I’m 50. I now have enough money to purchase most of what I want in life. I remember dreaming about gear, NAMM, San Dimas, Marshall, Strats, etc... reading the guitar mags as a kid with my buddy. Talking about “some day”. I swear I was a better player when I was 20 and poor, than I am now. I have many guitars, amps, pedals, etc.. Cool stuff is nice, but it doesn’t make you better or happy. Just my experience.
Geoff Bell Definitely! The more you learn, the less you know. Every answer brings new questions. A big thing is that I spent my 20’s in bands, playing live and with other musicians. Now my playing is done in my Man Cave while watching Football etc.. playing with others definitely keeps you sharp
When a guy who sells pedals tells you many people prefer the competition, that says a lot. I can't really afford JHS pedals, but I'm going to save for one just because of how amazing and honest and humble the whole tone of this channel is.
This is pretty much my thinking at the moment. I have a full pedal board and no real need for anything else but I will be purchasing a JHS pedal probably within the next 6 months just to support a company that is so cool about supporting the whole industry. It's refreshing to see someone sing praises of their 'rivals'. Tells you a lot about his (their) character.
@@emil1279 I'd love an original ts-808 but somehow I just don't think that I could justify spending that much. I wish I'd bought one when I was young....and not sold it like so many bits of gear that I've owned, and then regretted selling over the years.
Time is the priciest piece of gear, and it comes in very cheap when younger and it gets pricier and pricier as you age. I'm 40 with a 3k guitar but id trade it for being 20 with my old crappy guitar and tons of time to play with a band.
One of the most enlightening guitar experiences that I had growing up was to see the older brother of the drummer of our 8th grade garage band pick up my cheap Japanese guitar and wail on it. Our drummer’s brother was in a professional band and played a Gretsch Country Gentleman that I used to lust after, but he was able to coax sounds from my cheap outfit that I couldn’t imagine. It was the first time that I realized that the MAIN thing that was holding me back was practice. Don’t blame your gear if you suck...PRACTICE until you stop sucking.
As you get older, hitting those sweet notes is way more appealing than shredding. I'm closing in on 31 years old, and I've turned into a boomer guitarist. Especially playing for Worship, where hitting those sweet notes is way more of a priority than shredding scales and arpeggios. Timing, phrasing, feeling, and letting the notes breathe is how the timeless guitarists of history imprint their legacy.
Josh does as good a job of "playing the pedal" as anyone I can think of. He certainly knows how to cast an effect in its best light. Not to mention he's one of the tastiest musicians I've ever heard.
Thing is, you could get an Ethos Overdrive and pair it with Tier 2 here, and get really close to Tier 1. You could also spend 300-750 modding the heck out of an Epiphone 335 dot and end up with a very configurable ES series that can emulate 335/345/347/357 and more . So cheap gear made well shouldn’t stop you, but poorly setup gear with worn strings WILL SOUND ALL WRONG. Conclusion: get your current guitar setup properly FIRST and attend to any repairs , before concluding that you can’t make music with your current gear .
@@CliveBarnesMusic I don't think that's really what Josh is trying to say. Some gear is definitely better than others; I think his main point is that gear, no matter the price, should almost never be a barrier to making music.
Continually amazed at how honest this guy is and how he has never seen as a sell-out. And I've seen him on 3 different channels and just really seems to have this humble, sincere, integrity that pretty much nobody has that doesn't dig ditches. He must wash his own dishes without an automatic dishwasher or something maybe that's his secret? Or he raises children without help? It's a mystery
When I heard the first rig, I was like wow that sounds really good, and then I heard the second one, and I thought that sounds incredible as well, and then I heard the last one and I loved it. I think I just like guitar.
@@galenmarek8287 This. Not just the playing technique, but the experience to dial in the signal chain. Throw a total newbie behind that $15,000 rig, with every knob turned down, and tell him to craft a sound with no hints, and it'll very likely sound terrible. Why? Because not only doesn't he have the chops, but he's not familiar with the available controls, and what sounds good on guitar (which is totally different from what sounds good in consumer hi-fi).
The difference in sound doesn't justify the high prices; a good guitarist will sound good even with cheap equipment; expensive stuff won't help a hacker.
To hold us a legit Gibson 335 and look straight into the camera and say "hit or miss"....that was awesome. JHS shows a lot of class by highlighting quality products made by other companies. JHS shows guts by calling out Gibson for being whatever it is that Gibson is these days. And guts is enough. I have been waiting for a reason to justify buying a Morning Glory. I just found my reason - time to place my order. Thanks for the truthiness \m/
Yeah, having the popular opinion is sure gutsy. Meanwhile every [insert brand] plays perfect out of the box, makes you run faster, jump higher, and they pay you to own it.
Perhaps to someone who posts comments under a fake name you might have the false impression that anyone can say anything on the internet without consequences. But JHS is a business that is accountable, and being honest - knowing that it could impact your business (gee, Kampf...I wonder how many people with Gibson hoodies and tattoos might be in the market for a pedal...) takes guts whether you recognize it or not.
@@nathanmontover1436 is that why he posted a less than glowing review? Funny how EHX gets a pass on how many of their pedals die or have problems, but Gibson 'has to be called out'. Also if you notice Josh is usually universally positive about everything. I've seen Made In China Fenders with MSRP of $1399 and racks of pbasses I could say were 'only good for archery'...if I wanted to disingenuous and ignore the need for a trussrod tweak and neck angle reset. Josh is a people pleaser and the meme is lol muh Gibson quality concerns, play it befote you buy, yet he bought that off of Reverb with no problems. The fact is that most who bitch about Gibson price or quality are just trying to justify their overpriced Epiphone.
I got a Joyo Vintage overdrive, it was 25€ at sounds great for me. A guild T-bird st white that was 399€, a boss katana 50 (199€) and other stuff. While i was researching for my new gear to level up my sound, i realise one important truth that you defend: Good is what you like, no what somebody tells you to like. And, surprisingly, I am happier now. Thanks for your channel.
Dude, you have amazing gear, just buy some more pedals (not more than 4 or 5 including the Joyo if you want classic sounds) and build a pedalboard, or buy the boss footswitch for the Katana and create some presets for it! You're good to go!
It´s simple: the expensive equip today was the only option in the past, so it´s sound like the past. It doesn´t mean that new, low cost stuff doesn´t sound good.
I agree but disagree. For the professional it's hard because the market is very saturated, but also I agree because of how much incredible gear and knowledge is out there at our fingers tips, and we are blessed in that sense. So I can go both ways 👍
The skill level of the guitarist and that persons ability to manipulate the devices in the signal path is a major factor. I have noticed that good guitar players will just make it work.
This is what I was thinking, no doubt. Another discussion, are you just paying the brand? And also in some cases is better a CNC than a handmade guitar? or even, people with money just want to pay more because to show off and differenciate from less fortunate ones. By the way China could make great guitars, but if that guitar was 1000$ who will buy it? A lot of food for thoughts!
That mindset works to a point. I have always equated guitar gear to woodworking tools. I know there is a often quoted line that "only a bad craftsman blames his tools" but when you get into furniture making or some other form of woodworking that requires very precise, very fine work, you need tools that can handle that kind of work reliably. You need tools that you have confidence in. Getting a entry level guitar setup is like going to a Home Depot and buying their house brand power tools. They will work okay and are great for people just starting out or those who just need the tools for jobs around the house but if you are a professional or even have a lot of experience with various tool brands, you will probably look at higher price points (though perhaps not the highest) as that is usually where you find more reliable tools with more functionality/utility over the long term. When it comes to buying guitar stuff, I kinda pick and choose where I put money and where I don't. Stuff like the guitar, amplifier, and some key (most used) effects are going to be the places where I invest. Lesser used pedals and even some accessories are where I tend to try and find lower priced stuff. Either way, I am always trying to find the "best bang for the buck" and it has generally been my experience that the best bang for the buck isn't the most expensive but it is also not the cheapest.
Greg LaShay totally agree. It’s the player that matters most. Although I will say a crappy amp will make even the best guitar sound mediocre. But a good amp can make even a cheap mediocre guitar sound great. Player is #1 imo. Amp is #2.
An underrated aspect of JHS videos is that there are minimal cuts or jumps when he is speaking. He is so well-spoken that he delivers entire monologues in one go, instead of chopping everything up to get it "just right". Makes it so much easier to follow his chain of thought. Great vid!
Jhs show is definitely a “complete” show. It has information, it has comedy, and great, great music! Josh is a amazing guitar player, and nick rocks too!
The real question is will Aunt Martha in the front pew know? Nope. How about “three sheets to the wind” Billy Ray at the bar yelling “FREEBIRD!” Nope. Only us music nerds know...and that’s debatable. Great vid.
