Humans

Humans is a pedal I’ve wanted to make for a while. It started with an idea about two years ago. I think I was checking out one of @oldoguitars early videos on the song ‘Just Like Honey’ by Jesus and Mary Chain. It made me think about those cool vintage Shin-ei fuzz-wah pedals that they would “park” the toe down to give that cutting trebly tone. I got to work on the concept: A modern drive pedal with a wah (resonant bandpass filter) instead of a normal tone control. Humans gives a nod to those old units but is an original and more versatile circuit. The goal was to design something that is more pedalboard friendly and reliable. And with more of a modern overdrive/distortion sound for versatility in different music situations.

But wouldn’t that filter be too intense for ALL the time? I added a BLEND control so you can blend in a little or a lot of the wah filter with the drive signal.

I also added an expression pedal input so you can sweep or park the filter with your foot like a traditional wah pedal if you want.

Aren’t wah pedals just for classic rock players? Trust me, there’s so much more than the Hendrix and Hammett rocking the wah back and forth thing.

Musical context: Here are some ideas I like to use it for and sound references if you’re not sure what this pedal sounds like. Medium gain, fixed higher sweep does the Mick Ronson Ziggy Stardust thing. Turn up the gain and drop your tuning and it does a pretty decent Josh Homme QOTSA thing. Also because of the resonance, which can sound metallic in some settings, it does a good industrial metal, NIN, Killing Joke thing. Plugging in an expression foot pedal, at low gain/clean it does that waca-waca Krautrock thing. Crank the gain and I can play the intro to Little Fury Things and Just Like Heaven by Dinosaur Jr. For shoegaze think of songs like Seagull by Ride. Kevin Shields uses filter sweeping to manipulate feedback and crank those ear piercing high frequencies combined with fuzz pedals.

Bandpass filters are the secret weapon of a lot of guitarists. And with the ability to blend it in, it can be as subtle or intense as you want it!

A Note on Expression Pedals:

• Use an expresion pedal with a 10K potentiometer to match the sweep of the "sweep" knob. 
• Other values might work but the frequencies might not match the intended design
• Most common brands of expression pedals use a 10K pot such as Boss, Roland, Mission, Line 6. For a very cheap option I use the M-audio EX-P at home and it works well.
• If you hear a lot of noise when plugging in an expression pedal, flip that polarity switch underneath and it fixes it.
• NOTE: The filter needs a variable resistance expression pedal. A CV or variable voltage-based controller or signal like from an oscillator won't work correctly.

Specifications:

• Op-amp based drive circuit. Not a clone of anything but think Turbo Rat in high gain setting and a Bluesbreaker/DOD 250 sort of thing in low gain setting.
• Op-amp based resonant bandpass filter sweeps the frequency from 684Hz to 12.7k.
• NOTE: There can be some noise when adjusting the BLEND knob, and some echoey resonance noise when the blend is turned up high, this is normal for a resonant filter
• Silent relay based footswitch (true bypass)
• Uses standard 9V power supply only 
• Draw is less than 50ma

Demos:

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