Overdrive Pedal that Delivers

Not being heavily into the "Pedal Scene", I don't understand the Klon-Mania, so that association with this pedal did not mean anything to me. I was looking for a reasonably-priced overdrive that sounded "vintage".

The Soul Food is exactly what I was looking for. Simple controls and excellent sound.

I have no complaints and would recommend this to anyone not wanting to spend a fortune on their rig.

From Gear Setup

Great clean boost

Used to push amp to overdrive like moving preamp from 11 o’clock to 2 o’clock - makes more responsive without overly colouring the tone.

Great warm drive. Transparent and wide open

I acquired this a couple months ago after thinking about it for several months. I spent 20+ years with a TS9 and knew it was time to move on. This was the perfect change.

There are a lot of overused and re-used descriptions regarding this pedal out there. It "boosts your signal just enough to hit the front end of your amp harder. . ." and "works great as a clean boost." Oh yeah, it is also "a clone of the coveted Klon Centuar." Ok. But until you play it, or have a job in a guitar store where you get to crank tube amps all day . . . that does not mean much. The drive has great range. All the way down I guess it is a clean boost but pushing up the drive a little to 7:30 or 8 o'clock takes your clean signal and adds, for me, what it is the perfect amount of color and dynamics, including some natural sustain, without muddying things up to get the right clean-leaning tones and feel out of an amp, which for me is a Fender Blues Deluxe (using the clean channel). Maybe that's what a clean boost does - dunno. Pushing the drive further does what you think it would do, adding saturation while maintaining the characteristics of your clean tone. I guess this is what they mean when they say "transparent." The pedal doesn't totally take over. It takes over just a bit - just enough.

So what? Every overdrive review talks of warm drive and how the knobs might offer a good range, while maintaining transparency. The big difference to me is that, in contrast to the TS9 which I used and loved for many years (and can deliver some great SRV and Phish-style tones if used properly), this pedal does not add much mid-rangey compression, which when it is a feature of some pedals, can often manifest itself in some unwanted nasal, spongy or crunchy tones. Those pedals work great in many contexts, but I've wanted to move on. This Soul Food pedal leaves my tone less compressed-sounding and the result is a playing dynamic that seems more natural and real.

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.

Oh yeah, it's also really low-priced. Approx $85 brand new, though I grab a used one. But hey get that Klon Centaur if you have $7k+ lying around for a pedal.

Note: It leans just a bit trebley. I mean they kind of signal this by calling the tone knob the "treble" knob. I know that's a thing with treble boosts, but this is more than that. Just roof back that treble knob or the knobs on your guitar to where you want it. There is a bit of a click when stepping on the pedal which contrasts negatively with quieter spring-loaded pedals like the TS9. Keep this in mind, especially in the studio.

Despite the notes above I'm giving it five stars. I am extremely happy with the acquisition and give it 5 stars.

Pretty mediocre controls and build quality

The EHX soul food is fine, but not great. I purchased this wanting to get an option for adding some grit to my sound, and this does it. It sounds decent, and might even improve the signal chain for someone playing through a less than ideal amp.

However, I'm currently playing through a Benson amp that sounds fantastic without anything added in front of it, so when I turn the soul food on I actually feel my tone gets muddier, and not in a good way. I also find that the pedal pops quite loudly when I engage the foot switch, but it's not every time. So I have a fun game of "will I get a loud pop, or not?!" every time I kick it on. This has led to me not enjoying using it very much.

For an "always on" type of pedal, this might be great, but for me it's been disappointing and I'll likely be removing it from my board.

Awesome

Great OD pedal. Versatility is awesome. Playing with the settings can get you all kinds of different tones. I have the settings pretty low and just leave it on all the time to warm up my tone. Highly recommend this pedal.

Solid value Klon clone

The Soul Food is supposedly a one for one replica of the original Klon Centaur, but made with cheaper parts at scale. It sounds good and does the basically the same things as the Klon, but for £70.

One downside is that it can get a bit fizzy with too much treble dialled in, which is very easy to do. And the Drive is fine, but not that great. The Volume can also push some modulation/reverb/delay pedals too hard, clipping their front end. This pedal likes to sit either right before an amp, or into another drive.

My favorite EHX pedal

I was looking for low-mid gain pedal and stopped at Klon. But a real Klon is more about memes) So I started looking for cheaper clones. This pedal is awesome! Yes, I don't have it anymore, but I can highly recommend it. Soul Food boosts a little when gain knob is about 9 o'clock so it makes your clean sound fuller. But when you turn the gain more and more you can easily nail the solo with a sweet sound. Thank you, EHX!

I can't help but like this pedal.

Everyone knows that the soul food is Mike Matthew's cheap knock-off of the Bill Finnegan's fabled Kon Centaur. Its in a smaller enclosure, is machine-made on a PCB, the buffer can be disabled internally via dip-switch and doesn't have the unobtanium, err, I mean germanium secret sauce clipping diodes to ground that produce the distortion. Otherwise its the same TLM107 op amps and everything. It could use a little more low end to sound perfect through my ac30s, but this circuit sounds really good for 70s classic rock kinda sounds and doesn't color your base tone too much. Your amp will still sound like your amp with your settings, your les paul will sound like a les paul and your strat will remain a strat. If you need to fatten a fender into a fender for syrupy solos try a TS9.

I have not played an original klon in ages nor have I tried any of the fancier alternatives. This pedal sounds a lot like like I recall the klon I tried sounding back in the 90s. The klon was too expensive for a drive pedal then and its way too expensive now that its discontinued and collectable. For all its innovations like the dual ganged pot, fancy pants buffer and charge pump, the core concept of the klon centaur is just diodes to ground clipping the peaks off your signal like a rat, a ross distortion, mxr distortion+ or a DOD od250. Nothing special. What Klon did was nothing different than all the guys still fine tuning tubescreamers. The EHX price is just right for this little beastie. Someone should combine the centaur's amplification and control arrangement with the clipping diode arrangement from fulltone's OCD (which is just stolen from an old voodoo lab design, so don't feel bad). That would be a really dynamic and interesting take on the original distortion/OD pedal format.

No frills, just good tones

You get what you ask for with this one, nothing more, nothing less. Solid clean boost to liven up any tone, smooth overdrive that stacks beautifully into tube amps & other gain sources. There aren't many pedalboards and setups out there that wouldn't benefit from one (or two) of these. One could argue that it's a little too brittle with the treble high compared to the pedal it's emulating, and others may prefer the more mid-focused honk of a TS-style overdrive, but this sits pretty perfectly with my current setup, and I have a feeling you'll find a nice spot for it too

Good pedal with the right setup

People talk about this pedal's similarity to the Klon Centaur. I've never tried or heard a Klon in real life so...

What this DOES sound like is a nice clean low gain overdrive. Think that barely broken up bluesy sound, something like "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" by Paolo Nutini kinda sound. 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.

It sounds VERY DIFFERENT with my different guitars. With my PRS CU24 I can push the only tone knob (treble) up to get a nice scooped bluesy barely driven sound. With my Fender Telecaster Am Deluxe the guitar is bright and has low gain pickups. As a result I can't push the treble up on the pedal (sounds too harsh), and I need to bring the gain way up to get any breakup, then the breakup isn't as nice sounding as with the PRS. So with the Tele this adds mids and colors the tone a bit too much too my liking vs the Humbuckers.

Conclusion: Good pedal worthy of 3 stars. Great value for money. Lacks a control of the low frequencies to make it work with vintage single coil pickups in bright guitars. The JHS Mod likely fixes those flaws and will maybe add a star or 2, I'll see the day I can try it.