After playing my JCM800, I sold my Kemper

[solarburn]

I can see Clint Eastwood saying it, but I can’t recall the movie! Damn!

Outlaw Josie Whales

 

[solarburn]

Last interuption. Clint Eastwood=JCM800 Marshall Law.

 

[Sapient]

OP: Ya don't say ..

Congrats on your (an) amp.

 

[Gene Ballzz]

Clint can always "Make my day!"

And @ShatteredVitreous , enjoy that monster 2203. I know you will!

Just Watchin'
Gene

 

[BanditPanda]

I luv's me some good ole Eastwood.

That's what she said!
BP

 

[BanditPanda]

All

Well after 4 years of loving the Kemper and simultaneously being frustrated with the quality of the profiles on offer I finally sold it. I know we have some Kemper lovers on this board and I am certainly not mocking the product, its a fantastic digital device, but there were in the end too many things that annoyed me about it.

My frustrations:

Variation in profilers was drastic so if you wanted continuity between recorded tracks you needed to stay within a very small offerings from various profilers who all profiled the same (mixing Deadlight with Choptones was fine, MBritt with Top Jimi was fine but mix any of them up and its night and day in terms of application)

Having to surgically eq every profile to remove the over hyped bass, fizz or with some profiles a flat and apparent lack of body, to only thin the sound out too much was frustrating.

Stacking profiles just turned the results to mush.

Rig Manager since the introduction of an editor became so unstable from one minute to the next you could not use it. Performance mode, which is what I used to organise my patches by song, just did not work since version 6.

i took stock and decided to really question if I liked it enough to slow down my workflow. After realising I only used the JCM800 and AFD100 profiles I decided to try the real thing.

Off I went and purchased a JCM800 2203x (£700), Two Notes Reload (£500), a Slash wah (£150) and a GTOD (£80) plus a Twin City (£80) so I could split my signal to the JCM800 and my SJ.

A few things I noticed which was immediately apparent:

The lack of options had a huge impact on workload. No longer was I scrolling through thousands of profiles to find what would fit.

What sounded good out of the speaker sounded good in the mix. The overhyped profiles sounded amazing in isolation, to much fighting when recorded.

No longer, beyond a simple low pass, did I need to surgically eq the guitars.

Stacking guitars just made the sound huge and using the eq to make space for certain frequencies was quick and easy.

Sound experimentation was zero. Want a different delay? well buy it and really think about if you want to spend the cash rather than scrolling for hours and never getting anything done because it is all freely avaliable.

Its not all amazing.

I now have a clutter of cables, the fizzy sound from the reload is annoying at times but its a much better work flow and.......well thats it. Tucked the cables under the rug, put my headphones on when writing and I am in tone heaven.

I can honestly say at this point in time, and don't take my word for it, I am done with the digital world. With only the Axe left for me to try I really don't see the attraction in having so much choice whilst having very little time.

Now I just need a modern voiced Marshall to compliment my JCM800 and SJ that is not a JVM.

Boring story I know but I thought I would be nervous or reluctant on the day to sell, definitely not the case.

You know whats better than convenience, the sound of a tube amp....don't compromise

Mike

Great post SV.!
BP

 

[Frodebro]

My Kemper will never replace any of my tube amps, but it's indispensable in its own right and can do things that the other amps cannot. It's not going anywhere.

 

[dptone5]

Great post and thanks for sharing your detailed story! I am with you. I've been recording my 2203X, 1987XL and 2555 using the Suhr Reactive Load IR. I know some guys don't like IR's, but for me, it's the consistency and ability to record my amps at manageable volumes. Friend bought his Kemper over and we recorded some side by side tracks, 800 vs. Kemper, and although the Kemper sounded good, I much preferred the 800. Another friend brought a Helix and used the Marshall Plexi patch. Wow, now that wasn't even close. Sounded like a trumpet......

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I play my Kemper through a Marshall power amp & celestion speakers & I get the whole amp in the room goodness of whatever Marshall I'm running the profile.

It is definitely a lot brighter through the Marshall amp/cab, than direct to I/O. So, I mix them when I record... ...

Nothing wrong w/ deciding that you'd rather just plug right into a 2204.

I'm not one of those who's always having to meddle w/ tone. I usually find a good tone & run w/ it for a bit. I'll every so often, go look on the exchange & try out a couple, if any catch my eye, but, currently, I'm happy w/ the '71 Super Lead profile that I've gotten from the exchange....

I only find it a little lower-mid heavy through the direct-simulated out, but, through the amp, w/o speaker emulation, it sounds pretty spot on.

