JHS PG-14

The JHS PG-14 is JHS Pedals' Paul Gilbert signature distortion pedal, released at NAMM in January 2020 and priced at $199¹². At its heart is a FET-based distortion engine that JHS says emulates the touch, feel and response of a pushed tube amplifier, with an active mid-frequency preamp sitting in front of the FET circuitry¹. The maker's pitch is that it gives a player the dynamics and tone of a loud, stadium-level amplifier at low or moderate volume, which is why JHS founder Josh Scott called it "the ultimate dirt channel box for a clean amp"³.

JHS itself describes the pedal's territory loosely: "Technically, you could call it an overdrive/distortion/fuzz"². Press coverage has called it everything from a distortion pedal to a tube-like FET overdrive, which gives a sense of how wide its range runs³⁴.

A FET distortion for a clean amp

The design idea is straightforward: instead of relying on your amp's dirt channel, the PG-14 puts a simulated cranked tube amp in a box in front of a clean amp. JHS describes the core as "a FET based distortion engine that emulates the touch, feel, and the response of a pushed tube amplifier," with the active mid-frequency preamp placed ahead of that engine¹. In the Sweetwater demo video, the pedal was run through a 50 watt Marshall⁶.

The mid section is a big part of the character. MusicRadar quoted Josh Scott explaining that "the mid section of this pedal is very clean. It simply pushes really hard into that simulated tube FET thing," meaning the mid control drives the FET stage harder and distorts the midrange as you turn it up³. Paul Gilbert added his own take in the same piece: "And it's got knobs so you can adjust where the mid is"³.

GuitarPlayer's reviewer, Art Thompson, highlighted "how shapeable the FET-based preamp circuit is in response to EQ and gain settings"⁷, and Pedal of the Day called the result "a warm, hard-hitting effect that sounds great from the instant you plug it in"⁸.

The controls

The PG-14 carries five knobs. Three are conventional, and two come from the Haunting Mids circuit borrowed for the mid section².

The Drive knob deserves a note for players who like tube-style touch response. In JHS's demo video, Josh Scott explains that the FETs in the drive section sag as they are pushed, the way a tube amp's output stage does when cranked⁴. He also describes the pedal's cleanup with the guitar's volume knob as "probably the best in the JHS line next to the Crayon"⁴.

The pedal's look matches its story: a light-blue housing with a Japanese-tennis-shoe graphic and pink knobs, the pink being a request from Gilbert himself⁷⁹.

Power: 9V, 36mA

The PG-14 requires a standard 9V DC negative power supply through a 2.1mm center negative jack, and there is no battery operation option¹⁵. The maker lists its current draw as 36mA¹, while Guitar World's review lists 67mA⁵. Either way, the draw is low enough for any ordinary isolated pedalboard supply.

Designed with Paul Gilbert

The PG-14 is a Paul Gilbert artist signature model, designed to his specifications in collaboration with JHS founder Josh Scott¹³. MusicRadar called it "the meeting of minds between Gilbert and JHS honcho Josh Scott"¹⁰.

The name comes from Gilbert's size 14 shoe, confirmed by Gilbert and Scott in the Sweetwater demo⁶. The pedal was nearly called the Dragon Suit, but that name was unavailable due to a trademark⁶.

The circuit's origin is unusual. JHS says the specific design came about because of Paul Gilbert's tinnitus and hearing loss at certain frequencies, and the company ended up building the PG-14 from the circuitry of two existing JHS pedals: the Super Bolt, a FET simulation of a tube amp, and the Haunting Mids, whose mid circuit pushes the front of the PG-14². Gilbert's own verdict on the result: "it has more variety of how it sounds and how it feels than any distortion pedal I've ever played through"¹¹.

What reviewers said

Published coverage was positive across the board:

• Guitar World's reviewer found the pedal "responds well to your picking dynamics"⁵.
• MusicRadar wrote that "the appeal is potentially huge here for a wide range of amps and styles with a huge sweep of tonal possibilities"³, and later that its "breadth and versatility with wide mid sweep could prove to be a mainstay on many 'boards"¹⁰.
• GuitarPlayer's Art Thompson praised how shapeable the FET-based preamp circuit is in response to EQ and gain settings⁷.
• Pedal of the Day called it "a unique distortion and overdrive pedal that adds the ultimate dirt channel to your amplifier"⁸.
• Premier Guitar listed the street price at $199¹².

In JHS's own demo video, Josh Scott walks through the controls with Paul Gilbert joining by phone, covering the Drive sag, the Mids and Sweep interaction, and the pedal's cleanup with the guitar volume knob⁴.

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The Sweetwater demo, with Gilbert and Scott playing the pedal through a 50 watt Marshall and telling the story of the name, is also worth a watch⁶.

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Videos

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Questions