Can’t decide between Kemper Stage or Fractal

steve coogan film GIF
 
With regard to “spending time with your gear, and learning it well,” I had a helix twice, and spent 3 years with it.

I loved the clean tones and ambient sounds I got from it; even successfully made an Eric Johnson clean/chorus preset which was amazing.

However, I just could NOT get the high gain tones I wanted, despite trying eq’s, dual amps, a ton of IRs, and countless hours of tweaking.

I ended up selling it and building a massive pedalboard that sounded incredible. But THEN, my health went in the sh$tter—

I had an unsuccessful back surgery, a terrible reaction to pain meds which made me suicidal (I’m autistic, bipolar AND have OCD…yup, I won the genetic lottery!)

Then I got told I likely had prostate cancer—which I have a biopsy to confirm this Tuesday. I was also told that there were multiple neoplasias around my abdomen, chest, etc.

SO, I told myself “F this. I’m gonna die, I might as well sell all my gear. I can’t play if I’m dead.”

Then, I sold everything.

However, my pain meds were adjusted, and my mood went back to normal.

Further imaging showed the neoplasias were NOT malignant.

I started to think, “Damn! I might live after all. I think I’ll buy back some gear… but it can’t be a massive full stack, or an 80 pound pedalboard like before. It’s gotta be compact, and sound good.”

So, I ordered a new guitar and a Kemper— the guitar should be here Tuesday, and the Kemper Thursday.

If I DONT have cancer…. We’ll, even if I DO, and have to have my prostate removed (and there goes my sex life,) I’m gonna need SOMETHING to make me want to keep living. For me, that something in music.

I love playing guitar, and I can hardly wait for my new gear!

And, with any luck, I WONT have prostate cancer.

We’ll see.

:)
 
Foxmeister said:
This was never the case in my experience - personally I've always found the Helix easy to dial in.

I do wonder if this a "genre" thing though - anecdotally it does seem that many people who regularly frequent digital and modelling forums are high-gain/metal players (for the most part), whereas I seldom want to play anything "heavier" than AC/DC, and really tend to live in the clean/edge-of-breakup space.
Click to expand...

My tastes run about the same as yours, about as dirty as I go is 80s metal/hair metal, so basically a boosted Marshall. Now, I will admit that I haven't kept up with the Helix updates because I don't use it all that often, but when I first got it I struggled to get decent crunch sounds out of it, which required adding EQ blocks and fighting with the cabs. These extra steps aren't necessary with the Fractal or Kemper, so while it may be easy to dial in the Helix once you've cracked the code, the learning curve is figuring out what that code is in the first place.
 
Speedyone said:
Then I got told I likely had prostate cancer—which I have a biopsy to confirm this Tuesday. I was also told that there were multiple neoplasias around my abdomen, chest, etc.

SO, I told myself “F this. I’m gonna die, I might as well sell all my gear. I can’t play if I’m dead.”

Then, I sold everything.

However, my pain meds were adjusted, and my mood went back to normal.

Further imaging showed the neoplasias were NOT malignant.
Click to expand...

Very sorry to read that. Your story really puts this all into perspective.

I'm sure you'll love your Kemper. Wishing you all the best.
 
Speedyone said:
With regard to “spending time with your gear, and learning it well,” I had a helix twice, and spent 3 years with it.

I loved the clean tones and ambient sounds I got from it; even successfully made an Eric Johnson clean/chorus preset which was amazing.

However, I just could NOT get the high gain tones I wanted, despite trying eq’s, dual amps, a ton of IRs, and countless hours of tweaking.

I ended up selling it and building a massive pedalboard that sounded incredible. But THEN, my health went in the sh$tter—

I had an unsuccessful back surgery, a terrible reaction to pain meds which made me suicidal (I’m autistic, bipolar AND have OCD…yup, I won the genetic lottery!)

Then I got told I likely had prostate cancer—which I have a biopsy to confirm this Tuesday. I was also told that there were multiple neoplasias around my abdomen, chest, etc.

SO, I told myself “F this. I’m gonna die, I might as well sell all my gear. I can’t play if I’m dead.”

Then, I sold everything.

However, my pain meds were adjusted, and my mood went back to normal.

Further imaging showed the neoplasias were NOT malignant.

I started to think, “Damn! I might live after all. I think I’ll buy back some gear… but it can’t be a massive full stack, or an 80 pound pedalboard like before. It’s gotta be compact, and sound good.”

So, I ordered a new guitar and a Kemper— the guitar should be here Tuesday, and the Kemper Thursday.

If I DONT have cancer…. We’ll, even if I DO, and have to have my prostate removed (and there goes my sex life,) I’m gonna need SOMETHING to make me want to keep living. For me, that something in music.

I love playing guitar, and I can hardly wait for my new gear!

And, with any luck, I WONT have prostate cancer.

We’ll see.

