Ugly Truth About Getting Your Pedal Modded By JHS

If you are up on your pedal, then you are familiar with JHS pedals, they started offering a service to mod popular pedals for those that are so inclined. They started developing custom circuits and offering a line of pedals. Some of these pedals are very highly respected and sought after. I've been a DIY guy for the most part and have done many mods to Boss and Ibanez pedals, so I've never gone in for sending pedal off. Planning mods and tracking down parts has been a fond hobby for a long time, but this mod in particular seemed like a solid candidate. Now, on with the truth!

Here's what I got back form JHS

It's Uncomfortably Long Process

When dealing with send pedal through the mail, the worst part is the wait. Anyone who has order a piece of gear knows that it hard to wait. They have your money, you've made your decision, but you have days before you can play with your new piece of kit. Unlike an order from a retail web-store, The modding process is a service. So you mail your pedal, in this case, it took three days to arrive at JHS. Then they have to process your order in the order it was received. I was alerted that since I had mailed it just before the new year, then there would be a delay. The website stated that a typical order could take up to three weeks to process. So, I wasn't stoked. It ended up taking right up to the three week mark to receive my pedal, so according to the website, it was quite timely. If you were a active musician with gigs, then you would be out an important part of you rigs for weeks.

There A Hidden Fees

The enticing point of all of this mess is that you (yes, you!) can have a boutique-quality, professional-grade piece of gear for the price of a popular, mass-produced piece of gear. All you have to do is get these wizards to do their special brand of voodoo to it first. All for a nominal fee, of course. But that is to be expected. Nothing is free, but you probably already have one of the massively popular pedals that they offer a mod to, so its not like you are spending more money on your pedal, you are investing in an upgrade. So you come to accept the seemly exorbitant cost or changing a few part that total to a couple of dollars, but you rationalize it to yourself somehow. Then you come to find that they stick you with the cost of shipping it back to you. (not only that, but it's twice as much as you paid to ship it there...) In all I nearly doubled the price of my Soul Food, but it was all worth it, right?

It Might be worth it

Of course, I was excited to receive my pedal back from JHS. It just like getting new gear, expect that it was yours to begin with... So I spent a fair amount of time playing with my newly modded pedal, as I do, and I'm happy with it. That is, in the since that it was any worse than way I left it. Also the bass knob made a considerable difference when rolled all the way up. The switch that controls the clipping diodes made a very minute difference. I'm pleased with the changes made. I didn't have to lift a finger to do them, and everything looks great. 

Conclusion

Is it worth it to get your pedal modded by JHS. I think we already know the answer to that question. No. It is absolutely not worth it. Do I think that my $60 dollars (yes, all told I spent $60 on the mod plus shipping both ways) would have been better spent toward another pedal that already accomplished what I was trying to do the the original pedal. Unless it is directly related the the functionality of the pedal (like adding addition modes or settings) then a mod is mostly that special incantation that only those practitioners of the dark arts know. Or you know, google and soldering... 

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Ugly Truth About The New EHX Soul POG

If you follow Electro Harmonix, then you know they drop a new pedal into their line every other Tuesday (or something like that). It seems like they just announced the Lester pedals and hot on its heels is the new Soul POG. What seems to be a mash-up of EHX's two most popular pedal is... exactly that. They've put two of their highest selling and popular pedals into one box. Why? Go figure. They do a lot of things I don't understand. (like releasing a pedal with two different paint jobs). If you're asking your self, "Isn't this like what they did with the Soul Food and Holy Grail MAX?", yes, it's exactly like that. So, why the POG? Why now?

From EHX:

Combines two sweet pedals—-the Soul Food transparent overdrive and Nano POG polyphonic octave generator—-in one potent multi-effect. Use them alone or together, put either first in the chain, insert other pedals between them with the FX loop. Also includes a cool Mode switch for a choice of two different octave-up sounds. The versatile Soul POG delivers award-winning overdrive and flawless polyphonic octaves in any combination!

