Posts by Vinny Burns

    I had my X100 rack mounted with proper rotary switches, pots and 240v mains.
    It was a nightmare to profile though. I only wanted Clean2 as it’s something I have used as part of my clean sounds on certain things over the years (always layered with a very slight edge of breakup Mesa Mk3 clean). Two stereo tracks of X100 and two mono tracks of the Mesa Mk3

    As has been mentioned, on the original, you cannot get a sound without either delay or chorus being present.
    The biggest problem for me though was the compressor. It took hours to get a Profile. Most of the time, the always on compressor ended up with a distorted profile instead of clean. Eventually got it done.


    I have an MXR X100 arriving tomorrow. So glad the chorus can be turned off. Looking forward to trying to profile it.

    How versatile is the Acoustasonic? I love the concept and feel. I know the acoustic sounds are excellent. How does it do with just the electric pickup?

    Clearly it's limited with the one pickup, but I'm curious how usable it is as 'just' an electric.

    I have found the Acoustasonics really useful for acoustic shows. I quickly settled on the middle position and the blend fully anticlockwise.
    For the few distorted solos I do, I just flick the switch to position one for the Strat pickup. Again, blend fully anticlockwise.
    You still have the age old problem with distorted sounds on an acoustic where they are very susceptible to vibration and feedback from gain so I use much less gain than I would like for distorted sounds live.
    For the acoustic sounds, I never had a problem with feedback and I generally play right in front of a monitor.

    One thing I did absolutely love was that for my acoustic sounds live, I just profiled a patch cable to get some some volume into the preset by having an amp section enabled.
    I just add effects to the acoustic sound and have not had to eq anything with the Acoustasonic just plugged directly in.


    The distorted sounds are my SLO30 profile with the gain dialed back. 😂


    String wise, I am using a regular set of electric 10-46 on the concert pitch one (string tension feels like 9’s) and a set of 11s on the one that is tuned down a tone. They both sound a lot better with my favourite Martin acoustic strings on but I need an unwound G string for what we are doing live.


    Very surprised how good they are. They sound so weird unplugged. Almost like a dobro so it’s great to hear the stark difference once plugged in.

    My only criticism is the machine heads feel cheap compared to what’s on a Strat Ultra in more or less the same price range.

    Also heard that the ball end after a string break fall directly onto the circuit boards shorting the guitar out. Will get my tech to try and cover the circuit boards next time he is doing anything to them.

    Oh, and dropping a pick inside the sound hole is a pain. 😂 You have to take the back plates off to locate it.

    Yeah, action is insanely good for an acoustic.
    I have to admit, I have two of them. The one in the pics was used, I bought it for stage use. The first one I bought new in 2003, I believe, was the first guitar I really spent money on. But it was too precious for me to take it on stage… This one has the integrated mic on a goose neck, but doesn‘t have the adjustable saddle.
    Can’t tell which one is older, though.

    I was endorsed by Yamaha at the time so my CPX15W was a freebie.
    They were a brand new product line at the time I received it.

    Previously, I had been using a hand made APX20C that they gave me after I used it on a promotional tour in Japan around ‘98. Took a lot of asking for them to let me have that APX20C as it was part of their artist loan stock inventory

    Not long after that, the CPX15W arrived. Must have been some time in ‘99. Absolutely love the V neck profile it has. It also sounded 10 times better than the APX20C acoustically which was apparently part of the design concept.

    Was still using the CPX live until recently but have now switched over to two US Fender Acoustasonic Strats for any acoustic shows.

    Will be keeping the CPX15W though. It’s such a nice guitar to play. I have a Martin D28 for recording in the studio.

    If you need a folder structure in the PROFILER, you have too many Rigs stored in it. It's not intended to be a sound collection machine. Use Rig Manager for your sound collection and limit the PROFILER to sounds you really play at least once in a while. You have Views like Favorites and Sorting like by Gain to easily find specific Rig in that focussed selection.

    Absolutely don’t agree with this.
    My Profiler in the studio IS a sound collection manager of all my favourite amps that I own and have profiled.
    If we want to just go through my Marshall profiles, it would be great to just head into a folder that contains all my Marshall profiles only.

    I don’t just use the Kemper in my studio, I often take my traditional Kemper profiler to our singers studio too. We don’t use rig manager there. I actually never use rig manager with my Profiler in my studio either. We use my Kemper as a standalone hardware device……. which is all it should be.
    I only ever use rig manager with my two Stage units.

    Anything that absolutely requires any of my Profilers to be tethered to a computer needs a rethink…… especially getting Performances between one Kemper unit and my others.

