Hands-on demo: Kemper takes to the floor with the new Profiler Stage, can it compete in an ever-growing market?

With all-encompassing floorboards becoming ubiquitous in the hands of gigging guitarists, it is little wonder that Kemper has got in on the action.

The Profiler Stage was one of the most hotly anticipated products of this year, so of course, we had to get our hands one.

Simon Arblaster is joined by Total Guitar's Chris Bird for the first time, in the studio, to put this new floorboard through its paces.

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Combining what is, essentially, the company’s Profiler Head/Rack with its Profiler Remote, the Stage allows you to control and program Performances, as well as manage Rig switches and parameter modifications, all at your feet.

We absolutely love the sound, but the omission of a built-in expression pedal feels a bit like an own goal. There's no denying that Kemper is still the top of the tree, so you can forgive it a few little niggles. What we would love to see, though, is an even smaller version like the HX Stomp - maybe one day, who knows?

It's worth pointing out that we mention that there is no software editor for the Kemper. While is this is still the case, at the time of writing, the company is developing an editor which should be coming out soon.