It doesn’t get much easier to use than this. It’s a simple overdrive pedal meant for those who like a simple tone. Overdrive and booster pedals work best with avalve amp so if you own a solid state amp, this may or may not suit your needs. You will know for sure whether this is the right pedal for you by listening to the tone in the video later.

Today, I want to talk klones, and specifically the most important klone pedal ever released: Electro-Harmonix’s Soul Food. Make yourself your favourite morning drink first. This one is going to be a #longread … with audio demos. Table of Contents

its the strange brilliance of this pedal that permits the perception of Jimi and SRV like nuances with a range of instruments from cheap to vintage. and at a ridiculous price, too. my hearing is pretty sensitive so i wondered....the manual states the internal switch is usually set to 'bipass' at the factory...i opened the unit and it was set to 'buffer'. once again subjective. i prefer bipass. The Soul Food’s main advantage is cost. Brand new, it’s about half the price of a Tumnus Mini, and a lot less than half the price of a Tumnus Deluxe or a Centura. If you like it, and can’t afford any of the others, then get it. Aaaaaand now my coffee has gone. Let’s talk about the EHX Soul Food 🙂 Before Klones Were Everywhere 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.

Though it is not a distortion or fuzz pedal, I get more than enough drive from it, especially when using the dirtier channel of my amp. It’s taken me a few years to find one at a price I was willing to pay. These pedals are very popular, and at times second-hand prices have been higher than the retail price. And, while brand new ones are affordable … I haven’t been a fan of what I’ve heard in previous demos. That’s why I’ve held out until I was able to buy one for about half the current retail price. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with that setup – Les Paul into the Soul Food as an overdrive – since the pedal arrived a couple of days ago. I’ve really enjoyed noodling with that, and there’s definitely been no complaints about the tone from Kristi either.

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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. So here are some other overdrive pedals I would recommend considering if you don’t think the Soul Food is for you: So, plugged in, powered up, struuuum...THE nicest cleans I've ever heard. Rich and full of harmonic content that's absent plugged straight into the amp. The Soul Food unexpectedly turned out to be the "green" overdrive pedal I have always wanted. Of course I listened to a number of review, but when I tried this it sounded quite different (in a good way) than I was expecting. Initially, I was disappointed as I really wanted this to replace the BD-2, but it wasn't quite the tone I was looking for that. BUT, after a few minutes of using it I decided it was going to replace the TS9 and not the BD-2.

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). This type of overdrive doesn’t suit all guitarists. I usually prefer a more rounded out tone rather than a bright and sparkly tone. I do enjoy using the Soul Food, but for a lot of what I play, it doesn’t suit my tone needs. If you’re a metal guitarist or any style that doesn’t fit what you hear in the video earlier, then this type of overdrive might not meet your needs. How to get the most out ofthe Soul Food A more interesting comparison would be the Soul Food vs Timmy or Soul Food vs OCD. The Timmy and the OCD are both excellent overdrive pedals with a lot of support by guitarists. Rather than compare a clone to the pedal it’s trying to copy, you’re better off comparing different overdrive pedals to figure out which one suits your tastes as a guitarist. Full disclosure: I'm pretty new at guitar. I spent 10 years thinking I couldn't play like the greats, that I didn't have the talent to do anything except strum some chords. So I let my abilities sit stagnant at chords and nothing else and didn't play much. But after losing a family member recently, I took it upon myself to sit down and stubbornly learn as much about guitar playing as I possibly could. I say all of that to let you know that my opinion is totally subjective based upon my limited experience with gear.

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. Right out the box (if it had come with one 😂), I think that’s a very usable sound if you’re after an old-school vintage drive tone. My next choice of pedal is a little more realistic, perhaps: Wampler’s Belle. This is Brian’s take on the Nobels ODR-1 overdrive pedal. The ODR-1 is an affordable overdrive that’s been used on countless hit records over the decades. When I test out overdrive pedals, I start out by seeing how the pedal changes the tone with the gain knob all the way down, neutral tone and setting the volume to a level that matches the bypassed level. So I set the Soul Food with the GAIN all the way down, the TREBLE set at neutral (pointing up) and volume to match my bypassed level. My amp was set to clean so I could hear exactly how transparent the Soul Food really is. There is one thing that some guitarists would argue: the Klon Centaur is a great overdrive pedal, indeed among the best. The Electro-Harmonix Soul Food is an original circuit design which is inspired by the Centaur. It targets to take the guitar to that realm of tone for a small fraction of the cost of a used Centaur. From the period you plug into the Soul Food, you can not help but notice that it sounds very Klon-like.