The most underrated & overlooked Vendors / Profile Packs

  • Alright, by now most of us have experience with all the big sellers, who usually have a big catalog and appear to be present everywhere, let it be this forum or all the groups on social media.


    That's why this thread is dedicated to the profile creators which usually fly under the radar, are criminally underrated or offer a deal that's almost too good to be true. Generally, these are people who don't own or are backed by a big studio as well as putting out little to no marketing.

    No one here says that would be a bad thing and we all love the well established big vendors. Still, this is supposed to be a platform to bring lesser known offerings up to the surface.


    Please note: This thread is not for:

    - pointing out great profiles on Rig Exchange

    - discussing free Rigs in general

    - discussing your favorite vendors overall

    but instead is aimed to provide inspiration for everyone.


    I will start with one of the best deals if you are anything into Marshalls. Godi Hillmann created Katzbach Profiles and profiled 18 vintage to modern Marshalls in cooperation with the Marshall Amp Museum Germany. I think it covers pretty much all flavors and they even have one specific JMP50 which was owned and used by Stevie Ray Vaughn himself. I highly recommend the All Bundle which comes in at only 25€ that will surely put a smile in your face. I am still amazed how well single coils work with most of the profiles in general. I wouldn't recommend it if you only play high gain, however, it covers everything from breakup crunch to hard rock.


    Another "steal of the century" is in my opinion the one(!) profile pack by Peter's Crazy Profiles which is in my opinion the -end all- of my highgain needs. If you play metal do yourself a favor and pick this one up. The list of amps is substantial, as well a a lot of MTS (Synergy) Modules, which cover pretty much every flavor of high gain. Also, all profiles are Merged Profiles and he includes a ton of great Cab Presets that genuinely rival some of the best IRs there are. Best of all, he regularly updates his pack for free when he gets to profile new gear, so there's always more to come in a different flavor as well. Currently it's V10 with over 1026 profiles which are honestly all highly usable! I can't recommend him enough and feel like more people should know. If you want a taste he got 16 profiles on Rig Exchange if you search for the Author Petr82.


    An upcoming profile creator is Mattfig. His Friedman 4.0 pack is pure bliss and replaced the already great profiles by Mr. Meulendijk I've been using before. He has a logical system in his profiles (LG = Low Gain, MG = Mid Gain,... / (cool), (warm), (hot),...), which makes it very easy to find the sound you are looking for fast. He always includes at least two Cabinets for the studio profiles and has an extensive set of DI profiles to go along, which I am personally a huge fan of! Paired with my favorite IRs / Cabs I can get any flavor I am looking for in the best quality. As far as I know every pack after the mentioned Friedman 4.0 is beyond awesome and he even got an original Dumble profiled if that's what you're looking for. Overall I'm very pleased with his work and wouldn't be surprised if he's constantly mentioned along the big names long term.


    Lastly, a seller I don't hear often about is Selah Sounds. I got a few packs from them and all profiles are extremely consistent. They also have a couple official Kemper packs in cooperation with Kinglsey Amps. What sets them apart is that they always create a specific version for humbuckers and single coils for each profile. They are not as active and may disappear in the shadow of something like Tone Junkies, but I highly recommend them and think they are underrated.


    That's it with my suggestions. I can easily recommend any of those profile creators mentioned here in a heart beat and think that these offerings may be a welcomed alternative if you're usually aiming for the well-known big guys on the market.


    One last thing, in case you feel adventurous our fellow user Theyetti1 put in his time to create a very detailed list if you are looking to discover something completely new: . : KemperFiles : .


    That's it from me. Please share you own opinions of lesser known profile packs that you think most people will just overlook 8)

  • Another "steal of the century" is in my opinion the one(!) profile pack by Peter's Crazy Profiles

    Absolute thumbs up for that one. Many amps, many settings, and constant flow of updates without any additional cost. Great guy :thumbup:8)


    Katzbach stuff is fine as well. Impressive Marshall collection there and high dedication to those typical sounds.

  • In terms of vintage tone Lucky Lady Vintage Guitars has one pack out which I thought was stellar. Look forward to their next release. Gainy tones...Tone Wars produces some righteous captures. Hearing rumors of a boutique amp builder who specializes in higher gain models is toying with the idea of releasing a profile pack. No official word yet but these could be well received by players who like some sizzle. Hopefully more to come on that.

  • Matt's been Profiling for at least 5 years I reckon; I wouldn't categorise him as being upcoming. :)

    Ah I totally messed that up! You're right of course, Matt has been in the game for a while and I should have used more concise language here. What I meant is that over the last year I feel he has reached a new peak in terms of a consistent high quality and output. I have some of his old MTS module profiles and I think compared to his recent packs it becomes evident that he's constantly striving to improve his profiling skills. So people who have known his older profiles might want to check out his more recent offerings starting with the Friedman 4.0 because it's just pure gold.


    Well, I could blame it on English not being my first language but I should know better :D

    I hope that clears up what I originally meant. "Upcoming" definitely wasn't the right word here, sorry for that.

  • In terms of vintage tone Lucky Lady Vintage Guitars has one pack out which I thought was stellar. Look forward to their next release. Gainy tones...Tone Wars produces some righteous captures. Hearing rumors of a boutique amp builder who specializes in higher gain models is toying with the idea of releasing a profile pack. No official word yet but these could be well received by players who like some sizzle. Hopefully more to come on that.

    Thanks for your contribution of ideas here! These surely are some promising candidates.

    I'd especially love to try out some Tone Wars Packs, but from what I've seen they are somewhat pricey and I haven't seen any free samples so I am somewhat hesitant to pick them up. I have heard a lot of good things about them, though, especially for live use & feel. Which packs are your favorites here?

