Ugly Truth About Getting Your Pedal Modded By JHS

If you are up on your pedal, then you are familiar with JHS pedals, they started offering a service to mod popular pedals for those that are so inclined. They started developing custom circuits and offering a line of pedals. Some of these pedals are very highly respected and sought after. I've been a DIY guy for the most part and have done many mods to Boss and Ibanez pedals, so I've never gone in for sending pedal off. Planning mods and tracking down parts has been a fond hobby for a long time, but this mod in particular seemed like a solid candidate. Now, on with the truth!

Here's what I got back form JHS

It's Uncomfortably Long Process

When dealing with send pedal through the mail, the worst part is the wait. Anyone who has order a piece of gear knows that it hard to wait. They have your money, you've made your decision, but you have days before you can play with your new piece of kit. Unlike an order from a retail web-store, The modding process is a service. So you mail your pedal, in this case, it took three days to arrive at JHS. Then they have to process your order in the order it was received. I was alerted that since I had mailed it just before the new year, then there would be a delay. The website stated that a typical order could take up to three weeks to process. So, I wasn't stoked. It ended up taking right up to the three week mark to receive my pedal, so according to the website, it was quite timely. If you were a active musician with gigs, then you would be out an important part of you rigs for weeks.

There A Hidden Fees

The enticing point of all of this mess is that you (yes, you!) can have a boutique-quality, professional-grade piece of gear for the price of a popular, mass-produced piece of gear. All you have to do is get these wizards to do their special brand of voodoo to it first. All for a nominal fee, of course. But that is to be expected. Nothing is free, but you probably already have one of the massively popular pedals that they offer a mod to, so its not like you are spending more money on your pedal, you are investing in an upgrade. So you come to accept the seemly exorbitant cost or changing a few part that total to a couple of dollars, but you rationalize it to yourself somehow. Then you come to find that they stick you with the cost of shipping it back to you. (not only that, but it's twice as much as you paid to ship it there...) In all I nearly doubled the price of my Soul Food, but it was all worth it, right?

It Might be worth it

Of course, I was excited to receive my pedal back from JHS. It just like getting new gear, expect that it was yours to begin with... So I spent a fair amount of time playing with my newly modded pedal, as I do, and I'm happy with it. That is, in the since that it was any worse than way I left it. Also the bass knob made a considerable difference when rolled all the way up. The switch that controls the clipping diodes made a very minute difference. I'm pleased with the changes made. I didn't have to lift a finger to do them, and everything looks great. 

Conclusion

Is it worth it to get your pedal modded by JHS. I think we already know the answer to that question. No. It is absolutely not worth it. Do I think that my $60 dollars (yes, all told I spent $60 on the mod plus shipping both ways) would have been better spent toward another pedal that already accomplished what I was trying to do the the original pedal. Unless it is directly related the the functionality of the pedal (like adding addition modes or settings) then a mod is mostly that special incantation that only those practitioners of the dark arts know. Or you know, google and soldering... 

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Ugly Truth: JHS Muffuletta

As a Muff fan, I was excited when I heard that there was a pedal that replicated nearly every popular version of the Muff Fuzz circuit. If you haven't heard, JHS has produced a pedal that takes the Muff circuit and multiplies it by 6. Clones of each one of these pedal have been around since the beginning of cloning pedals. From what I understand, these pedal are all similar but have their own individual characteristics. Hardcore fan of the Muff style fuzz have their favorite variant, but now thanks to JHS, you don't have to choose. Should Fuzz players rejoice? We'll see.




This Pedal Has Been Around For A While

The "select a fuzz" pedal is not new. In fact, it may not even be the best one out there. Big Tone Music Brewery might have the most versatile fuzz on the market. BTMB is the sister company to everyone's favorite pedal cloners, Build Your Own Clone. BTMB have produced the Royal Beaver, and it is a beast of a thing. Is it directly comparable to the Muffuletta? not really. But it it is a boutique fuzz that has a wide range of tones. I hope it come with an instruction manual, because it has all the knobs. JHS has taken a different approach for their "all in one". A simple 4-knob interface can deliver nearly endless variation of tone.

It's Pricey

The JHS Muffuletta goes for north of $200 right now. It's a great idea and a boutique pedal, so of course it's going to be expensive. It's also going to be hand built and hopefully rock-solid. A lot has been said about the "cost-of-parts" verses the "cost-of-production" so I'll stay out of it. If you want something bad enough, then you'll shell out the dough. If not, then wait and try to catch it on Ebay, or Craigslist, but there is nothing saying that this pedal won't gain value if/when they stop production.

It's a JHS Pedal

I've written a piece about what I think about JHS here, so if you are interested, then read it. I honestly don't care who makes the pedal as long of it's a good piece of gear. I might care if is ISIS or something, but other than that...