:)
Click to expand...
Don't let the prostate cancer thing get you down. Most times you'll die of old age before the cancer kills you. If it's a non-aggressive type they'll often just monitor it (watchful waiting).
 
just to elaborate little more on my journey settling on FM3.

It has been a bit like finding the right girl and getting married finally.

Gone through so many buying and selling cycle (Kemper-Line6-Fractal-Boss) to get where I am (have lost counts), this is not to say Fractal would be the answer to all, as everyone has different goals and tastes.

FM3, to me in overall provides the most tonal satisfaction and features that I need. and I have nearly zero desire to pursue a new gen modeler.

You gotta ask yourself if you would be happy going amp modeling or profiling. My choice is the amp modeling, which FAS pinnacles at IMHO.

In saying all this I have re-purchased Helix Stomp last week. Only because it was on special. :facepalm I will never part with it.
 
People talk about learning gear, but nothing I’ve ever loved took much learning. At all.

Old amps, a newer Dumble clone .. etc ..all my favorite pedals .. all the stuff that works for me is like an arrow through my heart in seconds. And nothing I ever stuck with just to try and make it work for me .. like a limited edition, objectively cool, pricey unnamed “modern” guitar .. ever got much easier. So that kinda stuff goes. I’m sure someone else could use it to change the world. Not me.

Personally I stick with gear because it sounds and feels great—immediately—and is reliable. I never would’ve kept the Kemper if it wasn’t pretty much instant. But it was, so it has stayed for a long time. Ten years now.

The Kemper effects were never as bad as the internet said they were, always very useable. But over the years the drives, fuzz, reverb and delays have all been rebuilt expanded and improved, in the sense that instead of being creative with boosts eq and shaper stomps, there are presets that get you there fast, for Klon KOT OCD etc tones.

It’s nice that all the ongoing improvements are free and that amp tones I loved from day one weren’t permanently altered by fw updates. That would irk me.

My old unit has to be the spdif master, that’s a bit annoying, but easy. Also the Stage has a physical impedance circuit (not sure that’s the right word) that lets your guitar volume knob interact with the Kemper fuzz the way it would with a Sunface or other vintage style fuzz. I’d like that. But I’m not into amp controls on the floor.

Anyway people talk about gear, and the internet has always ragged on the Kemper while musicians and producers in the real world have embraced it. Shrug.

Hope you enjoy yours. The great thing is that for folks around here who don’t bond with the Kemper, Fractal usually seems to satisfy their frustrations. And whatever. I have twenty year old Pod bean tracks that sound great-ish. So I gotta believe Line6 is good too.

Good luck with all of life’s other (real) challenges.
 
Kemper is a fantastic unit, and I have enjoyed years owning them (4x toaster 1x stage or something like that). At the end, I did not want to rely on someone else's profiling works and I do not own tube amps to profile myself. It got harder and harder to keep track of (ever) growing number of profiles both commercial and private Rig Manager. I have had my favorite profiles separated out, but found myself re-auditioning them every now and then to have them memorized (not just different amps but at different gain settings etc).
Effects wise I did not have problems as they sounded fantastic. I hated performance mode though. Never had a good hang of it until the end.
 
Speedyone said:
With regard to “spending time with your gear, and learning it well,” I had a helix twice, and spent 3 years with it.

I loved the clean tones and ambient sounds I got from it; even successfully made an Eric Johnson clean/chorus preset which was amazing.

However, I just could NOT get the high gain tones I wanted, despite trying eq’s, dual amps, a ton of IRs, and countless hours of tweaking.

I ended up selling it and building a massive pedalboard that sounded incredible. But THEN, my health went in the sh$tter—

I had an unsuccessful back surgery, a terrible reaction to pain meds which made me suicidal (I’m autistic, bipolar AND have OCD…yup, I won the genetic lottery!)

Then I got told I likely had prostate cancer—which I have a biopsy to confirm this Tuesday. I was also told that there were multiple neoplasias around my abdomen, chest, etc.

SO, I told myself “F this. I’m gonna die, I might as well sell all my gear. I can’t play if I’m dead.”

Then, I sold everything.

However, my pain meds were adjusted, and my mood went back to normal.

Further imaging showed the neoplasias were NOT malignant.

I started to think, “Damn! I might live after all. I think I’ll buy back some gear… but it can’t be a massive full stack, or an 80 pound pedalboard like before. It’s gotta be compact, and sound good.”

So, I ordered a new guitar and a Kemper— the guitar should be here Tuesday, and the Kemper Thursday.

If I DONT have cancer…. We’ll, even if I DO, and have to have my prostate removed (and there goes my sex life,) I’m gonna need SOMETHING to make me want to keep living. For me, that something in music.

I love playing guitar, and I can hardly wait for my new gear!

And, with any luck, I WONT have prostate cancer.

We’ll see.

:)
Click to expand...

Holy Shit! You do whatever makes YOU happy. :beer
 
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