From the sound of it, Electro Harmonix don't sound very inspired by this mash-up either.

They Try'd This Before

The Turnip Greens pedal was the previous mash-up of the Soul Food and Holy Grail MAX. I was pretty interested in that pedal and almost bought it until I remembered that I already owned the Soul Food and the Boss RV-6 was a thing... So I like the idea, but if you have either one of these pedals, then it doesn't do you much good to buy it again, right?

There Isn't An Incentive To Buy This Pedal Even If You Want Both Pedals

Even if you are looking to buy a POG and Soul Food pedal, why would you buy this? It takes two pedals that would run on opposite sides of your board and sticks them together. Yes, it has a loop so that you can run pedal in between, but that seems like a cable routing nightmare. Especially if you are like me, and have a decent sized board already laid out. Not to mention, the price is basically the cost of both pedal combined. Why? The pedal is more complicated, but one unit with less flex should cost less than two independent units.

It's More Tempting Than I'd Like To Admit

For the reasons above, this pedal is not to be desired, right? It doesn't make any sence. I shouldn't want to buy it. That's what I though, unit I saw this:

I want to make all those sounds. You did it to me again Mike Matthews...

Hands On Review Of The Electo Harmonix Crayon Overdrive

There has been a lot of talk about this little pedal. Most web-stores don't even have the Crayon on there sites yet. A local store selling through Reverb.com was able to hook me up with one. The main thing is that everyone wants to know what other pedal it sounds like. Well I've tried it out and I can now tell you. However, that would be blowing my load a little too soon. So here's what owning and using this particular pedal has shown me.

It's Pretty Good. 

A lot of people liked what they heard from the EHX video demos. The Soul Food was a huge hit, so when they debuted a new light/medium overdrive peoples ears perked up. The Four knobs are a departure from most of their small drive pedals. Giving us Bass and Treble to manipulate is a step up. The clipping is musical and satisfying. The Bass and Treble are responsive and flexible. The Gain take you from clean to filthy with a twist. There is plenty of meat on these bones too. Playing a Tele through a Vox AC15 you'd expect twangy and spanky, but with this pedal engaged you plenty of grunt to thicken up that Tele sound.

The Name Is A Little Silly, Considering...

This pedal is one of the best clean boosts with the gain dialed back. It really preserves the sound of your guitar when playing through it. It doesn't jack with your tone in a bad way. Tube screamers will always add that mid-hump, but this pedal, when set correctly, will give you your tone right back to you, only louder. But not much louder. Much of the volume remain hidden until you start to add gain. But that is the reason to buy an overdrive, right? Besides being named after a childish art utensil, "coloring you tone" is considered a no-no, so when the hype video said the pedal did just that, well, it was a little bit of a face-palm moment.

It Gets You Close To That Sound With Minimal Effort

If you look at my pedal board, you will see that I like stacking my gain pedals. I have a Soul Food almost always on and cranked up to push the next pedal (Tube Screamer/OCD/Super Badass). Some times I'll run the TS into the OCD to get really noisy. I like combining Overdrives with other pedals to simulate the effect of a overdriven amp while keeping to bedroom levels. Not to say that other pedals need  a another in front of it, but this pedal has gotten pushed-a-little-too-hard (in a good way) sound all by it's self. There are a lot of things that I like about the Soul Food in this pedal, but mixed with better EQ and great clipping section.

In Conclusion

If you are in the market for a single pedal to do must of the heavy lifting of your dirt section and don't want to full with stacking different pedals, then this might be right up your ally. What the Soul Food lacks in flexibility, The Crayon Does rather well, with the bonus of being transparent in the best way possible. This pedal is a little more than just the "pre" section of you gain section. It has the grunt to be your entire overdrive section. It does play well with other though. Especially if the other pedal is heavier. All in all this pedal is a great box. Even if it turns out to be heavily "inspired" by another pedal, this pedal is a great addition to an already pretty stellar list of pedals in EHX's line.

