MBritt & Top Jimi

  • I love the MBritt Crank N Go pack. The SLO 100 profiles are my daily players. It also includes an extensive set of Friedman BE 100 profiles that I dig but not as much as the SLO profiles. If you are patient and check the profile sellers websites frequently they tend to offer discounts on a pretty regular basis. I've bought a bunch of MBritt and Tone Junkie profiles at half off or even $5 a pop. My four favorite packs are all MBritt packs: Crank N Go, 69 Marshall, Jim Kelley and Dumble.

  • Just to go back to your original post, the difference between TJ and MBritt is that the TJ sounds are made to sound like the guitar sound on the records; typically high and low pass filtered to some degree, yet bright. MBritt on the other hand tailors his profiles to work in a live setting at volume, where excessive high end can be really unpleasant. Two different methods for two different scenarios. Like others have written in this thread, I tend not to mix different profile vendors in my live performance Rigs and my preference is also MBritt for live these days.

    sambrox beat me to it, but I agree 100% with everything he said here. I found the TJ profiles way too thin sounding for live use and ended up going with MBritt. I had the opportunity to hang out with Michael Britt for an hour or so before one of his Lonestar shows and talk about his setup, rigs, etc.


    Like Sambrox said, most of my profiles for live use are MBritt because I just add a tiny bit of treble or presence and they sound great through a PA. Remember, test the sounds at the volume you intend to play. So if it’s live, crank them up and listen to them at live volumes. I isolated myself with my band’s PA for a day, cranked the entire system up to live volumes and dialed in my sounds like that. They sound amazing. If I take those same profiles and try to use them for recording, I need to tweak the EQ because they’re being used in a completely different context.

  • I understand and agree completely what you are meaning. Unfortunately I don't get to sit around with the P.A. that's being used for live performances. It could change every week so I will have to do a crash course. I'll get there. I knew it would take a while when I took the Kemper dive but also knew once I do all the work I'll be on easy street live gig wise!


    I find it interesting that some of you say TJ profiles are to thin for live, but let's just pretend I'm correct when I say the VH1 profile sounds EXACTLY like Van Halen 1. I saw Van Halen live (Eddie's rig went down twice) in 1979 and I can tell you no one thought that the sound was "thin". Let's say just IF If I was producing the EXACT same sound (and I think its WAY close) through a P.A., why would you think people would say it was "thin"? To play Devil's advocate, I will say that profile has a single coil-like upper tone to it which makes it less usable for other things but for what it's supposed to do ( VH1 tone) it totally has those properties. Turning around again. I'm definitely not arguing with you. I see where the darker more " blanket over speakers tones would be better for full range P.A's with horns that can rip your head off.

    I've always thought that, let' say- pre show music was playing Van halen "runnin with the devil" from a CD, and If I came out and played the song the guitar should sound EXACTLY like the CD just did through the P.A. How could you possibly top that or make it better? And I believe the VH1 profile would do that.

  • Personally, I'm a massive TJ advocate. I use pretty much his profiles exclusively when gigging (remember gigs? Yeah, me too....), and still have a studio EQ in my chain to remove anything under about 100Hz, and anything over around 8kHz.

    You may want to try the Caswell AFD profiles as well..... they're fantastic!

  • I understand and agree completely what you are meaning. Unfortunately I don't get to sit around with the P.A. that's being used for live performances. It could change every week so I will have to do a crash course. I'll get there. I knew it would take a while when I took the Kemper dive but also knew once I do all the work I'll be on easy street live gig wise!


    I find it interesting that some of you say TJ profiles are to thin for live, but let's just pretend I'm correct when I say the VH1 profile sounds EXACTLY like Van Halen 1. I saw Van Halen live (Eddie's rig went down twice) in 1979 and I can tell you no one thought that the sound was "thin". Let's say just IF If I was producing the EXACT same sound (and I think its WAY close) through a P.A., why would you think people would say it was "thin"? To play Devil's advocate, I will say that profile has a single coil-like upper tone to it which makes it less usable for other things but for what it's supposed to do ( VH1 tone) it totally has those properties. Turning around again. I'm definitely not arguing with you. I see where the darker more " blanket over speakers tones would be better for full range P.A's with horns that can rip your head off.

    I've always thought that, let' say- pre show music was playing Van halen "runnin with the devil" from a CD, and If I came out and played the song the guitar should sound EXACTLY like the CD just did through the P.A. How could you possibly top that or make it better? And I believe the VH1 profile would do that.

    This is always the challenge - the profiles always sound different and volume and no PA is the same....but...it should get you close.


    One thing I found....I downloaded an Ozzy pack, set up the Randy Rhoads sound and.....yuk....then went and properly listened to to his sound and....yuk....BUT in the mix, perfect. My point is that its trial and error and rose tinted specs can also play a part.


    I don't think anyone is actually knocking the TJ profiles ( I love 'em) just more of their bias...ironically off the back of this post, I went onto the MBRitt site and downloaded the free EVH rig....love it!!!

  • I didn't care for the free EVH rig. It seemed too "pushed" for me. I really appreciate that he did that tho. I know what you mean with the RR thing. I always liked his playing but was not ever crazy about his tone although I know some players that think it's the best. I could see where a perfect profile of his sound could be useless for all but recreating R.R. guitar parts!

