New Amp -OR- Midpriced modelers -OR- Is anyone here (still) playing a Tonex?

[aamefford]

I Have To Admit I Was A Little Sad To Discover You Raced Motorcycles And Gave That Up... I Get It Though...

Motocross in high school and again in my 30’s. Trials off and on in my 30’s, 40’s 50’s. I was never more than a “B” class also ran, but I had a blast. LOTS of trail riding. Decent riding areas are 2 plus hours away. It all just kind of ran its course when my daughter was born. Maybe bicycles in my mid 60’s?

 

[dmatthews]

Motocross in high school and again in my 30’s. Trials off and on in my 30’s, 40’s 50’s. I was never more than a “B” class also ran, but I had a blast. LOTS of trail riding. Decent riding areas are 2 plus hours away. It all just kind of ran its course when my daughter was born. Maybe bicycles in my mid 60’s?

Had to give my dirt bike up for similar reasons.

 

[Bogner]

Motocross in high school and again in my 30’s. Trials off and on in my 30’s, 40’s 50’s. I was never more than a “B” class also ran, but I had a blast. LOTS of trail riding. Decent riding areas are 2 plus hours away. It all just kind of ran its course when my daughter was born. Maybe bicycles in my mid 60’s?

I Totally Understand. Location And Logistics Do Play A Huge Part. I Am On The Hunt For A House With A Bunch Of Land So I Can Have A Few Different Types Of Tracks And Types Of Riding On Site. I Would Love To Be Able To Find Something Where I Can Do Trails, Motocross And Motard And Possibly Some Flat Tracking. If I Hit The Lottery I Would Throw In A Road Racing Track As Well. I Want To Make Hay While The Sun Is Still Shining!

 

[aamefford]

I Totally Understand. Location And Logistics Do Play A Huge Part. I Am On The Hunt For A House With A Bunch Of Land So I Can Have A Few Different Types Of Tracks And Types Of Riding On Site. I Would Love To Be Able To Find Something Where I Can Do Trails, Motocross And Motard And Possibly Some Flat Tracking. If I Hit The Lottery I Would Throw In A Road Racing Track As Well. I Want To Make Hay While The Sun Is Still Shining!

Now that would be great! The “we know better than you” state of CA has even made your quest difficult in a lot of areas of CA. Neighbors can get you shut down for noise or dust. It happened to a bunch of pros down in SoCal back when I was active, maybe 15 - 20 years ago. Other states are less nanny states, have fewer famous and controlling neighbors, and land prices are such that a normal guy could buy enough land to do all of that and have any neighbors far enough away. Best with your search! It goes without saying you could also build your own wall of sound as well!

 

[Bogner]

Now that would be great! The “we know better than you” state of CA has even made your quest difficult in a lot of areas of CA. Neighbors can get you shut down for noise or dust. It happened to a bunch of pros down in SoCal back when I was active, maybe 15 - 20 years ago. Other states are less nanny states, have fewer famous and controlling neighbors, and land prices are such that a normal guy could buy enough land to do all of that and have any neighbors far enough away. Best with your search! It goes without saying you could also build your own wall of sound as well!

I Am So Down On California. It Was Once Such A Beautiful State And Now It Is A Disaster In So Many Ways. Most States Where I Could Pull My Dream Off Are Also States That Get Very Cold And Snow, Etc. I Am Not A Fan Of Cold Weather So That Is Becoming My Biggest Hurdle. Where To Go And Be Happy Year Round Or Do You Do Split Time Of Some Sort And Make It Work That Way? Decisions...Decisions.

 

[aamefford]

Quick update - I picked up the Power Kabinet this afternoon. It is a refurbished unit, for a decent savings, about 20%. Two tiny scratches in the tolex in locations that are pretty much invisible. A good deal, and I don't have to worry about scratching it. It makes sound. That's about as far as I've gotten. That, and it is impossible to see the imprint labels on the Kemper Stage screen, at least for me. Rig Manager for that duty. I'll get some time with it over the next week. It's attractive and clean looking, and pretty light weight. I'm reviewing how to make it loud. I know there is *something* one must boost in the settings. Then at least I'll know how to get it loud... The only down side of the Stage, is that a Kemper head would look just tits on top of the Power Kab. All good though. Right now, the Stage is on a big music stand thingie. I may move it in front of the Kab, and put my laptop on the music stand thingie. Actually, once I get the 3 to 5 amps I want set up in performances, all I really need is an iPad for minor tweaks, I think.

