Electro-Harmonix Soul Food Distortion/Overdrive Pedal Reviews

Genuinely one the best overdrive and distortion I've tried. It works great as a cleam boost, too, but it's much better when you start to get some grit.

Set for a clean boost it puts a pep in the step of single coils. Makes the amps extra touch sensitive and conscious of volume and tone pots. I play primarily a Telecaster or a Les Paul and the Soul Food is always on unless Im going for squeaky clean with the Dyna Comp squashing a bit. I can get that light compression country tone rolled down to 2-3 on volume and take off a little treble with the tone knob. Add slapback delay for taste and roll it up for solos. I got mine back when they were $69 bucks. Still a great value in an overdrive that will nearly fill about every tonal pallete. I converted from the "green" box clone gang to the "golden horse" crowd when this debuted. Took a bit to find the sweet spot that worked with my different guitars without changing the dials. What you see below is running into the front end of a dirty JTM45 Metropolis into a celestion 12 65 hi power greenback. If you know these amps 10 on your guitar volume even with weak pickups and the amp past 3-4 is edge of breakup with singles and crunchy with humbuckers. If your volume and tone pots are up for the job then this pedal will make your amp super touch sensitive. Find the sweet spot on the guitar and you can go crystal clean to breaking up without touching a thing. Your attack is everything in that zone and this pedal will show up your sloppy or lazy playing. This allows you to be dynamic in amp tone without doing a tap dance. Not for clean pedal platform my opinion. Sounds pretty harsh into clean amp without modding the pedal.

This pedal is great. It boosts your guitar without altering your tone. It doesn't boost the mids like the famous green pedal. It brings out the tone of your guitar and can give you full on distortion if you want it but I prefer to just take it right to the edge of breakup. I play a Gibson ES345 and a Fender68 Custom Pro Reverb Amp.

Fantastic pedal. Well worth the money

This was the very first pedal I've owned and it has never left my setup. I've used it as a solo overdrive and as a boost for amps or other overdrive pedals. This little pedal sounds FANTASTIC when you crank it and feed it into a Blues Driver by BOSS. This pedal is packed with tone and it will compliment your rigs tone.

Needed a pedal to fill in the space between compressed cleans and the Big Muff. Did a lot of research & shopping around, watched dozens of domos on Youtube and it finally came down to the Soul Food or the "Green" thing. Soul Food obviously won for two reasons; (1) It has the ability to go from a completely clean boost to a natural, smooth organic overdrive and (2) The tones of my Burstbuckers are largely unaltered.
With a compressor in front of it (see pic for settings) and my Marshall's gain at about 10 o'clock, it IS the sound of rock & roll. Think SRV, Bad Company, Boston, AC/DC, Zeppelin etc... This is the tone I've been missing. The Big Muff does the Gilmour & Hendrix solos, Soul Food takes care of everything else. This pedal far exceeded my expectations. I am very impressed with what EHX is doing these days.

Perfect for the blues. Not to heavy.

This pedal for me is amazingly organic, is the only distortion I use, sometime I use a blues driver just to boost a little, however this pedal works for me perfect as if Im using a marshall amp.

I hated it as an overdrive, but with the Drive turned all the way down it's an incredible boost pedal and a great value. So good I hate to turn it off.

Great Tone! I use the buffered bypass option and it sounds great! The true bypass sounds great as well but the buffered bypass has a unique quality to it. Ian is a great sales engineer who enjoys helping people along there music endeavor. Thanks Man!

I bought this for my father in-law for his birthday. It arrived a couple weeks early so I've been testing it out with my rig. Now I might need to get my father in-law a new gift.... don't know if I can give this Soul Food up LOL.

It really gives nice sparkles to your tone! Great drive!

Was looking for an overdrive pedal that could deliver the sweet tones of the ever so popular Klon Centaur but on a budget. Well I found one that's pretty close and it's the Soul Food by Electro Harmonix. Heard many great things about this pedal and watched videos and was sold. I received mine yesterday and was impressed thoroughly! It can definitely serve as a clean boost all the way to a great creamy bluesy overdrive. It pairs up well with my Boss SD-1 when I need a little more. Nice and compact and even comes with a power supply for a great price. Great value, great tone, and delivers that Klon feel. Sweetwater shipped it quick and free. Very good pedal for the price!

This isn't a djent overdrive. This is pure Tom Petty. This is pure Aerosmith. This can be more. In my setup, it has two roles. One is as a boost to a higher gain pedal for a lead tone. The other is as a mid-gain distortion that sounds like a tube amp breaking up. I can turn this pedal on from clean and it sounds like the amp is changing drive, not a pedal kicking in. Further, if I turn down the guitar, I can swap between the pedal on and pedal off and there is zero tone change.

If that's what you're looking for, this is it.

I really like the sound when I first heard of the pedal on YouTube that's waer I shop for pedals to to hear them first. The Big Muff New York one I still want to get Dimebag Darl said pedals don't make you better way you play but pedals make a difference in the way I play I can't wait to get more and once I get my 1960 Vox bass amp Combo amp I waited long to to get that amp and I want to some pedals for that bass.

Great pedal. It's my first pedal for electric guitar. Thanks to Sweetwater it came very fast. It works very well with all kinds of different setting possibilities. Really punches things up. Very happy with purchase. Love the 2 stickers and little catalog that came in box

Love the sound!
Love the simplicity!
Just an amazing addition to my pedal board!
Highly recommend!

The Soul Food OD pedal gives me distortion from very mild to medium-scream, which I use for old jazz and blues. If I want more scream, then my Big Muff (also Electro-Harmonix) does the trick. Mostly though I like to flavor the tone, not override it with too much heat. That's a good philosophy when cooking food as well as music, in my opinion. If you like it habenaro hot, the Bib Muff is the way to go.

Both pedals are rock solid metal construction with tactile-click buttons and red ON lights. They are also transparent when OFF while doing clear and clean jazz. Both blend well with reverb and get more reactive to fretboard touch the higher you crank them.

this is the pedal that"ll add a great personality to your tone. I"ve tried a lot of od/distortion pedals for a while now, but he soul food adds soul to my guitar playing. and I am loving every single moment of it.,

This is a must have. The grit and dirt is articulate, not muddy. I run this through a Mesa to add a little extra hot sauce for solos and punchy rhythms. If you are a classic rocker . . . you gotta have one. The volume boost is LOUD. I also have the "green pedal" and liked the transparency and soul of this pedal much better. The "green pedal" is off my board and the Soul Food remains. It"s been a great surprise for such a value priced pedal. An absolute staple on my board.

