Who waits for NAMM these days? Kemper is ready to go now with the Kemper Profiler Player – a stompbox delivering its acclaimed effects and amp profiling at a price that will open up Kemper to a lot of new players.
"The Player offers a massive, well-curated selection of 136 different FX settings from the legendary Kemper Profiler FX arsenal of over 444 FX presets in total," says the German company. "All the important tools of the trade are just ready to be engaged with the next switch!"
This is a huge step for Kemper, and if there are any fundamental compromises here, we're not really seeing them… beyond the lack of a screen.
It offers the full arsenal of Kemper amp tones (yes, the Amp section of the Player sounds identical to the Amp section of its famous big brothers," continues Kemper. "It loads any amp Profile from the vast library of existing free and commercial Profiles), selected FX settings, IR loading, and switching capabilities – at home, in the studio, in the rehearsal room, and on stage."
You can manage it on a deeper level with Kemper's RigManager, compatible with iOS, macOS, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows.
The Player’s signal chain gives players four effect blocks as well as the amplifier stack. "Up to two effects can be placed 'pre' the amp stack, and another two 'post' the amp," says Kemper. And obviously, you can run the Player alongside your real pedals.
"The post-amp modules of the effect chain are ideal for delay and reverb effects," Kempers adds. "Both delay and reverb offer 'spillover' at any time, meaning the sonic tail is not cut off when changing to another Rig.
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Let's take a look at the full feature list for the Kemper Profiler Player:
- Fully compatible with Kemper Profiler Amp Rigs
- Made in Germany
- Metal casing
- 127 dB dynamic range guitar input
- Three footswitches for Rig, FX, and Performance switching (further control units supported)
- All push-pots for additional second-level parameter access
- Amp controls Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Rig Volume
- Four x Profiler FX - two pre and two post-amp stack
- FX 1 and FX 2 control and switch
- High-power headphone output
- Loads cabinet IRs
- Master volume
- Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity
- Connects to RigManager remote app on all relevant platforms
- Supports KEmper Kone Technology for running speaker Imprints with Kemper Power Kabinets
- Audio Interface 4/4 via USB
- MIDI via USB - Supports typical USB2MIDI cables
- Three separate output groups: XLR FOH/ studio out, independent 2 x 1/4“ TSR jack stereo monitor out, stereo headphone out
- USB B/A for external connections (computer, USB Stick)
- 9V power supply
- 50 Rigs on board plus access to thousands of rigs from the Factory Content/ Rig Exchange
- Editor apps for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, MacOS, Windows
The Kemper Profiler Player is $698 / £649 / €698 and is available to order from Andertons and Sweetwater, but Thomann is currently offering it for £599 – the best price we've found!
Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.