Are you gain staging with the Soul Food?
I like the Soul Food, especially at the price, but I don't care for it with the gain turned up too high. Get's very harsh very quickly.
Well, not many can afford an actual Klon! But there isn't a whole lot to them- the closes like the Soul Food do a great job. I built one, a BYOC Silver Pony, and it sounds great. On mine, I have the gain up all the way, and use it as my only source of gain.
I had an Ikon as well... it sounded really good. Very "complex" and "3D-sounding". Very nice pedal.I played a Soul Food briefly. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't add anything I couldn't get some other way. I have an Archer Ikon gold, though I haven't really gotten to run it fully through it's paces. Really IMO it's a tool to make a Strat work with the same rig as a Les Paul without changing amp settings.
I use it with the gain dialed back so I can stack overdrive pedals with it. Foe me, it's always on with that particular rig.