NPD: got a Soul Food

strtdv

I thought the last thing my board needed was more drive, but my brother bought me a Soul Food for my birthday so I shuffled some pedals around on the board and hooked it up.

I've not really bought into any of the Klon(e) hype, it's not really a pedal that I've felt the need to own.

I've so far been very impressed. It does a great, very transparent clean boost, and you can easily set it to add just a little extra edge or sparkle. It's got much less of a mid hump than a tubescreamer, and it doesn't have tons of bass. You can actually set it so that it exactly matches your guitar sound, you wouldn't know you had it on, which says a lot for its transparency.

I have it set with the gain just shy of 12:00 (which is much less drive than you'd think), and just a small volume boost.

Set up like this it sounds nice with my telecaster, but it sounds immense with my SG. It works great pushing higher gain pedals (everything from a bad monkey to a musket fuzz tried so far), and it just makes the SG sound so clear and gets rid of some of the honk of the 57 classics, which while normally a good thing can be a bit much at times.

I'm very tempted to just leave it on all the time, it just sounds great with the SG.

One weird thing about it though is that the drive and volume are very interactive, and seem to sound more or less transparent depending on what combination you have. This meant for me using a little more gain than I was planning because it seems to just work with the volume level I was aiming for. I have no idea why this is, but apparently Klons are quite strange/counter-intuitive circuits anyway.

I have no idea how the buffer sounds, I haven't used it

Does it sound like a Klon(e)? I have no idea, I've never played one.

Does it do a great job as a transparent clean boost and light dirt, and stack well with other pedals? Definitely.

Worth a try for under £50 I reckon

Anyone else got one of these on their board?

not_the_dj

Yup, I got one when they first came out. Cheap enough to try just to see what the fuss is about. I use it for a gain boost into a crunchy amp (Blackstar HT-50). Works great.

xSkarloey

@not_the_dj How is it with the buffer circuit on? 

Just wandering if it's okay, cause I don't really need a new drive, but a new drive that doubles as a buffer and we could be talking. 

not_the_dj

I've not tried it with the buffer. It's close in my signal chain to my Boss TU-3 so i've just left it in true bypass.

strtdv

Same for me, I've a Blackstar HT Dist that I don't find terribly useful as a sound, but the buffer works for my setup and it's the only buffer I use.

gambit

i like the buffer on the soul food. i switched it on because drive doesn't lose any low end with it on, then compared it in bypass and the buffer seemed to brighten up the signal in a good way.. i guess thats what the buffer is supposed to do?

joeyowen

Heard good things about this pedal, very tempted to try it out today

For those that are interested, you can get  JHS modded version that is apparently similar to the K, might be worth a youtube watch.

But as a stand alone pedal, from what i've heard, it sounds great for the price tag