Modeling amps vs. Profiler?

It all depends on what you want to do. If you’re a bedroom guitarist who just occasionally jams with friends, a mustang v3 will be plenty enough. However, with amps, there are certain tones that are absolutely gatekept by price.

The sounds of vintage marshalls from classic rock albums, that classic bluesbreaker sound, etc are often very difficult to replicate on cheap amps and pedals. For most guitarists, this doesn’t matter. However, for tone snobs, aggressive giggers, music producers, and recording artists, tone is EVERYTHING.

And if you’re performing a lot of different styles or recording different artists, the ability to replicate multiple amps and pedals via the amp modeler is super helpful. You can have a marshal tone, an EVH, a Vox, a Fender twin reverb, a mesa boogie, etc all in one package. A profiler takes it one step further because not only does it allow for using digital patches that replicate these different amps, but it has the ability to make NEW patches by profiling a tone you record into it and copying it digitally. This is huge for recording and touring artists because they can craft a tone in the studio using any combination of amps and cabs, digitally encode that sound via the profiler, and then get that EXACT tone live without even using any amps on stage. In addition, tube amps sound completely different loud vs soft, whereas a digital profile or model can get the tone of the loud tube amp at any volume. Plus, profilers are usually very light, and smaller than most people’s pedal boards (while also replacing the pedal board as well). They can be plugged directly into a daw or soundboard, giving the sound man or recording engineer MUCH more control over the sound. They take up WAY less space in a tour van, which is HUGE for fledgling bands trying to tour to make a name for themselves.

The vintage marshall amp you want that produces the sound with a tubescreamer probaby costs $2-4k. The EVH head and cab total another $1.2k. The fender reverb is $1.4k, a mesa boogie around $1k. You can find a decent modeler that can replicate these tones reasonably well with a cab for around $600, while the better ones go for around $1.2k. A kemper profiler setup that can replicate these tones as well as make new ones goes for around $1.8k. The costs of these modelers and profilers are going down as the technology improves, while the costs of vintage amps only increase.

There is absolutely a purist sect of musicians that HATE anything digital. They don’t agree with using profilers or modelers. Heck, they don’t even like solid state amps. They want nothing but tube amps and analogue pedals. Some don’t even like recording to a click track, or using time alignment, let alone meladine pitch correction. They believe there is a certain amount of warmth and control lost when using a modeler vs a real amp, which may sometimes be true, but 99% of the time, even serious guitarists cannot tell the difference. The technology has gotten THAT good.

It’s a battle of analogue vs digital, heavy amps vs light boxes, specializing in one tone vs having many tones at your fingertips, and the inevitable result of chasing tone vs value added.

Personally, I have used both. In the studio, I tend to record on a kemper. Live, I use a clean style tube combo amp with a pedal driving it. In one band, my rhythm guitarist uses a cheap modeler, and it sounds incredible just plugged into the soundboard. It makes me jealous watching him unplug and stuff that little setup into his guitar gig bag and be done loading out while I haul my heavy combo amp. I’ll probably eventually get a modeler to have fun with, but I am satisfied with the tone I’m currently making with my analogue rig.

I am seriously considering adding a Quad Cortex to my collection of "real" amps simply because it's both a great modeler AND a great profiler and it is so compact. I can literally bring a stable of guitar amps to trade and consumer shows easily (Quad Cortex and cables in a small bag and rout it into the new Fender Tonemaster power-amp-onboard 1x12s). And I can use the QC to profile the amps I used to bring to shows and still bring them in a way haha.

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I had a Kemper and liked it, but to get the best out of it you have to buy premium profiles from guys like Tone Junkie and Michael Britt. Nowadays, I use an Axe Fx 3 and will never go back. It is the best piece of gear that I've ever purchased. They also very good about firmware updates, which is seriously lacking with some of the others like the Quad Cortex.

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I have a Helix and really like it, but I'd like to pick up an FM3 to try out before long.

There are great profiles available on the rig exchange, you don’t need TJ or Britt to get a great one. I found a Brunetti Maranello profile that just rips. The stock AC profile is a great platform for building a clean rig. You can make a Kemper sound as good as any tube amp, it just takes a bit of experience and time. If you gig, modelers/profilers are absolutely the way to go. FOH quality is the same every time, stage sound is the same every time…and quieter. If you’re a player who flies to gigs and rents a back line, Al, you need to take is your guitar and a thumb drive.

Tube amps? Love them, but they’re really starting to become too expensive to maintain. Tubes are stratospheric expensive. Which might further drive modelers/ profilers to the next level of development.

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There are great profiles available on the rig exchange, you don’t need TJ or Britt to get a great one.

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Agree, my Kemper has stayed on the new free M Britt liquid profile of a Fender Twin since they released it.

If i was looking at a small form factor for trade shows I'd look hard at either the Tonex or the new Kemper Player that just came out, not as many features as the Quad Cortex but it may have enough of them at a fraction of the price.

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There are great profiles available on the rig exchange, you don’t need TJ or Britt to get a great one. I found a Brunetti Maranello profile that just rips. The stock AC profile is a great platform for building a clean rig. You can make a Kemper sound as good as any tube amp, it just takes a bit of experience and time. If you gig, modelers/profilers are absolutely the way to go. FOH quality is the same every time, stage sound is the same every time…and quieter. If you’re a player who flies to gigs and rents a back line, Al, you need to take is your guitar and a thumb drive.

Tube amps? Love them, but they’re really starting to become too expensive to maintain. Tubes are stratospheric expensive. Which might further drive modelers/ profilers to the next level of development.

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Yeah I had a ton of profiles from Michael Britt and Tone Junkie. They sounded great, but just prefer my Axe Fx 3. At this point, if you can't get a good tone out of these modelers, it's more of a you problem.