Posts by alerich

I am a high gain guy and my favorite profile pack is the Michael Britt Crank N Go pack. Soldano SLO 100, Friedman BE, EVH 5150 and a few other amps. I got my Kemper powered toaster in March 2019 and bought this pack shortly thereafter and his SLO profiles have been my daily drivers ever since. The BE is outstanding, too. I have since purchased every other SLO profile pack I saw and none made the cut compared to the MBritt profiles. After about a half dozen others I stopped looking. The TopJimi stuff is very nice. He has made it a crusade to hunt down the Brown Sound. That is where I would start.

I still have my Soldano Hot Rod 50 half stack that was my main amp when I got my Kemper. I've tried profiling it numerous times and while each attempt gets a little better like you I have struggled to make profiles that sound as good as the ones I have purchased. Honestly, if I would have had to rely solely on the factory profiles or the Rig Exchange I probably would not have kept my Kemper.

Your settings are pretty close to mine. My daily driver profile is the Michael Britt SLO 100. It's a pretty high gain profile. I push the gain up a bit higher than the stock profile (I think he named it OD 8). I tweaked the settings to get as close to my old Thomas Organ Sepulveda Cry Baby as I could. I love it all the way up the neck. I have my Wah in Stomp A on every profile that I use it on, which is basically every high gain profile I have. It sounds good on Soldano, Friedman, EVH 5150.

Manual 3.8

Peak 8.5

Pedal Range +25%

Peak Range -37%

Pedal Mode On

Mix 100%

Ducking <0.0>

Volume +1.0

Quote from JCW308

Sure, hold down the bank button and they will all be different colors so you can select your bank. After you select the bank, the bank LEDs and slot colors will reflect that bank color.

I don't think that is what the OP is asking about but that is a neat feature that I was not aware of. Thank you!

Quote from JohnnyBee

I use sometimes a Headrush FRFR 112.

(usually not because of In Ear, which is a lot better)

The Headrush is ok, but mine is a little bit "bassy", so a little bit to much base.

Maybe this is because it's a '12 box.

I suggest an In Ear solution which brings the whole band in best quality to your ears.

This is my experience, too. I usually use two Yamaha DXR12 monitors at home but I bought a Headrush FR 108 to keep at my girlfriend's house. Lots of bass. If you switch in the high pass filter then it cuts too much bass. No happy medium. It's ok for my application but I wouldn't use it as my primary.

I prefer the 4:1 noise gate in Stomp D on my profiles, set to taste. Not a huge fan of the front end noise gate on my Toaster although I am now using it on my Player since options are limited and you have to get creative and endure some compromises.

Quote from munkienl

Is there a way to get a feedback sound with my Profiler without getting deaf?

I run two Yamaha DXR10 powered monitors on the floor angled up at me at moderate volume. I can get a little controlled feedback here and there depending on the note, the guitar and where I am standing. I use a Digitech Freq Out pedal for pseudo feedback stuff. Those pedals are great. It's the only out board pedal I use with my Kemper.

Quote from lbieber

I don't notice any difference when the volumes are equal and the monitor is capable of moving the same amount of air as the guitar speakers.

+1 on this. I was playing a Soldano Hot Rod 50 through two 4x12 cabs when I moved to a Kemper. I started out with one Yamaha DXR10 powered monitor and liked the sound right out of the box but something was missing. I bought a second DXR10 to get a bigger sound stage to replicate what I had before.

Great advice from everyone. There is no one size fits all in musical gear and often it involves a little (or a lot of) trial and error to find the right fit. Neither of the choices you have narrowed it down to may ultimately work.

Quote from BayouTexan

Just don't use the mic that Bob Dylan used.

I laughed out loud at that one. Remember "We Are The World"? When that song came out they released a video showing all of the singers who participated in the session. A lady I worked with saw the video and then asked me "Who was that little homeless guy in the video?"

Quote from Kellerblues

Don't! Screw them off, remove them and put the screws back in. I did it with my Stage to mount it on a Temple Audio board

The feet on the Player don't screw on. They are only adhesive. I think removing them to apply Velcro should work. I think my Player came with an extra set of adhesive feet, if I recall correctly.

I think the hand wired reissues sound really good. I owned a couple 70s Superleads back in the day. They are like any other amp brand. There are good ones and there are great ones. They're all pretty expensive these days just to find out if you got a good one or a great one. I have a 1990 JCM800 1987 50W Superlead. That's probably the last year they made them. Inside they look quite a bit different from a 70s Superlead or a hand wired reissue but that amp sounds great. I installed a master volume to make it more usable. Those JCM800 Superleads don't get a lot of love hence the reason I picked it up for a song compared to the insane prices JCM800 stuff goes for today.

Quote from dogmanljk

I bought the Kemper rack without the amp because for the last 30 plus years the common knowledge was that tube amps are just better. But...now that I have fallen in love with the Kemper tones I'm starting to wonder if my hot rod Deville is making any real tone difference. Plus tube amps are so damn heavy. Anyone have any insight?

