I miss my Kemper

I love the idea of Kemper but know it’s a bad fit for my junkie brain. Too tempting to buy profiles and not just find and tweak what I’ve got.

Honestly my favorite sounds I ever got were the free Dirty Shirley MBritt stock profile just with the gain adjusted up and down.

But if the prices dropped well below $1k or if they made a smaller cuter cheaper version I’d be tempted again. Sounds are great and I like the experience overall. Just keep it away from the computer.
 
Jarick said:
I love the idea of Kemper but know it’s a bad fit for my junkie brain. Too tempting to buy profiles and not just find and tweak what I’ve got.

Honestly my favorite sounds I ever got were the free Dirty Shirley MBritt stock profile just with the gain adjusted up and down.

But if the prices dropped well below $1k or if they made a smaller cuter cheaper version I’d be tempted again. Sounds are great and I like the experience overall. Just keep it away from the computer.
Click to expand...

Bought a used Kemper yesterday on a whim. Seller dropped the price pretty low and had free shipping, so why not? A good $100-200 cheaper than most others anyway.

Not selling anything, just adding to the collection for now at least. Curious to see how the liquid profiling shakes out, and especially curious to try running it through the Katana power amp/cab.
 
I have been playing around with my new Kemper stage, KSR PA50 and my Mesa 1x12 widebody cab. Comparing the Badlander 50 head through the cab and the Kemper/KSR PA50 is pretty much indistinguishable. This sounds a lot different than when I had my Kemper unit years back.

For me, this is a major win. I was hoping for the best for this setup and it works and sounds amazing!
 
TSJMajesty said:
That still potentially takes money out of someone's pocket. Say there's one you want, consider purchasing, then think, "Oh wait. I have that already."

Just sayin'...
Click to expand...

This is a sorta dead horse debate :horse

I also sell synth presets. I don't expect to lose money if the buyer later sells their synth and doesn't delete them first. If anything, I'm glad I made any money in the first place.

An analogy/rhetorical question;
If I buy car that has aftermarket floor liners, fuzzy dice on the rear view mirror, upgraded radio, new tires and rims, and so forth, am I supposed to trash all that stuff so I can buy it again?
 
I've been playing mine more the last 2 weeks. Maybe it's the new MBritt 6 pack smooth and crunchy packs that I've really bonded with.
Also I'm not a hi gain tonez kind of guy, so maybe I'm not hitting the KPA where some people find it's lacking or cocked wah-ish

My Axe 3 isn't speaking to me these days :rolleyes:
 
madmarcus1960 said:
I've been playing mine more the last 2 weeks. Maybe it's the new MBritt 6 pack smooth and crunchy packs that I've really bonded with.
Also I'm not a hi gain tonez kind of guy, so maybe I'm not hitting the KPA where some people find it's lacking or cocked wah-ish

My Axe 3 isn't speaking to me these days :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

What are you playing through? Monitors, headphones, speaker cab?
 
I have an old PRS SE deep 212 cab with 2 Kones, driven by a Ritter 2x90W stereo add on amp. Used to be 2x180W @ 8ohms, but Ritter answered an email on how to internally change it to be safe for 4ohms(Kones are 4ohm each). The Ritters are 4 ohm ready.
My toaster is mounted in a Zilla Head, so it looks like an amp on top of the PRS cab.
 
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NightWalker said:
will never understand why people sell the Kemper and then buy it again:facepalm
Click to expand...

In my case, I sold my Stage when I bought the FM9. I didn't want two floor modelers. But, I did want the Kemper tones back. So the Toaster appeared and looks cool in the studio in a way the Stage can't.
 
In my world Kemper only has competition from an analog rig. (Mainly cause that allows quick acces to all parameters...which has value when you play different settings where the stage sound impacts what you need to dial in yourself)

But it’s funny how I judge the differences in quality…only last week:

I set up a combo in 4cm for the first time…and love it.
Fire up my Kemper to compare my usual sounds (through cabs)..and liked the amp much better.
For a day or 2 I’m rethinking owning a modeler.
Then decide to profile that combo I loved so much..and loved the result equally

conclusion..if I can’t make it work with the Kemper…it’s on me ;)
 
NightWalker said:
will never understand why people sell the Kemper and then buy it again:facepalm
Click to expand...

First time I sold the Kemper, I used the money to get my first Axe FX 3.

Second time I sold the Kemper, I used the money to get my MIJ Ibanez AZ.

Now I'm trying to just add things instead of jumping from thing to thing. Downside is more stuff but upside is not constantly second guessing everything.
 
madmarcus1960 said:
I have an old PRS SE deep 212 cab with 2 Kones, driven by a Ritter 2x90W stereo add on amp. Used to be 2x180W @ 8ohms, but Ritter answered an email on how to internally change it to be safe for 4ohms(Kones are 4ohm each). The Ritters are 4 ohm ready.
My toaster is mounted in a Zilla Head, so it looks like an amp on top of the PRS cab.
Click to expand...
Pics? :guiness
 
KPA.jpg


It's behind 2 Hohner Professional lawsuit guitars(a L56 LP Custom copy w/BKP Supermassive P90s, and SE35 ES335 copy, w/Arcane Triple Clone - B and a 57 Experience- N )
 
I forgot about the joys of the Kemper...

Download and install Rig Manager, then update over USB...update failed, Kemper locks up.

Try it again, update seems to work but Rig Manager crashes.

Oh boy...
 
Never had crashes, but I have experienced needing to plug the KPA directly into a motherboard USB and not a hub.
I've also had the KPA never finish coming back up after a firmware flash via RM, but power cycling fixed it.
 
Okay, got everything updated and working.

Then I had to spend two hours ripping apart my guitar to fix a bad pot and ground wire issue :facepalm

Kemper seems awesome for recording, instant gratification to get great amp tones. I set up the monitor output to just give me the profile plus effects in front (mod mono), so I can add time based effects in the DAW (Helix Native is great for this). I can monitor with zero latency off the main outputs and then record just the amp tone separately. I can also tap a dry DI signal too which is useful.

(Note that the Axe FX 3 can do all these things too, plus over USB which is nice)

But I redid a few tracks this morning and was able to find profiles in my library quickly that work great for the part with minimal tweaking (just a touch of gain and bass mid treb pres). Using mostly MBritt profiles I've had for years so that's all good. For example I wanted a tone of a Vox style amp pushed by a Klon, so I searched Klon and found a few, got one that sounded awesome.
 
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