Electro Harmonix Bass Soul Food

I was looking for an overdrive pedal for my P Bass. I had been using a Way Huge Electronics Fat Sandwich, which is a guitar distortion pedal and whilst I got interesting sounds with it (heavy saturation), it's not a bass pedal and I was definitely losing some bass frequencies.
The price was definitely an important factor for me. I didn't want to fork out too much. The Blend knob is great and essential for me. It allows you to retain as much or as little of the original bass sound as you like. You can then play with the 'drive' and 'treble' knobs to find the overdrive setting you like (volume knob controls overall output volume). The more you crank the treble, the more the signal is overdriven. The treble also acts like a tone knob I guess. There's a lot of different sounds you can achieve by playing around with different knob configurations, so quite versatile really. The 10db attenuation switch is also handy for active basses, or if you just want to lower the input of your passive bass.
So far, I have only used this at home on my EBS Session 60 combo, so I've yet to try it out on a larger amp & cab. It's definitely a useful and versatile pedal and good value for the price. The include power adapter is of course also handy. I was also considering the Catalina Bread SFT pedal, but that doesn't have a blend knob, so I went with this and so far I'm happy with it.

A good little pedal for those who need a light overdrive.

Adds lovely top end grit to the signal, the blend knob stops you losing too much of the bass frequencies. Works brilliantly with a pick and palm muting - adds some nice chunky sparkle to the sound.

A very good sound, well built at a good price. Two issues: the switch pops. Some complain about every time, for me it seems to only be the first time you use the pedal. I always quickly engage it and disengage it after plugging in the pedalboard - after that, no issues.
The other issue is that like a lot of EHX pedals, it?s quite thin sounding. It does need help from a boost somewhere in your signal chain.

Still recommended, but be aware it?s not for everyone.

It's a common issue with pedals, but this thing pops when you turn it on due to static discharge. I have heard that this can be remedied by turning on the internal buffer. I tried that, but there is still a pop if I turn the effect on while putting any signal through it. Hotter signal, louder pop. Kind of a deal breaker for me because this would be something I would kick on while I'm playing to rock out in a chorus for example.

While the pedal is on, it's a nice sounding od. Subtle and warm. Definitely on the vintage side of things. The gain level is quite low, but you can juice some more breakup out of it if needed by feeding it a hotter signal.