Posts by flyingheelhook

Good stuff, thanks guys, and will do waraba. Monkey Man, I may decide to upgrade my mics in the future but for now, I am trying to save up for a Kemper Remote so anything I buy chips away at my budget for that! LOL! But, that's good advice and I will keep it in mind, especially if I find the profiles are suffering from the mics I am using.

The Kemper is cool in so many ways - I love how in addition to all the other fun I have with it, it also gives me inspiration and feasible technology for an interesting and compelling side project - not to mention I get to travel a little bit and meet some cool peeps and jam and hang out with them. Assuming I can capture reasonably accurate profiles, I am really looking forward to hearing what people think of the tones, especially folks who might not have much exposure to Garcia's music and tone.

Finally decided on a Mackie Mix 8 (why the smaller mixers don't allow for two XLRs is odd to me but whatever)> gonna pick that up tonight. This will probably be a bit of a long, drawn out process - working with my first 'donor' and looking at sometime late this month/early november to profile his rig. Use that as a learning experience and go from there. fortunately, I already have 4-5 other donors lined up, some of them are real 'chasing the holy grail' tone hounds so I am saving them for later in the process in hopes that I can do justice to capturing their rigs.

I probably will bring one of my guitars (just so we can jam of course!) but knowing that its better to use their guitar does make it a lot simpler in terms of what I need to pack - trying to make it as portable as possible just in case I do need to fly somewhere.

Thanks for your help!

You have to remember that I am old and deaf. And apparently blind according to my recent attempt to find profile information in a pdf...

Thanks Andy!

Quote from citizengain

We have to remember that this iem mix wasn't everything that he was hearing. In the live situation you hear the iem mix + what ever is leaking through the ear buds: ie. the drums, bass amp, p.a. etc.

Some ear buds are (almost) soundproof in my experience - YMMV.

Quote from mightypudge

This reminds me of the gig where I spent 10 minutes in a state of panic trying to figure out why my rig wasn't working. I checked everything! Every cable, pedal, power supply, speaker connection to amp, and couldn't find the problem.

Turns out, I never plugged the cable into the guitar.

Been there, done that. Not pretty.

My first love is my circa '71 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. Bought it when I was 14. Did many unmentionable things to her but she stood by me all these years and still does. My back up is an '82 Ibanez Artist AR305 I found in a consignment shop. Its a nice compliment to the LP but offers tonal variation and normal frets (they guy I bought the LP from flattened the frets as was common amongst jazz players back in the day). I installed a Waldo Unity Gain Buffer and Seymour Duncan pickups in order to take full advantage to of the tri-tone switching capabilities - very cool tonal variations.

Quote from apr13st

It's the Lil King in the first pack.

Geez, I am going blind. Thanks man!

Quote from lonestargtr

Yeah it's actually the Princeton clone by Headstrong. I've a/b'd with some old Princetons and it's pretty much spot on tone wise so I just named it Princeton for my reference.

Mike, is it just not listed or am I going blind?

Quote from benifin

The one I am referring to are in Michaels Profile Pack 1.

I don't see a Princeton listed in Pac 1?

Quote

M Britt Profiled Amp Names Reference
Profile Pack 1:
13 FTR37 - ÷13 FTR37
13 ERT33 - ÷13 ERT33
13 LDW39 - ÷13 LDW39
3P – 3rd Power Dream Weaver Prototype, Blackface & Plexi channels
58 Deluxe – 1958 Fender Tweed Deluxe
67 Deluxe – 1967 Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb
72 Marshall – 1972 50w Marshall JMP
5150III – EVH/Fender 5150III
Assman – 1969 Fender Silverface Bassman (modded)
Bletchley Belchfire
Bletchley Bomber
Carr Slant 6V
Headstrong Lil King
Matchless JJ – Matchless JJ30 John Jorgenson
Matchless SC30
Mesa Lonestar
Naylor SD60
Trainwreck
Xits X50S

