What I learned from Kemper

Great post!

My experience is incredibly similar to yours. My love for boosted JCM800s has been rekindled, also I would never have considered a Fuchs amp before playing the MBritt profiles and now I really want one.

Quote from Southdakota

Very good point. I think you are spot on as for most mesa profiles being dialed into that traditional scooped sound. And I didn't mean to bash mesa. I had mine sounding great with KT77's and some EQ changes. Even so, I'm still drawn more to the Friedman's, JCM 800, Orange kind of vibe......And again, even more so now after scrolling through my Kemper!

Tone is so subjective one person’s perfection is another’s idea of hell

Funny thing is I have played JCM800s and found the ones I played to be so e of the most god awful sounding pieces of junk I ever had the misfortune to have to use...... it I’ve found some JCM800 profiles that sound 1000x better than the real thing. I could actually use some of those

Nice perspective for sure. I love some of the Mesa profiles I have. They really nail the tone of exactly what I expect/love about them. I won't mention any names as to avoid a "thread move", but they're out there.

As @Dean_R says, switch it up with IR's/cabs might help to achieve a better tone.

I have some -13 and Carol-Ann amp profiles that really kick. Never would of got to play them, great amps!

And how many of us have tried a Dumble? Or an obscure boutique amp you hadn't heard of? Or an amp and cab and mike combination you had not thought of? It's like testing amps in the largest shop in the world and being able to take all those amps with you back home to try as thoroughly as you wish. The Kemper may not be 100% faithful, but does it matter that much? It may to some pro like Bonamassa, but sure not to me. If only there existed some guitar shop like that in my neighborhood, with lots of lefties to try! I might find that perfect guitar I wouldn't ever have bought otherwise!

Quote from CJGOMEZ

And how many of us have tried a Dumble?

Totes!

I experienced something similar but it was with Marshalls. Over the years I've tried many different Marshalls trying to find that "tone in my head" Never could quite get there. Sold everything but my Silver Jubilee I bought new in 1987 and got a Kemper. Figured out the tone I really liked was from a Marshall I never even considered trying and thanks to Top Jimi and his JTM-45 profiles I found it. The Kemper is the best, most useful musical purchase I have ever made. I love it.

For me it was also being able to audition amps I would never get to try in person. That and the realization the cabinet is more than half the tone. Amazing!

Another thing I figured out thanks to the Kemper is how bad the stock pickups are on Les Paul std. the possibility to have the amps sweet spots at bedroom volumes helps much.
Changing them has been a great tone improvement

I spent many years trying to nail the tones I was after and when I got the Bogner Shiva my search ended. Now I've found that I use Shiva profiles on the KPA for at least half of my sounds.

The great thing is being able to jump into Vox and Fender land, which I couldn't do.

Not only amps, mics and cabs, but also the type of guitar and pickups make a big difference. I get the best results with Fender guitars American Standard Strat, Richie Kotzen Signature Tele and Strat, but not so much with my Les Paul Standard or PRS Custom. I find the KPA reacts very sensitive to different guitars. The RK signatures are probably the most underrated signature guitars in my opinion. Great quality, great tone, made in Japan.
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