Analog Music Company SHSL Mk3

The Analog Music Company SHSL Mk3, an acronym for So High So Low, is a preamp pedal with filters. It combines two circuit ideas: the pleasantly colored preamp section of the Moogerfooger pedals by Moog, and the high-pass/low-pass filters found on the vintage Korg MS-20 synthesizer. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio described it as a preamp pedal inspired by two other devices¹. It belongs to the broader family of filter pedals and preamp pedals.

What it does

The pedal puts a high pass filter and a low pass filter in series, each with its own cutoff and resonance controls¹². Running the two filters in series means a player can narrow the guitar's signal to a band of frequencies from both ends, sweeping out lows with the high pass and highs with the low pass. The resonance controls are controllable and interactive: De Gregorio notes the resonance is prone to self-oscillation after the 12 o'clock position, which players can use for synth-like effects¹.

The preamp side has a Preamp/Saturation knob that adds slight distortion while darkening the tone of the signal. Used with the Master knob, it can push an amp into the edge of breakup, which places the pedal in territory shared with overdrive pedals and boost pedals¹.

For players who want to automate the filters, the SHSL has two CV ins and two expression ins, one for each filter, so a expression pedal or a CV source can sweep either cutoff in real time¹.

Background and reception

The Mk3 follows an earlier version of the same idea: Pedal of the Day notes it came after The Evil Pumpkin, an earlier release from Analog Music Company a few years before². The site's reviewer summed up the pedal this way:

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