I'm not much of a pedal guy, but, some of the pedals built-in, in the Kemper sound pretty good w/ the profiles. I like the guitar direct to the amp. No pedal mess, or sound issues, due to failure in connections, batteries, power supplies, etc. Although, I do need to get a pedal for the Wah. For some reason, I tried to hook up my Cry-Baby & it's not powering up...

I've still never hooked up the foot controller to the Kemper yet. If I get the wah/expression, I definitely will pull it out of the box.

My complaint about the Kemper, is it's lack of good bass sounds, from an SVT. They all have funky distortion. I like the distortion on my SVT, but not in any of the profiles, I've tried. One of these days I'll give it a shot, doing my amp's...

 

[ShatteredVitreous]

All

First off, dont mind the derailment, all good with me.

Second this @dptone5 "Another friend brought a Helix and used the Marshall Plexi patch. Wow, now that wasn't even close. Sounded like a trumpet......" had me in stitches.

I am glad the post was taken in the spirit it was meant. Not a single bit of disrespect for the Kemper, out of all the digital gear I have played it is by far the most authentic. But to be honest all the positives of a digital device seems to come with a degree of compromise.

For those with analysis paralysis I feel for you. The realisation set in for me when I realised I recorded more music with my JVM out of the DI on 1 year than I did with the Kemper in 4.

When I bought my jubilee I knocked up 4 tracks in 3 days, rough maybe but complete enough. That is what inspirational sound does and the same thing happened with the JCM800. The Kemper is inspirational don't get me wrong but I would write a section, record it, then spend 3 hours scrolling patches, reamping them eqing.....never again.

Here is what is telling for me.

I sold my Kemper, pedal with DXR10 for £1900. It went straight into the music fund. I looked at pedals from extra wahs to delays, phasers, chorus, boosters and a load of other amps like the JVM, PRS MT15, Mesa Triple and in the end all I needed to complete my sound as a DS1 lol.......goes to show I didn't need 30 delays, 40 chorus pedals, 18 over drives, 160 speakers, 90 amps.......man its just to much.

Anyway, rather than spend 3 hours twiddling knows just spent an hour playing a load of lead.....I love Marshall.

Cheers guys.

Mike

 

[ShatteredVitreous]

@Dogs of Doom

I played mine via a 4x12 and it was the best sound I got out of it. Never warmed to the FRFR set up, just sounded sterile and cold

 

[JP2036]

I prefer more people go solid state so there are more tubes for me but im glad you came to your senses anyway.

 

[Crikey]

All

Well after 4 years of loving the Kemper and simultaneously being frustrated with the quality of the profiles on offer I finally sold it. I know we have some Kemper lovers on this board and I am certainly not mocking the product, its a fantastic digital device, but there were in the end too many things that annoyed me about it.

My frustrations:

Variation in profilers was drastic so if you wanted continuity between recorded tracks you needed to stay within a very small offerings from various profilers who all profiled the same (mixing Deadlight with Choptones was fine, MBritt with Top Jimi was fine but mix any of them up and its night and day in terms of application)

Having to surgically eq every profile to remove the over hyped bass, fizz or with some profiles a flat and apparent lack of body, to only thin the sound out too much was frustrating.

Stacking profiles just turned the results to mush.

Rig Manager since the introduction of an editor became so unstable from one minute to the next you could not use it. Performance mode, which is what I used to organise my patches by song, just did not work since version 6.

i took stock and decided to really question if I liked it enough to slow down my workflow. After realising I only used the JCM800 and AFD100 profiles I decided to try the real thing.

Off I went and purchased a JCM800 2203x (£700), Two Notes Reload (£500), a Slash wah (£150) and a GTOD (£80) plus a Twin City (£80) so I could split my signal to the JCM800 and my SJ.

A few things I noticed which was immediately apparent:

The lack of options had a huge impact on workload. No longer was I scrolling through thousands of profiles to find what would fit.

What sounded good out of the speaker sounded good in the mix. The overhyped profiles sounded amazing in isolation, to much fighting when recorded.

No longer, beyond a simple low pass, did I need to surgically eq the guitars.

Stacking guitars just made the sound huge and using the eq to make space for certain frequencies was quick and easy.

Sound experimentation was zero. Want a different delay? well buy it and really think about if you want to spend the cash rather than scrolling for hours and never getting anything done because it is all freely avaliable.

Its not all amazing.

I now have a clutter of cables, the fizzy sound from the reload is annoying at times but its a much better work flow and.......well thats it. Tucked the cables under the rug, put my headphones on when writing and I am in tone heaven.

I can honestly say at this point in time, and don't take my word for it, I am done with the digital world. With only the Axe left for me to try I really don't see the attraction in having so much choice whilst having very little time.

