Fender Custom Deluxe vs. Kemper Profiles

A great tube guitar amp is the extension of the instrument, the sound box. The interaction between player and the box cannot be underestimated. Imagine Hendrix without the Marshall cutting tracks with a simulator.

Simulators to guitar amps is like florescent light is to sunlight.

I love my 1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, not made like that these days.

You sometimes do get what you pay for.

That makes me chuckle. Come on man, it's not like it sounds like total dog shit. This is the kind of hyperbole and snobbery that really made my eyes roll on other message boards, so lets keep it at a minimum. I am totally ok with making some sonic concessions for demos and ease of use...but I would venture to guess that 90% or more of the people listening would have ZERO idea that there was any compromise. There's probably more difference in moving the mic 2 inches.

As much as I would love having several 251's, 47's, a Neve 8068, vintage Fenders and Marshalls, etc...it's not obtainable. I think finding avenues to make the biggest bang for your investment is not only a good strategy, but in this day in age when music no longer pays, it's a necessity.

OK - not worth the argument. To each his own. The 100% guessing is a little over the top though...

I'm total amp guy. Love hearing an amp in a room. On the other hand, I doubt that you, or I, or anyone else could go 10 for 10 on well mixed tracks (5 with amps, 5 with sims).

The part I was liking above though was that it's not worth arguing about. If the sims provide the tones you're looking for and the amp doesn't, who cares, ya know. It especially doesn't matter for demos, right?

IMHO the circumstances of production and the variables of a song - it's structure, melody, vibe, how it's mixed, etc - outweigh the method of capture, in the end. If you are cutting a track for world-wide release in anticipation of a potential Grammy, by all means play through the best amps, mics, and recording chain. You will be able to afford it, most likely. Otherwise, do what's best for the process of creation. I can see where a Kemper and technologies like it can enhance the demo process. So unless the thing sounds like shit, if it helps the process along, use it.

While not a Kemper, my Two Notes Studio has become core to my recording process, and sound. In my dreams, I hope that someday interviewers will ask me, "How Did You Get That Sound?" My reply would be, "Well, it's complicated . . ."

I can easily imagine Hendrix playing with a Kemper.  I think he'd be one of the first to embrace it, and get sounds out of it that most of us can't even imagine.

If Hendrix was famous a few years earlier than he was, I can imagine people asking "Can you imagine Hendrix playing with a fuzz and wah?  LOL!"  Fortunately we don't have to imagine that.

I agree. The song is what matters in the end. A ton of great songs have been recorded on solid state amps or direct into the board.

I tried the Kemper and thought it was a great tool. I have a friend who does a lot of commercials/jingles and for him it's just perfect, he's asked to do different styles daily and I don't think he'd go back to amps for that kind of work. The Kemper is just so incredibly convenient .

I ended up returning the Kemper because in the end, it was just too much for me, too many presets, and I still felt my amps sounded better. Most of my current work is writing for others, and for the genre I do, mainly folk/pop/ballad stuff I usually need a good clean and a good crunch tone and that's about it, nothing fancy, no high gain tones. For now I'm fine using some of the plug sims ( sgear/ bias and logic amp designer even) for writing quietly at home, I get a good DI tone through a BAE DMP/symphony IO and I can always reamp later through my ac30 with my R92/SM57 combo. If I ever need another tone, I've got a friend's studio a block away who's got JCM800/900,TWIN,MESA, JTM45 and just reamp it over there.

In the end, it's all about workflow, and I didn't feel the Kemper got me there faster. I've actually downsized a lot my writing studio as I found out I just had too much equipment, it was built around an Audient 8024 with quite a few external preamps/comps/eqs/reverbs, and I just spent too much time fiddling with knobs instead of just writing tunes. My new set up is super simple, a few pres, everything is always connected , a U87 or SM7b for vocals, a pair of CMC6s for recording acoustic guitar/mandolin/ukelele and the amp setup.

I would've maybe kept it if it'd been like $500, but 2 grand is a lot of cash for something I don't really need. While I had it I recorded a demo track for a friend who plays some pretty hardcore metal stuff ( not my kind of music but it's always interesting to work on other genres) and he had a 5150 head and a Diezel VH4. We were able to get EXTREMELY close to the 5150 hi gain, when a/bing, the  main difference I noticed was how they reacted differently to palm muted power chord chugging, the Kemper sounded a little more polite. On the Diezel I wasn't able to get quite as close but then didn't spend much time fine tuning it. 

I have a session player buddy who gave me an hour tour of the Kemper. I certainly wouldn't decide based on my first profile. Those things are quite amazing and incredibly versatile. If I wanted an all purpose home recording rig the Kemper seems perfect. You can always loan it to me to record some stuff and sell you on it.

I too found the vast number of choices debilitating.  I'm now using the Rig Manager and finding it very useful for organizing and quickly switching to different profiles.  Are you using it?

To my ears, the Kemper did not produce the warmth of the full G chord in that chord progression as well as the amp/mic/preamp. You may have not hit the chords the same, but I could not hear the low end string warmth as clearly.

Your real amp sounds miles better in the high end. That is disappointing; with all I've read about the Kemper, I expected it to be better.

That said, if you can roll off it's top without killing the sound, it's versatility can't be denied.