Thanks to skully chankgeez compares Klon vs Soul Food Pg.5

[skullservant]

Got a call that the Soul Food is on its way to you Chankz. Should be there this week!

[Chankgeez]

Awesome, skully, thanks again. I'll let you know when it gets here.

[skullservant]

sweeeet! Sounds good man. And no problem! Anything for science!

[univalve]

ILF Breaux rule so hard!
Thank you guys for letting this little research project happening.

[D.o.S.]

Hooked on Klonics.

[Chankgeez]

Hooked on Klonics.

I'm'a bludgeon you wif a sand cast enclosure.

[Chankgeez]

The Soul Food has landed.

Thanks to everybody for making this possible (especially univalve and skully).

Let the subjective testing begin.

[skullservant]

Awesome!! Glad it got there safely. Enjoy!

[Chankgeez]

Thanks, skully, I'm now enjoying my first (and hopefully last) problem.

I can't get two of the cheap screws loose on the backplate.

Does anybody know if this thing ships in "buffered" or "true bypass" mode?

Edit: just looked in the instructions, ships in "True".

[skullservant]

I hate EHX's screws

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, I only have a regular screwdriver and I don't wanna strip the screws, but unless I can get the backplate off and switch it to buffered, this isn't gonna be a fair comparison.

OK, I just played for half an hour and these are my first impressions (which are usually pretty accurate):

For this part of the comparison, I'm using my Inter-Mark Cipher w/ microphonic pickups (sorry, I don't have any normal guitars.) into a Magnatone 442 Starlite Bass (again, ditto, no normal amps). (I did say this was gonna be subjective.) I usually run the Centaur last in my signal chain and I simply stuck the Soul Food in line before the Centaur (again, the Soul Food's still in true bypass mode). I ain't got no fancy switching devices to make this any better of a comparison.

The Soul Food feels very cheaply made as you would expect with such a low retail price. Aside from the aforementioned screw trouble, it feels very light weight in the hand and the pots are really crappy (you can feel the lack of solidity as you turn the knobs). With that said, I don't think it sounds particularly bad. It can't really compete with Klon quality, but it wasn't really designed to. I think it'd be fine for someone who's never played or can't afford a Klon.

The good news is that the clean boost on the Soul Food really does come close to the Klon. I wouldn't hesitate to use the Soul Food as a clean boost if I needed a cheap one. My only qualm would be the quality issues. Unfortunately, that's kinda where the competition stops for me. Once you start turning up the gain, the Soul Food really can't compete. Soul Food definitely lacks the clarity of the Centaur (that may change slightly if I can get it open and switch the buffer on). The Soul Food is boxier and more two dimensional sounding than the Centaur. It has more midrange too. It also has more gain on tap. So, I guess in that sense it's more versatile because you can use it as a distortion. Those are my initial impressions.

If anyone has any requests, please, let me know and I'll try to accommodate 'em.

Thoughts? Comments?

[Chankgeez]

Oh, I'll also add: turning up the gain on the Soul Food compresses the signal more than it does on the Centaur; at higher gain settings, the Soul Food is muddier than the Centaur; the Soul Food just doesn't have the presence of the Centaur, it doesn't sound as big, it's somewhat muffled.

If anybody has any tricks to get those screws off the backplate, please, let me know.

[univalve]

Great Start! Thanks for the Detail Write up! Fits my expectations of your comparison qualities pretty good
I think The Buffer is The Main Feature. So that would be interesting.
I asume ehx Designed it to have more gain for your mentioned higher versatility.

Ehx = muff led

[skullservant]

I've found with EHX screws you gotta try a few different phillips heads before one of them magically opens the enclosure

That's interesting about the Soul Food. From what I heard the Soul Food might/does use different clipping diodes which might have something to do with the extra gain

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, univalve, it definitely has more gain and volume.

I'll try again to get the screws off. I'm not gonna give up that easily. I'll try a different size screwdriver. I wanna switch that buffer on.

I just tried it with a Muff in front of 'em and, obviously, the differences became less pronounced.

So far, I think for the money, it's not that bad. It wouldn't be my first choice, but if I had to use it, I could make it work. I wanna put it up against the Fredric Zombie Klone to hear how it compares there. I'm gonna try 'em through my solid state Pignose too because that's the amp I've been playing through the most.