Using a Pendulum with Kemper/Helix

[hansentj]

Hi Guys,
I have the luxury of redesigning my rig on someone else's dime. Problem is, I know what I like tone-wise, but I'm not a gear head and my knowledge of the technical stuff is darn limited.

My goal is to combine my electric rig and my acoustic rig somehow. The best way to do that that I've seen is by using either a Kemper or a helix rig. For the electric, that would be pretty straightforward. For the acoustic, I was also thinking of looking into a Pendulum preamp. So I would go from the acoustic to the pendulum to the Kemper/Helix to the PA.

What do you guys think? Is that completely silly to do? Is running the signal through the Kemper/Helix undoing all the awesome work that the Pendulum would do?

On the acoustic side, I would only be using the Kemper/Helix to add a subtle bit or reverb and delay.

[Doug Young]

I'd probably consider putting the Kemper in the effects inserts of the Pendulum. The SPS-1 puts out a very healthy signal thru the final XLRs. I don't know anything about the Kemper, but I wouldn't expect it would like that. Since you're treating it like an effect, just put it where effects go. Not sure how that works with your electric rig.

Note that the Pendulum doesn't really do any "magic" to your sound - it's just a very clean preamp with lots of headroom and powerful EQ. I'm not clear on what it would add that you don't already have in your other boxes (even tho it's a great unit).

[varmonter]

Not sure if the kemper is a floor unit or rack?
But since its someone elses dime it would be nice
to have the helix rack . Then all the brains
would be protected and you could use the floo
controller to run it all at your feet, I would think
the sps1 would be a set it and forget it. then
using the eq on the helix to adj between elect and acoustic in each preset.
If its all on the floor then the grace felix is another great floor
preamp.

[Rumblefish]

The Helix has a preamp and all the EQ you could ask for making the Pendulum kind of redundant. I use a Helix for Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin and National reso's. You just build separate patches for each instrument. Works great for me. I have no experience with the Kemper.

[Steve Hamill]

After going through scores of amps I bought a Kemper a few years ago and one by one all the amps have gone down the road. Its my all in one solution to playing at home and getting the tones of so many different amps and rigs delivered at ear friendly volumes. The only amp I have currently is a Rivera Sedona Lite and it never gets turned on. I play the Kemper through Yamaha HS8 studio monitors with an HS10w sub. The sound is spectacular with both electrics and acoustic.
My current acoustic setup is very simple. Goodall with Schatten HFN passive into T1M buffer pedal into Kemper. I'll probably grab a Redeye or another preamp like an Avalon U5 or Pendulum someday but for now the Kemper/Schatten T1M is doing the job.
I've tried the Helix and the Helix stomp and I just can't get along with Line6 modeling tones or feel.

[guitarwebguy]

I’ll +1 the Felix, hard to do better in terms of flexibility for a preamp

[Bob Womack]

Having both a Line6 HD500X and a Helix I think the acoustic guitar input facilities and effects models on the Helix would be just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and you can have both acoustic and electric guitars available in one preset if you switch.



Bob

[Steve Hamill]

Well now you have another option with the release of the Kemper Stage last week. Its the main unit and the floor controller rolled into one.