Any amplification scenario for the Kemper will have its own sonic characteristics. The speaker in that Hot Rod is going to add its own imprint to every profile you play. The notion of tube amps being superior to solid state amps in the world of guitar amps may be true but that doesn't hold in this application where you simply want clean power to amplify your profiles. I have a powered toaster but prefer to run the monitor output to full range powered monitors. I tried running the toaster's amp into various guitar cabinets but I wasn't pleased with the result. You really just have to have to compare the various options to find out. You may end up preferring your current rig over any other option you try. At least you love your current setup. That's a good starting point.

I have a powered toaster connected to powered monitors (Yamaha DXR10) via the monitor output. I generally turn on my profiler then power up the monitors while the profiler is booting. Mine makes a few strange sounds from time to time during boot up. It seemed to be louder several firmware iterations ago (like a year or year and a half ago) but not as much these days. I update firmware fairly regularly when there is a meaningful reason to do so but skip minor bug fixes that don't impact me. I never gave the noises much thought since you should really start up all of the upstream devices first then the power amps last and once it boots up all is well.

Quote from Wheresthedug

Every time I think I need more options or “better” sound quality I take a look at this and realise that the best thing any of us can do is learn to use the stuff we have to its full potential and spend more time learning how to play music. No one in the audience is listening to us saying “great band but if only the guitarist was using a Quad Cortex (AxeFx, ToneX, real Marshall etc etc) but if we don’t actually play the music with conviction they will notice.

No, they won't really. Unless audiences have gotten a lot smarter since my weekend warrior days (which i seriously doubt) or are much more astute across the pond than they are here in the States they're pretty obtuse when it comes to music. They don't know or care what amp or guitar you are playing. I have seen audiences rave about mediocre bar bands and yawn over players I really admired. I myself have been patted on the back numerous nights when I wasn't feeling it and just "mailed it in". They don't care. And they shouldn't. They are not there to be music critics. They are there to have a good time. There is only one thing that matters to them - and it's the only thing that really should matter to them. "Did you enjoy yourself and have a good time?" If the answer is yes then all is well.

For the record, I agree with your first sentence entirely.

Edited to add: Had I followed this advice five years ago I would never have gotten my Kemper. I'd still be wailing away on my Hot Rod 50 half stack.

If you already tried the Kemper Kabinet and didn't like it why are you even considering that option? And buying two of them, no less? It's a great deal, but...

The good news is that there are many options in FRFR. The bad news is that there are many options in FRFR. I have a powered Kemper head but do not use the power amp. I use a pair of Yamaha DXR10s. I love them but you may not. They're about twice the price of a comparable Headrush unit (or were when I bought them). Are they twice as good? I dunno. Probably not. Do I care? Nope.

Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Before you remove it entirely maybe try loosening and re-tightening the screws holding the Kone and retest. It may not be positioned or seated just right and the frame may have a slight bind. I have a 1x12 Sovtek cabinet that had a bad rattle at certain frequencies. I have a Blackheart 1x12. Swapped the speakers and that fixed the rattle in the Sovtek and both cabinets sounded fine. It wasn't a bad cabinet or speaker, after all. I didn't try the incremental fix I just suggested because I wanted the speaker swap anyway.

Does the Kabinet buzz all by itself with the volume up and nothing plugged in?

Try a different audio source into the Kabinet and see if it still buzzes. That would eliminate the Kemper and suggest that the Kabinet the culprit.

Try changing the ground loop setting on the Kemper for the output you are using.

I fired up my old Soldano Hot Rod 50 with a Soldano 4x12 with Celestion G12H30s for about a half hour this afternoon. It was my daily driver when I switched to a Kemper. I prefer my Kemper rig for many reasons but I could clearly recall why I dug that Hot Rod so much. It's just big brutal muscular tone. As much as I love the Marshall 2204 this Hot Rod beats it every time. There is something special about a tube amp and a 4x12 cabinet.

Quote from slateboy

no power switch = one less point of failure.

I don't own the player so can anyone tell me, does it have to be properly shut-down, like the rack?

No. You unplug it and it's off until you plug it back in. There is a small boot up time. Much less that the toaster/rack.

Quote from BillyNoSocks

I see what you mean but, you could also argue that no power switch puts significantly more wear & tear on the power jack itself.

Having the switch isn't only more convenient for me, it also gives me a little peace of mind. I grew up my whole life being told not to plug and unplug things that are in an "always on" state.

Fair enough on the first point. Constant plugging and unplugging could be an issue down the road. I'm super careful with my laptop power supply since they are quite similar and tend not to be too robust.

That inline switch as far as Tron is concerned is electrically the same thing as plugging and unplugging the power cable minus the wear and tear on the jack and plug. It doesn't spare the unit from getting hit with a jolt of electricity. Still a neat idea.

My PC is connected to a set of old JBL 4312A studio monitors. Those new effects sound great. Looking forward to the new trem models. The existing was just ok. My fave old school trem was always the bias trem on my Princeton. Whatever profile Sooze is playing is great, too.