Well I replaced the Soul Food with a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe.
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Both of these pedals are considered to Klon clones. I've had the Soul Food for some time. My first overdrive pedal. I've been on the search for a better Klon clone. I like what the SF pedal does to the sound of the ukulele but I wanted something cleaner--more clear sounding--smoother. Cost was also a consideration. A Klon KTR can go for around $1000 and a used Klon Centaur can go for 3K plus---crazy. Something about $200 or less would be more in my price range.
Also to consider is what is the pedal really going to sound like with my ukulele and the amp I am using?? One really never knows. There just are not a lot of resources out there. Sure there are tons of guitar pedal YouTube videos but it's not exactly the same. So I spent a lot of time on those video's that are available both ukulele and guitar pedal usage.
I narrowed by choices down to a Mythos Mjolnir (including the Wildwood edition-which is a little different and more in the $279 price range. Desirable but a little pricey and not currently available) and a Wampler Tumnus. The regular Mjolnir and the Tumnus Deluxe are both priced at $199.99. I had not really been moving to buy either of these just yet as I have been pretty happy with my set up and continue to explore it's possibilities. Well Stillwater Music was have it's extended Black Friday sale starting last week so I went on the website to see what they had. SW had the Tumnus Deluxe for $30 off their regular price. Time to buy.
So after being gone for a couple of days doing family and Thanksgiving things I got home yesterday and the Tumnus was on the bench in the kitchen. My son came home a day early to do some things with friends on Friday. I told him to keep an eye out for a box from SW.
After unpacking and cleaning up making sure turkey leftovers were in the fridge and everything I was able to get the two pedals together for some A/B testing. The Tumnus is clearly the winner to my listening ears. The SF I have to have the buffer on. The SF has some "noise" "muddyness", particularly as the gain is turned up. I found the Tumnus stays clear as the gain is turned up and even at 3 oclock the distortion is clear and open. Pushing the SF gain to distortion is a muddy noisy mess. It's not that I push the sound that direction but it's nice to know what the pedal can do and how is sounds. Regardless of the gain position I found the Tumnus sound just to be plain better.
Wampler makes the Tumnus and the Tumnus Deluxe. The TD is a little higher in cost, but with that one gets the three way equalizer knobs. I think with ukulele this will be a plus. There is also a switch for Normal and Hot. Played with this a little but will need more experimenting to see if there is a significant difference. Being able to fine tune the signal will help with the output of the final sound. I'm likely to find the sweet spot for most of my playing and then set it and forget it for the most part with gain adjustments as wanted.
The TD should play well with my Fender Smolder. I tested these together just a little. I might find I don't need the Fender Smolder as well. I'll keep playing both for a while and test out how I like things. I don't know though. Removing the Smolder would open up room for some kind of modulation pedal that I don't yet have??? So goes the rabbit whole.......