Possumlove I had the lower end in quality stuff and it's what I learned on. But I didn't improve fast enough for my taste. 25 yrs ago I paid what I thought was big money for a used Amer Deluxe Plus Strat. It was in a ulgy color as far as I'm concerned Vintage white or butt ugly yellow as I've always called it. But that guitar made me want to be better because I never had anything that inspired my to play more or didn't have to ever fix anything or even felt like ever wanted to change. It been fan- fucking-tastic since the day I brought it home and still inspires me to play it every day. No junk guitar with fret problems or lousy p/u's or any other problems would have done that. I've bought other quality equipment to compliment that guitar like 2 great amps, a Les Paul and enough pedals to build a great board. But that Strat is still stone cold stock and kick ass to this day. Is was and still is my inspiration. Guitar wise everything is mid range top quality but I got enough equipment to stock a band. I actually play bass in a worship band with a $80 bass and a $50 practice amp. That's all they said I need. I went and bought a D I for myself so I can get used to not using a amp so I'm still learning new stuff every day.
@Possumlove Took a hell of a long time to say MY WIFE MADE ME SELL ALL MY BEST GEAR there bud. I've never paid more than £500 for a guitar, and I don't have a wife. Imagine how much spare money I have laying around ;)
I have the 15w version and love it. For anyone wondering you can get it for around 200 when it goes on sale, and it's a full fledged tube amp that sounds pretty decent. I did have to replace a tube that was faulty after about a year and the reverb tank was too jangley for me so I took it out, but I've had it maybe 2 years at this point and still use it as my main amp.
Great advice. I've been playing for 40 years. Once upon a time I owned 2 Collings OMs, worth, at the time of purchase, about $5k each. Then some serious life crap happened. Now I play a couple Eastmans, an Esquire I built, and a $400 Gretsch. I'm having the time of my life in a band with my friends. I wish it hadn't taken so many years to figure it out. Would I enjoy another Collings? Hell yes, but I don't need one to make music that makes me happy. Thanks Josh, for spreading the word. It's just so true. Use whatcha got. 😁
Me bringing josh my homemade tissue box rubber band guitar: “You know, you could play music on this. Is it as high quality as a real guitar? Probably not, but it makes noise. And it’s better than having no guitar. It’s also super affordable.”
I have more gear than I NEED, but I recently started modding guitars, and it has been such a rewarding experience that it inspired me to build from scratch... Skipped the kit build, went straight to literally taking a few boards from Home Depot ( with absolutely zero woodworking experience, not even a high school shop class ) and designed my own Guitars (I'm working on my 4th). I've been using budget hardware, reusing electronic components from previous upgrades, etc. Surprisingly, they play decently, sound decent, look cool (even with the imperfections that are inherent to novice builders). Do they compare to decent budget guitars? In some ways, yes. Would I buy any of these exact guitars if I didn't build them myself? Not in a hundred years!! But I am thoroughly getting enjoyment out of the process, I understand the instrument on a much deeper level now, and it's gratifying to play because I have put time and effort into creating something thats actually useable for creating music!! Cheers to y'all on a similar journey towards doing what you can with what you've got!!
Tom Morello makes music with a pedalboard that, most likely, everyone else would consider too "normal". He makes it work with what he has and sold a million records and played in front of thousands of people, toured the world over, and got his face on guitar magazines. Or, maybe, it happened only in my parallel reality.
@@Matt_Lanzer_13 Common, nice joke, but he is actually one hell of a player with unique sound, you can always tell when he is playing, is not necessary to be everyone's cup of tea though.
@@radiradev2387 I wasn’t joking. He’s definitely not worthy of the praise he gets imo. He definitely has a unique sound and yes you can recognize it, but his playing is way to reliant on random noise and his whammy pedal. There are thousands of better players
I've heard guys with expensive rigs say "The guitarist is only as good as the gear will let him be." But I'm a firm believer in the gear is only as good as the musician using it. That's how I get away with using Mexican Fenders and Classic Vibe Squiers into a Boss ME50, a couple Behringer stompboxes and some old Peavey amps. I've gotten some really funny reactions at shows by people who can't believe the tone I get.
Mexican Fenders and Classic Vibe Squiers are like the top of affordable guitars though. Can't really pull the "cheap-skate" guitar rig with those. You've never known true pain until you try to play an abused school guitar that from the start cost 75 bucks.
@@TurtleGamers1 Don't worry, I've been there. I've been playing for 14 years. My CV Strat was my 3rd guitar. I saved up for it with my first job. First run of those were 300 bucks, and had real rosewood fretboards, and even better pickups than they currently put in them. I've broken the guitar's electronics more times than i can count, the neck has needed work after a car wreck, it's fallen down stairs, into the street, been tossed a little too carelessly by a younger me. So they are excellent guitars. BUT they are far from out-of-reach. If a diabetic teenager paying for their own insulin can get one, I think about anyone can if they're patient and frugal enough.
I love how Josh is so not Narcissistic & doesn't make his vlogs all about him & his products. I end up learning a lot & I enjoy the watching experience.
I really love your episode. I have a setup that resembles the third tier. My rig is a Yamaha Pacifica 112M, Korg AX10G, Behringer TO800, Behringer DR400 (Delay Reverb) and the TC Electronic Ditto looper. I was laughed off the internet for showing my gig rig. But I replied: "It's not what you have, It's how you use it". Thank you for laying my fears to rest. Thank you JHS.
Kind of wish you had a another tier between 2 and 3. There are so many options around 3 to $400. Epiphone guitars, Boss amps and such. There is a lot of gear in that range that will last for a long time. However I get your point, great video!
Tracy Street I kinda wished on the tier 3 if he would've used Mooer, Evo, Joyo, some of the real cheap priced pedals cause I will admit that's my gear-snob point. I bought a pedal lot off EBay, 5 pedals and a pwr unit for $55. I won't use them on my board because everything in that lot I got better stuff on my board. Just being a G A S dork and could pass up a steal. Makes my pedal shelf look more crowded L O L . All I really wanted was a back-up pwr unit. Caline,Danelectro,Soundtank. I wouldn't go out and buy that stuff new. But I won't sell it either. I'll trade it for other stuff just to hear other stuff, that's about it.
Right on. There's this from Andertons, but I'd like to see Josh's take. blog.andertons.co.uk/learn/should-i-spend-more-on-a-guitar-or-an-amp. Or more realistically, combine tiers 1 and 2 and 2 and 3. Which should you blow your budget on, guitar or amp (whether college student with $1000 to spend or middle-aged weekend warrior with $5000...)
The irony is that I sold a bunch of no-name & modded pedals that sounded great and bought “higher quality” more expensive pedal replacements that... didn’t sound as good in the end 😑. They sounded too clean/polished with less character. I think shinier finishes and enclosures are worthless now. Thanks for videos that bring this to light.
Just recently found our channel and love your geeky, nerdy, tech, obvious love for all of this and most of all your absolutely UNBIASED views and reviews. As such it won't be long before I have some JHS pedals on my board as you are the real deal! Thanks so so much.
I have not seen the episode yet, but this is what happened. I finished cooking my meal, sat down on the couch, opened youtube, thought about what to watch and then... this video showed up! Best moment of the entire time and space spectrum!
Respect the honesty. I needed to hear this. I spent a year buying and selling shit causing great anxiety because I needed the best pedals, rig, guitar, meanwhile my guitar skills were set back. Thank you 🙏 Blessings
Very cool comparison. I got my first electric guitar in high school, around 1977. It was an SG copy (Volare’ brand) with so much neck dive, I could not play it while standing - even tried duct taping my strap to my shirt. Man, I wish some of the extremely affordable stuff that is out today, was available back then. Really amazing stuff.
Great show. As a Sound Guy I learned many years ago much of what happens to my FOH sound starts with the skill and experience of who is on stage. Cheap or expensive gear, the musician or on my end more often than not boils down to this reality. It's why I discourage the "name-game" of equipment. Thanks for the great video.
I am a luthier and I still play my old Squier Showmaster as my main guitar. I love cheap gear as well as expensive stuff! I love the sentiment in this video :) Limitations is not a good excuse!
Good video and point well made. As far as the guitar element specifically: I'd add that if someone can't afford a better guitar their time, effort, and money is probably better spent learning basic guitar upkeep, set-up, and modification. Often the barrier that guitarists feel they experience when they are limited to an inexpensive guitar is that the guitar simply needs some TLC. a Squier Strat can feel like crap if it's set up poorly or poorly maintained. If it's set up well and kept in good shape they can be perfectly acceptable for most people. Buying some basic guitar tools (you can find decent sets on Amazon, just read the reviews to choose the better ones!), watching a bunch of videos, and learning by doing can go a long way. Once you feel more confident tweaking things you can swap out parts like tuners, pickups, bridges, etc and really fine tune it. DIY!!!
If it’s from the Classic Vibe range, Squier can be good enough for *everyone*, even the strats (tho the teles are probably closer to the top$ models). I got one of the last strats they made in China before moving production to Indonesia, and I don’t plan to ever sell it. It is the equivalent of made-in-japan stuff from the 80s.
@Drew Tea Great point, even though expensive guitars theoretical should have more attention paid to set up, that's not always the case certainly there were a lot Gibsons that had set ups worse than the equivalent Epiphones.