This pedal is amazing, I use it as my first stage OD and I absolutely love it. It pairs great with my Walrus Audio Voyager, my Fulltone OCD, and my JHS Mini Foot Fuzz. And it sounds great by itself, just an all around great pedal. You will not be disappointed, I play at my church and it truly works well with a lot of modern worship songs (ie Bethel Music, Hillsong United, etc).

I bought this pedal back in November and have definitely been impressed with the tone I can get for 78$. I run it through a hot rod deluxe IV with the drive up and the tone 3/4 of the way and this thing screams. I can get a pretty close Pride and Joy or Texas Flood tone from this setup easily. I bought one of the fiesta red classic 60"s strats as well and it makes a beautiful pair. Try it out.

This is an amazing pedal. I find that every sound in it is good. I can use them all. I like it best as a low-to-medium-gain overdrive, but it's also great with the drive turned way up. The tone control works really well and covers a lot of ground. I'd be happy if I had paid 2X the price for it.

Closest thing to a Klon that I've heard, plays well with other pedals, definitely stackable with other OD pedals, and versatile in its output. Currently use it for an "aged" overdrive sound thru either a Vox AC30, or a Fender Twin. Great purchase if you are looking for a OD pedal on a budget.

This is the most versatile overdrive pedal i"ve used in a while. Perfect for anything from adding thickness to Smashing Pumpkins rhythms, or John Fruisciante riffs. This thing is a perfect addition to any guitarist"s collection. Thanks Kevin!

Great pedal! It"s not a Klon...... It"s a great clean boost and can produce a good "transparent" overdrive as well. Add one to your board today!!

I run it through a Marshall DSL 40C with a PRS custom. It tightens up and brings clarity to my lead channels, and throws enough stank on my clean and crunch to keep me playing for hours. I play anything from Lamb of God to Nancy Sinatra. I rarely turn it off.

I have the Boss BD-2. I did one of the mods that smooths out the overdrive and tames the brightness. It is a nice pedal and really sings when you push the Gain to about 2 o'clock. But I have always struggled with the brightness of it. To get the "smoothness" out of the overdrive I want, I found I have had to push the gain much higher than I really want to. I use it with a Deluxe Reverb, pretty bright amp. I bought this to replace the BD-2 (and the East River Drive to replace a TS9).

The Soul Food unexpectedly turned out to be the "green" overdrive pedal I have always wanted. Of course I listened to a number of review, but when I tried this it sounded quite different (in a good way) than I was expecting. Initially, I was disappointed as I really wanted this to replace the BD-2, but it wasn't quite the tone I was looking for that. BUT, after a few minutes of using it I decided it was going to replace the TS9 and not the BD-2.

The sound is pretty transparent, though the pedal does impart a certain character on the tone. The overdrive is quite smooth...really smooth actually. It certainly sounds more like an overdriven tube amp than a pedal. There seems to be more of a mid-bump than the East River Drive, but nothing like the TS9. It gives just enough of a mid-bump to help cut through the mix, but does not muddy up the sound. I am running with Gain set to about 1 o'clock.

I mostly used the TS9 to stack into other pedals for leads or just a little extra push. The Soul Food, in this case, is a wonderful and unexpected alternative to the TS9. It stacks beautifully into other pedals and yields rich, singing sustain. I never really used the TS9 by itself (as I didn't care for the sound of it). Now, running the Soul Food just by itself I get the the lightly overdriven, Classic Rock tone I always hoped to get out the TS9 and never did. It is really nice with either singe coils or hum buckers, but I especially like it with humbuckers.

I had planned to stack Soul Food into the East River Drive but found I much prefer the Soul Food stacked into the ERD...killer tone!!! The bonus is that both the ERD and the Soul Food stack wonderfully into my MXR Distortion III or Rat 2, yielding of course fairly different sounds.

The Soul Food is a loud pedal!!! The volume of the pedal was unexpected. I set Volume to about 3 o'clock and then I get just a bit volume boost.

So the ERD replaced my BD-2 and Soul Food replaced my TS9. The inverse of what I had planned, but the end result is both more flexible than I anticipated as the sound is much better than hoped for!! Happy, very happy!!

How have I not had this on my board since it came out?!?! Perfect clean boost, to real dirt! The tone is excellent, and every note is articulate. This pedal will really push the front of your amp, or it can push other drive pedals very well. I'm getting a second one...one for boost, the other for one of the best overdrive sounds available!!

This is always on. Always. It"s
Me baseline. Seriously it is never off. I feed this into a Cusack Screamer and the screamer gets turned on and off but this... always on. Get one. Put it up front. Set it and forget it. Best sub hundred dollar pedal ever!

I use two of these pedals. One set up for a clean boost, turn gain down and volume up to add amp like compression. The other is stacked With the gain set at noon. Using as a clean boost keeps the tone of my guitar and amp but adds balls to the sound beefing it up. I play rockabilly and a clean transparent tone is important. Adding the second soul food sends my amp into a more natural overdrive when I want to get a little gritty without getting into hard rock or metal territory.

Soul Food is an organic sounding overdrive. I've never had the privilege of playing through a Klon Centaur but if this is the next best thing, the Klon must be amazing. I've tried many other dirt pedals and this is by far the best. Thank you Mike Mathews for coming up with this gem. Great tone and massive headroom. I'm glad to have this pedal as part of my life.

Although marketed for guitarists seeking to spice up their sound any keyboardist and synth fanatic can tell you it can be difficult to get the UMPH you need when working with a direct sound from one of your synths. Electro-Harmonix has provided a product that has served me well in providing that UMPH I so desperately needed.

This pedal is great! It has a nice bright overdrive. Works well with the sound I am going for. It's a solid pedal that keeps the quality of your tone.

What a great sounding pedal. I was really struggling to find the right tone/combo with my overdrive pedals and amp combination. Got this today and plugged it into my setup and the difference was night and day. It works great by itself but sounds fantastic stacked with my OCD played through a Marshall DSL 40. Lots of sustain and warm tone. I could not be happier. Do not think twice about this one- great price, great tone and very versatile- anything from clean boost to full on distortion. So glad bought it.

