Thinking of moving from Kemper to a Jetta

[howdydoo]

Hi All,

I'm hoping you all may be able to help, and I apologise in advance for some of the comparisons as I'm coming from using Kemper profiles.

As the title says, I'm thinking about selling my Kemper and moving back toward valve amps, one of which, and my current favoured choice along with the Cure is the Jetta.

From playing on the Kemper I've tended to prefer the Dumble (ODS) style profiles and the PRS J Mod the best, which I believe are both based off modified black face Fenders though I could be wrong. One thing I've enjoyed the most from these profiles is the articulation, and balance of sound from them, they don't have over powering low end or harsh top end.

I've tended to play the same profile without ever really changing as I love pedals and get most of my sounds from my board, so I figured I may as well just invest in a high quality valve amp to use as a clean / edge of breakup pedal platform. This is what led me to the Jetta as it seems like it was made for almost that exact reason. I would also like to know if anyone has any experience running a Fulltone Fulldrive with the Jetta/Cure, as this is one pedal that either sits perfectly with an amp, or just seems to hate it.

I had two main questions however; The first was how good the amp would sound at lower levels ~80db or so as I pretty much solely use my Kemper at home, though I do want any amp I get to be able to be used with a band should the opportunity arise. The second one may or may not be relevant to be honest, but one of the reasons I wanted to move away from the Kemper was that I would get a high pitched hiss at times unrelated to the profile I was using. I'm fairly sensitive to high pitched hissing from my amps, but I've seen a few posts noting that the Jetta does hiss quite a lot. I thought it may be best to ask owners of the amp as to whether this is a real issue or not. I have a feeling that at the volume level I'd be using I doubt I would ever hear it, however it is a concern, especially as I would plan to put something like a reverb in the loop which I have seen can be particularly noisy?

Other amps I was considering were the Bad Cat Classic Pro, Dr Z Cure and Morgan MVP23. If anyone had any thoughts on these amps too it would be great.

Thanks everyone for your help, and I don't mean to criticise any of the amps when talking about hiss etc, but as I've seen some posts relating to it I thought I'd ask.

[helmi]

Welcome to the forum.

[bigez]

You shouldn’t be bothered by the hiss if you are playing at lower volumes (less than 50% on both volume and master). It can annoying at higher levels than those with certain setups.

[runninwiththerevil (Matthew)]

I had a Cure and that’s a solid pedal platform. It definitely has a character, but with the level and the master you can put the tubes upfront or in the back and base your tailor your sound with pedals. However, I think you are posted in the right place, the Jetta is going to met your list even better. If you want a pedal platform, the M12 was made for that purpose.

[adam]

Howdy Howdy!

Can't speak to the Cure, but I had a go with an early Kemper and maybe have an angle there. In general, I think the modeling stuff is fantastic for practicing and working out parts, but I just don't think it holds up to a good old amp in a real situation be it live or recording. When I tested the Kemper, it felt like a little leap in quality from my POD XT, and I'm being honest. Tried Helix Native and to me that was so pod like, I turned it off in about 30 seconds. However, I will say that 90% of my playing the last 20 years has been with that pod or for the last 5 years, a UA Friedman plugin. Basically super quiet in headphones. I can get parts together that way, not bug anyone, and be happy with the tone. But, when I translate my practice to a real amp, there's a transition where I have change the approach because there is so much more going on with he real amp. It's like I can train my fingers where to go with the sim, but I have to tune my right hand again to get it to work with the amp. The sim stuff is kind of like you are playing a recording of the amp and not the amp.

I think it a bit funny you said you kind of use one profile. I did and do with my pod, and I do the same thing with the UA plug. Basically one sound that works for me and play with the gain, bass and treble. That's sort of exactly what a one channel amp does, but the amp does it in a much more dynamic way.

So, the Kemper is a tool, but it's not an amp. My 2 cents.

[Seńor Verde]

I haven't owned a solid state amp in decades, but have friends that owned modeling amps like the Helix, Line6, Johnson etc. I also saw The Outlaws live and one of their guys used a Kemper. Honestly, the Outlaws Kemper sounded great, but it was running through the PA, where a soundguy has a lot of control over EQ, compression etc. Other than that experience, I've never heard a solid state/modeling amp that sounded good to me. I own and use a Dr Z Therapy, which some folks likened in some ways to a Dumble. I don't get Dumble sounds out of mine, but when I ran a Bad Cat Siamese Drive with my Therapy, it did sound kinda-sorta Dumbly to me. Anyway, sorry to ramble on, but if the Jetta sounds similar to the Therapy, as people say it does, it should be a good way to go. I have a Cure also and really like it, but I don't get the same sounds out of it as I do the Therapy.