Well, I live in Brazil, man...We have a 100% importation tax around here, thanks to our amazing government...Plus, 1 USD is equivalent to 3 BRL (Brazilian Reais)...So, a 2.000 USD Kemper would end up costing about 12.000 BRL, which is A LOT of money...Hahahaha

My wife would divorce me if I bought something like that.

 

Maybe you can rent it out to the studios

 

Smuggle it in from a neighboring country *yes*

 

I'm old and have played guitar a long time!!! I've had 100's of pedals myself. I've had old vintage Japanese Boss pedals, DOD, and Electro Harmonix. I've had tried them all!!!! This is my current setup, wish I had a better amp though. Don't recommend Blackstar for a good metal tone!
[media]https://www.dropbox.com/sc/flzctv3jj9edvu1/AACeqgmZDPnb3yKSC7Ds_I_ia[/media]

I've had tried lots of freaking pedals. I agree with most of the stuff people have said. The only thing that should tell you what to use is your ears. Try your ears!!!

I agree, I never liked multi distortion pedals. Like the tc electronic nova drive, garbage. But nowadays, the Line 6 modelers are impressive. You can get some pretty tasty distortions out of them. So I did end up with a Line 6 M5 just to get some different distortions with a flick of the midi controller! But I used my ears! Digitech and Zoom always sounded like shit to me! Thats just my opinion. My ears preferred the Line 6.

And for other effects like modulation, I could go either way. Analogue or digital. I always got some pretty decent flanging tones out of the RP300 I used to own, but it lacked sazz! Eventually after trying lots of pedals, I settled with an Eventide Modfactor. The tone that little digital box makes really impresses me!!! So, it took a long time of trial and error until my EARS were happy with what they were hearing. They were hearing the magic of Eventide. I think the modulations in the Eventide are better suited for metal. So that's my taste!! Same with Delay effects. Digital or analog can be great!. I prefer the versatility of digital delay myself. I've always thought that analog delay pedals sound to gritty and it interferes with your distortion.

So I say you should use your ears!!! That's what Guitar Center and Sam Ash stores are for!!! Go try some out and see what you like?

Also, you get what you pay for! Digitech and the likes, are cheap companies aimed at making a buck and satisfying beginners. That's how Line 6 carved out a market offering a little more quality to intermediate and expert players, still at a decent market price. Then you could take it a notch higher and move into legendary stuff like Eventide, MXR, and Dunlop! Those are my favorite effects! Never tried an eventide rack unit, would love to hear some the distortions its capable of?

So it depends on what kind of music you want to make, and what kind of amp you have, it all plays a factor in your "tone". So just experiment until you have that wow moment when your ears have a moment of realization of how awesome your tone sounds. To me there are way more important factors in your tone! Like your style of playing, how hard you pluck the strings, what type of amp you have, and little things like a BBE Sonic Maximizer can really brighten your tone and give it punch! I recommend staying away from Digitech, Zoom, or Boss! The best distortions I have come up with are using a Line 6 M5 with a hint of analog overdrive added to it. So, you should use your ears and experiment until you find your tone!


Never uploaded a pic before, so I don't know if it worked, but its a pic of my totally and completely ridiculous guitar setup that is probably more than most pros would use! So, I just wanted to show how ridiculous my guitar setup is to show how much gear I have and what I ended up using. Too bad I completely suck at being a writer or you might have heard this setup on an album by now!

 

@RMorgan: if you are in blues tones, your best investment could be a good overdrive or "amp in the box" pedal first.
It is going to be, along your guitar, your main expression.
A lot of blues guitarists just move their guitars and their pedals...not even an amp.
Because they know they will get most of their sound from pedal/guitar, plugged in any all tubes amp they are provided.
Even on a more "rock" side, Steve Vai and Satriani used a simple modded Keeley DS-1 as their main sound, for years : Marshall in the box.

After that, there are multi FX that can give you good verbs and delays. And on this point, digital is very good.

Listen to that to give you an idea :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y215hkmoAL4
http://youtu.be/AQgWic0UJNk?t=2m47s

As metalhead, i'm more on the digital side. You probably noticed a lot more metalheads use digital, even live, than blues/rock ppl (Meshuggah, Fear Factory and more). Some of them even started with POD pro V1...or POD bean
But i'm more and more on the analog "amp in the box" pedal, like the AMT B1 i bought :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCH8iWifgU4

If you buy an AMT or Tech21 "amp in the box" or good overdrive, you are not going to regret it
But you can already test (with a good High Z input soundcard or DI box) all those softwares. May be they will sound right for you

 

i have Avid 11R, POD 2.0, BOSS GT10, a nova system and bunch of pedals ..
for me the most satisfying is the Nova System .. this baby can do almost anything ..and trust me no matter if you're on stage without amps this baby still rocks !!
i don't wannabe a TAP DANCER (having sooo many pedals on board) .. that just nonsense .. most of the fx that i used only Drive, Mod, and some reverbs or Delay .. so the Nova System did well for me .. the Avid11r is not mobile i need to bring my FCB1010 (w modded chip) along .. and for me being a simple is as easy without have to worry about technical difficulties on stage ..(cabling, routing etc)

 

Thats not right,
The importation taxes are around 150% in total (I know very well by experience and because my mother-in-law and wife work for Receita [IR]).
but the taxes can be a lot more. If you buy an used thing, or a promotional item the price will be the average price of a new item)...and the price is arbitrary, you can contest but ussualy its a no answer.
Also big itens never escape.

My cousin, a great guitar player, works in Hollywood films and he insist in analog gear... I guess most people are lazy and do not dig/compare a lot both sides.
I have some analog like preamps, distortion and talkbox... I like to buy things that are very hard to do with computer or never created for.
I recorded a lot of guitarists and most believe that I cannot achieve the sound they like and they are always wrong, also many change the idea about the sound in the mix and with all analog the solution is to record everything again... ( for my pocket is very good).
Also the new generation is open minded, but it lacks the guitar history and culture.. its a shame

 

For me nothing beats A good old Vibroverb or a JMP 100 with a Shin-ei Uni-Vibe; so analog all the way!

For home use, I like to use digital stuff `cause U can play at lower levels, and it is practical for bringing the signal into the daw without the need of mics and things...

 

Yeah...Officially, the correct value is 60% over product+shipping costs, plus 25% of state taxes over the previous value.

So, it can reach 150% indeed...And I agree with you. It's completely arbitrary; There's no logic or common sense involved in the process at all.

It's just crazy, man...