Kemper Profiler Stage

113
MARCH 2020 GUITARIST
reviewKEMPER PROFILER STAGE
Kemper’s main claim
to fame is profi ling:
creating a faithful
replica of any amp’s
tone from a sample
KEMPER PROFILER STAGE £1,449
What You Need To Know
Has Guitarist gone completely
digital, then?
No, but we’re definitely in a time of
immense development in digital
amplification. The problem might well
be which brand or product to go for.
So, what is the Profiler Stage?
A new floor-standing version of
Kemper’s Profiler head preamp,
combined with the Kemper Remote
foot controller. Like the original
Profiler head, it doesn’t have a power
stage, so you’ll need a powered cab
of some sort if you want to use it live
without a proper PA. However, it does
come with full profiling capability.
Will it suit me?
If you’re an occasional amateur
guitarist, it’s probably overkill, but if
you’re tech-savvy and can use the
whole amp profiling concept to build
a collection of vintage and modern
amps in the digital realm, the Profiler
Stage is a very serious piece of kit.
T
he arrival of Kemper’s Profiler digital
head in 2011 was a game-changer
for many guitarists, allowing them
to digitally recreate the sounds of their own
amps, as well as download amp profiles
from other users via Kemper’s online portal.
The Profiler Remote foot controller was
added to the range a few years later as the
Profiler’s popularity grew. Kemper has now
taken the next logical step, integrating its
Profiler Head and Remote foot controller
into a compact, stage-ready preamp
appropriately called the Profiler Stage.
The Profiler Stage is housed in a tough
steel case that’s heavy enough to stay put
but still very portable. Newcomers to
Kemper’s styling and operating system
may find the controls somewhat daunting,
with dozens of switches, knobs and multi-
coloured LEDs threatening to push even
mild technophobes into sensory overload.
However, everything has a purpose and
the layout is quite logical when you get
used to it. The all-important display screen
is relatively small compared with other
similar products and the information isn’t
so easy to read from a distance, although the
contrast is good. The display backlighting
changes colour in some modes as a
visual assist and all the footswitch labels
are backlit, which is handy in low-light
situations as well as looking very cool.
The Profiler Stage organises amps, effects
and speaker cabinet simulations into Rigs,
which are stored in 125 banks of five, with a
Browse mode and a separate Performance
mode, which is useful for storing and
shuffling setlists. Two footswitch buttons
step up and down through the banks, while
five more directly access each Rig. Four
more footswitch buttons can be assigned
to toggle effects or groups of effects in each
Rig, with two more buttons to the right of
the display controlling the Profiler Stage’s
looper and tuner functions and another for
tap tempo. Most of these buttons have at
least one secondary function: for example,
the Rig select buttons also operate the
looper. In loop mode, the button number
backlights dim and the looper control
symbols become brighter – just one
example of the thought that’s gone into
making a relatively complex interface as
easy as possible to navigate.
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CONTACT Kemper PHONE [phone] WEB www.kemper-amps.com
KEMPER PROFILER STAGE
1. The mono LCD display
is somewhat small and
diffi cult to read from
a distance, but it has
all the info you need to
know what the Profi ler
Stage is doing
2. Kemper’s new unit has
two fully programmable
mono-out/stereo-in
effects loops
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GIT456.rev_kemper.indd 113 22/01/2020 22:19