This thing is awesome compliments my fender twin.and guess what I didn't have to sleep in the bathtub because of the price ,such a quality sound . Also goes good with my analog man king of tone . don't be late get one

This thing is awesome compliments my fender twin.and guess what I didn't have to sleep in the bathtub because of the price ,such a quality sound . Also goes good with my analog man king of tone . don't be late get one

When Soul Food is the 1st pedal in the signal chain, it warms up the tone substantially. I'm able to get harmonic tone without much overdrive being added. It's a great pedal!

Recently I have been searching for a sound similar to the non-buzzy shred of my 1990's Marshall Blues Breaker, which I have fed from my Gretsch Junior Jet II bass. Asking a lot from "guitar" pedals, I guess. Disappointments so far in this quest: 1994 Ibanez Tube Screamer, a 1990's Marshall Bluesbreaker II, (both now sold off) a 3/17/17 Snouse Electric Co. Black Box 2, a TC Electronic MojoMojo, a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. All sorts of buzz and brrrrap and fuzz and added plastic sounds and so forth but nothing coming quite near the purity of the Blues Breaker's shredding-sheets tear... Until I got the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food. Result: It's FANTASTIC!!! Not just coming very close to the Blues Breaker but superior in its way. It has a clear foundation note beneath the processed sound that means the bass notes are clearly presented even while the rip goes on in parallel. I see that the Soul Food pedal made for bass has a blend control. In my opinion, the blend on this 'guitar' pedal is perfect. It took me a little while to realize that there was such clarity as well as such a great rip. Stunning pedal! And, it's packaged with a 9 volt converter, making it an amazing find. I am so grateful to Electro-Harmonix. Last item in my quest will be a Mooer Blues Crab. I anticipate a Blues Breaker tear, but not the flexibility of the Soul Food. With 3 simple controls it outdoes most of the properties of the other pedals cited.

This oedal deserves no less than 5 stars for the wuality of tone and the price... sure there are nicer Klones but at least at double the price... it might soubd a little thing conosred to a 2,500 dlls Klon, but you ad an so booster, poom, problem solved....
To be hobest I own a few Klones myself, a Tumnus, a Sick as and an Archer ... besides the Soul food of course... you would thibk the Archer would be the best recreation... it might be but the Tumnus and sick as sounds better and those have plenty of low end the soul food might be missing... but oh yeah, the Tmnus is about 180 bucks and the Sick as about 230... so there is the difference... and yes, EHX products lately have been a little bit on the cheaply made side... I definitely had to fo in there and change my bypass switch as the ither one died... the drive button sounds staticky when moving... but still... some are perfectly fine and the point is the tone! Amazing Klon like circuit that eill blow you away by how cheap it is and how much dynamics, touch sensitivity ad to your playing! 5 stars! Everybody needs one... oh, and you can pretty much stack this oedal before any other pedal in the world and it soubds great! It adds more bite !

This was the best decision i ever made. Ok, I play into a Vox AC15, even at full gain there is no noise in the amp. Unfreakenbeleivable if thats a word. Anything from clean boost to soaring leads this thing delivers. I sent back a Keeley mod work station because the overdrive was noisy. Now i have a Kèeley super mod work station with this bad boy. Buy it now. Buy it now.

Great touch sensitive pedal ,especially for the money.

I've had issues in the past with electro harmonix pedals but after success with the big muff nano I thought I'd give this one a whirl. Great pedal I use it in a clean boost capacity and put it right after my distortion pedals in my chain and typically run it through my fender super champ and American standard strat it adds depth and warmth and clarity to highs. I've only got the distortion at about 12:00 and again it's a clean boost for me but this pedal has some great crunch as well. Great for blues and rock all in all love the pedal!

I use the Soul Food to drive the preamp tubes and to gain and edge in standing out in the mix. I put the volume at around 10 o'clock, the drive around 8 o'clock, and the treble around 11-1130. My favorite things about this pedal are that the range of the drive is really wide: you can have this as just a clean boost, or crank it into maximum overdrive with authority. Also, this really works great with single coils -- humbuckers too, but it really adds thickness and presence to single coil guitars.

I'm in a 'bar blues' band, primarily playing rhythm guitar and some lead on an Epiphone SG Pro with Seymour Duncan '59 and '59 Custom Hybrid pickups through a Peavey Classic 30. With the Soul Food settings above, my clean tone has a little edge to it, but still warm and full. My dirty tone is a little past the point of break up (just the way I like it) so I have my pre settings on the channel a little lower than most. Soul Food gives my dirty tone a little more presence and the notes have more clarity.

Love it!

absolutely great, transparent clean boost, warm overdrive, and vintage distortion all with excellence

I have had this pedal on my board for nearly a year now, and I truly don't know what I would do without it. I want to be very clear about just how useful this pedal can be as a transparent clean boost (with the drive knob turned all the way down), and for various tone shaping applications. Beyond many tone shaping capabilities, I find the amount of gain onboard to be extremely cool and useful, and I never have any problems being heard in a thick mix due to the gradual attenuation of the bass (and some treble) as the gain is increased; your guitar sits happily in the mids. I was able to AB this pedal with other pedals of a similar intent, and I walked away very happy and confident with my purchase. A lot of people will say that this pedal is really good "for the price," but I think this pedal is great regardless of the price; it just so happens to have a very friendly price tag. I can't swear that you will have the same experience with this wonderful tool as I have, but I think that you would be doing yourself a great disservice to not give this pedal an honest shot. Check it out!

Great chunky southern redneck overdriven tones,..very pleasantly surprised... I've had a lot of upper end pedals, blue,red,.etc. You get the hint. This pedal is the third ehx pedal I have purchased and it's really made me take another long look at ehx. Bravo Mike Matthews at ehx,...and to John short at sweetwater... Fast and efficient as usual

I was somewhat skeptical about this pedal, but after being underwhelmed by a boutique pedal claiming to do the same thing for three times the price, I figured, "why not?".

The first Soul Food pedal arrived, and (my luck) was defective. I decided to try again. The replacement came in, and I can't stop playing through this pedal! For a "working guy", this pedal will give you 90% of what the expensive ones will do. And in a gigging situation, that's all you could ask for!

It bumps a Strat, for instance, to the foreground, and the amount of tasty gain and brightness are simply dialed in or out, still sounding like a natural Strat with some push from the amp, but at whatever volume. It's way more than a clean boost, though it can do that too, but its not a high gain pedal either. Very musical. Also cool is the true-bypass/buffer switch inside. I'm running it on TB, between a Riot and Carbon Copy. Haven’t yet tried reversing them, which I'd do if I were stacking it with the Riot, cuz I wasn't sure if I was going to use the buffer or not, and wouldn't want a buffer before the Riot.

