My favorite gear

[EL34]

With all the talk about how good modeling and profiling amps have gotten, I thought I would share my gear
I have been using a Kemper rack unit since 2015
Even though I have a big stack of hand wired tube amps and a 1966 Vibrolux Reverb, I like the Kemper way better.

You can think of the Kemper as a monster pedal board with every effect known to man
Out of the Kemper my signal goes into a Stereo tube pre amp
You can see this unit on the library page
https://el34world.com/schematics.htm#All_tube_Stereo_guitar_pre_amp_project_

The signal then splits and goes into the computer for recording and into a pair of powered Headrush speakers in stereo
The Headrush powered speakers are what I hear my guitar through
There are two other speakers that the computer plays back through

I mainly make backing tracks for me to play along with
After I record a tune, I delete my lead guitar parts and make a backing track.

Here's a couple pics

[Platefire]

Man! The owner and developer of the world famous Hoffman tube site and forum gone SS   I've wondered about that ever since you had said you was using a Kemper. You've been using it a while now and still hanging with it, so---it must do some great stuff or I'm sure you would have already dropped it and moved on. I can't deneigh the guitar tones you laying down on your recordings, great stuff. Have you had any problems with it since you got it, or just good no problems service?
 
In my younger years I was all over the place with SS verses tube. Started out it the 60's and 70's with tubes, 80's Hybred SS Pre/tube power and 90's SS. Then2000 + back to tubes and started building/modding tube amps up until now. It's been a great fun hobby building tube amps and this site and forum has spurred me on---but I think I may have built my last tube amp. Makes no sense on building anymore when you don't have room for the ones you got I'll just play the one I got the rest of my days.

Thanks Doug for sharing pictures of your rig. I have wondered what the Kemper looked  like and what other pieces you were using. Nothing like some great sounding equipment to inspire you to play your best! Platefire

[EL34]

11 years I have been using the Kemper
It's amazing
Note that I feed the output into a stereo tube pre amp and then onto the computer and powered speakers

Serious Question:
What is the difference between guys feeding their guitar into a bunch of pedals first then a tube amp
Or into a Kemper first and then a tube amp?

[shooter]

none


try geting guitarists to "accept" adding Mojo before the amp, the amp is hard enough with cost, complexity, n time, adding "pedal stuff" into a build is like re-inventing a wheel.


Most of my builds did NOT add "mojo", they simply amplified it, with just enough OD to satisfy the guitarists

[EL34]

Right
Every pro guitarist I see in these rig rundowns on YouTube has a crap load of pedals on the floor.

One thing about the Kemper is that it is a profiler, not just a modeler
That means that you can profile existing amps and save the profiles
So you could profile your favorite tube amp several different ways and save that

Plus the PC program that talks to the Kemper has a on line library of paid for pro and free users profiles you can download into the Kemper
Last time I looked at the on line library there was over 26,000 profiles

Every amp under the sun has been profiled and is in the library
Take a profile and edit it any way you want and save that as your custom profile

One other really cool feature I use is called morphing
With an expression pedal, you set the amp one way with the pedal all the way back
Then set the amp differently with the pedal all the way forward.
Say you have changed 10 different knobs and settings between the two extreme pedal positions
Now when you moved the expression pedal the Kemper moves those settings and knobs slowly from one extreme to the other and everything in between
It's like someone turning a knob a eq, a flanger, delays, reverb etc slowly on your amp from 1,2,3, etc to 10 or 11

That's just a couple things that makes the Kemper so cool