I may put the MV25, 1x12 wide body open cab and the Fryettye PS2 up for sale, I haven't decided yet. The Kemper will very likely do all I need for right now (or ever). We've decided to trade our first year of retirement's travel in favor of some much needed new flooring, paint, furniture, and possibly kitchen cabinets and back yard landscaping. It needs doing whether we move or stay in our current house for a while. Once the floors are done, I'll get moved from the "Guitar Corner" of the master BR to the "Guitar Half" of the spare bedroom. Then maybe a 2x12 and a bigger iron tube amp to go with the Kemper rig. Or not, I haven't decided. Right now, the MV25, 1x12 wide body open cab and the Fryettye PS2 are down the hall, disconnected.

 

[dmatthews]

Quick update - I picked up the Power Kabinet this afternoon. It is a refurbished unit, for a decent savings, about 20%. Two tiny scratches in the tolex in locations that are pretty much invisible. A good deal, and I don't have to worry about scratching it. It makes sound. That's about as far as I've gotten. That, and it is impossible to see the imprint labels on the Kemper Stage screen, at least for me. Rig Manager for that duty. I'll get some time with it over the next week. It's attractive and clean looking, and pretty light weight. I'm reviewing how to make it loud. I know there is *something* one must boost in the settings. Then at least I'll know how to get it loud... The only down side of the Stage, is that a Kemper head would look just tits on top of the Power Kab. All good though. Right now, the Stage is on a big music stand thingie. I may move it in front of the Kab, and put my laptop on the music stand thingie. Actually, once I get the 3 to 5 amps I want set up in performances, all I really need is an iPad for minor tweaks, I think.

I may put the MV25, 1x12 wide body open cab and the Fryettye PS2 up for sale, I haven't decided yet. The Kemper will very likely do all I need for right now (or ever). We've decided to trade our first year of retirement's travel in favor of some much needed new flooring, paint, furniture, and possibly kitchen cabinets and back yard landscaping. It needs doing whether we move or stay in our current house for a while. Once the floors are done, I'll get moved from the "Guitar Corner" of the master BR to the "Guitar Half" of the spare bedroom. Then maybe a 2x12 and a bigger iron tube amp to go with the Kemper rig. Or not, I haven't decided. Right now, the MV25, 1x12 wide body open cab and the Fryettye PS2 are down the hall, disconnected.

Kemper, go to output section and find Power amp boost...
Start with the power Kab at full volume.

 

[aamefford]

And then monitor and master volume to taste, correct? That seemed to work. I couldn’t get too loud tonight.

 

[dmatthews]

And then monitor and master volume to taste, correct? That seemed to work. I couldn’t get too loud tonight.

I think "out of the box" that the master and monitor volume are tied together, so turning up master affects monitor. You can disconnect them though. This is often done to allow you to have a different main vol to FOH/PA, and still be able to adjust your monitor (KAB) vol to taste "on stage" etc.

 

[aamefford]

The lovely wife and daughter stepped out for a bit. Yes, it gets L.A.F. I did the amp boost to +12, Power Kab on max, and cranked The volume until I spotted Tommy, our cat, running for cover. I’m back down to power amp boost at 0 with the Power Kab maxed. It seems pretty controllable there, and I can roll off the Power Kab volume if the family (or Tommy the cat) are near.

I’m not sure what to do with the little Mesa, and the 1x12 and the Power Station. I don’t need them with the Kemper, but I want to keep some kind of tube amp around. I know @Bogner ’s answer. The TC-100 or other big iron, well behaved tube amp would be the most fun, but then bigger cab and…

Then there’s something like the little Kowalski Dark Gene baby tube amp and a compact 1x10 or 1x12 on the exact opposite end.

Anyway, I ramble. For now, the Power Kab is a solid addition. I haven’t messed with the imprints much. I can hear differences for sure. I don’t have enough experience to know how accurate they are though.

 

[dmatthews]

The lovely wife and daughter stepped out for a bit. Yes, it gets L.A.F. I did the amp boost to +12, Power Kab on max, and cranked The volume until I spotted Tommy, our cat, running for cover. I’m back down to power amp boost at 0 with the Power Kab maxed. It seems pretty controllable there, and I can roll off the Power Kab volume if the family (or Tommy the cat) are near.

I’m not sure what to do with the little Mesa, and the 1x12 and the Power Station. I don’t need them with the Kemper, but I want to keep some kind of tube amp around. I know @Bogner ’s answer. The TC-100 or other big iron, well behaved tube amp would be the most fun, but then bigger cab and…

Then there’s something like the little Kowalski Dark Gene baby tube amp and a compact 1x10 or 1x12 on the exact opposite end.