Naturally, the humbucker in my ES-339 drives it harder than Strats or Teles, and adjustments to the pedal or the resulting sound are inevitable.

In short, it's very effective, versatile and amp-like, and a steal at the price. My Maxon OD9 has been kicked off the board and now sits in its box. Only thing I can't yet speak to is its longevity.

Wanted to add a second Overdrive to my pedalboard to push my Fulltone OCD a bit more and decided on the EHX Soul Food and so far it's been exactly what I was looking for. I can't really add anything to the reviews that others haven't already pointed out but I will say you likely will not be disappointed with the EHX Soul Food. Not only does it sound great paired with the OCD but on its own as well.

Sweetwater rocks!

This pedal is a solid choice when looking for a classic overdrive. A good price point from a trusted company. Not really any bells or whistles going on here but similarly to song writing, simple is a good thing.The drive dialed in at noon is great but this pedal also handles the subtle side drive or the crunchy well. A great balanced pedal, would recommend to anyone playing standard or drop D. You metal heads may want something bigger but for most of us, this pedal is value!

I bought this pedal from Sweetwater a couple of months ago and I never turn it off. This thing is amazing from a clean boost to very nice saturated grit. The reviews are right about the Soul Food. Awesome blues with some reverb to thrashing metal mated with my Earthquacker Devices Talons and everything in between has me wondering if I'll ever purchase another overdrive. I'm playing a 2011 PRS SE Santana through a Marshall Slash SL5 and it's easier to find sweet tones than bad tones now. It was worth the added cost since it was introduced and I would definitely replace it if it failed. At around 70 bucks it's not even a question... love it. Also, thanks Steve Chamoun at Sweetwater for the great support. I'm never disappointed in Sweetwater's products and service.

Great pedal for church. Super transparent and has enough crunch to sound warm and luscious and then dial it up to hard and crunchy. Great for church bc it fits in well with the mix. Great as a multiple stage overdrive setup. You wont regret it. Also Dave Snow is the man and took care of me the whole time. Sweetwater where have you been my whole life?

I am totally impressed by the EHX Soul Food .. i set all the controls at "noon" plugged it in .. holy crap 100% improvement on my tone. I was skeptical when I 1st read all the "5 star" reviews .. but they totally hit the mark ! .. Without a doubt.. worth the $78.20. And PS ... Sweetwater .. AWESOME customer service !

When I first heard this pedal, I fell in love with it. I heard so many great reviews about, and the price was just unbeatable. Only real complaint is the amount of hum I get when I turn the treble to max. I definitely recommend this pedal to anyone who wants a great over-driven tone.

Yep! I tried many od/dist. pedals the last 35 years, an this is it !!
Great AC/DC tone, very realistic, wow..

I bought this a few months ago and never really played with it, until i threw it with a blues driver in front. And man it has become part of guitar tone now! I use it as a more light overdrive, my blues driver just as a boost. It works really well and cuts through the mix! If your'e unsure to buy it...just click the add to cart button and go!

I just got this pedal and it lives up to all the hype. the voicing on this pedal is very musical and flexible - the price is right and it comes with a power source - if this pedal can do it for $66 why can't every pedal do it? Electro-Harmonix really spent some time designing this pedal - in comparisons with the Klon pedal on Youtube, I had a really hard time discerning any differences - its that good. My Hellhound amp has low headroom for its clean tone but this pedal really adds a good deal of volume (clean boost) without changing the characteristics of the amp. Application tip - buy 2!!- one for the clean boost which would always be on and one setup for your overdrive tones. highly recommended!

Best money I've spent in a while. Responds to pick attack, cleans up with the volume knob. It does tasteful to raunchy. Very versatile, very amp-like. I cant make it sound bad. I Almost never turn it off.

I can't say enough good things about this pedal. It's become one of my main go to pedals on my board. Great transparent overdrive that is warm and easy to operate. I have this right after my boost pedal on my board which allows me to go from a very mild gain to high gain instantly. If you did the Klon but don't want to spend the green on one I highly recommend this pedal.

I asked Charlie at Sweetwater what pedal would give me a mellow crunch at low and medium volumes. I told him what I played (a hybrid Strat: modded strat electrics in a chambered Tele body), that I liked EH pedals, and that I was looking in the $60 price range. He recommended the Soul Food and he was right. Smooth, creamy, full bite even at very low levels and very, very sweet. Thanks, Charlie.

Considering I'm a newb as far as pedals go, the Soul Food does everything I need it to, and it comes with its own power supply. I wish all the pedals I wanted were this inexpensive.

I absolutely adore this pedal. It's just a very good pedal and it's cheap in comparison to others. I hope it last for a long time. If it was to break I'd have to buy another one. I own and have owned a few pedal but I don't think I can do without this one ever. It's just to handy in so many ways. I started to buy a used one but it would have not came with that sweet water warranty and service. I'm glad I spent a little more for that.

If a Klon is anything like this, I understand the hype. Smooth buttery tones come out of you amp, by stepping on the footswitch.

Played this live vs some of my other klon types, sounds better than them and the price is so good!

The Soul Food pedal does everything I wanted. Clean boost that makes all my other pedals seem more present and bypassed signals just pop at lower volumes. I could not be happier with this pedal.

I was looking for something to help get my vox ac15 some more bite. Well I sure did pick the right pedal! Simple controls, plenty of gain. Gets classic rock tones down, can even get into hard rock, and metal when I roll the gain up and play with the top boost on my amp up. The overdrive doesn't color the natural sound of your guitar and even at high gain notes are crystal clear and articulate. I love it, it's exactly what I was looking for. This was my first purchase with sweetwater and I was blown away by the customer service! I can't recommend this site highly enough. If you have doubts about ordering online, sweetwater will put your troubles at ease. I love the customer service almost as much as I love the pedal!

Bought this with the purpose of being a clean boost, possibly adding a little grit to some other pedals. Unfortunately, I LOVE the gain dimed! The best way to describe it is that it's like a ticked-off Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal! Consequently, I never bother with the clean boost function (it does that fine, though), as I usually have the gain maxed, and have found GREAT uses paired with the TS side of a JHS Sweat Tea, and what it does when paired with an EHX Deluxe Big Muff Pi should be downright illegal!!!

