In a world where every amazing product you think you have purchased seems to be obsolete a week later, the Kemper Profiler stands out as a rare example of where the company (seemingly) genuinely cares about it existing customers.
The Kemper has been around in one form or another since circa 2011. A decade is truly an impressive stint with modern technology. The no doubt low residual sales for a product that has been supported for this long makes the service I received all the more amazing.
Around 2 years ago I decided to make the leap to using the Kemper live, following great success using it to record the guitars for our debut album Telling Truths Breaking Ties, and yes partly out of stinginess, as replicating all the effects I used on the album using analogue pedals would equate to an eye-watering amount.
In order to truly get the best out of the Kemper, the official profiler remote is an absolute must buy! I like many others tried the cheaper third-party midi pedal route, but like many others, was left feeling frustrated.
The official remote is expensive in relative terms, but is absolutely unmatched in its user friendliness and compatibility. I managed to pick up mine for a good price on the used market.
During a rehearsal in 2021, I started noticing the backlight for the screen flickering on and off on occasions, usually with a light tapping of the general area bringing everything back to life, suggesting a bad connection somewhere.
I honestly wasn’t holding out much hope of support from Kemper, not because of their customer service, but due to the fact that this remote had been purchased used. However they could not have been more friendly, accommodating and helpful, no less than if I had purchased the remote directly from them new.
After a very pleasant and helpful exchange of emails with Peter at Kemper, we put in plans to send it over for repair once I had completed my winter tour with Millie Manders & The Shutup, as they understandably could not guarantee at that time, that the remote would make it back in time for tour, as Covid was rife and causing courier driver shortages amongst many issues.
As a stop gap solution, our tour manager Jeff very kindly provided a simple but effective clip-on LED reading light, that could be positioned to shine down on the remote screen, in order to see the patches. Clip it to the bottom of the mic stand and voila!
Sure enough once the tour and the festive closure period was completed, I got back in touch with Peter, and they had not forgotten or gone back on their word, even unexpectedly arranging the shipping at their expense rather than mine, something I was not anticipating, but very welcomed.
The repair and return was handled with equal efficiency, even offering to repair a superficial dent in the chassis of the remote.
Returned again at their expense rather than mine, my remote is now good as new and ready to rock on our next tour supporting the mighty Less Than Jake on their 30th anniversary UK tour.
The lead singer / guitarist Chris Demakes also is a Kemper user so who knows, maybe I will be able to get some tips from an expert!
Good times!
