Worst JHS Pedals Ever Made

Okay, cards on the table: this article is a little different than the typical JHS content. It’s pretty weird. There are those that could call this article an over-extended, shameless plug for JHS gear, and others who would argue that it’s too drenched in self-loathing and sadness to be anything other than depressing. Honestly, both groups are probably right.

I started JHS by accident in 2007, and I've made a lot of pedals over the years. I've had a fair amount of success, but a lot more heartache and failure. I've had some pedals that people just don't like. People don’t seem to care that we spent a lot of time on the designs, that we meticulously obsessed over small details nobody cares about, and that we put our heart and soul into these pedals. I mean, I did make the tagline for our last series “These pedals suck,” so that’s on me. But I’m still bummed.

Join with me as I complain about how some of my favorite JHS pedals don't sell, and how you really shouldn't buy them. Because at this point, who cares?

JHS Lucky Cat Delay

The first pedal that you never ever need to buy-- because it is horrible --is the JHS Lucky Cat Delay. The Lucky Cat came out in 2017, but it really started in 2010 as the Pink Panther. The original Pink Panther units are pretty rare. I've seen them go for up to $600 on Reverb.

Here's the deal. We originally put this out as the Pink Panther Delay (it actually got as far as version 2), but then one day I came to work and saw a manila envelope on my desk stamped “urgent,” rushed to me by DHL. It was a letter from MGM, something called a “cease and desist.” Basically, they didn't like us using that name “Pink Panther” since they technically owned it. So right off the bat, my new release had to change its name to the Lucky Cat, which spiraled it into a black hole of chaos. I had to redo all the marketing and branding. People got confused. We also added a special edition black Lucky Cat pedal (which is the same circuit, just in a black enclosure instead of pink), which confused people even more. It wasn't good.

The Lucky Cat is a digital delay with an additional tape delay mode. It hearkens back to the BOSS DD-5 and BOSS DD-7, which are two of my favorite delays ever. They're really cool, rare units, and I think the Lucky Cat is a really solid send-up of both pedals. I designed the analog components, and then Robert Keeley wrote the code for the digital portion.

Honestly, I'm really proud of this pedal, but it just doesn’t sell as well as it should. The people have spoken. It sucks. Message received.

JHS Twin Twelve Overdrive

The next pedal is from 2014: the Twin Twelve Overdrive. There's two versions, and I’d prefer to focus on the V2, which has a Red Remote switch so you can remotely activate it. Now, this pedal is awesome. I'm really proud of it. We took the Silvertone 1484 amplifier, and we basically built that exact amp circuit in a pedal instead, replacing the valve tubes with FET transistors and hand-biasing each one. It is an amp in a box. It's a really nice, cranked, original-feeling amp sound, because that Silvertone amp is pretty special. You hear it on a lot of White Stripes records. Coldplay has used this amp. Beck uses this amp.

I don't know why it doesn't sell. I've had some huge artists tell me they love this. A lot of people love it on slide guitar as well. Maybe it's the icon? Originally, you know, the icon idea was a silver dollar as a homage to the Silvertone, but the lady on the silver dollar looked weird, so we ended up using Lady Liberty from the Statue of Liberty instead. It’s confusing. I get it.

Whatever your reasoning, just don't buy it. The Twin Twelve sounds great, and I'm really proud of it, but I need you to leave it alone.

JHS Spring Tank Reverb

The next JHS pedal that you definitely should never buy is the Spring Tank Reverb. Now, the name Spring Tank is a play on “spring reverb tank”, which is the tank that's inside your amp. But we have a tank icon on the enclosure that’s like a military tank. Maybe that offended people. Maybe there were a lot of pacifists who really loved JHS Pedals, but they couldn’t get behind the tank icon? If so, I apologize, but I’m not changing the icon.

A feature on this pedal that I love is that it does spring-ish style reverbs, but honestly it doesn't do them that well. I say that as a positive thing; it's a quirky lo-fi reverb. It has more of a slapback sound than a typical reverb, so it's different, really unique. Frankly, I'm surprised people haven't caught onto it. The absolute best feature is this jack for effects loops. Basically, you can take any pedal, plug that into the effects loop, and now the reverb only will have this in its effects loop, meaning the clean guitar is still clean, but the echo/reverb being produced by the Spring Tank will be affected by whatever's in it. You could put a wah pedal in it, a fuzz pedal, another reverb, an octave, whatever. Another cool feature is you can choose between two spring tank modes. You have one knob for a spring tank setting one, and when you hit the switch, you get a second level. It's almost like having two reverb presets.