I needed a little something to boost the vibes out of my Vibrolux. My friend has two (real) Klons, and said he was willing to sell me one. As I am just a poor, struggling, guitar mangler, the bank was "politely regretful" that it couldn't provide me with the funding required to purchase even half of one of those magnificent pedals. Enter Sweetwater and their nifty pay as you play options. I love those guys. I LOVE THIS PEDAL. Just get this thing and watch your rich friends cry into their pedalboards when they hear how great it sounds for how little it costs. Trust the hype. The Soul Food pedal rocks. (like everything else Electro Harmonic makes). It has plenty of boost to make your little amp sound huge. It adds warmth and/or crunch to my Tele and makes my American Standard Strat absolutely SING. I use it in line with my Holy Grail, a BBE Sonic Stomp, and a Fulltone Clyde wah when I pretend I'm on stage at the Royal Albert Hall. Both of my fans think I sound like Joe Bonamassa. It's THAT good.

Are you freaking kidding me. This thing is INCREDIBLE. I have been buying OD pedals for years just looking for the right one. That includes the boutique models that are raved about. This very affordable pedal blows them away. I use it with a Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb and it's like butter (which is a main ingredient in Soul Food by the way). I would have saved a TON of money if I had just bought this first. It is a very versatile pedal and you can dial it in to make either a single coil or a humbucker sound rich, full and crisp with clarity to spare. The treble control is better than any tone knob on all of the other pedals I have tried. The volume has a major boost that sounds natural and is very usable. I like the classic sound and this nails it. It also comes with the power supply. This is not the pedal for the Metal Heads out there. This is for the player that wants to feel like the tone is wrapping you up like a comfortable blanket you don't want to take off. Don't be afraid to spend your money on this gem.

What an incredible overdrive pedal! Props to Electro-Harmonix for making an affordable Klone. The primary difference between this and the original is the original has Germanium clipping, which you can get modded on by the wonderful people over at JHS Pedals if you so desire.

On to the actual review: this pedal is, literally, the ultimate overdrive pedal, as it was created to be. The full parameters of the knobs are fully usable and offer a sound that ranges from transparent, sparkly boost to thick, sustained, saturated overdrive. This pedal is extremely touch responsive and is unlike any overdrive pedal you've ever played before. I find it hard to use any low/medium gain overdrive without wanting to switch back to Soul Food. Get one today!

I bought this as a quick fix when my custom made Klon Clone went down. Just amazed at the clarity of this little pedal. Hard to beat for the price. I will move this to my second board when my clone is repaired.

I wont get into sound details because the language of guitarists varies so much. This is the best Overdrive pedal I have ever used. Perfect sound of the 60's-70's and comes with the power supply, can't beat that, oh yeah you can, Sweetwater adds candy.

I have been collecting distortion and fuzz pedals from various makers. This one is by far my new favorite. It does three things well 1 maintains your basic tone 2 boosts the clean signal nicely given it a bit mire girth 3 the overdriven tones added to an overdriven amp adds some fuzz but has the city and definition of the signal without making it sound like some broken speaker mess. I wasn't! sure I was even going to get this pedal because I wasn't sure what it would add to my rig and tone. Now it's not only my favorite but I loved it so much I played an extra 2 hours this weekend.

SOUL FOOD SHOULD BE SERVED WITH EVERY TUBE AMP
OUT THERE....EVERYONE COULD USE A SOUL FOOD, AND AT THE
PRICE, WHY NOT.....GREAT TONE, BREAKUP, AND DISTORTION
WITHOUT THE DRAG...

Got this pedal and immediately stuck it on my pedal board behind my TubeScreamer ( 808 modded ) and driving an Excelsior amp.
On the lower drive setting it gave my Excelsior more clean headroom
without changing the tone one bit.
Raised Drive to noon and it started to nicely break with touch of overdrive.
With Drive at 3 oclock, it sounded old school overdrive/distortion but still very articulate and not muddy.
With Drive on MAX, the mid's seem to fill in some and I had the Hendrix type sound I've wanted...
Then tap the Tubescreamer to get controlled feedback and also the Excelsior started to growl nicely too.
I would DEFINATELY recommend this pedal to anyone as it is really 3 pedals in one... especially at this price. well worth waiting for delivery.

I use this to push the front end (not FX loop) of my slightly cranked amp, gain around 3 and it really sings! Great sustain and response . The tone control will add or roll off the highs. Really does make the amp sound better. Like most of you, I've tried a million pedals over the years. This one works for me.

Best sounding OD pedal Ive ever owned. I love the sound of this pedal and it makes my amps sound great -all of them. EHX maybe opened a can of worms by comparing it to the Centaur because people who paid 2000 for a fuzz box will feel compelled to justify that by dumping on the Soul Food - don't believe it. This is an awesome pedal. Id love to have a JMI reissue of a Range master or a Tone - Bender but the truth is, this and a USA Big Muff are the only distortion effects I would ever need.

I know this isn't the MOST Klon like of the clones, however, this pedal gives a nice mid push and is quite capable of pushing a tube amp into full saturation. At first I didn't love the mid push and loss of some lows, but this really shines in a band setting where you need to cut through a little. Like all overdrives, you have to know what sound you are looking for.

Great pedal, a boost and overdrive that adds some color. What more can you ask for. The build quality is great except the foot switch is a bit hard. :)

My tubescreamer died, and despite liking that pedal for its overdrive characteristics, I wanted a pedal that could offer lower gain settings. It can even be used as a clean boost. This pedal excels at lower gain/break up in comparison and colors your sound less (i.e. more transparent) than a tubescreamer. I occasionally enjoy cranking the gain all the way up for rock sounds too.

Overdrive is really subjective and it's all about what sounds good to you. This pedal is capable of adding just a little extra gain without changing you tone or you can crank it and get a nice smooth, compressed overdrive. I bought it to just push my amp a little more when needed, but found myself rolling back the volume and still using it cleaned up since it sounds so good. The first pedal I received did have a faulty switch, but when I called, Sweetwater had me a new one the next day. Amazing customer service. They have won me over.

Using Soul Food, Dark Matter and Chorus Ensemble with a Vox Ac30 + PRS, Godin and Hoffner Verythin.
Don't need anything else.

Great Pedal. Good tone. The volume and drive knob took me some time to learn how they best work with each other, but once I figured it out I started finding a very clear distinct tone. Works best with guitar volume high and amp volume set according to your environment. Great addition with my pedalboard. Works great chained with the JHS series 3 reverb.

