The Art of Excitement: How Josh Scott Built JHS Pedals through Authenticity and Community

Joshua Scott is the creator and president of JHS Pedals. His YouTube series, The JHS Show, has garnered millions of views from audiences spanning the globe. Josh is passionate about the history and stories surrounding guitar technology and teaches in collaboration with museums, companies, and universities. Often considered the historical authority on guitar's sonic evolution from the sixties to the present day, Josh contributes his knowledge to historical archive preservations, auction appraisals, documentaries, and more.

This week, Barrett talks with Josh about his journey from experimenting on YouTube to building a thriving community around guitar pedals and music. Josh shares his deep passion for music history, and how JHS Pedals has grown through authenticity, technology, and community engagement, despite facing rejection and online criticism along the way. They also discuss the importance of authenticity in marketing, the power of history, and the challenge of balancing creativity with business demands.

In this episode:

[00:00] - Intro
[07:08] - Josh's journey with Ross Pedals
[14:30] - Why excitement is a crucial part of the creative process
[26:32] - Balancing excitement and execution
[39:32] - The role of the team in decision-making
[42:35] - Challenges in communication and collaboration
[50:08] - The importance of story in creativity
[01:05:10] - What makes a brand
[01:16:19] - Staying authentic amidst rejection
[01:21:04] - The shift to YouTube
[01:30:50] - How Josh keeps his show interesting
[01:33:38] - Embracing criticism and personal growth
[01:41:20] - Josh's beautiful future
[01:45:36] - Who Josh is becoming

Key Takeaways

The hardest part about maintaining authenticity in a creative business is coming home to who you really are and accepting your own weirdness.
Effective brand building goes beyond just products; it’s about creating a sense of belonging and community (even when it means welcoming competitors as collaborators)
Criticism and negativity are inevitable, but personal growth involves remaining true to yourself and letting go of external validation.
Historical narratives and artifacts are not only culturally meaningful, they can greatly enrich creative work.

Quotes

“Things can just die and disappear. But, there's such value in these stories. And a guy like Bud [Ross], you know, nobody's walking around right now really talking about Bud, but his legacy is really important. So, I get to help keep that alive.” ~ Josh Scott

“I think the brand element gets undersold in certain circles. But it's so important because what you need as a business is a community, you need people that relate, you need people that are you.” ~ Josh Scott

“I think [community] is a big topic that gets ignored. And some of that for me is how passionate I am about community, local community, and the arts influence on that, and giving people a chance, and exposing people to what they can't naturally find in their communities.” ~ Josh Scott

“One of my super hacks as a pedal designer is I own 6000 vintage pedals. I've interviewed the inventors. I know every bankruptcy story. I know a lot of information. There's a weird hack there that I wasn't intending on. I have a lot of knowledge about every mistake everyone made. So I've avoided a lot of wonderful mistakes.” ~ Josh Scott

Links