Josh Stippich fell into the business of custom audio manufacturing by accident in 1999. Originally, he owned a recording studio, but became increasingly dissatisfied by the inadequacies of the equipment.
He found a cheap pre-amp from the Internet and bought it, stripped it down, then put it back together at home, making a few explosions in the kitchen along the way. Since then, fine-tuning custom amps by ear has been a passion for Stippich.
He is a self-taught metal worker, who received a lot of guidance as well as tools from his step-father, a sculptor, to perfect the streamlined art deco design of all his amps and pre-amps.
Celebration of the Hand was started by The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change and Craft Lake City in the Summer of 2012 as a way to highlight and showcase the work of local artisans participating in the Craft Lake City DIY Festival. The Celebration of the Hand pieces are installed into steel Plakats, which are adjacent to the sidewalks on the North and South sides of Broadway (300 South) between 200 West and 200 East.
The exhibit is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is free to the public.
This project is supported in part by the Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.