A skilled and experienced guitarist will sound like themself ...regardless of quality of gear. But if you are neither you will still sound like doodoo even with best gear available...no amount of money can replace skill and years of daily practice
I love the way you proclaim this as if you were the first person to come to that conclusion. Got any more amazing nuggets of wisdom for us? Can you tell me what color the sky is, or whether or not water is wet? What amount of money will replace your erroneous overuse of ellipses?
Sometimes you can get help sounding good from a friend. I recently helped a kid at church who didn't know how to set up a decent eq and reverb on his line 6.
I think most people would agree the space between the top rig and middle rig is very minimal in reality, but astronomical in price. But, if you can afford it, nothing wrong with it! I like having nice things because I like nice things. 😂
I think the top rig is far superior in sound quality to the middle rig. However, that quality sound can be achieved for far less. Drop the klon and Strymon, get a decent guitar and quality handmade amp. There are plenty of builders making quality handmade copies of classic amps. That Two-rock sounds amazing.
@@kikomarty4337 I completely agree, other than the Strymon. I have one, and they can do so many awesome things besides what was shown here. If you need delay sounds, they can definitely get you sounds you can't hear anywhere else
@@belacickekl7579 Yes, I do agree Strymon is awesome. I use the BlueSky as I prefer reverb to delay. Just making a point about cost, as in, you can get away a little cheaper by just say using the BlueSky over the BigSky. I can't remember off the top of my head what the delay units are called.
@@andrewdykes4589 yeah depends, if you bought that rig over several years or everything on a weekend. Same difference between an average IT guy and Jeff Bezos
Andrew Dykes were you driving to rehearsal to prep for a tour? And did you have more than 2 pedals and a cabinet included in your rig cost? If someone is gigging or producing/recording, it seems different than if they play a Rick in the bedroom ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Jamie no pedals! Though an axe Fx is one heck of a multi Fx unit for me. As well as my midi control for my amp. Just for jamming though I do play out on occasion. I use a diezel Dmoll, axe Fx 2 with floor controller and a musicman guitar.
The truth is that the guitar industry has catered to “professional” musicians for decades while ripping off amateurs and hobbyists. But now, modern manufacturing techniques and synthetics have caught up enough that most everyone can afford to play guitar and still sound very good and get good quality tones out of their setups. I’d put my Hondo Strat style guitar up against the most expensive Strats out there and it will hold its own and go toe to toe (in better hands of course haha). Inexpensive does not necessarily mean “cheap”. Good for us!
Mexican vs American built Fenders are getting to the point now where simply swapping $200 worth of hardware/pickups will save you $1,000, and that’s the company doing it to itself. Now imagine where the competition is headed. Big boys with big prices are already selling based on the brand and ironically the expensive price tag, and they’re going to have to pray that business model works as we go. The day Joyo uses better quality inputs/outputs and switches, which would be barely any extra cost to us given all the more better stuff costs (especially in bulk- you’re talking cents each), will be the day that many of the bigger boutique companies start to crash, unless they lower their prices substantially. The little companies will be fine, because they have a niche within a niche. But the bigger boutique guys? Oh boy.
Doubt you'll ever see this comment but this video, THIS VIDEO is exactly how i feel about the music community ... its about what makes you happy playing not the money spent I wish more people would get behind this, take care man
i thoroughly appreciate the lack of snobbery with all your videos. It has actually made me rethink my own level of snobbery. Keep makin the vids and I'll keep watching them.
I love this show! Just found it last week and one of the very few I watch anymore. I'm fixin to turn 53 and been stuck in the Johnny B.Goode stage on guitar for about 35 years. You definitely inspire me to explore the realms of effects especially the Univibe 101 show from a few years ago. Thanks for being here for lost souls like me out there. Oh, and the Blues lawyer piece, the spirit of the great Walter Becker is alive & well.😊
This video reminds me of one time I was at the music store and a guy was trying out a range of acoustic guitars and trying to see which ones sounded best. He went through a 2000$ one all the way to a cheap Yamaha. I asked him "sound wise, if the expensive one is at 100%, how high on the scale would the Yamaha sit at?" He told me the Yamaha was at about 80 percent, so then I asked him if 20% better sound was worth 1900 dollars? That had him thinking very hard...
The same holds true for cameras. I’m a photographer by profession and have a really lovely Leica, which the previous owner - probably a dentist or lawyer - left in the box for 25 years and never used. It didn’t even have a single roll through it! I shoot it alongside some pretty decent mid tier stuff. I don’t even frown at hanging shots taken with a really cheap broken Soviet Leica copy right next to shots from my Leica on gallery walls 😂 When I started out I just didn’t have the money for a Leica. The main difference lies in how annoying/nice to use they are. My Soviet camera made me swear a lot, whereas the Leica is a bliss to use. It’s also a bit more versatile because it’s sharper in low light. So, I’m approaching guitar gear the same way. Until I can make my cheap Squier Mustang sing I won’t bother getting anything more expensive!
I've been playing guitar for over fifty years and I still learn something every time I watch one of your videos! Your knowledge of all gear is so deep and incredible and you're very patient teacher so it's very easy and intuitive to grab ahold of what you're saying and really getting the point of all these demos. You've helped me immensely in my choices in gear and in particular some of the cheaper stuff that actually sounds really good! I recently purchased a Behringer cs300 compressor pedal for $19 off of Musician's Friend. The pedal was used but it looks brand-new and sounds as good as any of the Keeley stuff I've owned, Boss, MXR, etc. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us! Jim from Seattle
Listening via AKG Q701 direct from the Bang & Olufsen D/A converters on my phone. The top tier gear is top tier. It sounds sublime. What surprised me was the similarity between mid tier and the budget gear sound wise. I have a theory. That adversity ferments creativity. That having to deal with the limitations imposed by gear where making it sound good is a struggle. Is actually a good thing. As you are forced to levels of innovation & creativity you didn't know you were capable of until you did.
Not true. There weren’t nearly enough reverb and delay pedals. You need no less than three of each plus triple stacked boost and drive pedals to get close to the “edge of breakup” with ambience tone.
Great concept and demo. I learned there's effectively no such thing as "better" when I stumbled into an outrageous deal on a high-end custom-maker bass many years ago. Back then I thought higher-end = objectively better in every sense. The reality was, of course it did *some* things much better, and the craftsmanship was outrageously good, but overall, it was more "different" than "better" in practice. I ended up selling it. I kind of wish I'd kept it, for how beautiful it was, but I moved on to things that were cheaper but more suited to me. The three sounds above, to me, are not better or worse than one another in any way. They're just different and slightly more optimized for different things. Marketing makes us crazy over disdaining what we are able to get and lusting after what we can't. But the reality of sound is much more subjective than that.
Kevin Gamble - I agree re subjective nature of this sort of material. And for that reason I try before I buy if at all possible. I’ve seen reviews for things that I felt sure I would love. They ticked all the boxes for what I thought I was looking for. Tried in person and was just “meh!?”. Moved on to other things that I was far from sure about and fell instantly in love. And I mean instantly. Not necessarily less money spent but I’m much happier with the result and would have been very disappointed had I not tried first. The right tools for you are the ones that work for you and inspire you and make you want to play and make music.
The only objectively better quality once you are above the junk that isn't fit for purpose (pedals that pop and his, amps that aren't loud enough, guitars that are unplayable) is RELIABILITY. If a pedal messes my sound around at rehersals, doesn't do what it did last week, makes me look bad, it's gone.
You cannot describe it better!!! Way to go ! For example, I own several guitars (include gretsch, gibson USA, colletibles guitars, etc...) and my favorite one is a chibson (modified)... why not, if it feel and sound great ... no excuse :) . Love your videos man ;)
Hahaha! But actually a good point hiding in there. Many people listen way more thru cell phone speakers and such. If it it keeps you listening, it's probably a good song in some sense! At least, I think so.
The people who actually listen to music instead of just ABing everything for the magical tone listen to music on headphones. If you need $5000 monitors to tell the difference, it is good enough
Common Sense not bad luck, just different priorities. I’m sure that if any man showed up with the right thing for the wrong amount of money, he’d have a slight adjustment period at home. 🤣😂
you're one of the the most genuine / realist people out there Scott, I'm actually trying to model my newly started coffee roasting business on this same open minded mentality. I'm going to give guitar a second try after 30 years & the aspiration to play like Gilbert, Vai or SRV is gone, If I can play like you I'll be a happy camper.
With the cheap rig you should really also have used a cheap speaker cab. The speakers alter your sound sooooo much, those things are ridiculously slept on.
Love this video and the message. And for counterpoint opinion, I would take your Panther Cub over the Carbon Copy every day of the week - one of my favorite analog delays available!
The most important piece of "gear" is the player. Eddie (RIP) could pick up any rig and still sound like Eddie. All three examples still sounded like Josh because it was him playing. Great example of how you can make any rig sound good if you have the chops.
Joe Bonamassa said failry recently that nothing really turns the dial for him anymore, Strat, LP, 335, tele into a fender, marshall or dumble would all sound like joe bonamassa. He's reached a level it doesn't make him play different.
