I haven't played this pedal before, I have played the Soul Food, but I think that in order for the Blend function to be more efficient, and therefore to recover the lost bass, is to put the Belnd control more towards the Clean side and compensate on the Master Volume. It is my understanding that the Clean signal is probably set at unity gain and the overdrive is always louder in comparison. So, the Blend and Master Volume need to be tweaked in order to better balance both and get a better response from the Blend control. Perhaps the Clean signal, on this pedal in particular, should have been a Low pass filter instead to add back just the low frequencies. Seems like a poor performer and a quick way for EHX to cash in with our fellows bass players.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Hi Nuno! What a awesome analysis. Wow, straight to the point, love it. The onboard preamp sounds good, hey? 😂🖤

@jdjk7

Жыл бұрын

I hate blend knobs that work like this. I have a handful of pedals with this type of blend knob, and it's always just a bit more of a pain getting a solid tone out of them.

@madeforbass

Жыл бұрын

This is exactly why I keep overlooking this pedal, even though it's very affordable. Loss of bass frequencies is never acceptable. ;)

"Can it doom?" is an excellent point of measure in an overdrive pedal. Didn't blew my mind this pedal, but it was helpful anyway. Keep reviewing mass produced & popular pedals. Expensive boutique pedals are cool, but they're not available all over the world.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Yes! I will take your comment into consideration. 🙂

I love this pedal. To deal with the low end loss I have the Boss Bass EQ right after my NSG noise gate following the Soul Food and it takes care of the bass loss. I toured with the Motown group The Miracles and used this pedal to get me that touch of tube-like overdrive Jamerson made famous and was absolutely necessary for that gig. I’m not a big distortion fan for bass but this pedal gives a nice subtle effect that adds presence and sits well in a mix. If you need that little extra it has a bit of that as well. Sometimes I’ll combine it with my Swollen Pickle fuzz, again subtly, for a nice blend.

Finally! An awesome demo from a bass player that can play bass! Thank you! Liked and subscribed!

Great video brother, someone really showed capabilities of this pedal in more light way. Respect.

I think aside from the blend-knob weirdness that LusitHand mentioned, an inherent problem with mid-focused bass drive is that... you're focusing on the mids. So when you bring it to a volume that sounds about right, you'll find that the low end is lacking. It's not that you've lost low end necessarily as if through filtering, it's that the mids are now louder. I have the Broughton Audio Azure Drive, which is a clone of the Blueberry Bass Overdrive... and it "seems" to lose low end, but what's really going on is that if I set the volume to something that seems appropriate based on the apparent volume of the mids, I end up with the low end being reduced in volume. So what I need to do is focus on the volume of the low frequencies and match THAT volume, when bypassed vs engaged. Then I end up with a powerful overdrive sound that doesn't drop out when engaged.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Cool! I use a splitter to have dry compressed lows on one side and wet driven signals on the other. Then I mix them back, using the DSM Humboldt Bass Station. It works great and I can put any OD pedal in the wet signal. Surprisingly (or not) even ones with blend knobs are great to use in that configuration. Still, the ehx bass soul food is a bit to shy for my taste.

nice video! thanks for sharing your experience using the bass soul food!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Cool! Thanks for watching.

I love mine! I use it as a boost set for a volume increase and a little more grit to cut through in certain parts of songs. It works awsome for this.

wow it sounds great with slap. also great slapping

I've just ordered this pedal. It's sounds perfect for old school 60th and 70th rock.

This is a magic pedal!! and realy can give you some thick clean tube warmth and some subtle and little hairy overdrive. This is not a heavy overdrive or distortion pedal! A lot of settings and the blend knob is the real master! Love it and its always on on my board for years

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear that! I mean, this is precisely the beauty of effects, what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for you. And the bass soul food definitely deserves its share of love.

Glad to see a WB review of that pedal I owned for a certain time... The reason I sold it is not loss of bass (which we can probably manage with the volume knob, as said in comments here), but because we can't control the mids. I use to lower the mids of my OD in many context. To anyone like me who loves the cool and affordable EHX products, I highly recommend the Battalion, wich has a quite plaisant and adjustable OD tone. And it's already reviewed by The Wetter Bass!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Hi! Yep for a little more money the battalion is definitely more versatile and sounds great!

I bought this pedal and really wanted to like it, but even used before sansamp, it made my bass sound thin in rehearsal, and the gain was so low, it barely made much difference on and off. If you add the clicky switch and the low end loss, it didnt make it to my pedalboard. Bandmates did not like it too. But...i ve tried using the simple Lpb-1 boost from EHX, as a low gain bass overdrive, and it does a good job pushing sansamp. Thank you for another great video.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Hey! Good to hear I’m not the only one… you are right about the click. Forgot to mention that but you can hear it in the audio samples of the video. Thanks for watching!!!

