Could we talk about the gloriously trailblazing enterprise that is JHS' 2019 catalog? First you've got the JHS (by Milkman) "Loud Is More Good" amp.
Derr, I made a gear / caveman pun.
1) It's white (duh, like God's beard).
2) It's got a terrible name.
3) It's double the cost of what you'd pay for a killer used amp. At $2,600, it could even be 5x what you might find in the trade pages.
4) Instead of cloning a market-tested design, or I dunno...*cough cough* designing something of their own with their small army of employees, they contracted someone else to make them their amp. It's such a vanity release.
Then you've got the ultra-exclusive, factory-to-table sonic anthology of pedals you just can't get anywhere else. It's 2019, people. You can't find a goddam Tonebender anywhere. A $400 treble booster, a $400 Fuzz Face....no one's ever done this before. The man's a genius, people. Call the MacArthur Foundation and back up the Brinks truck. This man gets all the monies.
I'm not a huge Lovetone fan. I thought the founder, Vlad, was a fairly shitty businessman, and I've posted about their customer service shortcomings multiple times. That being said, I hate to see a new generation of kids introduced to Lovetone through JHS---the company so fucking unoriginal that they couldn't even create their own name. John Hornby Skewes says "hello", Josh Heath Scott.
https://www.jhs.co.uk
Some people might be asking, "Why now? Isn't the entire pedal industry an ecosystem of slightly-modified retreads?" Yes & no. For every 10-20 boring lines, there's a company doing something at least somewhat pleasing (a filtered reverb, a synth-inspired arpeggiator, ramping delay). It's not a new genre of effects I'm asking for, but at least give us some mildly refreshing sounds. Every time JHS releases something, I see these goofballs praising JHS and it makes me ill. (hence the rant) What I cannot forgive about JHS (besides their support of genocidal cults) is how audaciously sterile they are. They encapsulate the worst aspects of over-inflated mediocrity. In a world of broken-hearted refugees and fiery, too-brilliant-to-succeed eccentrics, you've also got the shit----no style, no innovation, no excitement----just year-after-year of institutional
bleh that manages to rise to obscenely disproportionate levels of financial success.
Buying JHS is like paying $14.99 for a carton of sugar-free vanilla ice cream. You could buy the Belgian chocolate gelato for $5.99, but why would you want to experience the agony of flavor? JHS is so superlatively milquetoast and unimaginative it leaves me feeling spiritually violated. JHS is so sterile, that their blandness actually transcends into decadence. I didn't realize that was possible before, but it bears repeating. They're so stiflingly opposed to innovation, that they're actually hedonistically bland.
I'll bet you a Metal Zone you can't guess.
I noticed him yesterday from that Wampler thread.
