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PROFILER PLAYER PACK 1
$19.99The new Kemper Profiler Player is designed with portability and ease of use as top priorities and makes using Kemper profiles even easier than before. There are some limitations, such as fewer fx slots and capacity, but the beauty of this little monster is that it fits on a pedalboard. So if you are a player who wants to incorporate Kemper’s amp profiling in conjunction with your existing effects, it works perfect for that. But, for most guitarists (myself included), it has plenty of available effects to cover most basic tones required for a gig.
The Profiler Player only holds 50 rigs (while the Kemper Stage/Rack/Head hold 1000), so my goal when trying to decide what to load into it was “what do I use in my live show now?” So that’s where I started. I use probably 5-10 base rigs, ultimately relying on 3-4 for the majority of the show, with the remainder covering either unique sounds or just options I can access quickly. After those, I just started picking the rigs I’ve used the most in past shows and the ones I have recorded with over the last few years. What I ended up with is 5 banks of 5 rigs which essentially is 25 “Greatest Hits” of my favorite amp rigs. If you’re a longtime Kemper user with many of my packs, then these may be redundant, but are still somewhat unique in that many have been edited by me for optimization for live use.
These rigs are tweaked so that switching between rigs from different amps is fairly seamless and uniform, without drastic eq shifts that can be a bit disconcerting. One of the reasons for that is that I tend to profile with the same cab most of the time and even swap cabs to one of my favorite cabs to keep that overall tonality present when switching rigs. I have included a list of my preferred organization via a screenshot from Rig Manager, but feel free to load them in whatever order works best for you (most computers will organize them alphabetically). Details about the pack can be found under the “additional information” tab below.
**These rigs can be used in any Kemper (Stage, Head, Rack) but you may have empty fx slots and may need to create your own performances using the “map” provided in the documentation.
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COLONIAL PACK – 35 Profiles
$9.99The Heritage Amp company sprang from the Heritage Guitar Company and was based in Brentwood, TN, just around the corner from where I live. Paul Cochrane, the designer and builder of the Tim and Timmy pedals (one of my faves if you haven’t already noticed) was the amp designer and builder at Heritage amps and came up with some incredible-sounding amps. In an effort to put all of his favorite Marshall-type flavors into one amp, he came up with the Colonial.
With switches for changing the preamp section, tone stack, rectifier section, and a knob to change the negative feedback, he could accurately capture the sounds of a ’59 Bassman, JTM45, Super Bass, and Plexi. I really don’t know what took me so long to get one of these amps other than they’re not on every corner. For the money, they are hands-down the best deal on the planet if you want amazing tone.
I’ve never been a huge fan of a Marshall clean sound but with the US/UK switches I was able to find amazing clean sounds that bridge the gap between American and British amps. Once you get it cranking and setting the switches to the Plexi mode it gets an amazing, creamy, bouncy, smooth overdrive. But this thing is LOUD. It is the loudest 50 watts I’ve ever heard and it’s nice to be able to “tame” it by getting it into my Kemper. I included profiles using my trusty Timmy, Archer, and Red (Col. Angus) homemade od pedal as well as a few different cabs for some tonal variety. This amp is fast becoming one of my all-time favorites.
Colonial Pack requires 3.3 firmware and while most profiles were made using my trusty 3rd Power cabinet, the new separation algorithms make it easier to get more great sounds by switching to your favorite cabs as well. These clips were recording into ProTools 10 using a Propellerhead Balance interface with no plug-ins or processing using my red Tom Anderson Cobra with 3 P90s. Check out the soundclips below and as usual please excuse the sloppy playing…