Top 5 EHX Crayon Rumors

There has been a lot said about this pedal since it was teased by EHX a few days ago. Forums and blogs have been abuzz about how it shares it's name with a JHS pedal. Personally I am excited to check this pedal out for myself. There is a lot of speculation about what this pedal might have in common with other pedals. In other word: What kind of clone is this pedal. As exciting as it would be to have a inexpensive pedal to do the job of a pedal that might be financially out of reach of some player, other look at copy-cat pedals as rip-offs that are just attempts to make money off of other peoples work. No matter wear you fall on the issues of clones, new pedals are exciting. Lets look at what is being said about The Eletro Harmonix Crayon

It's a JHS Color Box Clone

Yep, this one is a little on the nose. JHS has not only put out a pedal of the same name, but they are similar in function as well. Some have mentioned the differences in the two, such as the toggle that is missing from EHX's pedal. Although they have added internal switches that match other clones. The Soul Food pedal has internal buffer switching. Maybe this is a little surprise they are waiting to expose closer to it's commercial release. EHX hasn't really been this spot on with a name before. The TS clone is almost entirely green, but it was named East River Drive. The Klon Centar gives clones lot opportunity to riff on the name, my favorite being the Tumnus from Wampler, but EHX went with Soul Food. Still don't really 'get it', but hey...

Mike as he hints that the Crayon is a Fulltone clone...

It's a Timmy Clone

This is a little more simple to unpack. The Crayon has four knobs. The Timmy has four knobs. The Timmy is a popular pedal. EHX has a habit of copying popular pedals. This one isn't as much reserch driven theory as it is process of elimination. Whats the most popular four knob, light-to-medium gain pedal on the market... That must be it. The Timmy is based on the Tube Screamer with more control over the EQ. It's a great pedal. It might, in fact, bear more than a passing resemblance to the Crayon. What I've heard so far doesn't really lead me to think that, but I'm wrong a lot.

It's an RC Booster

This one is a little bit of a stretch. The circuit could share some similarities, but the reasons the comparison has been made in the first place is just mind-blowing. So, people other than my self have stated that the link between these pedals are the names. Crayon begins with the letters C and R. Turn those around and you get RC. There you have it. Rock solid proof that the Crayon is a RC Booster. The RC is a popular four-knob pedal, so there is that as well. But like I said before, word play is not one of EHX's strong suits. Nor naming things in general. Muff, Cock Fight, Glove... eh, I guess we'll buy anything that we think sounds good.

It's a Soul Food With a JHS Type Mod

Jeez, I hope so. I would buy two if this was the case. The only thing is, this would be utterly stupid for EHX to do. Why put out a pedal so closely related to your other pedal, but better. The Bass Soul Food is just that, a four knob Soul Food, although the fourth knob with a signal mix. The pedal went form transparent overdrive to just transparent to the point you can't tell if it is on. But you'll notice that the extra feature came with extra cost. Again we have extra features with the bass knob, but no added cost this time. It looks like they are able to assemble these pedals for no more that the other affordable clones they've been putting out.  What makes this hold a little bit of water is the fact that they are marketing this 180 degrees from the Soul Food. The Soul Food is a "transparent overdrive" where as this is meant to "color" your tone. Now they can sale you two pedals to do the job that normally one pedal has done. Sneaky...

It's a Robert Cray pedal

This is fun, Robert Cray is a blue musician. I have him playing it the background as a write this right now. Fun fact, it been said that Mr. Cray doesn't use pedals. Although I hear delay on his guitar right now... anyhow. I have not been able to confirm and use of drive pedals in the video of the live set that I am playing currently. He does have a Fender and Matchless amp among other accessories (none of which are pedals) on stage to shape his tone. Why would he. He is employing overdriven amps to make his overdrive. Why use a pedal that emulates an amp when you can just use a cranked amp. Robert Cray's tone is awesome and I would buy just about any pedal that could make me sound like that. Why have people said that this is true? The name, and the fact that his tone is mostly clean, much like the Crayon. Cray...Crayon... just too close to not be mentioned...