  • I don't think anyone is actually knocking the TJ profiles ( I love 'em) just more of their bias...ironically off the back of this post, I went onto the MBRitt site and downloaded the free EVH rig....love it!!!

    Exactly. I'm not knocking TJ profiles. I'm just saying that for me, for live use, they don't sound as good in a mix through a cranked PA as the MBritt stuff does. I think the TJ profiles sound better for recording.

  • I'm looking for a nice Marshall rig that has that nice kinda hollow tone like the TJ 1974. I love that sample on the sales page.The '68 from the samples sound too close to some of the brown sound profiles to me and I already have them. I am looking for something to use live so I am hesitant to get the '74 only because it is studio only and I'm getting spoiled with merged profiles. That being said, I have played quite a few not merged profiles through a guitar cab that the cab remover program does a great job but with the merged, it's all your cabinet. It's tough buying profiles because it's kinda like buying a guitar pickup, you just don't know what it's really going to do until you own it.

  • Exactly. I'm not knocking TJ profiles. I'm just saying that for me, for live use, they don't sound as good in a mix through a cranked PA as the MBritt stuff does. I think the TJ profiles sound better for recording.

    I'm just wondering why the P.A. system can't reproduce sounds in a mix just like a recording. I mean a recording has bass,drums,keys etc. and so does a live band. I would think if a guitar profile sounded good, it would sound good.

  • I'm just wondering why the P.A. system can't reproduce sounds in a mix just like a recording. I mean a recording has bass,drums,keys etc. and so does a live band. I would think if a guitar profile sounded good, it would sound good.

    Having the KPA has taught me so much more about sound engineering....you would think this is true but how your ears respond to volume, sound pressure etc is different ( someone will mentioned fletcher-muchen whatsit soon)...


    Also don;t forget, its about bias....its not dramatically different.

  • people seem to love treble & presence…

    When I hear people complain about Michael Britt profiles, immediately I suspect that they don’t play live through a nice loud PA because if they did they would find Michaels profiles to be very fitting with the volume up.;) - in my opinion.

    But I guess, it’s all subjective to the way we want to hear things in our ears.

  • people seem to love treble & presence…

    When I hear people complain about Michael Britt profiles, immediately I suspect that they don’t play live through a nice loud PA because if they did they would find Michaels profiles to be very fitting with the volume up.;) - in my opinion.

    But I guess, it’s all subjective to the way we want to hear things in our ears.

    I think this is why this post has been great for me. I need to revisit these profiles at volume :)

  • people seem to love treble & presence…

    When I hear people complain about Michael Britt profiles, immediately I suspect that they don’t play live through a nice loud PA because if they did they would find Michaels profiles to be very fitting with the volume up.;) - in my opinion.

    But I guess, it’s all subjective to the way we want to hear things in our ears.

    When you hear a tone like Jake E lee "rock and roll rebel" or VH "Beautiful girls" they have a lot of crispy top to them. Eric Johnson or Bonamossa tones not so much. I think the Mbritt ones sound great but a bit muffled compared to some TJ ones I have. I'll bet they do sound great through a live P.A with big horns. IMO the biggest difference comes from the cabs. If I play the TJ ones into a regular guitar cab, they are not strident at all and to me sound like a "regular amp" would that I would mic at a show. I can get both in the ballpark of each other with the treble presence knobs although it's easier to "cut" the TJ ones than it is to get some of the Mbritt ones snappy but I am pretty new and haven't tried any of his paid stuff. As I had mentioned before I wish I could just get a few amps rather than a whole pack of things that I won't use.

  • When you hear a tone like Jake E lee "rock and roll rebel" or VH "Beautiful girls" they have a lot of crispy top to them. Eric Johnson or Bonamossa tones not so much. I think the Mbritt ones sound great but a bit muffled compared to some TJ ones I have. I'll bet they do sound great through a live P.A with big horns. IMO the biggest difference comes from the cabs. If I play the TJ ones into a regular guitar cab, they are not strident at all and to me sound like a "regular amp" would that I would mic at a show. I can get both in the ballpark of each other with the treble presence knobs although it's easier to "cut" the TJ ones than it is to get some of the Mbritt ones snappy but I am pretty new and haven't tried any of his paid stuff. As I had mentioned before I wish I could just get a few amps rather than a whole pack of things that I won't use.

    Go try the free EVH one....I like it :)


    Interestingly Jake always said he didn't like his sound during that time and I agree it was much thinner than when he played in Badlands ( big Jake fan here BTW).


    Again, no one is knocking the TJ profiles, but this has made me rethink the MBritt ones I have. Things defo change at volume.

  • I think the Mbritt ones sound great but a bit muffled compared to some TJ ones I have.

    Please note that MBritt has carefully adjusted his approach a bit over time as well. If you listen to newer stuff from him like the Crank & Go or the 2020 pack (which I both like very, very much and definitely are the basis for my live setup) you will find more highs/presence in it. He also stated this in he respective thread in this forum after the 2020 pack came out. Still to me it is fairly straight forward to adjust his profiles, mainly with Definition but also with the Stack EQ. As said often enough in this thread: Let's rather do this in gig volume than in the bedroom level 8o

    Go try the free EVH one....I like it

    Me too. It's a good example for the newer MBritt ones. I tweaked Definition and instantly liked it a lot :thumbup:8)