I met Josh over 30 years ago, and sometimes in life, you just get lucky. He possesses a rare combination of skills—each executed at an elite level—but what sets him apart is that he lives for this. While the rest of us are chasing tone in our dreams, Josh is awake, thinking, refining, and creating.

Josh is a master of design. Whether it’s crafting custom guitar wiring to match one of my wild ideas or sourcing the perfect components for a microphone to capture the exact aural vibe I want—something that’s endlessly subjective and nearly impossible to articulate—he takes pride in diving headfirst down every rabbit hole I throw at him.

My journey with Josh started with him Frankensteining all of my guitars. I gravitate toward things that are unique, one-of-a-kind, and Josh has a gift for understanding that vision and bringing it to life. From custom amplifiers to effects pedals to completely reimagining a guitar to suit my idiosyncratic needs, he somehow makes it all happen.

Did I mention he’s built me multiple amps from scratch? And that every time I show him a $5000 boutique amp I like better, he takes the critique as a personal challenge rather than an insult? That’s just who he is. He never stops pushing, always determined to wow his most jaded friend—the guy who has the audacity to go by The Neurotic Guitarist (not my idea, by the way).

Beyond all of this, Josh is simply an exceptional human. He’s wickedly knowledgeable, hilarious, empathetic, and driven by an ego that thrives entirely on proving you wrong—for your benefit. My entire studio is filled with his genius, from attenuators to guitars to amplifiers to custom-made cables. The thing is, Josh has nothing left to prove. He did that a long time ago. But he just can’t stop.

And that’s why he’s the best.

I’ve got one of his 18 watters. Great sounding & well built stuff.

I was looking for a small, light weight head that I could take to most clubs with a boost pedal and a Strat. At first I thought it was too loud (Not a bedroom amp that’s for sure). But it was so responsive to touch and to your guitar volume. After a couple shows and rehearsals I am starting to think it may be the perfect club amp. It does what it should, and guitar’s volume becomes your best friend. I’m very happy with my JMPGuitars amp, you will be too. Thank you for a great amp. Just what I was looking for!

Well I bought myself a new axe last year. Not being a great guitarist I wasn’t gonna spend big $, but my old strat squire was holding me back. I bought a new mim strat from G______ Center on sale knowing it was a solid guitar with lots of low end components. I also knew it wasn’t set up. I wanted someone who really knew how to set it up and gave JMP Guitars a call. The next day I was working directly with a pro. I explained that rather spending the $ for an American Strat. I bought a MIM so I could upgrade it with the features that would really improve the sound and playability, not just the stuff Fender uses to double or triple the price.

I got my strat back with upgrades I wouldn’t get from Fender for any price. The shielding surrounding the new electronics is a work of art. With the volume maxed on the guitar & amp, there is absolutely no noise – until a chord is played. The 3 Lace Deathbuckers send out a tone that will wake Jerry Garcia. Even though Slash I am not, I can recognize quality when I hear it and most any pro would enjoy playing this at any venue.

After a while of playing my custom Strat I decided that occasionally I wanted reverb or tremolo or something. My amp didn’t have it so I went back to JMP for some help, knowing there are 10,000 pedals to choose from. We tried a couple basic ones but I remembered a custom pedal from JMP called the JoshuWah – Wah pedal. After a demo using all eight possible modes, I took it home. It wasn’t until I tried it by myself that I realized what I had. The thing’s a tiger on meth – I couldn’t control it. I wasn’t sure I’d made a good choice, but the next day I hooked it up again, played with the mode switches, took a deep breath and keyed up George Clinton’s Maggot Brain. When I finally came down from the trip, I realized that what I had was an incredible emotive thoroughbred tone twister. STRICTLY for pros only! Its use may cause tachycardia and respiratory distress. Play at your own risk – of pleasure.
Thanks JMP

Worcester has a little known musical secret. It’s not a hot new band, or an amazing live venue ~ it’s not a world class recording studio or vintage record store (although we have all those, too). In fact, it’s so unique that it is in a category all by itself. So what is this secret? JMP Guitars.

Worcester native Josh Peromsik has been customizing and building his own guitars since 1994. He runs JMP Guitars, a company based around customizing, developing, and building guitars, and is quite simply a guitar fanatic. Through JMP he can build you a guitar tailor-made for your own personal style and perfect for the kind of music you play. Or he will modify a guitar you already have so you can get the most out of your instrument. His attention to detail and love for the instrument is astonishing and evident in every single guitar he’s worked on over the years.

Peromsik learned the craft when he was a teenager working as a guitar tech. He started putting guitars together with whatever he’d find lying around the shop. “I worked at a music store, and had access to all the junk, and I could literally slap things together,” he said. The hobby quickly turned into a lot more, and JMP Guitars was born.

The entire company and its philosophy are based on Peromsik’s own desire to bring the world better guitars. “Basically a dissatisfaction with guitars is what inspired everything,” he explained. To Peromsik, tone is paramount. “When you have a guitar that has real tone it can actually improve a guitarist’s playing,” he said. “If you have one guitar that just has the variation in tone that you need, and the sound that you want, then that is all you need,” he added.

Making a guitar sound amazing is fine, but JMP Guitars doesn’t stop there. They want the guitar to look just as amazing as it sounds. Peromsik works closely with local artists (see this month’s interview with artist Michael McMenemy in the Culture section) to create an absolute work of art out of every guitar he makes. JMP guitars have custom paint jobs, dragon inlays, and even the occasional portrait. Anything a customer wants, he or she can get. This approach, combining technical excellence with true artistic sensibilities, is just another feature that sets JMP apart from everyone else.

When it comes to shielding, wiring, intonation, capacitors, and other technical jargon that the average guitarist may know very little about, have no fear ~ Peromsik knows it all. Strip apart a guitar and watch this wizard work. His ultimate goal is to maximize the instrument by bringing forth the potential of every guitar’s ability. In other words, he makes every guitar he touches perfect. Having a guitar customized by JMP is like taking a totally average car and turning it into a Rolls Royce inside.

If you want to turn your guitar into an absolute masterpiece, have JMP Guitars modify it for you. Or, if you’re looking for something totally new, maybe a guitar that with the flip of a switch can sound like 10 different guitars, have JMP build you a custom guitar. They’ll make you a instrument that sounds great, looks great, and just simply is great.