GUITAR AMPS: TUBE VS SOLID STATE VS DIGITAL. A frequent discussion among guitar geeks. I am now using a Kemper Profiler. I wanted to get a bunch of gigs under my belt before “coming out” so to speak, and I also wanted to run it by one of my biggest influences, and a tube amp tone guru Little Charlie Baty. In a blind test, he couldn’t tell the difference between the Kemper and his preferred Super Reverb of thirty six years that we profiled minutes earlier.
What is a Kemper Profiler? It’s not a modelling amp, it’s a profiling amp and all-in-one effects processor.
It’s the first digital guitar amp to really nail the full and dynamic sound of a guitar and bass amp. This is made possible by a patented technology and concept they call “profiling”. The Kemper connects to the input of the amp you’re profiling, sends a series of frequencies and signals through it which is captured by a microphone that is connected back to the Kemper. There is also a refining process which involves playing some chords and single notes to give your new profile more frequency information to get as close as possible to the original amp sound.
The profiling process made me think that it would only work in a studio with high-end microphones, but I was able to profile Little Charlie’s super reverb with a Shure 58, and it was enough to leave a legendary guitarist totally unsure of which amp was which.
The Kemper doesn’t crush your tone like so many other digital processors do, and reacts to different guitars, pickups, tone/volume changes as a regular amp would. But I guess the player, the hands, and the note selection are a small piece of the puzzle, eh?
For years, a good friend has been bugging me about all things modern (effects pedals, digital amps etc.), so I gave the MXR Il Torino Overdrive a shot, and it was a big help to giving me a consistent tone with my Pro Junior 3 as well as backline amps. I used it to get the natural tube overdrive sound, and left it on all the time. One night I cranked the drive to 10 for fun, and fell in love with the sustained notes and the way it was making the reverb react. That is what lead to the overdriven tones you hear on select cuts of the new LIVE record.
One night at a show a tube fizzled on the last note of a song. I replaced the tube and got through the rest of the night. The next night when I plugged in my amp, it made this BUZZ sound with no guitar signal coming through. It was just in the shop a couple months before. I said to myself “Self, this is ridiculous. You have a digital reverb pedal that emulates the tube reverb tank you once used, which sounds killer, the overdrive pedal sounds great, so maybe it’s time to investigate the amp options.”
I watched videos of the Kemper, but the one that blew my mind was two pros at Anderson’s in England comparing Fender, Marshall, and Vox amps to the Kemper profiles of those amps, and they couldn’t tell the difference. In fact, they said they “preferred” the tone of the Kemper against the original classic amps. I was convinced.
The first test for me was to get the Michael Britt profile of the Pro Junior 3 on the Kemper and to play my “sound check” riffs to see if it would stand up. Within seconds, my mind was blown. It sounded almost identical to MY Pro Junior 3. Well, almost. The thing is, if the master volume is low, then it sounds fake-y. For the Pro Junior to sound a certain way, it needs to be pushing a certain amount of air through the speaker and “can’t” get that tone at a lower volume without a pedal in front of it. After turning it up to gig volume, I was totally convinced. Also, the amp is completely adjustable to the situation. If you want more or less drive, treble, bass, middle, you can adjust it. My Pro Junior has two knobs - volume and tone.
There are more benefits than just avoiding tube issues:
* You can sound like you’re going through any amp on the planet.
* If you don’t have the budget for a Dumble amp ($75-$150k each), there are Dumble profiles.
* Like the way your tubes react to your playing? There’s a setting for that, as well as tube shape.
* The Kemper is “future proof”, meaning it can be updated forever.
* Have a different “performance” setting for each song, which can have pre-determined amps/effects/settings.
* No more power issues leaving your tube amp sounding not-quite-right in some venues.
* No more electrical shocks from the vocal microphone as a result of the guitar/tube-amp/mic combination.
* Endless options for different settings for different songs that are pre-stored and available at the click of a button.
* You can still use your favourite pedals before the Kemper like you do with your current amp.
* You can still change settings with the knobs on the Kemper like you would on a classic amp.
* No more noise. The smart & transparent noise gate is easily adjustable with the turn of a knob.
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JW-JONES
JW JONES
LITTLE CHARLIE BATY
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