Corey Y wrote:People don't like JHS because they're a very typical kind of taking famous stock pedals, doing really common mods that are available all over the place online (forums, diy pcb suppliers, etc.), then put a lot of effort into the marketing and branding aspect, plus traded heavily on P&W connections. Then, anytime any of that blew back on the owner, he would just duck, dodge, dive and dodge around every criticism with excuses about how modded circuits aren't clones, but clones aren't illegal anyway and JHS is a company, not him personally, even though he's the owner operator and puts himself out there as the face of the company at every opportunity. It's one of those smell test situations. He never really does anything horrendous, everything is technically legal, not egregiously immoral in any way that's direct and obvious. A lot of what the company is and the owner does rubs people the wrong way, he's aware of it and takes every advantage of every edge those things give him, while excusing every criticism and frequently letting his supporters defend him while "keeping out of the drama" himself.
Anyone can feel free to call me out on any of that. It's just an observation, I don't really have a strong personal opinion about JHS. I find them kind of pedestrian and underwhelming. They just strike me as a brand, more than a builder.
There's more to it than that; a dubious pattern of behavior. Are you familiar with the Hyperion fiasco?
Then there's the v1
Pollenator featuring the Georgia Tech mascot, the v1 Charlie Brown featuring Chuck Schultz's character, VCR with Recoton art, the Pink Panther...and other companies coincidentally releasing pedals of the same names around the same time (crayon, double barrel) All of these little *misunderstandings* seem to align in proper context when remembering we aren't talking about the audio company built by John Hornby Skewes...
