
Actually the HB is 210w at 4 Ohm, so they are roughly equal in power. Differences would be the power amp circuit inside and its quality (that I cannot verify), branding of course, ins and outs, and quality. Until hearing both and test both I cannot tell you the price of the SD is justified compared to the HB. But it goes along the lines, HB is always a lot of bang for your buck.
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I realized last night that the cab had nothing to do with it as I was using merged profiles through a guitar cab. The cabinets are removed in that scenario. The idea behind merged profiles is very smart.
Most of the issues I was solving with a movement of the EQ stack. Before I bought a Kemper I had read some people thought the EQ section didn't really work like a real amp and were complaining about it but I think it is one of the most powerful amp EQs I have used. The freq always seems to be in a good place and doesn't take extreme moves to produce the results you need. I love my Kemper. When I first got it I played for 14 hours straight. My finger tips haven't hurt like that since I was 17!
Its good to hear, if you are using a real cab, then the best thing you can do is putting a graphic eq on the X slot of the kemper, adjust some mid high frequencies and lock the effect so you even the recording nuances (High end between the Top jimmy and M britt profiles), now try and change the normal EQ (that I do too think is wonderfully implemented) to taste and you should be golden. I like this aproach rather than using the presence in the main eq block, so you hava a more even starting point.
Enjoy and hopefully some of the concerns are solved.
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Thanks. Do you do that by locking the cab module? In 6 days I have learned a ton of neat things to do but haven't swapped cabs yet. I'm guessing locking the cab would be the answer to this.
Locking the cab will work, so when you change the profiles you will be able to scroll with the same recording characteristics.
If you decide to do a performace, record each performance slot with the same cab, and tweak to make them sound properly together. As a side note, always eq on full band volume, so you distinguish the real impact of the adjustments. I do mix different author profiles a lot when recording, but for the sake of keeping the same characteristics, I change the amp and tweak effects, but keep the cab, that makes me work less when applying EQ, and finally I sound more consistent, even if I go from fender cleans to dumble drives to marshall high gain.
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Yes. It's easy to tell where that is because it'll make you smile.
Unless you have a loudarch drumer that doesnt let you hear anything anyway, so you just have to use in ear monitors, lol, been there, done that. But finding the perfect volume for all the different outputs will make you reach nirvana while playing, and sound engineer will literally love you.
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Use both and settle to the same cabinet for both, the cab section has all the mic and recording properties that have an effect on the main EQ differences you are hearing. Try both sets and try to find a cabinet between them that works great for both, EQing will be more consistent, and the nuances of the amps will be respected. That is what I would do.
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Thanks, so it tells me I need a Wattmeter in my third party power amp. And I have to check it, if I change the volume or using the bass boost.
My conclusion for a good power amp in general and for Kemper Cabinet:
--> Also prepared for future, diffrent setups / requirements
It should have :
- Class-D digital amplifier hardware with as linear as possible behaviour
- at least 300 Watt peak power output
- stereo output
- 3 outputs or switch for diffrent speaker impedance: 4, 8 and 16 Ohm
- Wattmeter
Did I miss something?
----> What about using a monitor or PA? do I need special outputs on my power amp for having those?
Kinda right, Being honest 300 watts will be maybe too much, it all depends on the efficiency of your amp. I say just get a 200 watts amp of good quality per kone, they will do around 150 to 160 watts after efficiency taken in, that leaves you with an error margin so you never blow up a kemper kone for overpower.
For a PA you use your kemper main outputs, no need for the power amp to have a direct out. PAs are almost always self powered.
And as the friend before said, do not overthink it, just play it safe, and you will be fine. Also a Wattmeter is always helpful around the house, I would have one of those for checking the fridge or other domestic machinery out there anyway.
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Hi, Alfahdj,
Thanks for all the work and documenting your results.
ST
No a problem, I was about to buy the unit anyway as I had a problem with my former self made power amp (125ASX2 icepower amp), now next step is testing the amped output trough a DI box, that way we can totally test how flat the D amp power section is when connected to a speaker, but thats just having fun, the amp sounds well, played the other day with my classic lead 80 2x12 self made cab, I like it, feels warmer than the icepower, but that might just be the Highs roll off I mentioned before.
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Thanks for the effort.
Alfahdj,
What did you use to record the frequency response?
REW, the same as Vtgearhead, from an output of my main interface, to the input of the BAM, then from the direct out of the bam, to a line in from my interface. As I said, the power amp section should be pretty linear, but we had to solve if the tone stack changes the general eq. It does, but you can adjust pretty easily.
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The topic with this amp is, I am pretty sure the tone stack is designed for bass so works as well for guitar, and it should be able to be bypassed, if I can decipher a safe way to bypass it, then you would have a perfect compact preamp for your kone without the need to fiddle with your knobs. But then we are talking about out of warranty operations XD There is a small highs roll off wich I would like to be a bit higher, but doesnt really affect the tone, from 5kHz up, the cabinets barely have any content, it is traduced as "air" on guitar playing (you just adjust the presence a bit up). Also, I am not using 1:1 normalized outputs, so this is not an accurate representation of the amount of dBs the drop represent, but this graph show us that it is indeed a linear amp with low and high filter. Before anyone says something about it, look for the graph of a powerstage 170 and you will see the same kind of curve. I love being objective on these topics, the BAM for me has the best quality/price ratio for a kemper poweramp.
