A lot of people will disagree with my hardware modeler ranking

[laxu]

... and then realize that the thing that prevents me from sounding great is actually my lack of skill rather than any gear related issue

There's just some things you don't say on a guitar gear forum!

 

[OneEng]

The fact that all guitar sites and magazines are shills and receive payment for their rankings and that any modeler can sound drastically different overnight with a firmware upgrade, all cursory reviews are meaningless and are more for entertainment purposes and advertising campaigns.
Even on the outside chance they were valid at one point, they are dated as soon as new code develops.

The only way to rank the devices is to try them all out.

OR..just watch Pete Thorn make everything sound great and be happy knowing that they can all do the job.

Sadly, there is a lot of truth to this. It seems like the review sites and major reviewers land into 2 catagories:

1. Paid by one or more OEM to slant the discussion in favor of their product
2. Click bait designed to drive more traffic through their channel

Neither one of which ends up being a good indicator of the usefulness of one device over the other to a particular user.

I would argue that most people aren't going to purchase one of each of the units, and use them with enough depth to determine (on their own with their own experiences) which device best fits their needs. This is very costly and very time consuming.

While I have to agree with you that the reviews all seem to lack objectivity, some are still much better than others.

What I did was to find people who had moved from a high end boutique tube amp rig, that gigged like I do with their rig, and see which digital amp they used. These people are my gold standard. Most anyone who was using a VHT, Fender Blackface, Friedman, Soldano, Dumble, etc that were very satisfied with their digital amp would likely be right up my alley of taste.

I looked at what worked for people that previously used the best tube amp rigs money could buy. When I did this (in 2013), Kemper and Fractal were the only serious contenders in THAT space.

Today, Line 6 has significantly upped their game from the old pods of the past, QC has entered the market and did "Kemper Profiling" better than Kemper did it, and even Fender has an up-and-coming digital amp that is improving quickly.

If I were to change lanes again today, there would be many more contenders for me to consider.

Now, I have had time on most of these devices as I have friends that gig that own them. Not the kind of time it would take to get each one as dialed in as my Kemper, but enough to see what they can do. That is also a good exercise ..... but seriously, how many people are going to take even this amount of time to qualify a device?

I think the best resource is people doing what you want to do with their rigs that previously had tube amp rigs that were top of the line they were using to do it.

 

[metropolis_4]

Yeah, I prefer to rank modelers the old fashioned way: play them myself.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Yeah, I prefer to rank modelers the old fashioned way: play them myself.

That's so... quaint.

 

[deepskyone]

Yeah, I prefer to rank modelers the old fashioned way: play them myself.

"Play" as in "playing a guitar"? Are you mad, good sir? Who does such a thing?

 

[metropolis_4]

That's so... quaint.

"Play" as in "playing a guitar"? Are you mad, good sir? Who does such a thing?

 

[FuzzyAce]

 

[the swede]

"Play" as in "playing a guitar"? Are you mad, good sir? Who does such a thing?

Agreed.. strange behavior. I haven’t touched my guitar in a year. Yet I’m all over this damn place, I’m sorting my pedals and cables in my old fart desk, bought a new pedal board, going down to the basement when the kids are sleeping and place pedals in different combinations but don’t hook anything up, put them in the drawer one evening and the next pick them up again and fondle them. God knows what the fuck happens if i actually velcro something to the board… that’s a huge thought. To much…

I think i may open the guitar case tomorrow and just hold the guitar, realize it’s out of tune, contemplating tuning it, but the new tuner i just bought isn’t hooked up, so I’ll probably just wait to the next weekend.


This is all true. No joke.

 

[the swede]

@FuzzyAce it’s cool… I’ll be alright… just takes time.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

 

[FuzzyAce]

@FuzzyAce it’s cool… I’ll be alright… just takes time.

 

[OneEng]

While I agree that playing guitar is MUCH more fun that dinking around with pedals (for me anyway), This particular thread is about people that dink around with pedals and give their opinion on which pedal is best.

I don't think it is unusual for people interested in reviews to comment on the reviews. It certainly doesn't mean that none of us here actually PLAY a guitar frequently. I play many hours a week. Even get paid to do it (which is crazy since I actually like doing it. I tell people I play for free and charge to move the PA :).