In the early 1980's I had a Big Muff Pi, an Ibanez Sonic Distortion and an Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser.. I had my electrician Dad take them apart, put them in an enclosure he probably got from Maplin, link them up and had a "Pedalboard in a tin can". My brother still tells me my "Tube Screamer" would be really valuable now. They were both greenish, What does he know. Love the channel and the humour (English spelling). :)
I love the way JHS is not just your regular money brand, but a brand made out of people that really love what they do, they love it so bad that they are not focused on just selling their products, but helping musicians to understand it's about doing something have fun y sharing music.
Every guitar and every amp (all instruments) have a spirit : from a toy to a crazy expensive one. ➡️ Your purpose as a musician is to get it (cheap doesn't mean not powerful soul)! Don't try to find any purpose of music before playing : the music will tell you the purpose by itself. But the only condition is to do your best to play that music, no matters the circumstances! Go straight to the point everytime, and nobody will think abt gear 🎶😍🎶
Josh, your attitude is a gift & a blessing! A 'good-enough' guitar in your hands is worth a billion in your daydreams! Got my first guitar (cracked-soundboard, cable-strung, table leg-necked "Del Oro" acoustic) 60+ years ago, & still in love with music and guitar! Living on fumes, dreams and social security, so I can't afford tier 2; tier 3 means skipping meds & meals, but I'm still tickling the strings. Music has saved my life! I salivate over your rigs every episode, but if I'd waited to be able to 'afford' a $2K guitar, I would have missed out on so many years of fun, love, and creativity. Rock on, Mr Scott, rock on! Thank you!
I've spent so much money on gear. I've owned 4 Fuchs amps (still own two of them), custom cabs, at least 100 pedals, modded everything on my strat; trem block, bridge assembly, trem springs, nuts, tuners, you name it. I even went out and got super high end cables from a builder that had a contract with a huge high end microphone company. I got expensive mics to put in front of those cabs. Went through super nice Neve preamps into the best AD conversion. After all that, I still use BiasFX everyday to record my guitars. I've heard the real thing and I've heard all the latest emulation. Some of the greatest ears in the industry have been tricked. In a mix, forget about it. Guitar players are notorious for chasing tone, trust me, I'm one of them but there comes a time where you HAVE to play music. If you don't play music, what is the point? Anway, great video. That Collings IS a thing of beauty.
@@MANI-ri1fc Listen to works and instruments outside the instrument you play. For instance, the fuzz pedal was originally sold as a way to make a guitar sound like a tuba.
A while ago I was working on an old amp and needed to hook up a speaker real quick to test it out and the closest speaker I had was an old 3 way. Well, let me say, I was blown away by what I heard, I never even knew my amp could sound this good!!!!! Give it a try but make sure you match the impedance or you'll either burn out your amp or your speaker..... It sounded so good, I now install a mid-range, tweeter and crossover in every amp I purchase.....
Im playing an Epiphone E-339 I picked up for 200 bucks fully expecting to swap pickups/tuners. I gave it 6 months and it's perfect. Action is amazing, tuners stay in tune perfectly and it sounds exactly like a semi-hollow with humbuckers should. I'm thrilled to death with it.
I’m 50. I now have enough money to purchase most of what I want in life. I remember dreaming about gear, NAMM, San Dimas, Marshall, Strats, etc... reading the guitar mags as a kid with my buddy. Talking about “some day”. I swear I was a better player when I was 20 and poor, than I am now. I have many guitars, amps, pedals, etc.. Cool stuff is nice, but it doesn’t make you better or happy. Just my experience.
Time to get practicin'!
You CAN get better than you've ever been.
I am! I practiced 3 hours today.
It's in your head. Maybe you weren't as good as you thought you were. You are trying to justify spending more money.
Working towards something feels more rewarding than instant gratification. That's my experience at least.
I totally agree I have all my dream gear back when I was 16 I owned a Kramer pacer and a crappy crate amplifier 😁 I'm 50 going on 16😎👍
Geoff Bell Definitely! The more you learn, the less you know. Every answer brings new questions. A big thing is that I spent my 20’s in bands, playing live and with other musicians. Now my playing is done in my Man Cave while watching Football etc.. playing with others definitely keeps you sharp
When a guy who sells pedals tells you many people prefer the competition, that says a lot. I can't really afford JHS pedals, but I'm going to save for one just because of how amazing and honest and humble the whole tone of this channel is.
Anyone who puts out an upload on a competitor is a real genuine bloke in my book. Always likes the character of Josh Scott.
This is pretty much my thinking at the moment. I have a full pedal board and no real need for anything else but I will be purchasing a JHS pedal probably within the next 6 months just to support a company that is so cool about supporting the whole industry. It's refreshing to see someone sing praises of their 'rivals'. Tells you a lot about his (their) character.
I saved money for the bonsai cause I have been dreaming of an original ts-808! And the bonsai just surprizes me everytime I plug it in!
@@emil1279 I'd love an original ts-808 but somehow I just don't think that I could justify spending that much. I wish I'd bought one when I was young....and not sold it like so many bits of gear that I've owned, and then regretted selling over the years.
Same. I wanted to buy a JHS Kilt and a Wampler Pantheon because of their awesome YT contents.
Time is the priciest piece of gear, and it comes in very cheap when younger and it gets pricier and pricier as you age. I'm 40 with a 3k guitar but id trade it for being 20 with my old crappy guitar and tons of time to play with a band.
Amen!
That's deep man.
So true.
So terribly true!!!
subtle humble brag?
One of the most enlightening guitar experiences that I had growing up was to see the older brother of the drummer of our 8th grade garage band pick up my cheap Japanese guitar and wail on it. Our drummer’s brother was in a professional band and played a Gretsch Country Gentleman that I used to lust after, but he was able to coax sounds from my cheap outfit that I couldn’t imagine. It was the first time that I realized that the MAIN thing that was holding me back was practice. Don’t blame your gear if you suck...PRACTICE until you stop sucking.
Josh is actually a fantastic guitar player. He doesn’t shred, but he chooses the sweet notes that sound wonderful.
yeah, he fucking rocks. Could listen to him all day.
As you get older, hitting those sweet notes is way more appealing than shredding. I'm closing in on 31 years old, and I've turned into a boomer guitarist. Especially playing for Worship, where hitting those sweet notes is way more of a priority than shredding scales and arpeggios. Timing, phrasing, feeling, and letting the notes breathe is how the timeless guitarists of history imprint their legacy.
I was taking away the exact same lesson from this video
David Gilmour
Josh does as good a job of "playing the pedal" as anyone I can think of. He certainly knows how to cast an effect in its best light. Not to mention he's one of the tastiest musicians I've ever heard.
Forget the rigs, that snare sound is the sauce.
There's an episode where he had his son on to talk about the drum audio rig
Once it started up it is all I heard.
Whole drumset sounds amazing 😉
the hot sauce for sure
Brandon Banks don’t think it’s his son hahahaha
Waiting for affordable versions of the drummer and bassist. They sound awesome, definitely way above my price range.
The fact you titled the first tune "Blues Lawyer" made me lol, perfect 😂
Yep! That's totally an anesthesiologist's (or lawyer, or crown prince) rig and tune. I laughed.
You'll find the majority of Blues Lawyers in PRS showrooms these days.
Reminded me of a friend who used to complain how the lawyers were all buying Harley's 15 years ago...
😂😂 That’s exactly the first thing I thought of before I even saw the song title.
Thing is, you could get an Ethos Overdrive and pair it with Tier 2 here, and get really close to Tier 1. You could also spend 300-750 modding the heck out of an Epiphone 335 dot and end up with a very configurable ES series that can emulate 335/345/347/357 and more .
So cheap gear made well shouldn’t stop you, but poorly setup gear with worn strings WILL SOUND ALL WRONG.
Conclusion: get your current guitar setup properly FIRST and attend to any repairs , before concluding that you can’t make music with your current gear .
I love that we live in a time when expensive gear is fantastic and cheap gear is great.
The electronics themselves are not super expensive, but Art supplies generally are
Love his honesty. He’s a half glass full kinda guy about everything.
A half sized glass that is full is still full. You mean glass half full?
According to Josh, there is absolutely no such thing as bad gear.. everything is great...! And that's not being honest at all really, is it..?
I love this “half glass [that is] full” and I’m stealing this new take on the saying from you 😁
@@CliveBarnesMusic I don't think that's really what Josh is trying to say. Some gear is definitely better than others; I think his main point is that gear, no matter the price, should almost never be a barrier to making music.
Continually amazed at how honest this guy is and how he has never seen as a sell-out. And I've seen him on 3 different channels and just really seems to have this humble, sincere, integrity that pretty much nobody has that doesn't dig ditches. He must wash his own dishes without an automatic dishwasher or something maybe that's his secret? Or he raises children without help? It's a mystery
He wants monopoly , he plays dirty.
Maybe he grew up in a stable two-parent home with copious examples and expressions of love...
@@gusisagreatname doood! I don't think you can say stuff like that out loud. *looks around nervously*😎
Or maybe he just doesn't need the money? Lol just kidding I love the guy and his pedals
@@GeraintDafis it takes a mother & a father to raise a child. Not that you can’t do it without both, but in general.
