Kemper Profiler or Ampeg SVT Heritage.

[JimmyM]

I honestly think there is a generational thing, a lot of older guys got turned off by very early digital stuff and have a distaste for it, younger players have come up with great digital gear and silent stages and can't even tell the difference. My first time playing an all tube amp i was so confused, it didn't sound or feel basically any different from good digital gear...I knew I was SUPPOSED to prefer it but honestly I couldn't see any reason to.

I played a Warwick all-tube bass head for a while and replaced it with a lightweight solid state class D Ashdown head because I truly hated the sound. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum but tubes aren't the gold standard anymore, they're just another option with pros and cons.

Warwick made an all-tube bass head? News to me. All I've seen out of them are full SS and hybrids. What model was it?

At any rate, it's not a generational thing by any means...there have been bassists who have preferred SS heads since the day they came out in the 60's. I know people my age and older who have Kempers, Helix, and Axe-FX units, too, and I know young folks who love their all-tube gear. The gear will always be secondary to the player, but everyone has their own preferences and they are all valid.

So I hate to yuck YOUR yum, but you yucked nobody's yum. Nobody's minds have been changed, nor does anyone care that all-tube heads are one option out of many since they always have been since the mid-late 60's. I still feel the exact same way about my all-tube heads as I always have, people who like SS and hybrid still prefer SS and hybrid, and digital has made a lot of inroads toward getting better in the last 10 years and folks have been working digital gear into their rigs, and that's just fine by me. My yum is still un-yucked, thank you.

 

[Mastermold]

Warwick made an all-tube bass head? News to me. All I've seen out of them are full SS and hybrids. What model was it?

At any rate, it's not a generational thing by any means...there have been bassists who have preferred SS heads since the day they came out in the 60's. I know people my age and older who have Kempers, Helix, and Axe-FX units, too, and I know young folks who love their all-tube gear. The gear will always be secondary to the player, but everyone has their own preferences and they are all valid.

So I hate to yuck YOUR yum, but you yucked nobody's yum. Nobody's minds have been changed, nor does anyone care that all-tube heads are one option out of many since they always have been since the mid-late 60's. I still feel the exact same way about my all-tube heads as I always have, people who like SS and hybrid still prefer SS and hybrid, and digital has made a lot of inroads toward getting better in the last 10 years and folks have been working digital gear into their rigs, and that's just fine by me. My yum is still un-yucked, thank you.

I feel like this thread has morphed into some sort of food blog!

 

[thabassmon]

If it were me, I'd get the Kemper.

 

[P A U L]

The Kemper makes a zillion different sounds. How many will you use? I often use an SVT-cl and I haven't moved a knob on it since the Johnson administration.

I think the main thing though, is if you can get an inspiring enough tone/feel from the Kemper, vs a real SVT in the house... (edit) *You only need to be able to get 1 good tone out of it.*

I have a Kemper & use it for sitting on my couch playing away at any given time.

I still have not heard, found a convincing SVT profile. At least, compared to my Skunk. I'm sure if I profiled my Skunk, & ran it into the power amp of my Skunk I could get somewhere close, but, that would defeat the purpose (for me) of using the Kemper.

Most of the profiles I've heard the distortion sounds solid state & harsh. When I ride my Skunk, the distortion is warm & brilliant.

But then, I also have the SVP Pro (ver. 1) & the distortion, even though they have a tube for that slot, sounds like a buzzarding transistor/diode - blech!

The SVT profiles on Kemper, seem to get the cleaner Ampeg tone down ok, but, those tones at the point of breakup are sorely missed on all of the ones I've played/heard.

Now that I've got my Skunk up & running full throttle again, I'll have to start working on getting some good profiles, but, I still don't imagine that I'll get the thump, growl & brilliance that I get using the beast. Maybe I'l have the ultimate couch tone while watching TV, but, it won't carry the assault of the 16- 10" speakers flapping your pant legs...

 

[seamonkey]

IK Ampeg SVX is free for a while: IK AmpliTube VSX free for a few days (it's not a scam)

If you have decent home recording studio it is something to try.

The difference between IK Ampeg SVX (or SVX2 which is a different set of amps) is that Ampeg engineers were fully involved in the creation of SVX. IK started with the original schematics, and they even ran into a bug in the design. Ampeg certified it on the spot! IK of course fixed the bug in SVX release.

Kemper is different as it is a bunch of people profiling their own amps. Ampeg engineering and development is not involved. And of course everybody's personal head is different. Bass players can profile their own heads. If you got a good head, and a Kemper, you ought to profile it right away and archive what it sounds like now. You don't need a schematic like IK used. That's the real value of a Kemper to capture what you yourself own.

In fact with a good home studio, you should be able to profile IK SVX with a Kemper, and compare it to other Kemper Ampeg profiles right on the Kemper.

Myself, I seem to find the level of having the original manufacturer's engineer team involved in the modeling or profiling adds a lot to what they consider the character of the original head.

I expect that Line-6 will soon have cloning capabilities themselves in Hardware and software plugins. It will be interesting if they could catch up to Kemper especially for YGG brands like Ampeg.