Joshua Ray Gooch

Born in Seattle, Washington, Josha Ray Gooch relocated to San Diego with his family at the age of seven. Following in the footsteps of his father, who always kept guitars around the house and composed music, Josh began playing when he was thirteen years old and quickly became addicted to the guitar, often times playing for six to seven hours per day. He considers playing the guitar a passion, not a job. Within three years, Josh recorded his first major work for legendary producer of The Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Sandlin on the Highly Kind album, Don't Wake Albert.In 2009 Josh beat out over 4000 guitar players to reach the national final of Guitar Center's King Of The Blues. Josh recently toured Japan with Japanese superstar Koshi Inaba. Koshi is the singer for B'z, one of the best selling Japanese bands in history. Having sold over 100 million records they were the first and only asian band to be inducted in Hollywood's Rockwalk..Josh recently recorded with Grammy winning producer Ross Hogarth, Tony "The Fretless Monster" Franklin who has worked with Jimmy Page,Paul Rodgers and lots of other prominent artists.

Josha Ray Gooch became a finalist in the King of the Blues competition organized by the Guitar Center in 2009. His relationship with Yamaha began thereafter through an introduction by Joe Bonamassa, at which time the LJX26CP acoustic-electric guitar and SG1802GT electric guitar were loaned to him when he visited Yamaha Artist Services, Hollywood, which is Yamaha's artist relations base in North Hollywood. Josh was invited to participate in the solo tour of B'z vocalist Koshi Inaba in 2010, and he and his instruments were backed by Yamaha Artist Services Tokyo, which is Yamaha's artist relations base in Tokyo. Josh also visited Yamaha Artist Services Tokyo three times during his stay in Japan and recorded a promotional video of the SRT (Studio Response Technology) System for acoustic-electric guitars during one of these visits. The recorded video has been introduced via the Yamaha Artist Services Tokyo blog and frequently via other channels. Since then, Yamaha has also loaned Josh SG1820, NTX900 and SA2200 guitars. Seeing him perform live, Yamaha continues to provide ongoing support in the belief that Josha Ray Gooch, with his high level of talent as a guitarist, will become an artist representing Yamaha guitars in the future.