I sold all my pedals to buy a kemper - My Story

joeyowen

The number 1 best seller from bedroom guitarist J.Owen

Right, so I'm making a thread to give my thoughts as I've seen a few people deciding whether to sell multiple things to get a Kemer/Helix/Axe. I thought for about 6 months before taking the plunge.

The facts:

• I sold 8 pedals, totalling about £1100. I was going to but a second hand Kemper but no luck so I purchased:
• A rack mounted, unpowered Kemper  for £1400 from Andertons.
• I have £40 ish to spend in loyaly points. so only a £260 loss.
• I'm not in a band, so I can't report on gigs right now.
• I play anything from Mayer/Slash/Gilbert/Paramore using Strat or LP mainly
• Running it through Rockit 5s or Beyer DT100 headphones

Day 1
I finally get home from work to open the unit, perfect! Turn it on enter date/name, perfect! Time to leave to the mothers for tea. Balls.

Day 2
I finally get home from work to turn on the unit and download the rig manager software, it shows over 9000 available profiles. Time to leave to my grans, it's her birthday. Balls! (Obviously, not really)

Day 3
I read enough reports saying the stock profiles aren't great and there are some recommendations.  Where possible I don't want to buy profiles as I've just sank enough into the unit. I spend an hour or 2 flying through profiles, completely stunned by how good this thing sounds. Clean/crunch/djent, it nails it.  Honestly though, not much playing mostly listening to some sounds, the CHANNNGEEE PLACES, another sound.  I also realise there are lots of in built effects, even more tweaking.

Day 4
I spend some time getting some basic profiles added to my favourites. I have 4, Clean Two Rock, Gained Two Rock, MBritt Dumble OD and a Bogner Shiva Lead.  All 4 are so so good.  The clean two rock profile had me playing my strat for about 40 mins without noticing the time.  It is crazy good.  A CON! I don't rate the gain knob.  If it's a clean profile, leave it clean.  if it's high gain, leave it high gain.  The gain dial will take a 5150 to clean, and a two rock to high gain.  I don't believe it to be accurate.  And it's not really worth moving the dial any more than 1 place/light



So, no regrets so far.  Playing hasn't been this fun in a long long long long time.  I'll keep you posted

Col_Decker

Happy new amp day!!






















And happy birthday Granny!

Jez6345789

Love mine and the more you dig in the more you will enjoy.
it was a big ask for me to blow that much as a bedroom home recording bod but it's the best sound I have had.

Lew

• I play anything from Mayer/Slash/Gilbert/Paramore using Strat or LP mainly

So pretty much just 90s guitar music then. Not having a dig (well not too much) these (and the other similar units) seem geared up for that small bandwidth of taste. Well, that and teenage metal. Perhaps the companies just know the target market incredibly well.

joeyowen

Lew said:

• I play anything from Mayer/Slash/Gilbert/Paramore using Strat or LP mainly

@Lew ;
 I'm missing something, what's your point? not djenty enough?

Lew

Sorry - it was a placeholder whilst I was writing. Speedy Gonzales. I strongly dislike Djent. How is the Kemper at taking pedals? Can you feed it ge fuzz? That version looks alot better than the radio looking one :-)

guitarfishbay

The clean and mid gain tones I've heard from the Kemper are really quite good. To the point where unless it's an A/B, or you tell someone it is digital, they probably wouldn't say anything.

joeyowen

Lew said:

Sorry - it was a placeholder whilst I was writing. Speedy Gonzales. I strongly dislike Djent. How is the Kemper at taking pedals? Can you feed it ge fuzz? That version looks alot better than the radio looking one :-)

Ah fair.  Ok, irony is I sold me pedals so I can't tell you.  However the inbuilt effects are good.  I used a TS for years, and the TS in this is identical to me. 

As for the styles, there are a million more artists I could add, they just came to mind.  Which was why the Kemper was a benefit to me. I'm currently on a Paul Gilbert binge, using shred with slight delay and chorus! Although I couldn't help but play Slow Dancing... with the Two Rock setting.

This time next week I could happily be playing along to Hans Zimmer soundtracks, so I needed something to do a lot.

If I only played Slash/Paramore/Generic Marshall sound I wouldn't have bothered really, as you are right, other cheaper units handle that just fine

joeyowen

guitarfishbay said:

The clean and mid gain tones I've heard from the Kemper are really quite good. To the point where unless it's an A/B, or you tell someone it is digital, they probably wouldn't say anything.

I did a side by side of my Deville, to a Deville profile.  Identical I tells you.

In the room, bigger speakers made a difference.  But during playback, 0 difference

BintyTwanger77

Have you done the firmware update with the new delays yet, or is it not fully available yet?

joeyowen

BintyTwanger77 said:

Have you done the firmware update with the new delays yet, or is it not fully available yet?

I think it updated straight away with rig manager, as there are about 14 ish delays on the unit.

Sound awesome, but I'm not the biggest delay person in the world.  The Nemesis was awesome, so was my timebender

PVO_Dave

There's even more in 5.1 (Beta) in RM you need to enable it to allow beta's, it also doesn't by default add all the rig packs - If you've got 'Crystal delay' for example, you probably have all the 5 content.

joeyowen

Well, it's been a while since I've updated.  I was playing so much, and there wasn't much new to add.

I'm not sure the honeymoon stage is officially over, but feck me this thing is amazing.

Honestly, the best sounds I've ever had.

Fretwired

Enjoy .. it's great when you get a bit of kit that makes you want to play guitar ..

57Deluxe

Digital doesn't have that smell when hot though...!

professorben

57Deluxe said:

Digital doesn't have that smell when hot though...!

Pair of pants and a hairdryer......
easy solution.