Always very interesting your tests…the honesty is very enjoyable 😊 Of all the overdrive pedals you tested, which one keeps correctly the lows ?

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Wow, difficult to say. I got one coming up soon (top secret) that is very good at that, at keeping lows. The Seamoon Grind is pretty good, the Becos JZ is very good at it, the Blue Colander Tremond too (but it’s more a distortion) or any pedal that has a EQ for the driven sound that you can blend with the dry one. (Ehx battalion, Tritonlab stuff, Darkglass…)

@lionelmonteiro9440

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for all your recommandations….we keep waiting for your future secret weapon 😝

@lionelmonteiro9440

Жыл бұрын

very soon we hope 🤩

Losses lows indeed, but this can be nicely compensated by e.g. Sansamp BDDI (plus some dialed compression ). I love transparency of this thing, but this differs much depending on the guitar patform, rig and whatnot. So won't work same ways for everyone. Cool video regardelss! Thanks!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Mmmh. I guess it would work great with a BDDI as it can sound warm, nice combination! And yeah you are right, very transparent overdrive.

It does definitely lose low end when activated, unless you replace the input capacitor (C3 on the PCB) with a bigger value. If you do that, it can get quite beefy depending on what value capacitor you go with.

Haha I appreciate the comments about the weird KZread EQ, the BSF sounds great here. I tried it in person once and thought it was pretty good. Interesting that you felt the loss of lows…. You’d think that would be the prime concern when designing a bass overdrive. As always: a great video!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Hi Theo! Yes, you’d think that… but again, even if the BSF is based on one, it’s the klon nature to concentrate on the upper frequencies in detriment of the lower ones.

@TheoAndHisPedals

Жыл бұрын

@@thewetterbass agreed! Bit of an odd choice to base a bass OD on, but I respect it. I think plenty of people like the BSF.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Oh, klon clones are awesome!!! But they really need a low end boosted clean blend knob, like the one on the Blue Colander Tremond for example. Right?

@TheoAndHisPedals

Жыл бұрын

@@thewetterbass personally I think Blue Colander should just do what they did with the Rat in the Tremond for every type of drive/fuzz. It’s just so well implemented.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

True…

Something to consider with this pedal and how I often use it is that when you have effects after it such as Chorus, Phaser, or Envelope filter, the subtlest bit of drive from the bass soul food makes those other pedals sound amazing. Especially the envelope filter (yes I like my drive before my wah/envelope for this exact reason)

@thewetterbass

6 ай бұрын

Interesting! But yes, I like chorus behind an octaver and fuzz, for example, makes it even more synthy.

@bertsbase

5 ай бұрын

love it!@@thewetterbass

The reason why the Klon is being sold for so much cash is because many guitarists are who lack common sense. 🙂 Josh Scott proved this nicely with the _Bad Monkey_ pedal. That was hilarious!😁

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

😂😂😂👌🏻

The pedal is exactly as you described it. Not my cup of tea. Excellent review and demo as always.

I think the Big Muff Nano is a bit more useful for me. It has no issues retaining the lows. By the way, I bought one after watching your review.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Oooh nice one! 🤘🏻

Its not losing low end at all!! It makes it even thicker!!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

As I wrote in the description box, YT does compress the audio, and I believe it thickens up the sound too. There’s quite a difference bass-wise between what I recorded and what can be heard in the video. 😉

Hi first of all, i really like your videos, and i know plenty of orhers. The Soulfood is maybe a good pedal for the Orangerig i use for my The Whotrubuteband. Why? I use the Orange Bassbutler in front of the Orangeterror Bass Amp. The Butler splits the Signal in to a Bass and a Guitarlike channel. The Bass Side is completly Full, nothing more needed, but the guitar side needs some aaah sparkle. So i have to check it out.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Definitely! You can find it a very reasonable price second hand so yeah! Go ahead and experiment… 🤓

Perhaps this problem can be solved with a parallel circuit (with an EHX TRi Parallel Mixer by example)? One with this pedal, the other with the dry signal?

@thewetterbass

6 ай бұрын

Maybe, but then I would most probably get a Klon clone for guitar 😉

Not too bad, but not my favorite one. But your tunes at 4:50 are great. Would you try the Hot tubes by EHX too ?

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Almost pulled the trigger on a second hand hot wax/tubes (or whatever it’s called) but I got manny more pedals to demo before! Maybe one day. 😊

@estebanrodriguez3419

Жыл бұрын

@@thewetterbass cool…I’ll see all of them, so much to learn here.