 

[nightlight]

While I agree that playing guitar is MUCH more fun that dinking around with pedals (for me anyway), This particular thread is about people that dink around with pedals and give their opinion on which pedal is best.

I don't think it is unusual for people interested in reviews to comment on the reviews. It certainly doesn't mean that none of us here actually PLAY a guitar frequently. I play many hours a week. Even get paid to do it (which is crazy since I actually like doing it. I tell people I play for free and charge to move the PA :).

Ahaha, good strategy. Sadly, I don’t own a car after nearly killing myself in a wreck some time ago (I like to go fast), so this would only mean me handing someone my paycheque.

On the subject of playing, I try and play everyday if I can help it. I suck, but that’s another thing altogether.

 

[OneEng]

Ahaha, good strategy. Sadly, I don’t own a car after nearly killing myself in a wreck some time ago (I like to go fast), so this would only mean me handing someone my paycheque.

On the subject of playing, I try and play everyday if I can help it. I suck, but that’s another thing altogether.

LOL. Sorry to hear about the wreck.

I "Like" to play every day as well; however, generally speaking, I get a couple hours in 2 or 3 times a week these days between work and "Honey Do" lists at home! I gig a couple of times a month and band practices once a week for about 4 hours on top of the private practice time. That's sadly about all the time I can allocate to my beloved guitar hobby and maintain marital bliss :).

I was practicing and performing with another guy as a Duo on top of my full band. That caused some friction.

Hmmm. I wonder if things would have been different if I were using a different pedal than my Kemper

 

[JCW308]

Ok, it is quite clear at this point that my wording was way off in the first post.

Back to my original point, there are MANY (most) gigging musicians both touring, and local bar band guitarists that WOULD NOT use a 2 or 3 button digital guitar amp live.

There are many gigging musicians who WOULD use such a device, but I still contend that for most gigging musicians that are attracted to a digital guitar amp, are going to want a better floor board than that.

Just to put this in perspective, can someone post a touring guitarist on a big stage using ONLY a 3 button digital amplifier?

As for the strange off-shoot topic of tone changing when updating the firmware, for ME that is a DEAD NO. As has been eluded to in other posts regarding having tones for different types of songs, I have worked hard over years to accumulate a library of sounds that I use live and that work very well with a wide variety of songs and sit in the mix nicely. Kemper tones DON'T change when up update firmware. Not since 2013 when I bought mine.

I know others here are arguing that people should just stop wining and update their patches when this happens. Seriously? I suppose some people are just used to being screwed by the OEM of their digital amp and don't mind it anymore.

I wonder why this topic isn't one of the metrics used by these geniuses that make these "best digital amps" videos? Perhaps they only talk about using the device vs having to actually gig with it for a living?

Again, my point is that without the perspective of "best for what?", any "best digital amps" comparison is simply useless.

Three buttons does not equal just three sounds. With both the FM3 and Kemper Stage, I can get six completely different sounds (with gapless switching and reverb/delay trails), tap tempo and tuner with three buttons VERY easily. Completely gig-ready.

 

[timbuck3]

and even Fender has an up-and-coming digital amp that is improving quickly.

they have a digital amp coming out? like the older cybertwin?

 

[Sascha Franck]

With both the FM3 and Kemper Stage, I can get6 completely different sounds, tap tempo and tuner with three buttons VERY easily.

You'll likely have to do long presses for that, though. Which is fine for, say, tuning between songs but nothing I'd ever wanted to do inmidst a song.

 

[Frodebro]

You'll likely have to do long presses for that, though. Which is fine for, say, tuning between songs but nothing I'd ever wanted to do inmidst a song.

Or just assign each switch to toggle between two scenes. That's six scenes easily accessible without even delving into the hold function.

 

[JCW308]

You'll likely have to do long presses for that, though. Which is fine for, say, tuning between songs but nothing I'd ever wanted to do inmidst a song.

Six scenes (BY NAME RIGHT ON THE SCREEN) with no hold. So easy, anyone can do it.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Six scenes (BY NAME RIGHT ON THE SCREEN) with no hold.

How?