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13 FT37 – Great boutique amp that reminds me of a beefed up Deluxe circuit but with 4
6V6 power tubes for more power. This is one of my favorite clean amps and it takes
pedals very well.
13 ER33 – 13’s take on an EL84 Vox-type circuit. With its trademark monster transformers,
this amp isn’t small or wimpy in tone. The clean sounds from this amp have a beautiful
Vox-y shimmer.
13 LD39 – This amp sounds like a cross between a Marshall and Hiwatt to my ears. There’s
a kerrang to the attack that I’ve never heard in another amp. It sounds great clean and
overdriven.
’58 Luxe – It was a pleasure to get to play through and profile this great vintage amp.
Even though it’s not the most versatile amp sonically, it has a cool flavor that fits some
songs perfectly.
’62 Band King – I bought this blonde brownface head for $40 in Austin in the late 80’s and
eventually had it fixed up and working as it should. I used it on numerous Lonestar
recordings as it sounded great cranked up on solos. This pack includes a clean profile
with one of my favorite Kemper effects, the rotary speaker.
’67 Luxe Verb – Blackface Luxe Reverbs have always been on my wish list so I was thrilled
to get to profile this nice vintage amp. This is what a Fender clean should be.
’72 Mars JMP – This is my trusty ’72 Marshall JMP 50w amp head. It’s been my favorite
British 4-input amp I’ve ever owned. Sadly, it was at Soundcheck in Nashville when the
great flood of 2010 hit and it was submerged in the Cumberland River for 4 days. With
the help of Mercury Magnetics and hours of hard work by Jamie (from 3rd Power), it lives
again and I think it sounds better than ever.
Crazy Eddie 5153 – This hard rock amp is pretty under-rated, but I used this amp live for a
while and even recorded with it with great results. It takes pedals like a champ in
addition to having great gain channels. Channel 2 (included here) is just an awesome
rock tone.
Silverface Lowman (aka “Assman”) – This silverface Fender lowman seems to have lost a
“B” after some mods it had done. It has that silverface clean as well as a cool gain mod
channel.
Bletchley Belcher 45 – Bletchley amps are made by one of the founders of Naylor amps.
The Belchfire is a take on a JTM45 but with more tweakable gain.
Bletchley Bomber 50 – Bletchley’s take on a JMP but way more versatile. The 4 inputs are
all voiced differently and gets a variety of flavors, but with a hint of the Naylor flavor at
higher gains.
Slant 6 – My favorite 6V amp’s clean channel is included here. Its clean tone is nice and
it takes pedals very well.
Lil King – This is Headstrong’s version of a blackface Prince tone verb. This is my go-to
amp for smaller in-town gigs.
Out of Matches SC30 and JJ30 – The original boutique flagship amp with that distinctive
tone that can’t be matched and the right (click) channel is one of my favorite overdrive
rhythm sounds.
Bangor 60 – Michigan’s Drive 60 is found in many session players’ arsenals. They have a
distinct edge to their sound and I’ve tried to include a variety of gain sounds in this pack.
Starry Night 30 – Mark Sampson’s newest incarnation of the unmatched circuit. Not
many of these around but it’s good to have friends with cool gear. It’s downright
Celestial.
Wrecker – This part-for-part clone was built by someone who worked alongside Ken
Fischer and looks and sounds like the real deal, with its touch-sensitive hot-rod gain.
Exit X50 – This hard-to-find amp sounds as different as it looks. Perhaps not the most
versatile amp, but it has a unique sound that sounds perfect for old Zeppelin.
Cal Texan – My personal favorite Petaluma amp and not just because it’s named
“Lonestar.”

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Quote from paults

If you want the widest variety of sounds, FRFR is the way to go.

I have to agree. I currently am using a Tech 21 Power Engine for my onstage monitor and I am very happy with it. However, I was just loaned a QSC K10 and K12 so I could A/B against the Tech 21. So far, I have only played the K10 for about 15 minutes just to confirm I had it set up correctly but the difference is definitely tangible and the increase in clarity is dramatic. To be fair, it also increases negatives like RFI and other noise that comes through the guitars pickups but so be it - my house is an electric guitarists nightmare.

I'll try and dig into some of these soon too, thanks Don. Frank, I like what you came up with - nice work.

I was just playing around with the Wah Phaser and Wah Flanger yesterday and having a really hard time finding what I think should be a usable version of them - I can only imagine those will be even more difficult if I get there. If I ever get something I like, I will post them.

I missed the live version and was able to watch the recorded version. Thankfully, they edited out the nonsense...

Thanks Mike, I wasn't able to make it home from work in time but will look forward to watching the video once I figure out how to access it.

My main guitar is a circa '71 Gibson Les Paul with stock mini-humbuckers but I rarely/never use the bridge alone for rhythm - like Paul said, I almost always play with the selector switch in the middle... but, since I am 'the sideman' in my current main project, hopefully this might help. Off the top of my head, M. Britt's Dumble Clean 4 is my current go to, but I just bought Pack 2 and set up a performance for the /13 which will soon be brought into circulation. TAF Big Twin, rmpacheco's Morgan AC20 and Top Jimi's 65 Deluxe Reverb have all had their moments for me also. I like Andy/TAF's Trainwreck, Goldfinger and Train45 also - still have to fully explore their potential as well.