I'm a simple Man, i see a new WB video and i put like on it :D Jokes apart, this pedal have some "push and pull" weaves of hype not a huge expensive pedal but.. sometimes the used price is a bit... with the AC, is fine. Did you Know that exist an OFFICIAL bass Klon? I've found one few days ago... mindblowing! ( and damn expansive ) I've several Klones ATM, A Custom Kasleder Jellyfish ( with the right AC is AWESOME ), the BSF that i hope to ADD the Germanium Diodes, and 2 Kits: The Kehiron ( with all the mods ) and the Cliche... The Kasleder is the best, with tendency to make some caprice if not pefectly setted The BSF id kinda MEH but the pad switch is a must The Kehiron is a NIGHTMARE to debug (they miss some in the project) BUT, with BASS is a BEAST, with the modes setted to allow more bass is great! I've pins for the diodes, TRY the Blue LEDs (hard to engage sparks on top) The Cliche is for "guitar" but is just perfect to build, straight forward and used more like a boost is a good sounding pedal even with a bit of loosing bass Probably i'll study more the Kheiron find the best setting for bass and replicate them on a new Cliche

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

😂 thanks for the first part! Oh wow…I still think that klons would sound great if you could split the signal, boost clean lows and blend in the saturation sound… 😎

@cosebanali

Жыл бұрын

@@thewetterbass as i know the "secret" of the Klon is being "ALWAYS" blended so the trick is try to find the right components for the clean part ( there was a bass klon original for a reson i think ) the driven part is separated

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Yes! Gain knob acts as a blend knob, but it just kills the lows the more you raise it… and that’s a bummer cause klones sound so good and reactive at high gain!!!

The Soul Food can be a pain in the butt 🤣 Most distortion/OD pedals from that era suffer from balancing the output to be consistent with the tonal changes of the instrument or the amplifier. When the stars align -- it's a great sounding pedal but, on the other hand it can quickly turn into a liability when not EQ properly. The biggest issue analog bass drives is the input sensitivity, and this is exactly why so many Darkglass products are popular. I own the Soul Food and I think I'll keep it around for a project or two but I don't foresee it earing a permanent place on my pedal board. These could go up in value one day for the occasional Klon modder...who knows. My recommendation? Use this pedal in front of a dark sounding tube amp or flip top for better results. Operating this pedal through the effects of a solid state amp is a tricky affair. On the other hand, I've used it with my Marshall Silver Jubliee 600 with a bi-amp setup using the Soul Food for highs and the Marshall preamp for lows (two different cabs), and I had great results. However, it's a lot of work unless the music your playing dictates that for an entire gig.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Cool dual amp rig man!!! But, between you and me, would you really use the ehx for that, wouldn’t you want something perhaps a bit better (both sound and quality…)?

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Oh and yeah, I could see the bass soul food perfectly in front of a dark sounding amp.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

And last but not least, spicy soul food can be a real pain in the butt… 🤓

@MrRawnch

Жыл бұрын

@@thewetterbass absolutely! The Alexander Silver Jube comes to mind for more of a Superbass vibe. I've also used a GK 2001RBP to provide clean OD without low-end loss. In my opinion Klons work well with guitar but they're rare on bass for a reason. Any Ibanez type tube screamer will out pace a bass centric Klon.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

@@MrRawnch agree 100%

i used to own one. 15-year-old-me discovered that if he just smacked the front end of the soulfood with a huge bass boosting 10band eq set at +12dB gain... the pedal suddenly started saturating in much more gnarly ways... the trick to making any gear sound good to my ears, apparently is to cRANK IT AND DESTROY IT AND HIT IT HAARDAA rrAAAARRRR

@thewetterbass

11 ай бұрын

Why didn’t I think about that! 😱 gonna try it! Thanks.

I'm a bit confused, how the hell can pedal increase low-end loss with blend?

@thewetterbass

9 ай бұрын

Yeah it’s a bit confusing. It’s the entire signal that is blended, so the lows too. You hear them more because the other higher frequencies are “hidden” or “covered” by the driven sound. Ok?

@user-qm2hr8rv8b

9 ай бұрын

@@thewetterbass wow, a little passive-agressive. No, not ok.

@thewetterbass

9 ай бұрын

So sorry if you find it aggressive. I did take time to answer your question as concisely as possible and that alone is a sign of respect towards you. When I write “ok?”, it’s short for: “did I answer your question?”

Ah, try The Crook from Poison Noises. Trust!

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Would love to get my hands on one, yes.

I bought one, but returned it. Not my cup of tea.

Ofcourse its loosing low end if you put the volume down😂

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

😂 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻… unity 😅

In conclusion, don't buy this pedal (I have one myself and it's useless). Good and critical review.

@thewetterbass

Жыл бұрын

Well, don’t be so harsh 😅. It’s not useless as some enjoy it’s sound a lot, but I guess neither you or me find it useful. Question of personal taste.😉