PSYCHEDELIC VOICE

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Video 1

Assassin Series No. 003
Psychedelic Voice

Every wah has a target.

Riffs guaranteed. Inspiration expected.

This is not a neutral, all-purpose wah. It is a riff maker, lick maker, phrasing tool, and idea generator, built around a very different personality from the sharper, more surgical Razor Voice:

vintage • rounded • vocal • chewy • warm-bodied • broad-sweeping • psychedelic • expressive • smooth upper-mid bite

The right pedal does not just change your tone. It changes what you play.

Sonic Character & Recommended Pairing

Each pedal is evaluated and tuned around the personality of its particular circuit, components, and enclosure. Some end up darker, smoother, funkier, more psychedelic, more aggressive, or more traditional.

This one developed around fluidity, warmth, vowel movement, and an unusually broad usable sweep.

Its defining characteristic is not extreme aggression or razor-sharp articulation. It is the way the resonance seems to open gradually through a long series of vocal positions, giving the treadle a smooth, almost elastic quality.

Rather than feeling like a simple transition from dark heel to bright toe, the sweep contains several distinct shades in between.

The lower positions sound deep and rounded. The center becomes thick and chewy. The upper-middle opens into a pronounced vocal "wah" before the toe reaches a smooth, projecting bite.

The result is a wah that feels especially natural for slower treadle movement, expressive lead playing, sustained notes, bends, feedback manipulation, and psychedelic phrasing.

Sound Character

• Warm vintage voicing

• Broad, fluid sweep

• Thick vocal midrange

• Chewy lower-middle response

• Deep rounded heel

• Smooth upper-mid projection

• Strong vowel movement

• Gradual sweep transition

• Organic rather than clinical

• Expressive under slower treadle movement

• Thick without becoming muddy

• Bright without becoming piercing

• Strong fixed-wah positions

• Excellent sustained-note response

• Particularly expressive with bends and vibrato

• Psychedelic, old-school character

Defining sweep:
Deep rounded "OOH" heel → chewy "WOH" lower-mid → open vocal "WAH" center → smooth projecting upper-mid toe

The Sweep

Heel-down has a deep, rounded quality with substantially more body than a thin or heavily muted heel position.

The sound is dark, but not dead.

There is a hollow, woody "OOH" character that retains enough note shape to remain useful rather than simply disappearing into low-frequency murk.

As the treadle begins moving forward, the wah enters one of its strongest regions.

The lower-middle develops a thick, almost elastic "WOH" quality. The resonance becomes more obvious, but the transition remains gradual and rounded.

This is where the pedal begins to show its distinctly vintage personality.

Instead of jumping abruptly into a nasal midrange peak, the sound seems to open through the vowel.

The middle of the sweep is especially vocal.

The resonance becomes more pronounced and the pedal begins producing a fuller "WAH" character, but there is still substantial body beneath it. The sound remains thick and organic rather than thin, honky, or excessively sharp.

Toward the upper-middle, the wah develops stronger projection and bite.

The voice becomes more forward and expressive, making it especially effective for sustained notes, vibrato, harmonics, and bends.

At full toe, the pedal has enough upper-mid focus to cut through a mix without turning into a brittle ice-pick frequency.

The toe remains smooth, thick, and substantial.

The overall impression is a sweep that feels less like moving between two extremes and more like traveling through several usable vocal positions.

Psychedelic Vocal Sweep

This is arguably the pedal's strongest specialty.

Some wahs feel most effective when rocked rapidly between heel and toe.

This one rewards a different approach.

The broad sweep allows the player to move slowly through the treadle and uncover a long series of intermediate resonant positions.

Small changes in foot position can shift the vowel character from:

OOH → WOH → WAH → AH

That makes the pedal particularly effective for sustained notes and slower lead phrasing.

A single held note can be reshaped continuously as the treadle moves. A bend can begin dark and rounded, open through the center, and finish with a projecting upper-mid voice. Vibrato can be combined with small foot movements to make the resonance seem to breathe around the note.

The result can feel almost voice-like.

This makes the wah especially effective for:

• Psychedelic lead guitar

• Long sustained notes

• Slow treadle sweeps

• Expressive bends

• Wide vibrato

• Feedback manipulation

• Fixed-wah resonant tones

• Harmonic emphasis

• Vintage hard-rock phrasing

• Improvisational lead playing

• Ambient or experimental guitar textures

The pedal is particularly good at encouraging the player to linger inside the sweep rather than simply using the two extremes.

Vocal Sweep & Treadle Response

The treadle response is broad and fluid.

Rather than producing only a handful of obvious sweet spots, this wah contains a large usable middle range where subtle foot movements noticeably alter the tone.

That makes the treadle useful as both a rhythmic and melodic control.