Almost all have been tweaked at least slightly in various ways.

Quote from lonestargtr

Ok, I'm gonna try my hand at a Periscope broadcast around 4pm (central) UTC -6:00. You can always go back and watch it later if you miss it. Was curious if anyone had any questions you'd like me to address/answer? Feel free to respond here or tweet @mbrittprofiles. Thanks!

Thats 5:00 pm EST, correct? (or EDT, I never know which is appropriate). I'll by pressed but hope to listen in. I'm mainly interested in any lessons learned you can share for the 'home profiler' - mic choice and placement being key. I hope to embark on an ad hoc profiing project this fall and any insight to making sure I don't waste mine, and my benefactor's time would be appreciated!!

wish I had more discretionary funding...

I use a circa '71 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe with stock mini-humbuckers and an '82 Ibanez Ar305 with a Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck and Seymour Duncan SH-4 in the bridge (and a nice onboard Waldo Unity Gain Buffer - sweet!). I don't think your guitars (or your playing) are the issue but suspect its more of a holistic issue understanding how to tweak everything the Kemper gives you access to, combined with the uniqueness that is inherent to your particular set up (power amp/monitor). Very, very few profiles are going to sound 'just exactly perfect' right out of the box, so to speak.

I will say that even though I am extremely happy with the tone I get from the Dumble Pack rigs that I use, I have never bothered trying to A/B it to Michael's samples. Also, I have absolutely no problem tweaking his profiles to suit my needs - in fact, none of my live/practice rigs are 'untweaked'.

I'll offer my approach - take it or leave it. When I purchase a pack I try to do a test run of every profile in the pack, cycling through them in Browse Mode. I keep a notepad handy and jot down thoughts/emotions that different rigs give me. I especially make note of the rigs that I wind up 'getting lost' playing. I then prioritize the top 3-4 (sometimes more). Then I go to performance mode, and create a new, separate performance for each of those top rigs. I copy/paste the same rig in each slot. Keeping the first slot 'pristine and untouched', I then tweak the other four according to whim and experimentation. By all means I suggest you thoroughly explore all the options including the regular Bass/Mid/Treble controls on the face, not to mention the various EQ's available. Last but definitely not least, learn the 'special tweaks' the Kemper gives you access to (Definition, Power Sagging, Pick, Compressor, Clarity, Tube Shape and Bias).

Give it a shot, spend 'some' time. I find it hard to believe you won't be able to get just about any profile (let alone those from the Dumble pack!!!) to sound close or exactly to what you really think or want it to sound like.

I have a project I am thinking of working on over the course of the next year...

Background: I'm tapped into a community of 'aficionados' who chase a very specific tone set. Some of its members have graciously taken me up on my request to have them let me profile their rigs. The end result of this should be a set of FREE profiles for the rig exchange (assuming my benefactors are ok with me sharing the results). I am anticipating this may take 6 months to a year due to life in general and working with other people's schedules. Most likely this will involve driving and not flying. Of course, I need to do some practice profiling before I embark on any journeys but figured I should start asking questions now.

I *think* I have just about everything I need but thought it might be a good idea to put together a checklist for travel and see if I am missing anything?

What I have:

• Unpowered Green Toaster Kemper
• Tech 21 Power Engine (although I may be able to borrow either/or/both a QSC K10/K12)
• Rode NT1-A condenser mic
• Sure SM58 mic
• sennheiser e835 mic
• mic stands
• various cables
• Headphones (I'll have to post the brand/model when I get home)
• Power, surge protectors, etc.

What I am not sure about:

• Guitars: I normally play a '71 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe or '82 Ibanez AR305 - distinct but very similar guitars. The guitar can be very important on some of these rigs, including on board preamp, effects loops, pickups. Should I focus on using the host's custom guitars or try to use something more generic (i.e. my guitars) in hopes of a more versatile profile? If I should err on generic, should I try to acquire a Fender Strat for single coil profiles?
• Mics: should I bother taking all three mics? Shouldn't the condenser be the best choice? Since I am new to this, any guidance on mic placement?
• Anything else I should be thinking about? I don't want to drive six hours to Indiana and realize I forgot to bring something and my host doesn't have it either.

Thanks in advance!