When I heard the first rig, I was like wow that sounds really good, and then I heard the second one, and I thought that sounds incredible as well, and then I heard the last one and I loved it. I think I just like guitar.
Best comment right here.
Well said! Also, a good guitarist or musician if you will, can make damn near anything sound very likeable and/ or playable.
@@galenmarek8287 This. Not just the playing technique, but the experience to dial in the signal chain. Throw a total newbie behind that $15,000 rig, with every knob turned down, and tell him to craft a sound with no hints, and it'll very likely sound terrible. Why? Because not only doesn't he have the chops, but he's not familiar with the available controls, and what sounds good on guitar (which is totally different from what sounds good in consumer hi-fi).
The difference in sound doesn't justify the high prices; a good guitarist will sound good even with cheap equipment; expensive stuff won't help a hacker.
I agree
To hold us a legit Gibson 335 and look straight into the camera and say "hit or miss"....that was awesome. JHS shows a lot of class by highlighting quality products made by other companies. JHS shows guts by calling out Gibson for being whatever it is that Gibson is these days. And guts is enough. I have been waiting for a reason to justify buying a Morning Glory. I just found my reason - time to place my order. Thanks for the truthiness \m/
Nathan Montover Love the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman reference!
Yeah, having the popular opinion is sure gutsy.
Meanwhile every [insert brand] plays perfect out of the box, makes you run faster, jump higher, and they pay you to own it.
@@kampfkustomer2343 damm can i have one??
Perhaps to someone who posts comments under a fake name you might have the false impression that anyone can say anything on the internet without consequences. But JHS is a business that is accountable, and being honest - knowing that it could impact your business (gee, Kampf...I wonder how many people with Gibson hoodies and tattoos might be in the market for a pedal...) takes guts whether you recognize it or not.
@@nathanmontover1436 is that why he posted a less than glowing review?
Funny how EHX gets a pass on how many of their pedals die or have problems, but Gibson 'has to be called out'.
Also if you notice Josh is usually universally positive about everything.
I've seen Made In China Fenders with MSRP of $1399 and racks of pbasses I could say were 'only good for archery'...if I wanted to disingenuous and ignore the need for a trussrod tweak and neck angle reset.
Josh is a people pleaser and the meme is lol muh Gibson quality concerns, play it befote you buy, yet he bought that off of Reverb with no problems.
The fact is that most who bitch about Gibson price or quality are just trying to justify their overpriced Epiphone.
Josh, I love your passion! As a pedal manufacturer, you know the "secret" about guitar sounds: there are no bad sounds, just wrong contexts.
Saw a vid of Trey Anastasio going through his rig. His words: “Being familiar with your gear is more important than having really good gear”
So true I have a cheapo strat copy that I love and would never trade it for a gibson
I got a Joyo Vintage overdrive, it was 25€ at sounds great for me. A guild T-bird st white that was 399€, a boss katana 50 (199€) and other stuff. While i was researching for my new gear to level up my sound, i realise one important truth that you defend: Good is what you like, no what somebody tells you to like. And, surprisingly, I am happier now. Thanks for your channel.
Leonardo Berbesí Mesa
You’re using your ears the right way. For wisdom and your own taste of tone. 👏🏽
That Joyo Vintage overdrive is excellent.
Dude, you have amazing gear, just buy some more pedals (not more than 4 or 5 including the Joyo if you want classic sounds) and build a pedalboard, or buy the boss footswitch for the Katana and create some presets for it! You're good to go!
Leonardo Berbesí Mesa - yup. Spot on.
That guild is a lot of guitar for the money
Bottom line: There’s never been a better time to be a musician.
Hear bloody hear
From an equipment standpoint, I'd agree.
It´s simple: the expensive equip today was the only option in the past, so it´s sound like the past. It doesn´t mean that new, low cost stuff doesn´t sound good.
...or a worse time. Ridiculous amount of choice stunts many a musician’s creativity and aggravates GAS which is the enemy of playing.
I agree but disagree. For the professional it's hard because the market is very saturated, but also I agree because of how much incredible gear and knowledge is out there at our fingers tips, and we are blessed in that sense. So I can go both ways 👍
The skill level of the guitarist and that persons ability to manipulate the devices in the signal path is a major factor. I have noticed that good guitar players will just make it work.
This is what I was thinking, no doubt. Another discussion, are you just paying the brand? And also in some cases is better a CNC than a handmade guitar? or even, people with money just want to pay more because to show off and differenciate from less fortunate ones. By the way China could make great guitars, but if that guitar was 1000$ who will buy it? A lot of food for thoughts!
That mindset works to a point. I have always equated guitar gear to woodworking tools. I know there is a often quoted line that "only a bad craftsman blames his tools" but when you get into furniture making or some other form of woodworking that requires very precise, very fine work, you need tools that can handle that kind of work reliably. You need tools that you have confidence in. Getting a entry level guitar setup is like going to a Home Depot and buying their house brand power tools. They will work okay and are great for people just starting out or those who just need the tools for jobs around the house but if you are a professional or even have a lot of experience with various tool brands, you will probably look at higher price points (though perhaps not the highest) as that is usually where you find more reliable tools with more functionality/utility over the long term.
When it comes to buying guitar stuff, I kinda pick and choose where I put money and where I don't. Stuff like the guitar, amplifier, and some key (most used) effects are going to be the places where I invest. Lesser used pedals and even some accessories are where I tend to try and find lower priced stuff. Either way, I am always trying to find the "best bang for the buck" and it has generally been my experience that the best bang for the buck isn't the most expensive but it is also not the cheapest.
Even an average player, with a positive outlook!
Greg LaShay totally agree. It’s the player that matters most. Although I will say a crappy amp will make even the best guitar sound mediocre. But a good amp can make even a cheap mediocre guitar sound great. Player is #1 imo. Amp is #2.
ola englund just reviewed a zoom 505, one of the most looked down piece of gear ever released, and made it sound great....
An underrated aspect of JHS videos is that there are minimal cuts or jumps when he is speaking. He is so well-spoken that he delivers entire monologues in one go, instead of chopping everything up to get it "just right". Makes it so much easier to follow his chain of thought. Great vid!
2:33 BLUES LAWYER
6:17 THE WORK'N MAN
10:01 GARAGE HOTEL
@@mxix7424 They are written for the jam
Ah there it is again. The long lost legend of the SOVTEK EPISODE.
Jhs show is definitely a “complete” show. It has information, it has comedy, and great, great music! Josh is a amazing guitar player, and nick rocks too!
The real question is will Aunt Martha in the front pew know? Nope. How about “three sheets to the wind” Billy Ray at the bar yelling “FREEBIRD!” Nope.
Only us music nerds know...and that’s debatable. Great vid.
Jared Burdick i agree, but us as the artist, we need the most inspiration possible.
See. I've always said it was so.
Possumlove I had the lower end in quality stuff and it's what I learned on. But I didn't improve fast enough for my taste. 25 yrs ago I paid what I thought was big money for a used Amer Deluxe Plus Strat. It was in a ulgy color as far as I'm concerned Vintage white or butt ugly yellow as I've always called it. But that guitar made me want to be better because I never had anything that inspired my to play more or didn't have to ever fix anything or even felt like ever wanted to change. It been fan- fucking-tastic since the day I brought it home and still inspires me to play it every day. No junk guitar with fret problems or lousy p/u's or any other problems would have done that. I've bought other quality equipment to compliment that guitar like 2 great amps, a Les Paul and enough pedals to build a great board. But that Strat is still stone cold stock and kick ass to this day. Is was and still is my inspiration. Guitar wise everything is mid range top quality but I got enough equipment to stock a band. I actually play bass in a worship band with a $80 bass and a $50 practice amp. That's all they said I need. I went and bought a D I for myself so I can get used to not using a amp so I'm still learning new stuff every day.
@Possumlove Took a hell of a long time to say MY WIFE MADE ME SELL ALL MY BEST GEAR there bud.
I've never paid more than £500 for a guitar, and I don't have a wife. Imagine how much spare money I have laying around ;)
I've seen great sounding amps... I mean GREAT sounding amps be NOT reliable due to cost cutting measures. And then I get paid to fix them.
I'm playing a Squier bullet tele and a 5watt monoprice amp and I'm floored!!! It sounds great!!! And I've owned tons of stuff!!!
I have the 15w version and love it. For anyone wondering you can get it for around 200 when it goes on sale, and it's a full fledged tube amp that sounds pretty decent. I did have to replace a tube that was faulty after about a year and the reverb tank was too jangley for me so I took it out, but I've had it maybe 2 years at this point and still use it as my main amp.
Honest, very transparent person, it will reflect positively on how he makes his own pedals. Salute!
Can you do a video talking about the MXR pedal history?
This, please!!
...and include your favourite MXR Dunlop pedals which will probably require and separate video.
