YouTube Hero: Josh Scott, JHS Pedal Show
Forget wearing a pink shirt, the true mark of confidence is showcasing other people's products
Kansas City Style
Guitar player Josh Scott got his start as a pedal modder and from these humble beginnings grew into a boutique pedal/amp builder and then grew even more... You can find JHS pedals in Guitar Center, Sweetwater and even Amazon. All the while, JHS has managed to keep its "mom and pop" Americana personality. All of their products are assembled, tested and shipped from their Kansas City location. Hell, even JHS' PCBs are stuffed in the good ol' USA.
To me, JHS Pedals continue to represent that "modder" vibe. Their JHS Bonsai 9-way Screamer Overdrive Pedal is a great example. Why pick just one of the many different flavors of TubeScreamer circuits to clone? JHS figured out a way to cram the individual components of nine entirely different classic TubeScreamers into one pedal.
That's not to say that JHS doesn't develop original circuits of their own design. Look no further than JHS' Color Box, which was an emulation of a Neve console stuffed into a guitar pedal, allowing players to get that great direct to console tone.
The JHS Pedal Show
JHS Pedals has Youtube posts of product demos going back ten years and skipping through them you can definitely start to see Josh's personality and humor popping through and the idea of an actual "channel" as it exists today develop. But, it's the current construct of Josh's JHS Pedal Show that have made him our Youtube Hero.
For your amusement, google "do behringer pedals suck?" or, visit Gearslutz, Gearpage, et al to the same end. Now, imagine a the owner of a successful high end pedal company who runs his own YouTube channel filming an entire episode entitled, "What's the Deal With Behringer?" in which he reviews several pedals, compares them to the circuits that they cloned and basically says that all of the Behringer analog pedals are essentially 1:1 clones of the original circuits. Oh, and that the digital pedals are pretty damn good, too.
Josh has an obvious, infectious and undying love for the pedals of his youth. Look no deeper than the recent episode, "Who is Danelectro?" where Josh sits down with a great talk with Danelectro owner Steve Ridinger. Josh talks about this first pedal board and how when he first plugged into the Danelectro Dan-Echo pedal that the sound fascinated him and he posited that it's the reason that he owns a pedal company today.
Josh doesn't "judge" cheap pedals for anything other than how they sound. He (like many of us) didn't experience our first delay through a real Echoplex or a TC2290 it was through a cheap pedal like the Danelectro or a (gasp!) Behringer. That Josh celebrates this and puts those cheap pedals that sound great out there for all to see is a real service to the community.
The JHS Pedal Show is rich with all sorts of content, from FX history, deep dives on types of pedals from different manufacturers, how-to tips, interviews, giveaways, and, yes.... Josh even talks about his own products now and again. But, honestly, he pretty much walls off his company content from the the show.
The JHS Pedal Show presents like a true labor of love. Is it? Or is Josh Scott just one of the most savvy pedal marketers on the interwebs? I have my opinion. But, that misses the point. JHS Pedal Show is a channel packed with useful content for newbies and old farts alike presented by a true fellow traveler.
Josh Scott.... You are our YouTube Hero!*
*Until we name the next one.... And even then, you'll still be one, just not the current one.