Sp8ctre
Ambassador of Steel
...bottom line Go Get One! That is if you want to try 100 different amps for the price of one.
I started playing with the modeling stuff right from the start of my journey to learn guitar. The first amp I bought was a Line 6 Spider IV. While it had some really nice sounds
it just left a whole lot to be desired. One thing I hate about it is the jump in volume when you change models. You best be quick on the volume knob lest you blow a speaker
or your ear drums out.
After I played around with the Spider and read all the forum posts I could stand I knew I just HAD to have some tube amps. So I bought a VOX AC15C1 and although it
sounds great when playing it will not quiet down when setting idle. The constant hiss drives me crazy. No amount of shielding, new tube sets, high end cables or power
line noise suppressors will help. Maybe it's all the fluorescent lighting here?
Next came the Fender Super Champ, part tube, part modeler. This one is a head only and I play it mainly through a cab with a sixty/seventy 12". It is quiet and it sounds
great on most cleans and mile distortion. Heavy distortion not as much. It may be the low cost speaker???
Then I heard about the great price on the Silkyn amps and the background about the big name designer behind them. I couldn't resist and bought two of them. They are
fantastic 6L6 tube amp with both a Fender and Marshall circuit in them and they sound great and get DAMN loud, just ask Wav...I almost gave him hearing damage...
During this time I still felt the urge to do some heaving straying into modeling and got a Line 6 POD HD500X. I barely got my hands dirty messing with it and the Helix came
out...and you guessed it...I bought one along with a Line 6 Stage Source L2t powered FRFR PA monitor speaker. The Pod HD500X was immediately sold and I was hooked
on modeling with the Helix rig! It is seeing wide spread use with many pro studio and gigging musicians and that is because it truly performs! I'm not going to try and convince
anyone that they can't tell the difference between a modeler and a real tube, but you need to hear one live!
Finally last week I took another plunge in the water and bought a Kemper Profiler Amp. This unit works in a different fashion where as it actually profiles the real rig ie. Fender, Marshall
or whatever rig live and reproduces it's sound. I've only had two days to play with it, but it is far and and away the best I've played yet! This thing has thousands of real rigs profiled
and they sound incredible! Want to play a Dumble and don't have $50,000 well they have been profiled and the sound is unbelievable!
So with all this real world buying, playing, testing and comparing I'm satisfied that the modeling/profiling path is the one for me. I'm going to sell off all my amps other than one Silkyn
because I don't need them. I just want to keep the Silkyn because I spent so much time working on it and re-covering it...
I'm going to keep the Helix as well because even though I feel the Kemper is a better profiler I want to have a unit at home and one at work so I don't have to drag the things around...
And for those who think the profiler takes away from the special qualities that each guitar may impart have a listen to this video. Same pick up and same exact modeling setting
the only thing changed up was the guitar...
I started playing with the modeling stuff right from the start of my journey to learn guitar. The first amp I bought was a Line 6 Spider IV. While it had some really nice sounds
it just left a whole lot to be desired. One thing I hate about it is the jump in volume when you change models. You best be quick on the volume knob lest you blow a speaker
or your ear drums out.
After I played around with the Spider and read all the forum posts I could stand I knew I just HAD to have some tube amps. So I bought a VOX AC15C1 and although it
sounds great when playing it will not quiet down when setting idle. The constant hiss drives me crazy. No amount of shielding, new tube sets, high end cables or power
line noise suppressors will help. Maybe it's all the fluorescent lighting here?
Next came the Fender Super Champ, part tube, part modeler. This one is a head only and I play it mainly through a cab with a sixty/seventy 12". It is quiet and it sounds
great on most cleans and mile distortion. Heavy distortion not as much. It may be the low cost speaker???
Then I heard about the great price on the Silkyn amps and the background about the big name designer behind them. I couldn't resist and bought two of them. They are
fantastic 6L6 tube amp with both a Fender and Marshall circuit in them and they sound great and get DAMN loud, just ask Wav...I almost gave him hearing damage...
During this time I still felt the urge to do some heaving straying into modeling and got a Line 6 POD HD500X. I barely got my hands dirty messing with it and the Helix came
out...and you guessed it...I bought one along with a Line 6 Stage Source L2t powered FRFR PA monitor speaker. The Pod HD500X was immediately sold and I was hooked
on modeling with the Helix rig! It is seeing wide spread use with many pro studio and gigging musicians and that is because it truly performs! I'm not going to try and convince
anyone that they can't tell the difference between a modeler and a real tube, but you need to hear one live!
Finally last week I took another plunge in the water and bought a Kemper Profiler Amp. This unit works in a different fashion where as it actually profiles the real rig ie. Fender, Marshall
or whatever rig live and reproduces it's sound. I've only had two days to play with it, but it is far and and away the best I've played yet! This thing has thousands of real rigs profiled
and they sound incredible! Want to play a Dumble and don't have $50,000 well they have been profiled and the sound is unbelievable!
So with all this real world buying, playing, testing and comparing I'm satisfied that the modeling/profiling path is the one for me. I'm going to sell off all my amps other than one Silkyn
because I don't need them. I just want to keep the Silkyn because I spent so much time working on it and re-covering it...
I'm going to keep the Helix as well because even though I feel the Kemper is a better profiler I want to have a unit at home and one at work so I don't have to drag the things around...
And for those who think the profiler takes away from the special qualities that each guitar may impart have a listen to this video. Same pick up and same exact modeling setting
the only thing changed up was the guitar...
ty as all the rest...but, I'll try and give an honest assesment after I have more time with the unit.
) and at least one JTM 50 clone, which sounds better and more authentic than all of them. 
Only then can you know what you may or may not be missing.