I use this mostly as a Low Drive cleanish boost. It has just the right amount of grit if you dig in and super clean and clear with light strumming or finger picking. It is one of my few always on pedals.

When I first got this pedal I wasn't sure I needed it since I already had the green thing (TS9) but after spending some time twisting knobs I came up with some pretty good tones. This pedal also plays well with my OCD giving it a better sound than the green thing ever did. I also had to turn down the volume on this because it is a pretty loud pedal in comparison to my other drive pedals. Still playing with settings on this since there is a wide range of tones to be had. This did replace the green thing which I still might keep in the chain for some things. Until then the Soul Food is dishing up some good sounds to play with.

This is NOT a 1-trick pony pedal unless you set and forget it. The Treble knob is unlike your traditional Tone knob found on other pedals; left of 12 o'clock brings up the bottom end and cuts the highs, right of 12 o'clock does the opposite. A boost pedal before transforms the SF's output. I prefer this as a 2nd stage gain pedal preceded by the Wampler Ego Compressor pedal (the Ego packs a ton of boost). The compressor's boost kicks the SF up for soaring leads loaded with dirt and sustain.

so this is the first review I've done on guitar gear. Ive been a musician for 30+ years and currently play about 60 dates a year. I wanted a overdrive that was really transparent and reacted to my playing well. I've been searching for that right overdrive forever - have tried or own just about everything. Who would have thought that this relatively inexpensive pedal would be it? It truly added that last piece of the puzzle for me. The only thing (why I gave it a 4.5 not 5) is I'm still trying to find the away for it to clean-up a little more (it's not dirty but once it's on that drive is powerful) and the button is a little noisier than others I have - you can hear it clearly when I stomp on it. but these are minor - great pedal

really cool effect, distortion but over kill. nice

Recently bought this pedal and it's fantastic. Its no Klon but you still get this remarkable tone and Classic Rock kick. I really enjoy playing with it. And I have to say that I have ordered many guitar related gear from various sites and Sweetwater not only has given me the best customer service I have received anywhere, but has also given me great advice regarding a lot of my purchases and I haven't been disappointed. So 4.5 stars for the pedal and 5 stars to the Sweetwater team!

mag reviews and conventional wisdom state Soul Food goes after the Klon Centaru market. at up to $3000 on used sights i'm not about to trod down that path. i enjoy the fact that mike matthews & company produce great electronics at reasonable prices. having said that Soul Food is good eatin' for the ears. i love boutique stuff as much as the next guy....but i won't support exploiters. that's why i love EHX.

my go-to amps for trying out new pedals are my '72 bassman silverface reconfigured to blackfack specs...and my marshall vintage modern. starting with my '77 fender strat i also plugged in a beloved ultra non-expensive 3/4 size chinese strat and my epi proplus paul. great tones on the single coils....less happy with the hummers. now....while the printed word runs its own way, EHX states very clearly in their manual turning the drive to the right increases the midrange. that's not a bad thing but it does shed verity on the tone you can expect. it also reminds me of a world famous player stating if you want to be heard in your band....concentrate on the mids. Soul Food allows that in addition to choosing a line boost. i like both. and a definite SRV vibe on the bassman amp w/this.

with my marshall...an immediate Jimi vibe w/the strats. and superb tone on the paul. perhaps SF likes KT66s better for hummers than 5881s in the fender. its all subjective. the marshall also has adjustable gains whereas my classic fender does not.

its the strange brilliance of this pedal that permits the perception of Jimi and SRV like nuances with a range of instruments from cheap to vintage. and at a ridiculous price, too. my hearing is pretty sensitive so i wondered....the manual states the internal switch is usually set to 'bipass' at the factory...i opened the unit and it was set to 'buffer'. once again subjective. i prefer bipass.

Soul Food for me is champagne on a beer budget and my latest in the line of great pedals and great service from my sales engineer Dan Overstreet.

This baby snuggles your tone like a warm blanket while feeding it red meat to make it strong like bull. You can lightly coat or slather; up to you. It pairs delightfully with single coils and P90s to enhance the tubular quality of single note work, yet broadens rather than squishes chords so even my bridges be fat fat fat.

Look... it's not a Klon, but it's amazing. For this price, nothing will juice up your tone so smoothly.

Got this a month or two ago. I use it all the time, mostly for lead boost, though it gets good rhythm tones too. It gets that gnarly tone without having to crank the amp up to 11, which is often a consideration. And if you DO get to run the amp at 11, well, you'll like that too! ( I could have given it 5 stars, but really, nothing blows me away that much! :) )

Great pedal for the money- gritty to soft, with a great crunch.

I've tried quite a few dirt pedals, but for the cost/fun factor, ya really can't beat this one. Pair it up, it plays well with others! I got an East River Drive at the same time and these 2 get along great!

At first, I wasn't sure I liked the tone of the Soul Food. I let it sit for a day and gave it another shot. Boy was I surprised at the sounds I got! Never had the opportunity to use an original Klon, so I can't speak to the similarities, but I love what this meagerly priced pedal does. Great pedal at an even better price. Electro Harmonix keeps setting the bar. Let's see if the other pedal makers can keep up!

Very interesting overdrive/distortion pedal. Great value for the price, and it has surprised me at the easy way it gets into controllable feedback, even at low volume levels. It has a different flavor that all my other OD pedals which was a surprise, and puts out a tone that makes ya stand up and take notice! This one is definitely not a clean boost stomper as it implants its personality into what you're doing, but in a good way.

I was looking for a clean booster, something that did not add coloration to my tone. This little guy does it really good IMHO. One thing, it is interesting how this pedal reacts depending on where it is placed in the daisy chain. I tried to place it after my overdrives but it did not work for me. It was not a bad sound, just a little treble and it did not blend well with one of my overdrives. On the other hand (before overdrives), it gave me a sweet transparent booster (no gain), no coloration and blended well with the others guys.
It has headroom galore, good tight overdrive and the option of buffer or true bypass.
Also, you might have a little pop when you turn it on but this just happen the first time (that's why the 4.5 score), after that you can turn it on and off with no pop. This is my second Electro-Harmonix pedal and they are built like a tank, very reliable.
All in All, good transparent booster at good price.

I use this in front of my EHX Big Muff Pi & EHX Metal Muff for a tad more gain & sizzle. Perfect boost pedal when playing anything from doom boogie to scathing black metal! Just get one. EHX pedals are the best!

many uses for this pedal,I use it for a slight ly dirt boost as it stacks so well.It could be used as a medium crunch ,50 watt marshall crunch and does clean boost ae well and for the price you can`t go wrong.

