squank
Active member
Got mine on Friday, but was too busy with gigs and family stuff over the weekend to fire it up until yesterday. But man, it is AMAZING. It's the Glock of the amp world - very good at what it does, functional and hideous.
I'll preface my review by disclosing that I am both a tube amp and modeler dude. I've had a Pod XT Pro, Axe-FX, and Eleven Rack. I've never felt the need to go all one or the other. The Pod never made me happy (I do a lot of high gain stuff, and the pod sounded like poo on high gain). I was an early Axe FX user, and gigged it on and off for 3 years. I can't think of any piece of gear that came so close to the mark in so many areas, but in the end missed it. I tried to love the Axe, but I just couldn't. I'm a gigging guy, and the Axe was difficult and time consuming to tweak on the fly. The Eleven Rack at least has EQ knobs on the front panel. So the Axe went bye bye last year. I don't miss it at all.
The Kemper is ugly. Like I said, it reminds me of a Glock. Both were designed by a person who had never designed a product in their chosen product category before. The Kemper doesn't look like an amp at all. It's got a quirky interface, but I bet I get used to it pretty fast. The control knobs are big and centrally located.
It kills the Axe and the 11R. Amp tones are big and 3D. The others are totally 2D to me. I'm running mine into a Mesa 2:90, into a Mills Afterburner 4x12. It's beastly.
The Kemper doesn't replace my amps. Instead, it's a way to carry them all with me. I pretty much already own all the amps I want. The Kemper just allows me to copy them and carry them with me.
And like a Glock, it's got lots of what it needs, and not much else.
I'll preface my review by disclosing that I am both a tube amp and modeler dude. I've had a Pod XT Pro, Axe-FX, and Eleven Rack. I've never felt the need to go all one or the other. The Pod never made me happy (I do a lot of high gain stuff, and the pod sounded like poo on high gain). I was an early Axe FX user, and gigged it on and off for 3 years. I can't think of any piece of gear that came so close to the mark in so many areas, but in the end missed it. I tried to love the Axe, but I just couldn't. I'm a gigging guy, and the Axe was difficult and time consuming to tweak on the fly. The Eleven Rack at least has EQ knobs on the front panel. So the Axe went bye bye last year. I don't miss it at all.
The Kemper is ugly. Like I said, it reminds me of a Glock. Both were designed by a person who had never designed a product in their chosen product category before. The Kemper doesn't look like an amp at all. It's got a quirky interface, but I bet I get used to it pretty fast. The control knobs are big and centrally located.
It kills the Axe and the 11R. Amp tones are big and 3D. The others are totally 2D to me. I'm running mine into a Mesa 2:90, into a Mills Afterburner 4x12. It's beastly.
The Kemper doesn't replace my amps. Instead, it's a way to carry them all with me. I pretty much already own all the amps I want. The Kemper just allows me to copy them and carry them with me.
And like a Glock, it's got lots of what it needs, and not much else.
I want one
Bastid