Now I just need a modern voiced Marshall to compliment my JCM800 and SJ that is not a JVM.

Boring story I know but I thought I would be nervous or reluctant on the day to sell, definitely not the case.

You know whats better than convenience, the sound of a tube amp....don't compromise

Mike

welcome back to the analog tribe...

 

[tmingle]

All

Well after 4 years of loving the Kemper and simultaneously being frustrated with the quality of the profiles on offer I finally sold it. I know we have some Kemper lovers on this board and I am certainly not mocking the product, its a fantastic digital device, but there were in the end too many things that annoyed me about it.

My frustrations:

Variation in profilers was drastic so if you wanted continuity between recorded tracks you needed to stay within a very small offerings from various profilers who all profiled the same (mixing Deadlight with Choptones was fine, MBritt with Top Jimi was fine but mix any of them up and its night and day in terms of application)

Having to surgically eq every profile to remove the over hyped bass, fizz or with some profiles a flat and apparent lack of body, to only thin the sound out too much was frustrating.

Stacking profiles just turned the results to mush.

Rig Manager since the introduction of an editor became so unstable from one minute to the next you could not use it. Performance mode, which is what I used to organise my patches by song, just did not work since version 6.

i took stock and decided to really question if I liked it enough to slow down my workflow. After realising I only used the JCM800 and AFD100 profiles I decided to try the real thing.

Off I went and purchased a JCM800 2203x (£700), Two Notes Reload (£500), a Slash wah (£150) and a GTOD (£80) plus a Twin City (£80) so I could split my signal to the JCM800 and my SJ.

A few things I noticed which was immediately apparent:

The lack of options had a huge impact on workload. No longer was I scrolling through thousands of profiles to find what would fit.

What sounded good out of the speaker sounded good in the mix. The overhyped profiles sounded amazing in isolation, to much fighting when recorded.

No longer, beyond a simple low pass, did I need to surgically eq the guitars.

Stacking guitars just made the sound huge and using the eq to make space for certain frequencies was quick and easy.

Sound experimentation was zero. Want a different delay? well buy it and really think about if you want to spend the cash rather than scrolling for hours and never getting anything done because it is all freely avaliable.

Its not all amazing.

I now have a clutter of cables, the fizzy sound from the reload is annoying at times but its a much better work flow and.......well thats it. Tucked the cables under the rug, put my headphones on when writing and I am in tone heaven.

I can honestly say at this point in time, and don't take my word for it, I am done with the digital world. With only the Axe left for me to try I really don't see the attraction in having so much choice whilst having very little time.

Now I just need a modern voiced Marshall to compliment my JCM800 and SJ that is not a JVM.

Boring story I know but I thought I would be nervous or reluctant on the day to sell, definitely not the case.

You know whats better than convenience, the sound of a tube amp....don't compromise

Mike

I'm in a similar spot with the Helix. The tweaking temptation is a very real issue that I just had to push my way through. As for the "Amp in the room" thing, I split the signal inside the Helix & send a feed to the FX return of my DSL thru a real guitar speaker. The Helix records VERY WELL.

 

[Old Punker]

Why I can't abide a Mesa and it's 1/1000th knob settings and 15 toggle switches.

I know what you mean about some of the Mesas, that's why I got the Express 5:50 (non-plus) - way less knobs and switches!

I am an equal opportunity owner, I have a Marshall and a Mesa living peacefully side by side.

 

[coolidge56]

Me too man, he was such a badass in the day!

Clint, "I don't think it's nice you laughing"
(script note: Clint flips poncho back exposing pistol)
(script note: 4 gunslingers suddenly stop laughing)

 

[67mike]

All these computer modellers have shortfalls imho.

Real deal always is/was/will be the real deal.

 

[Frodebro]

All these computer modellers have shortfalls imho.

Real deal always is/was/will be the real deal.

Tube amps aren't without their own shortfalls. It's good to have options.

 

[Old Punker]

All these computer modellers have shortfalls imho.

Real deal always is/was/will be the real deal.

Agreed. If I can't look in the back of an amp and see the fire inside of the little glass tubes then it's not for me.

 

[Söulcaster]

I see why people like Kempers, personally I find them to be unnecessary technology and love the feel of how a good tube amp responds to my playing.

Peace

 

[Frodebro]

I see why people like Kempers, personally I find them to be unnecessary technology and love the feel of how a good tube amp responds to my playing.

Peace

If you have neighbors and like to record at odd hours they're a godsend. I went down the rabbit hole of load boxes and IRs with the tube amps, but the Kemper is just so much better for direct recording. One box, one cable, and no mucking about with mic placement and trying to match tones if you decide to redo a part down the road.