Interesting Video On Amp Tone

    I discovered years ago that the speaker and cabinet have much more of affect on your tone than the actual amp circuit. I have also had noticeable differences going from 6L6 power tubes to E34L power tubes. I know it is the preamp tubes that are providing the overdrive but the power tubes had a noticeable affect for me. I preferred the sound of the OD with the E34L tubes in most of my amps. The 6L6 tubes were a bit less tight and defined and not as good of a tone for the bands I was in at the time.

    SPOILER: The video says that most of the stuff like tube style, etc do not have a large effect on tone. He points more to the staging of EQ and gain. He shows a chart where each major style of amp puts its EQ and gain stages in different orders.


    1) This could be a reason why some people feel the Kemper has a "sound" to it. Since it has a single gain stage and EQ. It does have a few AMP parameters like Sag etc that may act like a second stage. I think for 99% of us, the single stage is good enough.


    2) I like to roll the sleeves up and play around with placing stomps in various orders. This acts like various gain/EQ stages. My current favored combo is the OC->GreenScream->Compressor. Simply moving the order around creates all new options. Adding more stomps to the Kemper would be amazing to give more options for this.


    I really liked his breakdown of speaker cabinets also. This guy goes the extra mile to figure things out. Great watch always. At the end of the cabinet video he lets the true issues out about speaker cabs: Cabinet volume, etc.


    Things about speakers I have read:

    - Magnet size is important for correctly moving the speaker accurately. Bigger is usually better.

    - Speakers are designed to work in specific cabinet volumes to give the flattest frequency response they can.

    - Sound will emit from the rear of a speaker and bounce around inside a cabinet. Deadening material in the cab helps reduce this effect.

    - A closed back will help the low frequencies. Having a tuned port will help even more.

    - Guitar cabs purposefully ignore all of the ideas above, so they get a certain "tone" as opposed to being flat and clear.


    Questions for you guys:

    - Do any guitar cabs ever use a sound deadening material in the cab itself? I have filled my cabs with stuff like blankets/fiberglass insulation/etc.

    - Has anyone ever used a BareFaced Audio cab with the vented horn on the rear?

    So, for a total non-engineer (I'm just a performer hehe), what does this mean for different profiles in the Kemper? Is it that a Marshall profile for example will likely mimic the tone stack of a Marshall, so on and so forth?

    Quote from 1moreguitarist

    So, for a total non-engineer (I'm just a performer hehe), what does this mean for different profiles in the Kemper? Is it that a Marshall profile for example will likely mimic the tone stack of a Marshall, so on and so forth?

    I think all of the interacting between gain stages and EQ are summed into the result you hear. The testing that he did wasn't to say all amps sound the same, just that the things causing the differences might not be what we've always been told.

    Quote from 1moreguitarist

    So, for a total non-engineer (I'm just a performer hehe), what does this mean for different profiles in the Kemper? Is it that a Marshall profile for example will likely mimic the tone stack of a Marshall, so on and so forth?

    A Marshall profile captures the effect of a Marshall tonestack at a specific setting. A Fender profile captures the impact of a Fender tonestack at a specific setting. Neither behaves like the original amp’s tone stack when changing EQ on the Kemper.