    Reading all the posts with interest.

    I don’t think I would personally have a use for it as it stands.

    No IEC mains socket pretty much ruled it out for me straight away for using it anywhere near a stage.

    Also, the 4 FX slots while great having the reverb and delay slots post amp still… well again, the pre stack slot effects are no good for things like chorus or pitch effects (for me).

    I really do not like the sound of a chorus in front of a high gain amp. Although, I do use a tiny tiny fraction of flange before the amp block. That flange is only on about 17% mix if I recall correctly.

    Then, after the amp slot, I use a micro pitch shift and a chorus before delay and reverb.

    I already have two stage units (one a backup) for gigs and a toaster and remote in my studio so I guess this Player isn’t for me.

    On the positive side, to use it as a tool to carry all my amp profiles to a studio in a tiny box is pretty cool.

    I have been wanting the concept of a player version of the Kemper for ages. Especially for using at other peoples studios and fly gigs.

    In my mind though, it was a smaller unit than the stage but still with an with IEC socket that enabled you to use the full rigs and not stripped down ones.

    I would have been very interested if it didn’t have the external power supply and had more effects slots. Especially post amp modulation effects that could be used before the delay and reverb. Few other things too from reading the specs. Pitch block etc.

    Anyway, good luck to everyone at Kemper with the new Player and I hope you sell a ton of them.

    Been using my Fulltone TERC Tri Stereo chorus on a session in my studio recently. Really needs that.

    CK did tell me there is a chorus in there that does the Tri Stereo but when I tried it, it’s nothing like.

    Anything that could default to the ‘Preset’ setting on the actual Tri Stereo with no messing around would be fantastic.

    We also need independent control of pitch and delay on each side of the micro pitch shift in the Kemper.

    Its why I went with the power rack to avoid the additional need for a power amp and just plug straight into any cab, but its great there are so many options...Im tempted with a stage because of the form factor...

    Yes, the form factor of the Stage is brilliant.

    I weighed up the Power Rack Kemper myself but I just didn’t like the look of that flimsy Ethernet out. It’s always an accident waiting to happen.

    Then, the workaround with a back rack panel and injector brought a wall wart power supply into the equation.

    Wish they would just put a Neitrik ethercon on the back of the rack version.

    Still need to send you the SLO profiles Guy.

    As was mentioned, an amp of the exact same model can sound different.

    I have two Marshall 50w non master Lead amps from 1978 (model 1987). They are only 3 serial numbers apart.

    One aggressive and the other more polite. Even after being serviced by Marshall, they retain these differences.

    Probably just something to do with what was in the ‘parts bin’ at Marshall the day they were made.

    My 68 small box 50w Plexi (also model 1987) sounds nothing like the two heads above. Even more aggressive with more gain.

    So, I think people can still look around for the Liquid Profiles that suit their particular needs.

    As also mentioned, mic’s and cabs make a huge difference. Yes, you can have a DI profile but you have to take into account the difference each cab and mic will add to the sound. Especially taking into consideration finding the ‘sweet spot’ of the speaker before profiling. Something most IR makers don’t seem to do.

    Yes, they take and offer a lot of IR’s but this just seems to be a case of them moving the mic across the cab at different points without actually listening to find the ‘sweet spots’.

    The initial sweet spot is dead easy to find. Just get some headphones, route the mic through the headphones and sweep the mic across the speaker. Up, down, left and right. No guitar used, just the hiss of the amp through the speaker listening on headphones.

    Do this until you find the most intense and loudest hiss. Mark it with a chinagraph pencil and move on to the next speakers and do the same. It will be in a slightly different spot on each speaker but so easy to hear.

    After doing this, the sweet spot will always be under where you have marked each speaker unless you change one out.

    Don’t use tape to mark it. Do a test with taping the spot and compare with using the chinagraph pencil. The ‘taped’ marker will sound duller.

    All the above, I tend to use an SM57 (sometimes paired with an AKG 451).

    For lead sounds, go for a more throaty sound when sweeping the cab with the mic. It’s almost the opposite of what you have just done above when you were looking for the most intense hiss.

    This one is more difficult to describe as sounds often are.

    I normally use an AKG 414 for lead sounds.

    So, cabs and mic’s make a huge difference.

    Have fun and ‘get sweeping’.

    I've never heard of a tune-o-matic collapsing. Is that a thing? Must have taken some heavy hits.

    The Nashville on my 79 Les Paul Standard is collapsing. You just need to put something known to be completely flat like a FretFriend on the base to see it .
    Had to have the Nashville bridge on one of my 78 Les Paul’s done a couple of years ago too.