Great advice. I've been playing for 40 years. Once upon a time I owned 2 Collings OMs, worth, at the time of purchase, about $5k each. Then some serious life crap happened. Now I play a couple Eastmans, an Esquire I built, and a $400 Gretsch. I'm having the time of my life in a band with my friends. I wish it hadn't taken so many years to figure it out. Would I enjoy another Collings? Hell yes, but I don't need one to make music that makes me happy. Thanks Josh, for spreading the word. It's just so true. Use whatcha got. 😁
Me bringing josh my homemade tissue box rubber band guitar:
“You know, you could play music on this. Is it as high quality as a real guitar? Probably not, but it makes noise. And it’s better than having no guitar. It’s also super affordable.”
Dan Califone spot on! 🤣🤣🤣
I have more gear than I NEED, but I recently started modding guitars, and it has been such a rewarding experience that it inspired me to build from scratch... Skipped the kit build, went straight to literally taking a few boards from Home Depot ( with absolutely zero woodworking experience, not even a high school shop class ) and designed my own Guitars (I'm working on my 4th). I've been using budget hardware, reusing electronic components from previous upgrades, etc. Surprisingly, they play decently, sound decent, look cool (even with the imperfections that are inherent to novice builders). Do they compare to decent budget guitars? In some ways, yes. Would I buy any of these exact guitars if I didn't build them myself? Not in a hundred years!! But I am thoroughly getting enjoyment out of the process, I understand the instrument on a much deeper level now, and it's gratifying to play because I have put time and effort into creating something thats actually useable for creating music!! Cheers to y'all on a similar journey towards doing what you can with what you've got!!
Tom Morello makes music with a pedalboard that, most likely, everyone else would consider too "normal". He makes it work with what he has and sold a million records and played in front of thousands of people, toured the world over, and got his face on guitar magazines. Or, maybe, it happened only in my parallel reality.
I dig your parallel reality 🤘
To be fair though, morello’s tone and fashion of playing kinda sucks tho😂 85% of it is just noise and a whammy pedal
@@Matt_Lanzer_13 Common, nice joke, but he is actually one hell of a player with unique sound, you can always tell when he is playing, is not necessary to be everyone's cup of tea though.
@@radiradev2387 I wasn’t joking. He’s definitely not worthy of the praise he gets imo. He definitely has a unique sound and yes you can recognize it, but his playing is way to reliant on random noise and his whammy pedal. There are thousands of better players
He's an amazingly mediocre guitarist who happens to be surrounded by actually talented people.
Think like Meg White. Mediocrity can be a feature.
I've heard guys with expensive rigs say "The guitarist is only as good as the gear will let him be."
But I'm a firm believer in the gear is only as good as the musician using it.
That's how I get away with using Mexican Fenders and Classic Vibe Squiers into a Boss ME50, a couple Behringer stompboxes and some old Peavey amps. I've gotten some really funny reactions at shows by people who can't believe the tone I get.
The guys saying a guitarist is only as good as his gear almost always can’t play for sh!t
@@juanvaldez5422 Agreed
Agreed
Mexican Fenders and Classic Vibe Squiers are like the top of affordable guitars though. Can't really pull the "cheap-skate" guitar rig with those. You've never known true pain until you try to play an abused school guitar that from the start cost 75 bucks.
@@TurtleGamers1 Don't worry, I've been there. I've been playing for 14 years. My CV Strat was my 3rd guitar. I saved up for it with my first job. First run of those were 300 bucks, and had real rosewood fretboards, and even better pickups than they currently put in them.
I've broken the guitar's electronics more times than i can count, the neck has needed work after a car wreck, it's fallen down stairs, into the street, been tossed a little too carelessly by a younger me.
So they are excellent guitars. BUT they are far from out-of-reach. If a diabetic teenager paying for their own insulin can get one, I think about anyone can if they're patient and frugal enough.
Every time JHS puts out a new episode, a forum troll loses their “cool power”
So true! I want the few hours back that I wasted watching those people explaining why true bypass is the answer for everything.
And his/ her wife/husband becomes more angry...
Because Josh is the only cool power around here.
True boomer energy from this comment
Wish I had a dentist, barber, and mechanic like this guy. Totally believable.
I love how Josh is so not Narcissistic & doesn't make his vlogs all about him & his products. I end up learning a lot & I enjoy the watching experience.
I carry a .44 magnum EH pedal in my gig bag as a "what if all goes to hell" insurance policy. Cheap for peace of mind.
That thing sounded like garbage, I thought I would never, ever use one. Then i read your comment and nodded in agreement.
This fricking guy is so fricking great. His passion for this is fricking infectious.
I love your passion for using he word fricking!
@@moodyvol89 I didn't fricking want to get fricking cancelled
I really love your episode. I have a setup that resembles the third tier. My rig is a Yamaha Pacifica 112M, Korg AX10G, Behringer TO800, Behringer DR400 (Delay Reverb) and the TC Electronic Ditto looper. I was laughed off the internet for showing my gig rig. But I replied: "It's not what you have, It's how you use it". Thank you for laying my fears to rest. Thank you JHS.
...and you chose to use it by showing it to people.
Kind of wish you had a another tier between 2 and 3. There are so many options around 3 to $400. Epiphone guitars, Boss amps and such. There is a lot of gear in that range that will last for a long time. However I get your point, great video!
Tracy Street I kinda wished on the tier 3 if he would've used Mooer, Evo, Joyo, some of the real cheap priced pedals cause I will admit that's my gear-snob point. I bought a pedal lot off EBay, 5 pedals and a pwr unit for $55. I won't use them on my board because everything in that lot I got better stuff on my board. Just being a G A S dork and could pass up a steal. Makes my pedal shelf look more crowded L O L . All I really wanted was a back-up pwr unit. Caline,Danelectro,Soundtank. I wouldn't go out and buy that stuff new. But I won't sell it either. I'll trade it for other stuff just to hear other stuff, that's about it.
My rig sits in that zone.
Well even the jump from klon to boss was weird
I didn’t had a eargasm with tier one and my ears didn’t bleed on tier 3 the internet has been lying to me
"To sing, we must have a song in our hearts, but having lost the song, we pursue the singer."
You are the only company owner who would make a video like this one without sneaking in at least one of your own products. Love it!
Would love to hear the Firefly through the Two-Rock and the Collings through the 44 Magnum.
Right on. There's this from Andertons, but I'd like to see Josh's take. blog.andertons.co.uk/learn/should-i-spend-more-on-a-guitar-or-an-amp. Or more realistically, combine tiers 1 and 2 and 2 and 3. Which should you blow your budget on, guitar or amp (whether college student with $1000 to spend or middle-aged weekend warrior with $5000...)
A Nautical Gate
Ha ha. I have a firebird and a 40 watt 3 tube pig nose
I can't believe how small that 335 style guitar looks in Josh's arms. He must be huge beast of a man!
The irony is that I sold a bunch of no-name & modded pedals that sounded great and bought “higher quality” more expensive pedal replacements that... didn’t sound as good in the end 😑. They sounded too clean/polished with less character. I think shinier finishes and enclosures are worthless now. Thanks for videos that bring this to light.
Just recently found our channel and love your geeky, nerdy, tech, obvious love for all of this and most of all your absolutely UNBIASED views and reviews. As such it won't be long before I have some JHS pedals on my board as you are the real deal! Thanks so so much.
I’m gonna buy another JHS pedal just for the simple fact that no other gear manufacturer operates with so much integrity and honesty. Kudos
I have not seen the episode yet, but this is what happened. I finished cooking my meal, sat down on the couch, opened youtube, thought about what to watch and then... this video showed up! Best moment of the entire time and space spectrum!
Respect the honesty. I needed to hear this. I spent a year buying and selling shit causing great anxiety because I needed the best pedals, rig, guitar, meanwhile my guitar skills were set back. Thank you 🙏 Blessings
Very cool comparison. I got my first electric guitar in high school, around 1977. It was an SG copy (Volare’ brand) with so much neck dive, I could not play it while standing - even tried duct taping my strap to my shirt. Man, I wish some of the extremely affordable stuff that is out today, was available back then. Really amazing stuff.
Great show. As a Sound Guy I learned many years ago much of what happens to my FOH sound starts with the skill and experience of who is on stage. Cheap or expensive gear, the musician or on my end more often than not boils down to this reality. It's why I discourage the "name-game" of equipment. Thanks for the great video.
I am a luthier and I still play my old Squier Showmaster as my main guitar. I love cheap gear as well as expensive stuff! I love the sentiment in this video :)
Limitations is not a good excuse!
Dude, your show is amazing. You are such a good presenter, and your integrity is praiseworthy.
Good video and point well made. As far as the guitar element specifically: I'd add that if someone can't afford a better guitar their time, effort, and money is probably better spent learning basic guitar upkeep, set-up, and modification. Often the barrier that guitarists feel they experience when they are limited to an inexpensive guitar is that the guitar simply needs some TLC. a Squier Strat can feel like crap if it's set up poorly or poorly maintained. If it's set up well and kept in good shape they can be perfectly acceptable for most people. Buying some basic guitar tools (you can find decent sets on Amazon, just read the reviews to choose the better ones!), watching a bunch of videos, and learning by doing can go a long way. Once you feel more confident tweaking things you can swap out parts like tuners, pickups, bridges, etc and really fine tune it. DIY!!!
Very true, plus it's best to learn this stuff while you have an affordable guitar!