It can be used to:

• Hold individual vowel positions

• Slowly open sustained notes

• Shape bends through several resonant stages

• Add movement to vibrato

• Shift the apparent character of a lead phrase

• Emphasize harmonics

• Manipulate feedback

• Create fixed-wah tones

• Add slow psychedelic filter movement

• Accentuate individual notes

• Introduce subtle rhythmic motion

The sweep feels organic rather than abrupt.

Fast movements are still useful, but the real strength of this voicing appears when the treadle is allowed to travel through its middle range.

That is where the pedal begins to feel less like a conventional effect and more like an extension of the player's phrasing.

Recommended Guitar & Pickup Pairing

This wah should pair especially well with guitars that provide enough harmonic content and midrange body for the broad sweep to manipulate.

Recommended pairings include:

• Medium-output humbuckers

• Hot vintage-style humbuckers

• Alnico II humbuckers

• Alnico V humbuckers

• P-90s

• PAF-style pickups

• HH guitars

• HSS guitars

• Warm single-coil setups

• Neck humbuckers

• Bridge humbuckers with substantial midrange

• Vintage-output pickups used into a driven amplifier

Humbuckers are likely to emphasize the pedal's thick, chewy middle range, especially with gain.

P-90s should also be particularly interesting because their broad harmonic content and pronounced midrange can interact well with the wah's vocal sweep.

Lower-output single coils can still work effectively, especially for cleaner psychedelic playing, vintage rock, rhythm textures, and slow treadle movement.

However, players looking for a very hard, surgical low-string attack from low-output pickups may find the Razor Voice more naturally suited to that role.

This wah is less about clinical separation and more about body, motion, and vocal character.

Amplifiers & Gain

Particularly strong pairings include:

• Driven tube amplifiers

• British-style amplifiers

• Vintage-style overdrive

• Fuzz-compatible rigs

• Saturated lead channels

• Low-to-medium gain crunch

• Classic hard-rock gain structures

• Psychedelic fuzz textures

• Clean amplifiers with overdrive or fuzz pedals

• Warm, harmonically rich amplifiers

The pedal works especially well when the amplifier provides enough harmonic content for the wah to reshape.

With moderate gain, the midrange becomes thicker and the vowel transitions become more pronounced.

With heavier saturation, the pedal takes on a more vocal, almost singing quality, particularly during sustained notes and bends.

Unlike a wah voiced primarily for extreme articulation, this one benefits from a certain amount of harmonic density.

The resonance has more material to grab onto, which strengthens the sense of movement through the sweep.

Clean tones reveal the broad sweep particularly clearly.

Driven tones reveal the chewiness, vocal body, and psychedelic character.

Playing Style

Especially effective for:

• Psychedelic lead guitar

• Blues-rock

• Classic hard rock

• Vintage rock

• Slow wah sweeps

• Sustained bends

• Wide vibrato

• Long lead notes

• Improvisation

• Feedback manipulation

• Fixed-wah tones

• Harmonic emphasis

• Fuzz leads

• Overdriven lead guitar

• Expressive rhythm accents

• Slow rhythmic wah movement

• Neck-pickup lead work

• Mid-gain soloing

• Ambient guitar textures

• Experimental filter movement

• Doom and stoner-rock textures

• Classic vocal wah phrasing

Its Personality

The defining personality of this wah is fluid vocal expression.

It does not feel built around a single exaggerated resonant peak.

Instead, the entire treadle range contributes to the sound.

The heel has depth.

The lower-middle has chew.

The center speaks.

The upper range projects.

That creates a very different experience underfoot from a wah that is primarily sharp, fast, or aggressive.

dark without disappearing
warm without becoming dull
thick without becoming muddy
vocal without becoming nasal
bright without becoming brittle
smooth without becoming lifeless
wide without feeling disconnected

It is a riff maker, lick maker, phrasing tool, psychedelic filter, lead voice shaper, fixed-wah tone generator, and idea generator.

A slow treadle movement can completely change the emotional direction of a sustained note.

A different mid-sweep position can suggest a different bend.

A fixed resonant point can turn into a new riff tone.

A gradual heel-to-toe movement can reshape an entire phrase.

That is where this wah becomes especially inspiring.

New bends, lead lines, rhythmic ideas, textures, and song ideas have a way of appearing once you start exploring the middle of the sweep instead of simply rocking between the extremes.

Every wah has a target.

This one was built for warmth, broad vocal movement, psychedelic expression, and a smooth, highly usable sweep from heel to toe.

The right pedal does not just change your tone. It changes what you play.

Construction & Modification History
This pedal is individually built from a vintage Thomas Organ wah platform. The original enclosure has been stripped/refinished and repurposed as the foundation for this custom build. The original bottom plate has been retained where applicable.

The internal circuit has been extensively evaluated, modified, and revoiced using a combination of original and replacement components. Component values and circuit configurations have been deliberately altered to create the specific response described above.

This is not being represented as an original, unmodified Thomas Organ wah. It is a custom-modified and refinished pedal built around a vintage Thomas Organ platform.