Electro-Harmonix Soul Food Distortion/Fuzz/Overdrive Pedal

Product Information

When I first got my hands on this pedal, I expected more of a Klon clone, but it’s definitely got its own thing going on. And in a good way. PRS says the pedal adds harmonic midrange richness without cutting your high notes. And, well, they’re spot on. As you’d expect with a Klon-style pedal, it’s designed to be transparent, so it won’t mess with your tone. I’d describe that tone as brittle and boomy. The top-end and mids are nice, but it feels like there isn’t much room to tweak them without them falling apart (that’s the brittle bit). I’m hearing a solid low-end that sits nicely under the notes until I move down to playing on the low-E string. It becomes a little too prominent then (that’s the boomy part). If when you watched the video earlier you enjoyed what you heard, the Soul Food is for you. The styles covered in that video best represent the styles of playing suitable for this type of overdrive. If you enjoy that style of playing then there’s no reason to not get the Soul Food. My answer is: yes, but. Yes, it can do the clean boost thing (something I can’t say for every klone), but I’d always choose something else if I could. For me, it’s the clean boost klone of last resort.

When it comes to single-origin coffee, we rotate between Kristi’s favourite – Yayu Forest – and my favourite – Gajah Mountain. I definitely prefer coffee from Sumatra, but these days I can’t tolerate it all that well.

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To finish, here’s how the BD-2 sounds with the middle position of my Les Paul: Les Paul middle position > Boss BD-2 Now gradually raise the DRIVE knob and get a feel for the level of grit it adds to your tone. Find the sweet spots where you enjoy the tone and what type of playing it suits. This is a very dynamic pedal so the position of the DRIVE knob should really reflect what you are doing. Once you find a DRIVE position you enjoy, adjust the TREBLE knob to find the position you enjoy the most. The Soul Food came out at the end of 2013. JRAD were almost certainly working on the silver Archer pedal by then, after their original involvement in the Klon KTR came to an end ( here’s Bill Finnegan talking about that). We still would have seen the JRAD Archer pedal. And while I don’t believe this level of hype is warranted, Klon style pedals are one of the best overdrives I’ve ever heard. It can be used with low gain to get a volume boost, a tiny bit of breakup, or then with the gain up it can push a tube amp or another drive pedal nicely.

Many of the pedals I’m using today have buffers in them. The Boss pedals have an always-on buffer. I’ve got the buffers switched on in the Soul Food, the Klon KTR and the Tumnus Deluxe at all times. Inside the EHX Soul Food, showing the Buffer / True Bypass switch The silly money that Klon Centaur pedals fetch is just a testament to show how much value the Soul Food gives as nearly all guitarist can afford to get one. Is this pedal for you? Joyo JF-02 Ultimate Overdrive– an OCD clone (read the review for another discussion & comparison on a clone pedal) The amount of available gain is very similar to the Centaur. With the Gain knob maxed out I coaxed rich, harmonic overdrive tones out of single-coils that evoked thoughts of Eric Johnson and vintage Larry Carlton. And unlike many TS-style ODs at high-gain settings, the Soul Food’s low end was defined full of presence. Yayu Forest is a single-origin coffee, with beans from Ethiopia. It’s named after the Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, the most important area in the world for preserving wild coffee plants. Arabica coffee beans that we drink today are all descended from plants found in Yemen. It’s believed that those plants, in turn, originally came from Ethiopia.The fact that it is a transparent overdrive implies that you’re not going to fully change your existing setup just like a less transparent one would. You can add it to the pedalboard, and it will greatly compliment your tone. Ultimately, the Klon itself created the market: it’s unique, amazing at what it does, was impossible to find when it was in production, and utterly unobtainium to the mass market. We’re seeing this repeated with two other legendary pedals: Paul Cochrane’s Timmy and the Analogman King of Tone (KoT for short) – but not at the same scale. Overall it’s incredibly easy to use and it wouldn’t take much adjusting in EQ on your amp or other pedals to fit the Soul Food into your pedalboard. Sound CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors. The EHX Soul Food

Also, you might have a little pop when you turn it on but this just happen the first time (that's why the 4.5 score), after that you can turn it on and off with no pop. This is my second Electro-Harmonix pedal and they are built like a tank, very reliable. The Klon doesn’t have huge amounts of gain available so if you want a high gain pedal – this isn’t it. It made people hungry for better klones. As I’ll demonstrate later, it’s not a great klone. Thanks to YouTube demos like the ones I shared above, some of us wanted that tone, and when we couldn’t get it from the Soul Food, we eagerly went looking for other klones. It becomes clear why transparent overdrives are worthwhile only after you try an overdrive pedal that isn’t transparent. If a pedal dramatically changes your tone either by rolling off the high and low frequencies or by giving the mid frequencies a big boost, it can make it feel like you’re playing a different rig – which could be good or bad. Think of transparent overdrives as a way to enhance your existing tone rather than dramatically changing it. If when you watched the video, you liked what you heard, the Electro-Harmonix is for you. There is a style covered in the video which best represents the styles of playing ideal for this kind of overdrive. If you like that style of playing, then there is no reason not to get one.with my marshall...an immediate Jimi vibe w/the strats. and superb tone on the paul. perhaps SF likes KT66s better for hummers than 5881s in the fender. its all subjective. the marshall also has adjustable gains whereas my classic fender does not. Ever dreamt of playing through a glitsy, transparent overdrive pedal such as the Klon Centaur but have always struggled to justify the rather out-of-reach price tag? If so, look no further, Electro-Harmonix now bring you the Soul Food overdrive pedal, developed to provide you with spacious soundscapes and extreme clarity and definition. If you decide to get the Soul Food (and there are not many reasons not to buy one), here’s what I recommend to get the most out of it: So that’s why I’ve finally added the EHX Soul Food to my pedal shelf. But is it going to stay for long? That depends on what it sounds like. What Did You Buy? For the rest of this review, forget about the Klon Centaur. I’m going to review the Soul Food just like any other pedal and that’s the way you should assess your potential gear.