It says Overdrive/Distortion, but that's not really accurate; it's a nice overdrive, but even with the Drive knob DIMED, it doesn't really cross over into distortion like a DS-1 or a Rat. Okay, so that's out of the way. What this thing does do and do very well is fatten up clean tones and give you everything from clean to overdrive with your guitar's volume knob.

I'm playing through a Peavey Classic 50, which is a pretty bright and "jangly" amp. I set the Volume at about 1 o'clock, about the same or a little less for Drive, depending on how loud I need to be, and turn the Treble back to about 11 o'clock. With a bright amp, this thing can get kind of ice-picky at the top-end.

So, plugged in, powered up, struuuum...THE nicest cleans I've ever heard. Rich and full of harmonic content that's absent plugged straight into the amp.

I docked it a half-point because it seems to favor my Les Paul over my Strat, and because it IS possible to get some unpleasant sounds out of this thing.

Switching to the Lead channel on the Peavey can get you all the way into 80s metal, but you'd probably be looking at a different pedal if you wanted more gain than that.

Played side-by-side with my TS9,, this is pedal is similar in application to the Tubescreamer: find the right settings on the pedal and leave it on for great cleans and fat overdrive, and use either another pedal or the gain channel of a multichannel amp for distortion and fuzz.

And they're so cheap you won't possibly regret it!

I use this with a 5 watt Fender Vibro Champ XD and a 15 watt tweed tube amp. It gives the perfect amount of dirt for a great sounding blues. You can't beat the price especially since it includes an AC adapter.

Wonderful into a 68 custom deluxe reverb. Run the drive low for an articulate clean boost or turn it up for a smooth mid boosted overdrive that really cuts. The majority of a Klon Centaur without the 2nd mortgage. Comes with its own wall wart. Great deal.

I have to say that it's exactly what it's described to be and for the price it should be a nice addition to any setup. A high gain distortion pedal it's not but as a clean boost or a lower gain OD to add some "crunch" to rhythm and riff playing or some grit to solos it's a genuinely useful pedal. It's just as transparent as advertised so it does make an exceptionally good booster for single coils, to drive a tube amp onto break up, or even to chain with another OD pedal. I like it.

The tone and functionality of this pedal is perfect if you are looking for a boost that won't destroy your tone, or an overdrive that sounds natural. Lately I've been playing with an Earthquaker Talons, and a Tube Screamer 808, and I like the sound of the Soul Food WAY better. The only complaint is that there is a popping sound sometimes when I first engage the pedal (then it disappears). Could be a dirty switch or something - don't know... But as for tone and useability... I really couldn't be happier with it.

This is an amazing pedal. I was at first reluctant to put it on par with a Centaur, but I will. The thing that was perhaps most surprising was the great sustain of the effects. Really thought they'd drop off, but they don't. Volume will easily max out any tube amp you've got. The overdrive is just fun. Not sure why the named it's "soul food,' but who cares. Just a very versatile pedal and one of 2 or 3 in my vast collection that I really LOVE!

It is Klon-y. it's one maybe ten or so $100 stomps that can do it. If someone stole it, I would buy it again.

great little OD pedal thats pretty transparent. I was looking for something to replace my old tube screamer but i actually like this better.

It's a klone, so you already know how it sounds. Mids for days, as much or as little rich gain as you like, and enough volume to cook whatever's next in the chain. Extremely versatile, I tried it in several different setting and positions on my board before deciding it was most useful at the very end as a solo boost: Just a touch of grit, volume just above unity, treble to taste makes anything I'm playing immediately jump to the front of the mix. It does tend to cut bass frequencies a bit, but that's part of the EQ curve. If that's an issue there's always the bass version...

This 'SOUL FOOD' Pedal can be used as an Over-Drive Pedal by itself...and it ROCKS! It is a Klon Centaur Clone ! BUT where I think it shines the most and is @ its best is as a STACKED Pedal. I use the EHX 'Soul-Food' Pedal 2nd in my signal chain and right before either my FULL-TONE 'OCD', BOSS Blues-Driver WC2, Freidman Dirty Shirley or BOSS Metal Zone 2 Pedals as an added DIRT Pedal........and it CRANKS !!! Keeping the GAIN and TREBLE on 6.6 and the 'LEVEL' used to control volume output to the MARSHALL AMP.
My Compressor/Soul-Food/DIRT PEDALS ('OCD',Blues-Driver,Dirty Shirley,Metal-Zone) all controlling volume with the Final pedals (mentioned last here) governing how loud my RIG will sound, the 'Soul-Food' Pedal adds the XTRA BIT OF DIRT I am after ! Indispensable part of my RIG this Pedal.

Ez to use, wonderful great old fashioned OD!

I use this pedal to boost other dirt pedals - Fulltone OCD and Deluxe Big Muff Pi - for a lead boost and it is really great for that. Leads just jump out with it on. Plays very well with other pedals.

Its sound on its own is pretty treble- and high mid-heavy. I'm still experimenting with it, so maybe I can find a way to use it on its own. We'll see.

a great pedal for the money. works well bt itself or as a boast with other pedals. good job

Small Footprint - reasonable price - needed an additional, small overdrive to fill a space on the board - Been buying EH for over 45 years

I've tried a number of overdrive and distortion pedals over the years and dismissed them all for for various reasons. Based on the reviews and the price I figured I'd give this pedal a try. I'm glad I did. This little guy can go from a mild overdrive to all out raunch. The clean boost is powerful as heck. You just need to work the Vol and Drive pots together. Crank up the Vol and back off the Drive a bit and vice versa. It was easy to get the right amount of overdrive. I'm a set it and forget it guy so this pedal is great for that. If I want clean boost only I go to a different pedal. I recommend this pedal.

And a plug for Sweetwater while I'm at it. Their customer service and attention make me want to thank them for selling to me. Sweetwater is my go to place for gear from now on.

I love this pedal. It goes from subtle to awesome. It's not over the top in any way but gives my guitar the sound and flavor I've been looking for.
Great Pedal!

Soul Food is effective effect. Sweetwater has solid service. Thanks!

I purchased this pedal for my 23 year old son for his birthday. Both of my sons are in successful bands and are very knowledgeable when it comes to their equipment. He specifically asked for this pedal and is so happy with its performance. Thank you and just thought I would share!

