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NPD: Electro-Harmomix Bass Soul Food
- Thread starter HiEnd Basses
- Start date
I use a reg soul food. Does the trick, but can anyone weigh in on benefits to using the Bass Soul Food?
Like all "Bass specific" pedals, it has a blend, so it retains the original Bass signal also. I've tried other Overdrive pedals, OCD, Turbo Tube Screamer, etc. I've found the blend knob very important.
I have to say, I've been playing around with the BSF all day, and the word that comes to mind is "sweet"! I've only had it one day, and I know it takes a while to get to know what a pedal can do. That being said, I've got the Volume, Treble, and Blend all at 12:00, and the drive at like 1:30, and it is sweet and mellow! I've dimed the drive, and there's plenty of grit; not distortion; it's not a Distortion Pedal at all. I really like this pedal. It's subtle, and doesn't need too much tweaking. It's almost colorless, but present. Weird. Thumbs up, EHX!
There is nothing like finding your drive tone in an OD pedal. "sweet" sums it up nicely. I love OD man. I recently got a Dunwich ODB and I am so gaga over it. It's an amazing drive pedal. I've had a few before that made me go "WOW" too, but this one takes them all over. Even my ol modded Pork Loin. Which I still love, but the ODB just does it for me. Really cool you found a winner in the EHX. I tried it at one point and I thought it was cool too. Had a mid-presence I wasn’t jiving with though at the time. Still a great drive pedal.
I liked the sound of mine, but I couldn't get over how I could barely hear the drive until I had the drive knob at least turned past noon. In the end I sold mine and just turned the drive on my SansAmp up enough to give my tone some sparkle without it going into farty-drive territory. Glad you like yours!
And yeah, that pop in true bypass mode is crazy loud. Kinda inexcusable coming from a major manufacturer, IMO, but it all sounds fine in buffered mode.
And yeah, that pop in true bypass mode is crazy loud. Kinda inexcusable coming from a major manufacturer, IMO, but it all sounds fine in buffered mode.
Well, that is the whole point of the Soul Food, it’s a barely there drive pedal. So even dimed you won’t get a ton of gain. It’s supposed to be that way. It seems like a lot of EHX pedals have that pop issue. I know a couple buddies of mine loved the Bad Stone but ended up moving on from it as they said that pop made it unusable.
Oddly enough I never experienced the pop with my bass big muff that I used to have, or some other EHX pedals I've tried in-store.
I get the BSF is supposed to be a mild drive, it was just odd how half of the knob made nearly zero difference in sound. Even then I know it has its uses.
I get the BSF is supposed to be a mild drive, it was just odd how half of the knob made nearly zero difference in sound. Even then I know it has its uses.
It's based on a Klon and their gain is on a dual pot. As you turn up the gain the clean goes down. The BSF made this two separate controls. Doubt it's exact but I'd guess it's a factor.Oddly enough I never experienced the pop with my bass big muff that I used to have, or some other EHX pedals I've tried in-store.
I get the BSF is supposed to be a mild drive, it was just odd how half of the knob made nearly zero difference in sound. Even then I know it has its uses.
Corythosaurus
Commercial User
Hey, this isn't entirely accurate. The Bass Soul Food design doesn't separate the two sections of the dual pot in the gain section. The BLEND knob on the BSF is an entirely separate dry/effect blend circuit. When you turn BLEND to 100% dry, you're getting a clean, un-effected signal that's only going through a buffer. I did that because even when you turn DRIVE down to minimum, you get some coloration to the clean sound. I wanted to include options for unaffected and colored clean sounds.
I am only going by what I had heard and you no doubt know far more about this but isn't that what the Klon does? The dual pot turns down the clean as you turn up the gain?
Corythosaurus
Commercial User
What I'm saying is that the BSF does have the dual pot you're talking about (which is the DRIVE knob on the pedal), plus a separate BLEND knob. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say:
Inside the blue box above is the normal Soul Food circuit - which includes the dual potentiometer and two signal paths: an overdrive path and a clean path. The clean path in the box is filtered - i.e. has some tone-shaping applied to it. So even when you turn the DRIVE knob to 0, you get some tone shaping (as an aside, the normal Soul Food circuit was also tweaked in the Bass Soul Food.)
The extra circuitry for the BLEND knob is on the bottom - it's a clean circuit that, unlike the Soul Food clean circuit, doesn't change your tone at all.
So, in a way, the BSF has two BLEND knobs, each of which blend in a different-sounding clean tone.
Very cool, thank you for clearing that up!What I'm saying is that the BSF does have the dual pot you're talking about (which is the DRIVE knob on the pedal), plus a separate BLEND knob. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say:
Inside the blue box above is the normal Soul Food circuit - which includes the dual potentiometer and two signal paths: an overdrive path and a clean path. The clean path in the box is filtered - i.e. has some tone-shaping applied to it. So even when you turn the DRIVE knob to 0, you get some tone shaping (as an aside, the normal Soul Food circuit was also tweaked in the Bass Soul Food.)
The extra circuitry for the BLEND knob is on the bottom - it's a clean circuit that, unlike the Soul Food clean circuit, doesn't change your tone at all.
So, in a way, the BSF has two BLEND knobs, each of which blend in a different-sounding clean tone.
Those schematics are interesting, thanks.
IT's nice. I like it but mine one eats some low end when on. I'm new to effects, it's my first OD (I used to overdrive ombos just by them selves though).
It was only one rehearsal yet with BSF, but but it definitely was loosing lows when going from "bypass" to "on". I'll keep on checking, also I'll make some experiments with bossEQ pedal and splitting and mixing with line selector as long as I have them. Making my own mix of clean and effect.
IT's nice. I like it but mine one eats some low end when on. I'm new to effects, it's my first OD (I used to overdrive ombos just by them selves though).
It was only one rehearsal yet with BSF, but but it definitely was loosing lows when going from "bypass" to "on". I'll keep on checking, also I'll make some experiments with bossEQ pedal and splitting and mixing with line selector as long as I have them. Making my own mix of clean and effect.
I got one of these s/h recently but I haven't had the chance to try it in a band situation yet. It's on the board though and the weekend beckons. First impressions are good stacked, but not enough gain as a standalone for my purposes. Into a Pork Loin the mid hump gives me some nice additional options. Subjectively it does seem like there's some bass shelving going on, but this may be an artefact of the mid-range hump. I need to try it with a drummer playing to really understand what's going on. The Pork Loin more than compensates though - the low end is massive. Definitely useful as a clean boost too. Somebody mentioned the thumpy switch. I found this happens from cold, but you just need to hit it a couple of times then it's fine.
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I tried the BSF and couldn't get into it. It didn't color my sound enough, or in the way I was hoping it would. This was a long time ago though when I was a fx noob. Maybe I should give it another shot since they're relatively cheap.
I recently got the JHS mod version. I LOVE the bass switch, but don't notice a lot of difference using the diode mode switch. As for the drive itself, it's perfect for my needs. I just want to add some grit, not peel paint off the walls. This does that really well. My only small complaint is that planes try to land in my yard when they see the LED light. That sucker is BRIGHT!
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This is another soul food mod you can get
Alchemy Audio Modified Electro-Harmonix Soul Food Overdrive (Klon Centaur) New
I don't know about it, but the description is enticing...
Alchemy Audio Modified Electro-Harmonix Soul Food Overdrive (Klon Centaur) New
I don't know about it, but the description is enticing...