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Just for info in case anyone uses this thread as a resource of knowledge, BluGuitar Amp1 will not be ideal with the Kabinet, as it is 8 or 16 Ohm output only. Connecting to a 4 Ohm Kabinet might damage the poweramp.
My fault, I forgot that small detail, kabinet is 4 Ohms.
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I prefer a fully functional product.
Harley Benton GPA-400 is this a good one? How can I see the linearity of the amp? only on product reviews? on the manufacture website?
GPA-400 Should be totally ok, it is class D so it shoulf work as expected, most guitar gear manufacturers do not specify the specs clearly (as bandwith and thd) but harley benton does and it looks fine, so, roll with it if you can get it.
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So here we are, I can testify on the linearity of the BAM200, you can reliably use it as neutral power AMP. Here are my settings and the results feeding the amp and using the dirrect output from the BAM, the unit under the conditions shown is as linear as it can get. Gain can be used at leisure, as it doesnt change the frequency response of the amp, just to collaborate with Mr. VTGEARHEAD.
Thats for 3pm gain.
And thats for 12 pm, as linear as a power amp gets. Sounds good to me anyway
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So I guess the Kemper power unit is a class D amplifier? Or what is it?
And
Is linear behavior and no sound coloring the same?
It is D amplifier, to be exact, it is a 250ASX2 icepower module, in BTL mode, with a unblanced to balanced converter.
And normally yes, a linear amp has no eq coloring the sound and a almost 1:1 response (perfect linearity does not exist in power amplifying).
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Ah oh... I jut found out that my question is definitely not a easy question....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_amplifier_classes
whats that?
and yeah I believe a tube amp is not the way to go after a kemper. I need a amplifier with the fewest sound coloration.
Do It Yourself route. You can find the same module that the powered kemper uses inside or something similar (normally a class D amp with integrated power block) and make it work with a bit of electrical craftsmanship and knowledge (its not as hard as it seems). But again, not recommended if you have never done it before.
About Power amp classes, yes, it is a big topic, but what you should know every class has different ways to beheave, class D is pretty linear by design, but that does not excent the others to work wonders with the kemper, the matrix amplifiers are regarded as some of the best amps for guitar amplification of modelers, and they are A/B. You can use whatever, the recommendations are those above, but to be hones, YMMV, as I said, I had great results running my kemper trough my deluxe reverb.
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The Bluguitar Amp1 is more like a tube power amp since it's a current feedback amp. It's not going to be linear and transparent, and is not advised for use with the Kemper if you want authentic sounds that don't double up on tube power amp effects.
So are the Fryette amps, still they are used with the kemper. As I mention in my post, tube and A/B amps are overkill. But if you get a good sound out of it, then it should be ok to use. As a matter of fact, before doing my 125ASX2 amp, I ran my kemper trough my Fender Deluxe Reverb, it did work wonders and had a great tone, not a transparent linear one, but a good tone. Amp1 might not be the most linear, but it sounded good to my ears and a lot of people think so. It isnt my first or second option anyway.
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I don't have 24VDC, so 230VAC would be nice. Is every active Pedal / Stomp always 24VDC? or are there 230VAC versions aswell?
And for example the Kemper Cabinet is 200W rms, so I need a 200W power amp?
RMS is always dependable in the efficiency of the system running it, so technically you would need MORE than a 200W to bust a kemper kone. Back to the original question, I have been discovering recently, that any linear power amp will do fine, there are some more linear than others, some noisier than others, but mostly anything can be sorted out to sound fine.
Now on recommendations, Kemper himself recommends a class D amp, as those by design are pretty linear, transparent and straightfoward, dynamics will come from the kemper itself, so putting a tube amp or A/B amp in front might be overkill, but also works fine.
Specific recommendations on here are as follows:
For Kabinet specificly:
ISP Stealth
Seymour duncan powerstage 200 (or 170)
Bluguitar Amp1
BAM200 (sold as a bass mini amphead, but it is a class D with mosfet preamp, pretty transparent)
If you have the money:
Matrix GT1000FX (GT800FX is also good but discontinued)
Fryette PS2
Powerstage 700
The DIY route:
ICEPower modules (50ASX2/BTL , 125ASX2, 250ASX2)
Any Class D design or taken out from any PA system.
Myself, I have a 125ASX2 stereo amp I made (works great, but I have some issues with it I need to correct), had a Hotone Loudster (sold), just Bought a BAM200, and tried the bluguitar Amp1 but was out of my budget.
Everything works ok of what I have tried.
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Nothing wrong about using it before. In a clean amp, apart from only getting mono sound, there wont be much of a difference, the thing changes after you get some overdrive or other modulations after the delay, a delay before an overdriven amp, drives the tubes harder, as a residual sound its going trough the preamp most of the time, whereas if you use it after the amp section, it only reproduces a delay of the dry guitar after driving the amp. Sometimes it makes the sound a bit muddier, but to be fair, for lead tones I love the delay before the amp, for clean atmospheric passages, I use it after the amp. Your choice really, experiment with it.
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If you are looking for a Hx-Stomp sized kemper device, the whole board has to be redisigned so it is a multilayerd PCB, it would be really tight for starters. Line 6 is so big of a company I bet for them that was cakewalk, but it might take a lot longer for Kemper to do it. I mean, kemper stage is impresive enough considering everything. But I wish also to have an smaller simpler form factor, FM3 is the response from fractal, the market is going that direction.
