Electro-Harmonix Soul Food Overdrive

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.

The Soul Food is recognised as the cheapest version of Klon (can I say that word... no one seems to ever be able to do it) clone on the market. Essentially, if you were looking for an honest written description of the soul food, you will be hearing a tubescreamer levelled overdrive, not too bitey, that can clean right up that has a lot more treble to it than a TS... which are a bit muddier than this guy. The gain behind the level control makes it particularly useful as a boosting device...hmmm... a boost that has some treble to it... a treble boo... nah...

Original is very weak and thin sounding. Had JHS mod mine. Things screams. Very transparent. Sounds just like a Klon.

Reading about the Soul Food got me intrigued. Never owned a Klon, heard a Klon, nor care about a Klon. What I need was some boost and light overdrive that was transparent and affordable. Blues artist I know all have raved about the Soul Food tell me this is what I need that they have one or on the wish list.

So getting one home I didn't care for it a first being use to tube screamers and compared to the Boss BD-2 it a little bright. However in the past few months the Soul Food has been integrated back in. The Soul Food makes a great clean boost and with the drive set about 1 o'clock I get a nice break up and great transparent tone. Responsive to the force in picking/strumming. While not my main OD pedal it is the most transparent of my OD pedals and works as a nice boost to the other Distortion pedals I use. For the price it was a steal.

Great pedal for blues/fusion jazz and classic rock.

Attention if anyone who is looking for boosting overdrive

This is the coolest boosting overdrive that I've ever used in my life.

Compared to Tube Screamer, I think it has more treble on it, and it's more transparent than tube screamer that it really doesn't affect other overdrive that you are stacking as much as tube screamer.

You can use this pedal independently, but I think it's better when you stack with other overdrive pedals.

This pedal (which was gifted to me) has been one of the best additions to my board! It is the rare pedal that never leaves your board, as you should have no reason to remove it. I use this more as a boost than an OD. Whether using my clean channel, my overdrive channel, with the fuzz engaged, or any other imaginable scenario, this pedal gives that extra punch needed for that good, gritty, old-fashioned 60's Garage sound that I strive for.

This pedal, intended to replicate the sound of a KLON centaur is a great light overdrive with plenty of headroom. Sounds very crisp.

The soul Food is anice overdrive on it's own, but also also great for adding a little hair to you existing drive sounds. I run mine before a BYOC orange Distortion (DS-1 clone) and a Fulltone OCD. With a little gain and slight voume boost to push the dirt pedal harder

This pedal does a great job of creating solid overdriven tones when I'm unable to crank a tube amp up loud enough to cause it to distort and stacks great with other pedals. It takes a little to get used to it, but overall it sounds solid.

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