EHX Soul Food

[alltrax74]

Soul food : EHX's take on the Klon Centaur
http://www.ehx.com/products/soul-food
Every thing is there from the voltage doubler to the buffered bypass (there is a switch inside that allows to choose between buffered or true bypass).
Here is a vid, it sounds awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PwHuP5foYhM

"And you don't have to be a rock star to own one" : it's about 65€ here in Europe, including the 9v power supply !

[IvIark]

Yes I'll be interested in having a look at one of these when they are readily available in the UK.  It'll be good to see if it is a direct clone or if Mike has altered things in any way.

[Vince]

I've seen this too, I notice they've released a few new pedals. I quite like the look/sound of the 'hot tubes' too. And the prices are pretty hard to beat!. The same with the new Blackstar pedals. Same but without the tubes and 'improved circuitry' etc. Again, dirt cheap!

[Silver Blues]

Hot Tubes is not really new, it's a reissue I believe. There's a layout somewhere in this forum. I really want to build one.

[Vince]

Yes I know and I've seen the layout.  but in a small enclosure it's new. Some things are that cheap I'd rather buy it than build it. And bearing in mind EH haven't updated it

[Silver Blues]

$58 at Sweetwater? Whoa. I see what you mean

[Vince]

Haha... I saw one sold here on eBay for £32?!...

[rocket88]

Just ordered a Soul Food, couldn't resist the price and extras that got thrown in I just had too get it. If anyone wants the trace it I will put up pics as soon as I get it. But I have to agree some pedals are just so cheap that its more cost affective to just buy them. Just look at the pic of Mike Matthews on the booklet/brochure. Not only is he a legend in the industry, and for me if it wasn't for the BMP i wouldn't have gotten into effects, but since when has be become Santa?

[IvIark]

If you can take a high res pic of the board when it arrives that would be great.  Hopefully they'll be the SMD resistors with the values on which would make it pretty quick to see how it compares /differs from the original.

[rocket88]

Definitely Mark. I will do my best with picture quality, and always happy when I can contribute and help out. Hopefully it will show up this week. It will be interesting to see how similar it is to the Klon. I've watched/listened to a few videos on youtube, and it definitely is similar in sound, and for me hard to tell which is "better."

[rocket88]

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!!! I just got my EHX Soul Food today. I took some pictures of the board as good as I could, recorded the pots values, ICs, and capacitor values.









Poly
c1 -104j 250e (.1uF 250V)
c2 - 823j 250e (.082uF 250V)
c4 - 683j 250e (.068uF 250V)
c3 - 104j 250e (.1uF 250V)
c5 - 394j 250e (.39uF 250V)
c6 -823j 250e (.082uF 250V)
c12 - 273j 250e (.027uF 250V)
c13 - 683j 250e (.068uF 250V)
c25 - 273j 250e (.027uF 250V)

Electrolytics
c15 - 1uF
c22 - 1uF
c18 - 47uF
c24 - 4.7uF

IC
ic1 - tl072c
ic2 - tl072c
ic3 - tc7660sc

Vol - 10k
Treb - (dual) 50k
Drive - 10k

[IvIark]

Nice job, I'll check it over during the week to see how close it is.  Silicon diodes for clipping?!?  Bill Finnegan would have kittens at the thought of removing the mythical unobtainium diodes, although to be fair it probably sounds better because of it

[IvIark]

Are you sure about the Treble and Drive pots?  I would expect the Drive pot to be the dual one.

[Vince]

Nice!... I'd be interested in your thoughts on how it sounds? in comparison to a Klon maybe? ... Because for the price these go for, I may be tempted to pick one up!

[rocket88]

Oops. Mark you're right. I typed the value for the drive pot into the treble by mistake. So the treble is 10k, and the gain is 50k dual. My bad.

Sound wise, from listening to videos of the klon, still haven't built my klone, i think this sounds a little grittier/dirtier/rougher around the edges with higher gain levels, for lack of a better way of describing it, if you will, while the klon seems to have a smoother with higher gain levels. I think the tone of this is freaking fantastic. There seems to be more gain on tap with the soul food then compared to the klon. I think with having the Si diodes compared to having Ge diodes, gives it the grittier sound, and gives it the extra gain. I totally love it, and once I build my klon clone, I'll be able to give a good solid comparison. Oh, and I have the supposedly "mythical unobtainium diodes" for my klon.

To be honest after reading the interview with Bill Finnegan I really lost a lot of respect for him. He seems to have drunk too much of his own klon Koolaid, and honestly believes its the best pedal ever made, amongst other things he said.

But, I digress. I like the soul food much more. The only thing I would want to do is change the tonestack, and make it have separate bass and treble controls. Turning the treble CW it can get a little thin and bitey.

Oh and Vince, I would totally pick one up. I love EHX stuff, and love pretty much everything they make, and this does not disappoint. But, if we can get a good working layout for it, *fingers crossed*, I would build one and mess with some of the values to get it exactly how you want. Once there is a layout I plan on building one to tweak.

[Vince]

Excellent, thanks for the info. I've made a klon and bought a clone too and although they are great overdrives, I wasn't blown away, especially not enough to take out a mortgage on one. I think I bought into the hype too much an expected magical tones when I hit the stomp switch and was like. well? where is it?.. The grittier higher gain sounds much more my liking as that was another thing the Klon slacked on.

I've found them for £43 here, For that price, I think I'll take a shot on one!

http://www.reidys.com/pr/guitar-effects-and-pedals/electro-harmonix-soul-food-17548/?&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=Feed&utm_campaign=PriceComparison&gclid=CPG6tLC3v7wCFSvHtAodoHwAZw

Chees  

[rocket88]

Well I was looking on youtube to see if someone did a comparison between the Klon and the Soul Food, lucky gearmandude did. I think it gives a decent idea of the difference between the two, but obviously it would be best to personally do a comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI32kTKG60A

Vince, I've had similar experiences with pedals that were supposed to be "the best" and when I play the real think or clone it I end up thinking it's "meh." I think that for all of us, there are some effects that just move us, and inspire us, while others don't.