Since I’m new to guitar I can’t comment reliably on anything having to do with the tone of the Soul Food. What I will say is that this pedal adds oodles of good clean boost to my little practice amp, allowing it to perform at volumes much greater than its meager size would suggest. The Soul Food exhibits an odd design quirk in that the back lid of the case can not be resealed with the battery in its compartment. There’s just not enough room for the flange around the lid to seat. I contacted EHX and they said, yeah, although there’s an internal connector for a 9v battery the unit is not meant to be run on battery power. Make of this what you will, I think the engineers cramped the designers when they crammed too much into the space, and they came out on top. EHX actually invited me to "move things around." Ha!

Full disclosure: I'm pretty new at guitar. I spent 10 years thinking I couldn't play like the greats, that I didn't have the talent to do anything except strum some chords. So I let my abilities sit stagnant at chords and nothing else and didn't play much. But after losing a family member recently, I took it upon myself to sit down and stubbornly learn as much about guitar playing as I possibly could. I say all of that to let you know that my opinion is totally subjective based upon my limited experience with gear.

Okay. With that out of the way, I can review. So, I have a Fender Mustang 25LT, which is mostly just a nice little practice amp, but one of the things that really bugged me about this amp is that clean tones kind of just sound muffled or muddy. Like, it's not horrible, but it was the crisp, Frusciante-esque stuff I was expecting when I decided to sit down and learn guitar the right way. Plugging this pedal in has been night and day. I use it with Squire Jazzmaster single-coil pickups and the Shawbucker pickup on my Acoustasonic, and both guitars have a rich clean sound that absolutely brightens up the Fender Mustang 25LT. I'm not sure how it sounds with a tube amp. I'm assuming it's even better!

A simple, affordable addition to my pedal board that will prevent a guitar from fading into the band mix. A two o'clock drive setting provides just right level of grit that mimics vintage 50s pickups. I walk the drive back for comping. Very satisfied with this acquisition!

Yesterday I pulled this pedal off my board where it has been for 2 years.
The pedal is a great value for the price, but I would not describe it as transparent as some other people are. There was one exact setting that I liked with this but any time I tried to do anything else with it I wouldn't be satisfied - it can get very nasal to me. It colored my tone noticeably, but I did like that sound for my always on base tone. Which I why I kept it for so long - the treble control is very useful for tone shaping. But it is subpar IMHO interacting with other pedals. Using it as my 1st gain stage I was never fully happy with my 2nd stage. I'd hit the other overdrive and it'd sound like a different guitar suddenly. Watch youtube vids and determine if the Soul Food sound is right for you, but don't expect it to be terribly versatile.
I replaced it with a Walrus Voyager and all the things I had been wanting to do I can now do, so if price isn't the main factor for you then I'd say shell out a little more for something you'll love.

I love the tone of this pedal and I'm still getting used to dialing in the different sounds. I'm using it to replace my vintage tube screamer which is great but I felt it colors the sound more than this pedal. My only concern is the foot switch which has been inconsistent. Most of my pedals are vintage and the switches are sturdy and consistent in how you hit them. Either I'm not quite used to this one or it's faulty. I seem to have to really stomp it to get it to turn off.

Not a bad place to start, affordable simple. If you have time and enough adjustments in your sound system eventually you will find your tone you hear in your head.

Performs as a... pedal should, so it works all right

From my experience, overdrives behave differently depending on the amp they are put in front of. So my review is simply based this pedal in front of my Carol Ann boutique amp. I didn't really find this to be as "transparent" as I was hoping for. It has some usable tones but I think my biggest complaint is with the actual switch. It is very stiff, loud, and even made a popping noise that came through my rig when engaging the switch. I have a handful of pedals on my pedal board and this was the only pedal guilty of doing that.
Again, the Soul Food placed in front of another amp will most likely sound different so I'm not completely knocking the pedal, and on a positive note the price is quite reasonable.

I bought the s.f. , gave it a dance for about 1 full day. I used a D.R.R.I(65)..It sounded a bit weak for my taste, just a tad fizzy. It was ok when I used it by myself in the house,; guess you could use it for blues tunes. . When used in an atmosphere where it was joined with other instruments, other musicians, it kinda fell out, washed out. If, in a gigging situation where you played at a low volume you could tastefully use this pedal if you tweak it long enough. I am a minority judging by the reviews. I feel transparency has a time & place. I was looking for something that had a bit more full-sounding bite.

I sat down and compared this alongside five other OD pedals (including one other Klon-inspired) with my Tele and 65 Princeton Reverb Reissue. This was the least inspiring of the bunch and had harsher high-mids than I can take with my setup. I could get away with using it as a clean boost, but didn't like what I heard adding any additional gain. The volume knob was also very sensitive around 9-10 o'clock... would go from very loud to completely silent with the softest touch.

The Soul Food has a nice range in overdrive, from subtle and warm to very thick. The volume knob gives a decent clean boost, and the treble knob varies the high end harmonics really well. You can really get a lot of good sounds out of this pedal, and it's very dynamic, responding well to picking strength. Overall the character was a little less "sincere" or "convincing" than I wanted it to be, but I haven't been experimenting with it for very long. The sound can get a little thin at times in trying to be "transparent" if you're not careful.

Simply, sounds a little tinny and cheap, but if you really work at it you will get it dialed in. Not the greatest tones or clarity among things but not bad. Just not my tones. But it will do some uncivilized destruction if you want it to.

I tried to dial this pedal in to fit my board but could not.It sounds good in the Sweetwater video but not here.I ended up selling it the next day.

I very much like the mild-mannered boost this pedal gave, for blues and jazzy things. But, not long after Sweetwater's warrantee expired, it does nothing but emit a high-pitched whine. So-- beware.

Got this on advice from shop. I asked for 3 pedals that guitarists should have. I recently bought a nice Taylor T5z for my PTSD. No problems so far. After a couple of my short sessions I notice more feedback. This pedal was the cause. Upon closer inspection of the frame, it is cracked. Ok, no big deal. I'm an electrician and this can't be the full problem. I can fix this. I open it, the switch is busted. Next to the battery, optional, is the blue switch. It was not only loose but the two prongs for on/off was busted.

Keep your money and find a more durable overdrive.

The minute I plugged this pedal in and tried it out it cut all of the bottom end out of my signal. I tried all the settings and it was just like I'd turned the bass dial down to zero on my amp. Sorry, EH, but I dont' think this qualifies as "transparent". Maybe the pedal was a lemon, but I returned it to Sweetwater and they took it back, no probs.