J KELLEY PACK – 39 Profiles

One of the early boutique amp builders, Jim Kelley created some amazing amps used by Vince Gill, Bonnie Raitt, Lee Ritenour, and others.  There were only about 600 made so they're still pretty rare and though they don't fetch Dumble prices yet, they are amazing amps and built to last forever.  I profiled this tan 210 combo.

With all the pull knobs and two channels and proprietary power attenuator, there are a lot of possible settings and I couldn't possibly get to them all, but I tried to get some great usable tones from clean to crunch to saturated solo sounds.

The Diaz CD100 is one of those amps you don't see every day.  The CD100 is a 100w beast based (a little) on the high powered tweed twins but with added reverb and some pull knob options for getting unique higher gain tones.  It stays bluesy no matter where it is (since Cesar Diaz was SRV's guitar tech), but can cover a great range of tones from country cleans to searing lead tones.  You can see why this is one of Warren Haynes' go-to amps.  I had a CD100 for many years on the road and eventually parted ways but I found another recently to bring those tones back to my KPA.  These profiles cover many of the amp settings along with some gain pedals in front.

Diaz Pack requires 3.0 firmware and while most amps were profiled 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 (pictured above).  Check out the soundclips below and as usual please excuse the sloppy playing...

Profile Pack 1 (60 profiles) seeks to recreate* a collection of boutique and vintage amps from my personal collection as well as contributions from my friends (thanks guys!).  They cover a variety of styles, from clean sounds that stay warm and full (also great for pedalboard-based set ups) to mid-gain and lead gain British sounds.  Some of these profiles have been the basis for my live presets for the past couple of years and sound great in the studio as my session buddies can attest as well.

Below are sound samples from 40 out of the 60 profiles included in the Kemper Profile Pack.  I will also include a few other variations of some of the amps, but these should give a good idea of the profile sounds. All of the snippets below were played on my red Anderson Cobra with 3 P90's.  All of the clips below were recorded directly into ProTools 10 thru a Propellerhead Balance interface.  There is no eq, compression, or plug-in on these tracks.  Please excuse the sloppiness and tuning.

Scroll down below for sound clips

The 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...

M Britt 800 Pack is for the long-haired tones of the 80's when hair metal bands roamed the Earth.  The earlier British metal-front amps turned into master volume monsters with preamp gain for days.  These 800-series amps were some of the most recorded tones of the era and I got my hands on a few different specimens, including a 100w 2203 clone, wicker front 800, as well as an original 50w chrome faced Jubilee and his 100w reissue cousin.  If you have an appetite for some kind of audio destruction or just want to rock your blues away, this may be the pack for you.

800 Pack requires 3.0 firmware or newer and while most amps were profiled 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.  The Clips below were recording using ProTools 10 with a Propellerhead Balance interface with no plug-ins or eq or processing using a Gibson '58 Les Paul RI with vintage output humbuckers.

As most of you know I play in a country band, and although I can muddle my way through a couple of different styles, playing metal is not something I'm intimately familiar with.  That's why I did a little consulting/custom profiling with my buddy Paul.  He sent me this beautiful oversized-lunchbox beast and I have to admit I had never heard of this amp.  He sent me some suggested settings and beta-tested my results and I profiled some more.

I profiled with a couple of different speakers and tried different mics and combinations.  I dialed in and refined the profiles using a Les Paul and a Knaggs Kenai.  The profiles  have a lot more gain and more edge than I'm used to and they aren't something I can use on my gig, but they are kinda addicting to play.  Also included are 5 DI profiles.  Check them out.