Still looking for the ultimate maiden sound

  • Guys , i'm still looking for the ultimate Iron maiden profiles , all eras ...

    Got some commercial profiles from tj sonic (the gallien krueger one)

    Mbritt jmp/ada pack

    Some top jimi's

    So whats the most complete marshall pack that get's me in the ballpark ? I'd prefer direct or merged because love the way how the ML sound lab IR's sound ...

    I found a direct jmp 2203 profile from liam thomson on the rig exchange that is almost there , just a bit to punchy ...

    Any idea to get rid of the oomph while palmuting ?



  • Palm muting oomph is usually around 100-200hz (YMMV) - So you could get rid of that with either high-pass/low-cut, graphic, or parametric EQ.


    Edited once, last by musicmad ().

  • What kind of guitar and pickups are you using? That can also make a huge difference in what sound you get from a profile, I find.

    Also, note that 2 of the 3 guitarists in Maiden use single coils, it's a big part of their sound.

  • hmm i think you're thinking of another band, dunno where you're getting your info but Maiden uses humbuckers all the way ! Regular and stacked humbuckers…rray-stratocaster-review/

    HHH, but all single coil spaced. Is there a difference? I'd think so, I mean who wouldn't use small humbuckers otherwise?

    In the case of those smaller humbuckers, I think the idea is single coil sound, but humbucker coil winding to keep out noise.

    Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers recently told us about struggles of using Fender Stratocaster six-strings in metal, saying that Strat requires a special kind of approach.

    Explaining to UG how he still uses his first secondhand Strat he bought back in the '70s, Janick noted:


    "I've got to tell you it just felt right. It's like cars: people like Lamborghinis or Ferrarisand it's about the shape. I think it's just the shape of the Strat just felt right to me. It always did. It's a hard guitar to play."

    He added: "I used to use a lot of single-coil picks with [Ian] Gillan and we'd pick up the police and we'd pick up the fire brigade and there'd be noises from the lights. There was nothing you could do about it.

    "I used to use the radio of the police in certain gaps [in the music]. You try to use it. They're hard guitars to play. Then the stacked single-coil pickups came out where you could stack 'em so they become humbuckers and that helped a bit. For a band like Maiden, you couldn't use single-coils because the noise would be tremendous.

    "I used to put silver paper over them and whatnot and try and blanket out some of the noise but even that wouldn't stop it. If the [light] dimmers were near me, you'd get all these noises coming through the Marshall amps and it would be just unbelievable. So it is a hard guitar to play and you've got to fight it. Whereas a Les Paul is a much nicer guitar to player but I don't think you get as much out of it."

    Gers concluded, "The great players to me all use Strats and even if they played a Les Paul like Jeff Beck [Beck played a Les Paul for the Jeff Beck Group and then changed to a Strat later], they'll go back to a Strat because it has so many options. A Les Paul is probably better built but I think a Strat just has something about it."

    Adrian Smith seems to use HSS most of the time though.

  • In all fairness , They are single coil spacing but they do not sound like at all like a typical single coil strat pickup.

    Output is a lot higher, sounds like a humbucker, I have a strat setup with one.

    and mind you, anything after Seventh son , i stopped listening to , more Live after Death, was the last album i liked really.

    back then Dave Murray had Super distortion pickups in his Strats

    Janick gers , or whoever he is , for me , is not part of my Maiden history

  • Gotcha. Like others, I'd suggest a Marshall JMP1 profile, but paired with the right tube power amp, since it's otherwise pretty much a solid state distortion device.


    The BHP JMP pack is profiled with power amp and cabs so should be a good starting point for the full signal chain. I bought their Triaxis pack to compare to my own Triaxis 2:ninety rack. I can't say the tones are really my thing but they are good nonetheless.

  • ive just made some from a jmp1 profile i did today, give me 5 mins and ill put them on here