I would definitely agree with this, and I believe a part of the retail price difference between tiers is less time spent on setup from the factory
If it’s from the Classic Vibe range, Squier can be good enough for *everyone*, even the strats (tho the teles are probably closer to the top$ models). I got one of the last strats they made in China before moving production to Indonesia, and I don’t plan to ever sell it. It is the equivalent of made-in-japan stuff from the 80s.
@Drew Tea Great point, even though expensive guitars theoretical should have more attention paid to set up, that's not always the case certainly there were a lot Gibsons that had set ups worse than the equivalent Epiphones.
Moral of the story: Expensive gear doesn’t make you sound good. You make you sound good.
Exactly i find gear is mostly subjective
I can't even make myself sound good tbh.
A skilled and experienced guitarist will sound like themself ...regardless of quality of gear. But if you are neither you will still sound like doodoo even with best gear available...no amount of money can replace skill and years of daily practice
I love the way you proclaim this as if you were the first person to come to that conclusion. Got any more amazing nuggets of wisdom for us? Can you tell me what color the sky is, or whether or not water is wet? What amount of money will replace your erroneous overuse of ellipses?
Sometimes you can get help sounding good from a friend. I recently helped a kid at church who didn't know how to set up a decent eq and reverb on his line 6.
7:05 great fill. Good surprise and musical moment.
Nobody comments on how friggin tasteful Josh's playing is. Seriously. Listen back to that first jam at the 3 minute mark.
I think most people would agree the space between the top rig and middle rig is very minimal in reality, but astronomical in price. But, if you can afford it, nothing wrong with it! I like having nice things because I like nice things. 😂
Kerry Egeler i totally agree
Joaquim Carvalho 🙌🏻🔥
I think the top rig is far superior in sound quality to the middle rig. However, that quality sound can be achieved for far less. Drop the klon and Strymon, get a decent guitar and quality handmade amp. There are plenty of builders making quality handmade copies of classic amps. That Two-rock sounds amazing.
@@kikomarty4337 I completely agree, other than the Strymon. I have one, and they can do so many awesome things besides what was shown here. If you need delay sounds, they can definitely get you sounds you can't hear anywhere else
@@belacickekl7579 Yes, I do agree Strymon is awesome. I use the BlueSky as I prefer reverb to delay. Just making a point about cost, as in, you can get away a little cheaper by just say using the BlueSky over the BigSky. I can't remember off the top of my head what the delay units are called.
15.4K for a full rig, damn!... Even when I consider myself a compulsive gear shopper at times, I have my own limits thank you very much!
Karl Montenegro I thought dang that rig is expensive! As I listened while driving my 9000 dollar rig in the car with me -_-
@@andrewdykes4589 yeah depends, if you bought that rig over several years or everything on a weekend. Same difference between an average IT guy and Jeff Bezos
Andrew Dykes were you driving to rehearsal to prep for a tour? And did you have more than 2 pedals and a cabinet included in your rig cost?
If someone is gigging or producing/recording, it seems different than if they play a Rick in the bedroom ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Jamie no pedals! Though an axe Fx is one heck of a multi Fx unit for me. As well as my midi control for my amp. Just for jamming though I do play out on occasion. I use a diezel Dmoll, axe Fx 2 with floor controller and a musicman guitar.
“You need to pick up what you have and make music”
The truth is that the guitar industry has catered to “professional” musicians for decades while ripping off amateurs and hobbyists.
But now, modern manufacturing techniques and synthetics have caught up enough that most everyone can afford to play guitar and still sound very good and get good quality tones out of their setups.
I’d put my Hondo Strat style guitar up against the most expensive Strats out there and it will hold its own and go toe to toe (in better hands of course haha).
Inexpensive does not necessarily mean “cheap”.
Good for us!
Or... should we just thank Uli for being a little bitch?
Mexican vs American built Fenders are getting to the point now where simply swapping $200 worth of hardware/pickups will save you $1,000, and that’s the company doing it to itself. Now imagine where the competition is headed. Big boys with big prices are already selling based on the brand and ironically the expensive price tag, and they’re going to have to pray that business model works as we go.
The day Joyo uses better quality inputs/outputs and switches, which would be barely any extra cost to us given all the more better stuff costs (especially in bulk- you’re talking cents each), will be the day that many of the bigger boutique companies start to crash, unless they lower their prices substantially. The little companies will be fine, because they have a niche within a niche. But the bigger boutique guys? Oh boy.
Bought a Korean fender strat clone for 200 and a Yamaha rgx211 for 75$ both modded with alnico pickups I don’t reach for my custom 24 anymore 😂
Doubt you'll ever see this comment but this video, THIS VIDEO is exactly how i feel about the music community ... its about what makes you happy playing not the money spent I wish more people would get behind this, take care man
To my ears the "mid-tier" Gibson-EHX rig sounded the best.
Beepbeep Lettuce I agree, the cheap rig sounded fine though
Me too!
Ear that too, just wondering what kind of 335 goes for $1000? I mean is that a studio version or what?
And the tune is killer!
I think you mean to your wallet the mid tier sounds best.
Great video , I am a big fan of cheaper gear that sounds great. We are in the golden age of guitar gear there is so much to pick from.
'The guitar case case it comes in looks like the coffin an emperor would be buried in.' HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thad Brown
I was hoping he’d show it!
Me too!
i thoroughly appreciate the lack of snobbery with all your videos. It has actually made me rethink my own level of snobbery. Keep makin the vids and I'll keep watching them.
I love this show! Just found it last week and one of the very few I watch anymore. I'm fixin to turn 53 and been stuck in the Johnny B.Goode stage on guitar for about 35 years. You definitely inspire me to explore the realms of effects especially the Univibe 101 show from a few years ago. Thanks for being here for lost souls like me out there. Oh, and the Blues lawyer piece, the spirit of the great Walter Becker is alive & well.😊
This video reminds me of one time I was at the music store and a guy was trying out a range of acoustic guitars and trying to see which ones sounded best. He went through a 2000$ one all the way to a cheap Yamaha. I asked him "sound wise, if the expensive one is at 100%, how high on the scale would the Yamaha sit at?" He told me the Yamaha was at about 80 percent, so then I asked him if 20% better sound was worth 1900 dollars? That had him thinking very hard...
The same holds true for cameras. I’m a photographer by profession and have a really lovely Leica, which the previous owner - probably a dentist or lawyer - left in the box for 25 years and never used. It didn’t even have a single roll through it! I shoot it alongside some pretty decent mid tier stuff. I don’t even frown at hanging shots taken with a really cheap broken Soviet Leica copy right next to shots from my Leica on gallery walls 😂 When I started out I just didn’t have the money for a Leica. The main difference lies in how annoying/nice to use they are. My Soviet camera made me swear a lot, whereas the Leica is a bliss to use. It’s also a bit more versatile because it’s sharper in low light. So, I’m approaching guitar gear the same way. Until I can make my cheap Squier Mustang sing I won’t bother getting anything more expensive!
Reminds me of how beat to shit my Green Muff is and is always falling apart. It sounds cool as hell.
I should really build a Green Muff clone! It’s been on my list of pedals to try, always sounds awesome in demos!
I'm shocked you found a 335 for 1000 to 1500. They're usually much more expensive
I was looking for this comment. I've never seen a 335 anywhere near that price. Maybe 2,000 if I'm lucky.
Yup. They’re always around $3000. $1000 is an absolute steal for one of those
Is that the Gibson, it does sound expensive.
Yulp! If only I could find an ES-335 for $1000 USD. $1000 CAD would be even better! :)
I know right! He got crazy lucky to get that guitar for that money!
I've been playing guitar for over fifty years and I still learn something every time I watch one of your videos! Your knowledge of all gear is so deep and incredible and you're very patient teacher so it's very easy and intuitive to grab ahold of what you're saying and really getting the point of all these demos. You've helped me immensely in my choices in gear and in particular some of the cheaper stuff that actually sounds really good! I recently purchased a Behringer cs300 compressor pedal for $19 off of Musician's Friend. The pedal was used but it looks brand-new and sounds as good as any of the Keeley stuff I've owned, Boss, MXR, etc. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us! Jim from Seattle
Listening via AKG Q701 direct from the Bang & Olufsen D/A converters on my phone. The top tier gear is top tier.
It sounds sublime. What surprised me was the similarity between mid tier and the budget gear sound wise. I have a theory. That adversity ferments creativity. That having to deal with the limitations imposed by gear where making it sound good is a struggle. Is actually a good thing. As you are forced to levels of innovation & creativity you didn't know you were capable of until you did.
The working man rig is still more expensive than everything I have lol
About equal to my whole rig, but that's four electric guitars, a full pedalboard and a 212 combo.
@@LazyCat010 ditto
Same, and I play out often lol
@@AuntAlnico4 definitely not
@@LazyCat010 hey! You just described my rig exactly! What's your amp??
That expensive rig is pretty much the rig I see in church every weekend.
Glad it's not just me. Worship bands always have the most boutique gear. Hmm...