    Also please keep us updated if you know that a new official amp builders' pack is coming out. Always good to support official packs if they are decent.


    You're welcome & thanks for throwing new names in here! These surely aren't mentioned too often around here :thumbup:



    Monkey_Man you've been around for quite a while, too. I'm sure you'll have a few names to add to the list as well, don't you? ;)

  • Ah I totally messed that up! You're right of course, Matt has been in the game for a while and I should have used more concise language here. What I meant is that over the last year I feel he has reached a new peak in terms of a consistent high quality and output.


    Well, I could blame it on English not being my first language but I should know better :D

    I hope that clears up what I originally meant. "Upcoming" definitely wasn't the right word here, sorry for that.

    No worries mate; you're a class act. Thank you!


    Yes, Matt's improved over the years by his own reckoning (means, "his own judgement"). I think it was about 2 1/2 years ago (not last year) that he mentioned he felt there was an improvement. Based on feedback I've read I'd say that that was about the time the biggest improvement happened.

    Monkey_Man you've been around for quite a while, too. I'm sure you'll have a few names to add to the list as well, don't you? ;)

    Believe me, I'd like to, but as I've said many times here in the forum I've stuck with my three favourite Profilers and haven't felt a need to look elsewhere:


    Bert Meulendijk

    Guido Bungenstock

    Michael Britt


    That's it. That's all I can contribute, mate, so no "overlooked" vendors I'm afraid. :D :/  :pinch:

  • No worries mate; you're a class act. Thank you!


    Yes, Matt's improved over the years by his own reckoning (means, "his own judgement"). I think it was about 2 1/2 years ago (not last year) that he mentioned he felt there was an improvement. Based on feedback I've read I'd say that that was about the time the biggest improvement happened.

    Well, thank you for your great contributions and the wealth of information you keep sharing with everyone - it's greatly appreciated!


    These are indeed rock solid choices which don't belong in this thread anyways - my bad for baiting that one out and being too nosy:D:D

    I wish I could just settle on one or two vendors, but I'm waaay too curious and love to check out new sounds right, left & center :S


    dont forget about SoundSide profiles

    Great idea, Armin of SoundSide makes some quality profiles indeed and to my knowledge is one of the early foundations of third party profiles. I can see how they are fairly overlooked nowadays since they haven't been very active in quite a while.


    While we're at it I would also like to mention Big Hairy Profiles. Even though I think they've got a fair community, I don't see their profiles getting recommended too often here or on facebook, which is actually quite a shame given that they offer some really rare & unique gear that you'll hardly find elsewhere :thumbup:

  • I wish I could just settle on one or two vendors, but I'm waaay too curious and love to check out new sounds right, left & center :S

    Something that might help quell that particular flavour of GAS is this:


    Consider that that these guys are all Profiling pretty-much the same amps. All you're getting by sleeping around is tastes of how different peeps go about mic'ing and dialling them in. So, if you like sounds you hear from a particular vendor and can imagine being happy with those results in a studio after the engineer's futzed about trying to capture the sound from your amp, why not stick with that vendor?


    A simple way of looking at it:


    If you like the way a studio engineer captures your tones when you go in to record, wouldn't you seek out / request that that engineer be present in your next session to repeat the exercise? Doing otherwise would be akin to paying a procession of studios with unknown (to you) engineers for their services on your ongoing product output.


    A Yogi way of looking at it:


    The studio engineer (as opposed to the mix engineer) is the Profiler.

    The vendor is the studio.

    The mixed results, time and money wastage and buyer's regret are the result of seeing other studios as greener grass down yonder.


    For me at least, looking at it this way has made settling for just 3 easy-peasy. Heck, if I were to start over I'd likely reduce those 3 to just one, applying the KISS principle / Occam's Razor to the already-lean platter of 3.


    HTH, mate, and thank you so much for the very-kind words!

  • Just my 2 bob. When talking about the different vendors would it be beneficial to people reading to say whether you use them live, recording, or just at home etc etc? FRFR or guitar cab, studio monitors? Type of music you play? These things make a difference to all of us. There are so many fans of some vendors, but when I buy their profiles they are not usable in my situation. I am a big fan of MBritt as a lot of us are, but I was a predominantly live player. I tried to use other vendors but they are too different. So many times I'd spend hours beefing up some profiles and thinking I've got them sounding good, then you go to a different profile and bust....still sounds thin or too compressed or just not usable for "my" situation or tastes. Anyway as always good info and the good people that have stuck around for a long time will continue to help. Cheers

  • When talking about the different vendors would it be beneficial to people reading to say whether you use them live, recording, or just at home etc etc? FRFR or guitar cab, studio monitors? Type of music you play?

    Great call IMHO, mate. 8):thumbup:

  • I don't know where or how i found them but i just browsed through my bookmarks and found rockprofiles. ( PriStudio)


    They have 2 free rigs on their website, a Mojave The PeaceMaker and a HiWatt Custom 100 and i gave them a try. They sound really nice. I never heard of Mojave Amps before, but damn... I bought the Orange Overdrive and the Marshall JCM 900 profiles and they also are also really nice.




    When talking about the different vendors would it be beneficial to people reading to say whether you use them live, recording, or just at home etc etc? FRFR or guitar cab, studio monitors? Type of music you play?

    Guitar: Fender Player Telecaster

    Signal Chain: Profiler->Behringer UHD404->AKG K275 Headphones (next week: test at the rehearsal room with a 4x12 V30 cab)

    Style: Punkrock, (mid gain)