Coincidentally, the Spring Tank Reverb is technically the V2 of the Alpine Reverb. I’ve read reviews-- and you probably have, too --arguing that the Alpine sounds better than the Spring Tank. I’m here to tell you that these are the exact same circuit. There’s literally no difference between them other than the size of the enclosure. Scout’s honor.

Now, the Spring Tank sounds great to me, but obviously I’m not the target demographic. I’m guessing it sounds horrible to everyone else-- I mean, it has to, otherwise these would be flying off the shelves, right?

JHS Cheese Ball Fuzz

The next JHS pedal that you definitely need to not buy is the Cheese Ball Fuzz. This came out in 2019, and it is an exact replica of the Lovetone Big Cheese Fuzz. The Big Cheese is bananas expensive, but it’s also amazing and iconic. Up until 2019, no one had replicated it correctly. There was a schematic floating around on the internet that had some errors compared to the three units that I have, so I reverse-engineered it from scratch. Thus, the Cheese Ball Fuzz was born. The price tag was only $179, versus about a grand for a vintage Lovetone Big Cheese. It also has this cool switch which changes the tone profile to make a gate. I like to put it on a big, fuzzy distortion sound, but you’ve honestly got tons of options here.

At first the Cheese Ball sold okay, and then it just went downhill. I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I can only think of one explanation: a lot of guitar players must be lactose intolerant, so it’s demoralizing to use a pedal called the Cheese Ball when you can’t actually eat a cheese ball. If that’s true, then I’m the jerk. I’m basically giving you a paper cut and pouring lemon juice on it.

Just save yourself the trouble and don’t buy this one.

JHS Crayon Distortion/Fuzz

I'm going to close off with a pedal that's related to probably one of my most successful pedals ever. So, in 2015, I released the Crayon Distortion/Fuzz. Basically, the Crayon Distortion/Fuzz is one crayon from the Colour Box. Just imagine being a kid you're at the crafts table and you pull a single crayon out of the box; same basic principle. The Crayon is the red section from the Colour Box, which is the dirt/distortion/fuzz/preamp. This was actually the original idea for the Colour Box, and then when we got into the design, I started learning more, we saw what we could do, and the design expanded.

What's crazy is that it just doesn't sell. I don’t get it. The Edge (you know, the one from U2?) uses this, and it’s very visible on his pedalboard. Plus the Crayon does everything: clean boost, preamp, overdrive, distortion, fuzz, spitting, gating and fuzz as a high pass filter. Plus it has the best and coolest roll off with your volume on your guitar; basically, it cleans it up to produce this bright, shiny, beautiful sound, which lets you journey from sparkling amazing clean tones to sputtering madness in the same epic jam. No big deal.

The irony is that this is probably the most original distortion pedal design we've ever done, and I would even say it’s one of the most original designs released on the pedal market in the last fifteen years. But it just doesn’t sell, and I’ve accepted that. In fact, I’d definitely take this one out of your Reverb.com shopping cart if you haven’t already. Save yourself some heartache.

JHS Loud Is More Good Amp

The last item on our list isn’t a pedal. It’s an amp. I can hear you guys already: “Josh, you design guitar pedals. Why would you build an amp? That’s like asking Picasso to write a ballet.” First off, thank you for the comparison to Picasso. I’ll take it. And second, you’re right. I strayed too far out of my lane with this one, and JHS paid the price. The Loud Is More Good amp exists, but nobody ever buys it. There's actually some in stock at Sweetwater right now, but they’re never going to sell.

Here's the deal. It's a good amp, but obviously it has a few problems. First off, it has a weird name: “Loud is more good.” That’s not even grammatically correct. Second, it’s too simple. It's a really well-made amp, and it works, but it only has one channel and no additional effects. No master volume, no effects loop, and no fancy endorsements either. It goes straight to the tone of the channel, amplifies it beautifully, and we can’t have that. You don't want your guitar to sound too good. People get suspicious. Thirdly, the speaker is really nice, but it looks too boring. We just made it plain white, but now I think we should have gone with tiger stripes or polka dots.

Basically, don’t buy the Loud Is More Good amp. You’ll thank me later.

I know this whole article has been a little bit of a downer, and I’m sorry for that. JHS actually had our best year in sales in 2020 (in the middle of a pandemic!) but it's not all about money. Sometimes, you just want people to buy the stuff that you make. You just want people to love the things that you designed. And when they don’t, it’s kind of like a slap in the face.

I’m just-- it’s fine. Do yourself a favor and go buy a BOSS DD-2. That’ll cheer you up.