Thoughts on the Hotones Ampero II from a Long Time Kemper/Helix User
Thoughts on the Hotones Ampero II from a Long Time Kemper/Helix User
General thoughts:
Wow, I was not expecting much from the Hotones Ampero II - but let me tell you - this thing is awesome! Hotones sent me one for a video review that comes out on Monday (and by the way, I'm not paid to say this stuff), and I'm just seriously impressed.
The Ampero II sounds incredible, especially for the price. It rivals way more expensive amp modelers, especially now that it has ToneCatch (I found that the ToneCatch feature was pretty darn accurate and certainly *good enough* for $600. The amp and effects models sound super realistic - they really nailed it here IMO.
I felt like the Ampero II was super easy to use and overall - pretty intuitive. I think the U/I compares very similarly to the Line 6 Helix platform. I love that the touchscreen is a touchscreen and I felt like it was plenty bright. I also love the fact that I can change the default color scheme - I love the teal/blue option!
The overall navigation of the unit is super intuitive. The "Stomp" and "FX Chain" modes make it easy to see your signal path and tweak anything you need to. The "Patch" mode could be a little better though - it would be nice if it showed the name of the patch instead of just a number.
Another cool feature is the scenes. This lets you save and instantly recall multiple effects and amp settings at once. This is something I really wanted in their first-gen products, and it works flawlessly here. There's no lag or weird sound drops when switching between presets and scenes.
The effects library is certainly big enough for most needs, with everything from subtle modulation to heavy distortion. The desktop editor isn't anything crazy or fancy. It's basically a replication of the hardware and that's exactly what you want when editing on a computer. The only effect I wasn't crazy about was the tremolo - it just seemed a little weak to me.
The Ampero II is still really compact and portable. I ended up throwing this on a small pedalboard and adding an aux pedal so I could more easily access the tuner/tap tempo (one of the few cons in my opinion is where this is placed and has to be mapped to a footswitch).
I'd say this platform makes for a great choice for anyone looking to gig, wants to record at home, or just a casual unit to play at home. It feels really solid too, and the expression pedal and footswitches seem well-made (I did notice that my expression pedal seems to like to creep back just a tad so it shows 99% volume instead of 100% - I thought this was a bit weird). I also dig the white color - it definitely stands out from the crowd. The packaging is pretty nice too.
Now for the cons of this unit:
The Ampero II has a couple of minor shortcomings. The headphone jack isn't great - there's a noticeable amount of noise, and it feels a little flimsy. I'm also not a huge fan of the Patch mode layout - showing just the bank and preset number isn't very helpful. There are a couple of other minor quirks too, like the placement of the tap tempo/tuner function and I wish they'd put this in footswitch 4 and not 3. I don't know why but that annoys me lol.
Overall, though, I felt like the Hotones Ampero II is a fantastic option for guitarists looking for a high-quality and affordable digital amp modeler. It sounds great, it's easy to use, and it has a ton of features, all for a price that's way lower than most of its competitors with similar feature sets.