What do I think about all this... well, in a few days it won't even matter. We will have all the answers. But it's fun to speculate in the meantime.

The Ugly Truth About My Pedal Board

It seems like a long time ago I started building what is now my pedal board. I started with a single pedal (Digitech Bad Monkey) and continued building. My first actual effect was a Digitech multi-effect processor. I was never satisfied with it. I've bough and replaced so many pedals that it is hard to remember what my actual first board looked like. I do remember that I ran a Boss DD-3 Delay, Boss Metal Zone, Fender Analog tuner (not a pedal but mounted to be board), Behringer Hellbabe Wah, and a JamMan Looper. I don't think there is a single piece of the gear in my possession any more. Even the board that I used to use has moved on.

So what am I using? Well, my board is homemade. My collection had grown and I needed a board to hold everything. At one time I was running 20+ pedals. There were a few duplicates. Most were modded/unmodded options, but basically everything I owned was on the board. I liked having everything available at once. This was a home rig I put together when I wasn't playing anywhere. In the last year or so, I've seen a lot of that gear go and a lot of new stuff come in. So my board now is: Ernie Ball Volume, Boss TU-2 Tuner, EHX Soul Food, EHX Glove, EHX East River Drive, MXR Superbadass Distortion, EHX Metal Muff, Boss GE-7, Outlaw Effects 5 O'Clock Fuzz, Boss TR-2, Boss GE-7 (again), and a DD-20 Gigadelay. Not by any means complete, but it's a work in progress.

The last time I did a post on my board was years ago. You can see it here. The board has changed a lot, but do still use the delay and tuner for that board, because they just have to work and they do. As for everything else, ether my tastes have changed or I found something that has suited me better.

The EHX Soul Food and Why Its Not a Klon Klone.

This might be a little behind the curve, but let's talk about the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food. There is a common assumption that it is a Klon clone. That's not a terrible assessment. From the outside, this is a very similar pedal. We have Treble, Volume and Gain knobs on both pedals. You get sounds that are similar out of both pedal. The circuit them selves might be very similar, but then again are most gain circuits "similar". I'm a fan on the Soul Food. I have one on my board currently. I'd probably like the Klon Centaur too. Did EHX just rip a massivly popular pedal off? Probably. But there are differences that separate the two, and they are:

1. It's Smaller

Let's start slow. The original Klon and the Klon Centaur are larger pedals. If you look at the insides of one these pedals you notice ample space. EHX created a circuit that fit in their small enclosure. Not ground breaking, but its a key difference.

2. It's Less Expensive

Right, again, duh... But lets take a look at what other Klones cost and see what EHX did. They made a pedal that performed a similar function and made it for a fraction of the price. Other similar pedal tend to take advantage of being klones and charge similar prices. This pedal bucked the trend and filled a gap in the market.

3. Switches, Please...

The Klon KTR (the red one) has a buffer. On the KTR it is optional, but the Soul Food is true-bypass. The Klon buffer is so fabled that people have made klones of the Klon buffer. The Soul Food has a switch as well. Hidden inside is a voltage switch. It takes your 9-volt supply and doubles it for more headroom. So, that's neat, and different.

4. Some Things Just Aren't The Same

We've discussed some finer points, but crack this pedal open and thing just aren't the same. Values and specs aren't one for one. The main difference being the diodes are germanium like in the Klon. Alchemy Audio has a mod that corrects this. What you get is a clipping section that more closely resemble that of a Klon. Is the mod worth you $35? Maybe,

In Conclusion

The EHX Soul Food is a great pedal. Many people have added it to their pedal boards for good reasons. Whether it is a klone or not shouldn't matter. What matters is that when you plug it in and turn it on, you like what it does. Nuf Said