Josh Scott is back in the saddle after a three-week hiatus, and he's bringing with him something that feels less like a tutorial and more like a manifesto. In this episode of Short Circuit, he tackles questions from his audience while simultaneously defending his teaching style against recent criticism. What makes this installment notable isn't just its Q&A format — it's Scott's unapologetic embrace of feel over formalism, arguing that thousands of hours of hands-on experimentation matter more than textbook knowledge.
The Philosophy of Feel
Scott opens with genuine enthusiasm about what he's been doing: "I've been going through hundreds of various vintage transistors I've been experimenting I've been pulling out like Nos dodes and playing around with stuff uh that I've never experimented with just because I want the final Electra episode to uh, you know I'm going to design this Electra." This is his core argument — that real knowledge comes from messy, hands-on exploration rather than studying manuals. He frames his teaching method as something deeper: "I'm being sneaky and I'm just teaching you how to use transistors I'm teaching you how they work and I'm going past that and I'm teaching you to D sort them in various ways."
The episode takes a notable turn when Scott addresses criticism he's received about pot taper — specifically, that his explanations have been too technical. His response is revealing: "I at this point 15 years in you know when I look down or when I hold something like breadboards like this I have spent thousands of hours on breadboards I know a lot I have a lot of experience I've learned from people who are true Engineers." He then pivots to what matters: "a lot of what I do is feel and I think that's an advantage and I don't want to lose that."
This is where Scott's argument gains its force. He's not dismissing engineering — he's defending a different kind of knowledge, one acquired through trial and error rather than formal training. The story about his collaborator Cliff is particularly telling: "we would get in these like arguments now these you know you can imagine me arguing it's pretty chill but it would be like I would say Hey try this do do this like put it here do this and he would be like that that will not work that's going to sound horrible and um, he would try it he'd come back and he go you know that sounds really good how'd you know to do that and I'd say I just played with stuff for thousands of hours and I stumbled into doing it."
The Question of Novelty
One viewer asks whether there's still a frontier of sound left — whether new effects can be created or if everything is just rehashing existing circuits. Scott's answer is surprisingly nuanced: "the honest question is I think it's always been like this I think in every industry you can always ask is there anything left and there is always something left somehow."
He then offers concrete advice for how innovation actually happens: "if you want to do something crazy the guitar pedal builder needs to go study electric automobiles or something or study some other thing and pull that Tech over into our Tech that's how to do it." This is perhaps his most substantive contribution — the idea that novel sounds come from borrowing across disciplines rather than staying inside the bubble of guitar effects.
Scott acknowledges that "being original in a lot of cases is overrated" — which feels like both honesty and liberation. He follows this with: "that's what most people want that's another part of the struggle" — recognizing that the market rewards familiar circuits, but leaving room for those who want to push boundaries.
The Component Debate
A recurring question involves whether expensive components actually make a difference. Scott's answer is direct: "it just doesn't matter so um, I think it's important just to to know that and realize it you can design um, you can design whatever you want to design on these you know take your breadboard bu the cheapest Parts possible at the end of the day a resistor is a resistor a transistor is a transistor a capacitor is a capacitor."
This position — that components mostly don't matter in perceptible ways — is controversial among purists. But Scott defends it confidently: "can we split hairs and hear magical things or or whatever sure and then we also can from an engineering standpoint know that some things have different parameters you know... ultimately it makes no sense to buy crazy expensive Parts thinking your circuit's going to be better that's my opinion and I I stand by it I've gotten some hate for that over the years."
The Beginner Question
One viewer asks how much circuit knowledge is truly necessary to start building. Scott's response is both practical and passionate: "you can you can build pedals and not know how they work for sure there's a lot of pedal companies there's a lot of people doing it back in my early days I built I built and sold certain circuits I didn't understand them completely or even at all I would say there was certain things I used to make I was following instructions and I was good at it."
But then he pivots to something more defiant: "but that gets old pretty quickly if you're creative if you have a creative brain you want to know why I'm a person that wants to know why so that that got old." His closing on this topic is a mic drop: "knowing knowing nothing is not an excuse to not make stuff this is a rant I would go on for hours people that get fixated on needing to know some to do something they're really missing out on life some of the greatest discoveries in the history of the world and some of the greatest moments I've ever had... simply I want to do this go do it stop making excuses."
Some of the greatest discoveries in history came from people who didn't wait until they knew enough — they just started.
Bottom Line
Scott's strongest argument here is his defense of experiential knowledge over formal expertise. His claim that "a lot of what I do is feel" isn't anti-engineering — it's a legitimate alternative pathway into circuit design, one built on trial and error rather than textbook learning. His advice to study outside the guitar pedal bubble — like electric automobiles or other technologies — is genuinely useful for anyone seeking novel sounds.
His vulnerability? He acknowledges that most people actually want familiar circuits like Telecasters and Tube Screamers, which undermines his push toward innovation. That tension — between what audiences want and what's actually new — sits unresolved, and it's the most interesting part of this episode.