Conclusion

Is it a great pedal? From what I've heard, it is something special. But is it right for you? you have to ask yourself. Is it important to me that I accurately replicate the sound of a fuzz from a certain era? Can you tell me the difference between a Russian Muff and a NYC reissue? If not then what JHS has done is put out a box where you can A/B all the colorful Fuzzes that you always hear being tossed about. Likely, you will find an ideal setting and leave it there. Do your self a favor, find some friends with Muffs or maybe a Youtube Channel and Make up your mind now.

The Ugly Truth About JHS Pedals

I'll admit that I am little late to this game. Like, way late. Couple years too late in face. But, there has been more information come to light and I'd like to talk a little bit about JHS Pedal and all the hype (good and bad) that surrounds them.

1. They Are Cloners

In the world of effects, detail get a little murky. Ask a person of average intelligence was any pedal does and you get colorful langue about Highs and Low ends. Maybe there is a Mid-hump, maybe it flattens out the Mids. But in reality all "dirt" circuits work similarly. Image that your guitar signal is a water hose. Your clean signal is the water flowing the the hose unobstructed. Then distortion would be similar to you putting your thumb overt the end of the water hose. This has a term, it's call "clipping". Every dirt pedal that I've come across does this in some way. Before the distortion pedal, guitar would push their amps to "breakup". This meant pushing their amps very hard to make a distorted sound. Early early pioneers took what guitarist were doing with their amps and boiled it down until they could replicate it on a small scale. In a way, amps were cloned to create the first pedals. Today we have a very popular pedals that are recreated in many different ways by many different people. Ibanez's Tube Screamer is a circuit that has been emulated by many manufacturer. I actually own a Tube Screamer clone made by EHX. Others have cloned and tweeked the circuit and sold it as being something completely different. This is what JHS is accused of. Is it true? Yes. But it's also true of Boss, EHX and others.

2. They Over Charge For Their Pedals

There is a lot of talk about "how much it cost to make a pedal". I can put together the parts to build a pedal for about $20. A more complicated pedal would cost more, of course, but to a varying degree that how much buying an enclosure, knobs, jacks, and internals. Some say that buying in bulk would decrease that price, so a manufacturer should be able to produce a product cheaper. So then, when JHS charges $200-$300 for a pedal, it raises some eyebrows. Let's look at it from a business standpoint. A product is worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. If there are people out there willing to buy a hand built pedal for boutique prices, then that's just fair trade. plenty of people have opinions about how much things should cost, but in reality, people can charge whatever they want for their products. Some people however don't live in reality.

3. They Pass Off Their Copied Circuits As Their Own

So we talked about how many manufacturers make circuit that are basically the same as others. Electro Harmonix barely mentions the Klon in its description, and only stated that it "inspired" the design of their Soul Food Pedal. Boss doesn't even mention the TS-9 in their description of the SD-1 even though those pedals are so similar even some mod instructions are the same for these pedals. It's not like this is unprecedented. In many cases the pedals that JHS produces are based on other pedals, but they have mods or features that didn't exist on the originals. If you spent enough time to design, breadboard, and build these pedals, you'd probably think about these pedal as your own too. Even though the designs might not be 100% original the work that was put into building the pedals, business, reputation for quality products make what he offers have value. How much value? See point 2

4. Bad Business Practices

OK. This might be legitimate, however, it might be hearsay. There has been allegations that JHS stole a design from another builder and put it into another pedal of his. Also, there might have been a case of criticizing a builder causing a store to stop carrying the other builders pedal. This again might be true, however, I find it unlikely that someone dropped a line of pedals just because a competitor had something off-putting about them. So then, in the worse case, the guy behind JHS might be a little bit of a jerk. (or shrewd in business lingo) This is compounded by the fact that people generally believe Josh Scott of JHS pedals to be a christian. This is because he did an interview for a christian magazine one time. So, in the case that all of this is true, we have a christian guy building his take on popular pedals and charging a mint for them. If he is a christian, should he give them away? (I wouldn't mind taking a few)

5. Poor Quality

If what I've seen is to be believed, then this is true... kinda. The pedal that "prove" this claim look like what I'd build. Like early work of a pedal builder. This is explainable, because it was probably early work of a builder. I learned most of what I know about this "issue" by reading forum post and another blog post that was very detailed. You can read it here. Josh Scott has already made replies to post about poor workmanship offering to exchange any pedal with poor build quality for a new pedal. It looks like this problem has been recognized and corrected.

In Conclusion

I don't own any JHS pedals. I would probably be more interested in some of the mods or other services. Plus, I'm kinda cheap, so... you know. Here's the thing. If you look hard enough at any company, then you're probably going to see something you don't like. Small pedal builders are very personal products. Don't forget that these people just want to do something that they enjoy and make money at it. Somewhere along the way they have to make a business out of it. The best way to make any business to change their practices is to not buy their product. If enough people agree with you, then the business will change, or go out of business. If you don't like them, don't buy from them. Do they deserve the hate they get in the forums? I don't support hate, although maybe organize a boycott, or create an online petition, something more constructive. (for more ugly truths about JHS, check this out)