Anyway, I ramble. For now, the Power Kab is a solid addition. I haven’t messed with the imprints much. I can hear differences for sure. I don’t have enough experience to know how accurate they are though.

I am amazed at how well the Kab fills the room. Freakin' love it, congrats!

 

[aamefford]

I am amazed at how well the Kab fills the room. Freakin' love it, congrats!

Yeah, the powered monitors sound fine, and so did the Mesa 1x12 with the Fryette PS2 doing amp duty (actually that was pretty impressive). The Power Kab sounds great, is light, compact and gets MUCH louder than I want to hear myself, and is either true to the capture, or true? To the imprints. I dig it!

 

[aamefford]

lol, HW from Tone Junkie has been sending out email “flash sales” for NAMM with discount codes. 5 people get whatever for free, 10 people get 90% off, 20 people get 80% off etc. down to 60% off. On a whim, I stuck the “everything” pack in my cart, and the 90% off code was good, so I got it for $65. I’m not sure if that’s actually a good price, or how his stuff is, but, like, 90% off, man!

 

[RC Mike]

lol, HW from Tone Junkie has been sending out email “flash sales” for NAMM with discount codes. 5 people get whatever for free, 10 people get 90% off, 20 people get 80% off etc. down to 60% off. On a whim, I stuck the “everything” pack in my cart, and the 90% off code was good, so I got it for $65. I’m not sure if that’s actually a good price, or how his stuff is, but, like, 90% off, man!

Yeah, I got that and every other TJ product with a 100% off coupon in November. That’s actually what really got me to finally get a Kemper.

Keep your Rig Manager library well-organized. There’s an amazing amount of stuff there.

 

[Bogner]

Good Grab!

 

[aamefford]

I wasn’t sure what I was doing and imported it straight into either local library without making a folder first. I think all do a backup, then reset to factory contents, and start over.

Also, for the helpful Kemper owners in this thread - any favorite liquid or generic profile’s especially from the literally thousands from Tone Junkie?

I’ve been starting with the liquid profiles. It seems like the generic Kemper tone stack lets one adjust especially the gain well beyond what the profiled amp would allow. I don’t think it’s a big deal as long as one is careful in their adjustment. The liquid tone stacks are supposed to be close(er) to the actual amps they modeled. Since I don’t have years of experience with many different amps, the liquid profiles seemed a good place to start.

 

[RC Mike]

If you like Plexi tones, try the 74 Purple Plexi pack.

I'm a total newb on the Kemper, but I've found I prefer picking a different profile to fiddling much with the knobs.

 

[aamefford]

If you like Plexi tones, try the 74 Purple Plexi pack.

I'm a total newb on the Kemper, but I've found I prefer picking a different profile to fiddling much with the knobs.

Thanks!

 

[aamefford]

I wasn’t sure what I was doing and imported it straight into either local library without making a folder first. I think all do a backup, then reset to factory contents, and start over.

Well, I deleted a bunch of profiles, reset the Stage to factory, and deleted and reinstalled Rig Manager. After using the "all I have is a hammer so every problem is a nail" method, I figured out I could have just searched for "Tone Junkie" and drug them into a new folder. Oh well, subtlety is often lost on me... Anyway, I got it sorted out. A folder for all the tone junky stuff, a folder for the rigs that are default on the Stage when factory reset, and the Stage itself is now empty and ready for me to put a few rigs back on. So far, I've kept the stage at just a few rigs - A JCM800, JTM45 ( think?), an AC30 and a Morgan.

Also, I'm wasting time on YouTube - looks like Kemper has like 7 new effects in Rig Manager (I guess that's where they live?) that he has debuted at NAMM, and supposedly available in "a couple of weeks" - Tone Junkie has a video.

 

[dmatthews]

Well, I deleted a bunch of profiles, reset the Stage to factory, and deleted and reinstalled Rig Manager. After using the "all I have is a hammer so every problem is a nail" method, I figured out I could have just searched for "Tone Junkie" and drug them into a new folder. Oh well, subtlety is often lost on me... Anyway, I got it sorted out. A folder for all the tone junky stuff, a folder for the rigs that are default on the Stage when factory reset, and the Stage itself is now empty and ready for me to put a few rigs back on. So far, I've kept the stage at just a few rigs - A JCM800, JTM45 ( think?), an AC30 and a Morgan.

Also, I'm wasting time on YouTube - looks like Kemper has like 7 new effects in Rig Manager (I guess that's where they live?) that he has debuted at NAMM, and supposedly available in "a couple of weeks" - Tone Junkie has a video.

Effects live on the Kemper directly after an upgrade to the Stage/Head/Rack/Player.