My relationship with most of my siblings isn't very good, and I'm super glad to see Nick and Belle get along so well. It always warms my heart when I see siblings interacting like you guys do.
In a nerdy way this was fun for me. I worked at Harman (DOD, Digitech, etc.) for a long time. It is fun to see how all y'all do this. It reminds me of the early days, before we automated almost everything. By the end of my time there, 2002, all of our boards were populated in house by automation. Our "pot and wire" department kept doing less and less hand wiring as the products evolved. And ultimately much was outsourced. But, way back when, we did things more like you all do. It wasn't as efficient, but it was arguably more fun. For years we prided ourselves on our sound test department, where each pedal would be played one at a time with a real guitar by a real guitarist, but that mostly went away and was replaced by automated testers. Josh has spent time documenting our company, but mostly from the standpoint of David, John and Tom Cram. But we, like you guys have a fun history of moving from David's garage to "Riley Lane, (fact: Tom Cram's current shop is a couple of blocks away from the original Reily Lane building.) then to Vine Street, and ultimately to Sandy Parkway (which was a huge two story facility). Another fun fact that is cringy in retrospect; we used to do board stuff and solder at Riley and then truck those the few block to Vine Street for pot and wire, sound test and shipping. It was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, It was sad to see DOD go away. Although I never did any of the actual assembly, it was really fun to watch those "artists" work their magic.
Thanks for the products you built! I was a loyal DOD customer. Supra Distortion was first pedal I bought in 1990. Still have it along with Classic Fuzz, American Metal and Flanger as well as EQ rack unit for my home recording setup. The Classic Fuzz into a Vox AC15 is magic!!
Nick, Belle and all, I didn’t get to comment during the livestream, but I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate JHS pedals and all you do. You guys rock!
Super good episode. Build all my own pedals for fun and function. Tried several times to make my own reliable delay but after 3 failures said screw it. Finally got a JHS Series 3 Delay. So happy. It's OK now.
This was great. I'm here for the BTS/process videos like this. It's interesting to see how production on a large scale works, and how it evolved over the years, with firsthand commentary from people who do it. Also learning about the tools like the knob wrench and the iron settings.
This video should be shown to all Harvard MBA students to see a real-world discussion of what "economies of scale" actually looks like. Seeing how the pedal assembly process changes as you are able to scale up is fascinating. Also, I really like my 3 Series Flanger; it's my fifth JHS pedal.
As an engineer by day and a guitar pedal nerd by night, this video was a great way to unwind the day while hanging out with my friends at JHS. Thanks guys!
Being a guitarist that works in electronics assembly, I totally loved this one and wish it was two or three times as long. I’m sure you guys understand that you are getting a lot of people into pedal building with this show.. keep the process videos coming! Let’s get a parts procurement episode 😁
This was a great episode. Always great to see the process behind such a great product. From starting out in a basement making 16 pedals a week to 1600 pedals a week is amazing, with the same dedication to quality and always improving. The operation has grown over the years but they never forget where they came from, they even know the names of the repair techs.
Can we just take a brief moment and tip our cap to the 7th player award winner/ unsung hero of the JHS team/ the comedic relief of the show…… (drum roll) 🥁 🪘 NICK!! Thank you for being you sir!
i am an electronics assembler at a pcb mftr in san luis obispo (big up, ernie ball). love the show and i listen and solder allday. thanks for the nuts and bolts view! reflow, my friends. reflow. keep yr tips tinned, taylortronic
Belle talking about the Mini Foot, I have an early one from 10/4/11 signed “MFF” DB11. There is a crazy amount of yellow wire spaghetti’ed on the inside. 3M tape on the back of the board and a silly amount of hot glue near and around the LED. Hand stamped. I love it. It sounds great!!!
Love this one for so many reasons. Super funny and super interesting. Really respect the work you all put in through the years. Bell please do more JHS show! (Ps - Just got a Panther Cub and appreciate your sacrifice!)
Love seeing and hearing the nuts and bolts of what JHS does with so much love. Would love a open tour of the building inside and out where everything is in relation to the who;e story Thanks for a great presentation
Original concepts and ideas are usually from the ground up starting small with big dreams and even bigger creative outcomes! You guys are thee best pedal makers on the planet and bring a huge human element to your art thanks man for your sound!!! 😜🤟
Nick and Belle together made the episode- you can imagine them as teenagers. A great look inside what it takes to make the pedals we love. Thank you for posting this! I actually ordered the knob alignment tool!
Thanks guys great informative show and content and is great to see how the business has evolved, grown and how the assembly and production has changed over the years to save you time, money and improve your range from day one till now. Nice one keep up the great work.
Even my neighbors love the JHS little black amp box sitting upon my Marshall. So much so that they chipped in and bought one for my other Marshall. Just so I can keep one on each amp at all times. How neighborly is that ! And the local police love it too !
I would so love to see more of this kind of thing. So into this information. Would love to see the actual assembly of a single pedal start to finish, nice and close up to clearly see each step.
What a delight. The beating heart of this company is a joy to behold. Thanks for sharing, team. Maybe the boss could turn up and say hi sometime instead of whiling away his days driving a solid gold Klone shaped car all the time, but hey, you guys can't change that can you. 😘
Great episode! Too bad I didn’t watch it live because I knew the Packrat answer. I really enjoy the normal JHS shows, but the behind the scenes ones I find especially fun. Maybe you can do one on circuit design or a companion to this one where you actually follow a pedal through every stage in the actual workshop. Another fun one could be about secret messages on the circuit board. I opened up my Packrat (just the back cover) and see the little messages printed on the board. But again - very interesting show today.
Strange. I have only the AT, but JHS manages to give these videos a family feel. Must be the nice people. Anyhow, I really enjoyed this one. Cheers from Germany
This episode made me want to work at JHS. And only partly so I could school Josh at break basketball (I can't actually school anyone anymore but a guy can dream)
I liked working in manufacturing, it was always fun. It's like they could be 50 yo pillars of the community outside the place, but once immersed in a manufacturing environment, they invariably revert to the antics of 8th grade shop class.
This was one of my fave episodes. Really interesting, great energy and fun. The addition of Belle was perfect. Strangely, Belle reminds me more of Joshua (not Josh) than Nick!
Belle and I (Joshua) are basically besties. We have similar interests and vibes. We both like dirt, Kathleen Edwards, making fun of Josh, Molchat Dolma, magic, etc.
Man, I kinda wish I woulda watched this live! I'm currently taking a design class and I have so many questions! Speaking of, I think I emailed ya a week or two ago about a project but, whatever, man. You guys is bizzy!