Not true. There weren’t nearly enough reverb and delay pedals. You need no less than three of each plus triple stacked boost and drive pedals to get close to the “edge of breakup” with ambience tone.
@@jburdsinfuse LOL, nailed it.
aunt jenifer I was being sarcastic....🙄
@@jburdsinfuse ?? Sarcastic? What's "not true"...be it sarcastic or sincere? I don't get it either...
Great concept and demo. I learned there's effectively no such thing as "better" when I stumbled into an outrageous deal on a high-end custom-maker bass many years ago. Back then I thought higher-end = objectively better in every sense. The reality was, of course it did *some* things much better, and the craftsmanship was outrageously good, but overall, it was more "different" than "better" in practice. I ended up selling it. I kind of wish I'd kept it, for how beautiful it was, but I moved on to things that were cheaper but more suited to me.
The three sounds above, to me, are not better or worse than one another in any way. They're just different and slightly more optimized for different things. Marketing makes us crazy over disdaining what we are able to get and lusting after what we can't. But the reality of sound is much more subjective than that.
Kevin Gamble - I agree re subjective nature of this sort of material. And for that reason I try before I buy if at all possible. I’ve seen reviews for things that I felt sure I would love. They ticked all the boxes for what I thought I was looking for. Tried in person and was just “meh!?”. Moved on to other things that I was far from sure about and fell instantly in love. And I mean instantly. Not necessarily less money spent but I’m much happier with the result and would have been very disappointed had I not tried first. The right tools for you are the ones that work for you and inspire you and make you want to play and make music.
The only objectively better quality once you are above the junk that isn't fit for purpose (pedals that pop and his, amps that aren't loud enough, guitars that are unplayable) is RELIABILITY. If a pedal messes my sound around at rehersals, doesn't do what it did last week, makes me look bad, it's gone.
You cannot describe it better!!! Way to go ! For example, I own several guitars (include gretsch, gibson USA, colletibles guitars, etc...) and my favorite one is a chibson (modified)... why not, if it feel and sound great ... no excuse :) . Love your videos man ;)
Music quality is made by the musician. This is solid proof.
Commenters:
They all sounded basically the same through my speaker.
Sent from my Iphone.
Hahaha! But actually a good point hiding in there. Many people listen way more thru cell phone speakers and such. If it it keeps you listening, it's probably a good song in some sense! At least, I think so.
True, it was hard to tell a difference between them until I listened to it through my $5000 monitors.
@@rt-uh6mt weird flex but ok
The people who actually listen to music instead of just ABing everything for the magical tone listen to music on headphones. If you need $5000 monitors to tell the difference, it is good enough
For The Love Of Noise
Me too with the tiny speaker on my iPad plus I’ve heard TH-cam videos have lots of compression
The concept of the day ladies and gentlemen: Diminishing Returns. Let's all say it together!
I don't know... If we all say it, won't it start to be less and less meaningful?
David Tyndale ... mind blown. 🤯
@@davidtyndale9557 Haaaaaa, you win the internet for today!
This is very useful for us guys that like learning and playing guitar and want to stay married.
Amen brother!
@Common Sense Hah, you must not have kids lol - Just teasing man ;-)
Common Sense not bad luck, just different priorities. I’m sure that if any man showed up with the right thing for the wrong amount of money, he’d have a slight adjustment period at home. 🤣😂
Common Sense I will also amend to say “happily married”
My significant other plays violin and she often chuckles at guitar gear prices.
you're one of the the most genuine / realist people out there Scott, I'm actually trying to model my newly started coffee roasting business on this same open minded mentality. I'm going to give guitar a second try after 30 years & the aspiration to play like Gilbert, Vai or SRV is gone, If I can play like you I'll be a happy camper.
With the cheap rig you should really also have used a cheap speaker cab. The speakers alter your sound sooooo much, those things are ridiculously slept on.
I totally agree. Using a solid state pedal when you can get a small tube amp for under $200 and he should have gone that way.
I am not one to normally comment, but dude, I really enjoy your playing and these videos, thanks!
Love this video and the message. And for counterpoint opinion, I would take your Panther Cub over the Carbon Copy every day of the week - one of my favorite analog delays available!
For Tier 3 cheap rig, I would’ve gone with the Orange micro terror. Great little amp found for $99.
I have a Japanese strat, swollen pickle, a Yamaha delay and a fender deville for my current set up. Absolutely fantastic.
Another testament to how music is "in your hands". All those rigs sounded great! Mainly because Josh is a great guitar player! Nice shoot out.
I was amazed at how good the Firefly sounded. For basically $150 US? That's crazy.
The most important piece of "gear" is the player. Eddie (RIP) could pick up any rig and still sound like Eddie. All three examples still sounded like Josh because it was him playing. Great example of how you can make any rig sound good if you have the chops.
Joe Bonamassa said failry recently that nothing really turns the dial for him anymore, Strat, LP, 335, tele into a fender, marshall or dumble would all sound like joe bonamassa. He's reached a level it doesn't make him play different.
Kurt Cobain’s rig: pawn shop guitar, pawn shop amp, ds1 and small clone.
And sounds like shit (j/k)
That's true, but to be fair, those were sleeper guitars that were only cheap cause nobody else wanted em
Didn't kurt play Fenders?
@@2triggered2comment55 Mostly, but they were usually whatever left handed guitar they could find at a pawn shop.
Cobain was the WORST! Why even mention that lousy player? In a world of great players you went for the worst!
In the early 1980's I had a Big Muff Pi, an Ibanez Sonic Distortion and an Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser..
I had my electrician Dad take them apart, put them in an enclosure he probably got from Maplin, link them up and had a "Pedalboard in a tin can".
My brother still tells me my "Tube Screamer" would be really valuable now.
They were both greenish, What does he know.
Love the channel and the humour (English spelling). :)
I love the way JHS is not just your regular money brand, but a brand made out of people that really love what they do, they love it so bad that they are not focused on just selling their products, but helping musicians to understand it's about doing something have fun y sharing music.
Every guitar and every amp (all instruments) have a spirit : from a toy to a crazy expensive one.
➡️ Your purpose as a musician is to get it (cheap doesn't mean not powerful soul)!
Don't try to find any purpose of music before playing : the music will tell you the purpose by itself. But the only condition is to do your best to play that music, no matters the circumstances!
Go straight to the point everytime, and nobody will think abt gear 🎶😍🎶
The real winner of this episode? The snare drum. Wow - that sounds great!
Josh, your attitude is a gift & a blessing! A 'good-enough' guitar in your hands is worth a billion in your daydreams! Got my first guitar (cracked-soundboard, cable-strung, table leg-necked "Del Oro" acoustic) 60+ years ago, & still in love with music and guitar! Living on fumes, dreams and social security, so I can't afford tier 2; tier 3 means skipping meds & meals, but I'm still tickling the strings. Music has saved my life! I salivate over your rigs every episode, but if I'd waited to be able to 'afford' a $2K guitar, I would have missed out on so many years of fun, love, and creativity. Rock on, Mr Scott, rock on! Thank you!
I love how you emphasize just have fun making music because that is truly what it is about. Definitely Sage advice
I've spent so much money on gear. I've owned 4 Fuchs amps (still own two of them), custom cabs, at least 100 pedals, modded everything on my strat; trem block, bridge assembly, trem springs, nuts, tuners, you name it. I even went out and got super high end cables from a builder that had a contract with a huge high end microphone company. I got expensive mics to put in front of those cabs. Went through super nice Neve preamps into the best AD conversion. After all that, I still use BiasFX everyday to record my guitars. I've heard the real thing and I've heard all the latest emulation. Some of the greatest ears in the industry have been tricked. In a mix, forget about it.
Guitar players are notorious for chasing tone, trust me, I'm one of them but there comes a time where you HAVE to play music. If you don't play music, what is the point?
Anway, great video. That Collings IS a thing of beauty.
This JHS dude is actually a great guitar player.
if u cant make ur music on cheap ass gear the music aint really inside you
Truth🙌
I don't need more/better gear.
I need better ideas.
;)
There's literally a million techno shredders out there, and not a one of them can write an original song....
@@markferguson3745 Legalize shred
Mark Ferguson Ever been to NAMM?! It’s your comment showcased for 4 days straight!
It’s no wonder synths resurfaced like never before 🤦🏽♂️
How can I have better ideas? :(
@@MANI-ri1fc Listen to works and instruments outside the instrument you play. For instance, the fuzz pedal was originally sold as a way to make a guitar sound like a tuba.
A while ago I was working on an old amp and needed to hook up a speaker real quick to test it out and the closest speaker I had was an old 3 way. Well, let me say, I was blown away by what I heard, I never even knew my amp could sound this good!!!!! Give it a try but make sure you match the impedance or you'll either burn out your amp or your speaker.....
It sounded so good, I now install a mid-range, tweeter and crossover in every amp I purchase.....
Im playing an Epiphone E-339 I picked up for 200 bucks fully expecting to swap pickups/tuners. I gave it 6 months and it's perfect. Action is amazing, tuners stay in tune perfectly and it sounds exactly like a semi-hollow with humbuckers
should. I'm thrilled to death with it.