Electro-Harmonix SOUL POG

The Soul POG is an overdrive and octave multi-effect pedal from Electro-Harmonix, released in 2016. It combines two of the company's existing pedals in one enclosure: the Soul Food transparent overdrive and the Nano POG polyphonic octave generator¹². The two sides can be used independently or together, and a toggle switch in the middle of the pedal decides which one the guitar hits first¹³.

For a player, that order switch is the heart of the pedal. Running the Soul Food into the POG means the octave generator tracks an overdriven signal; running the POG first means the octave voices are generated from a clean guitar and then driven by the overdrive. There is also an effects loop that sits between the two sections, so another pedal can be inserted into the chain in either order¹.

The controls

The Soul Food side of the pedal carries three knobs, and the POG side has its own footswitch and mode switch. Two footswitches in total, one for the POG side and one for the Soul Food side, let you bring each effect in and out independently⁵.

The Mode switch is worth a closer look for anyone shopping the octave side. Guitar Interactive described its two positions: one is optimized for fast, single-note playing, while the other enhances the harmonic content of chords³. That is the same behavior players know from the Nano POG, and it makes the difference between a tight lead voice and a wider, more organ-like chord texture.

In a MusicRadar demo filmed at NAMM 2016, Electro-Harmonix's John described what the Soul Food side can do, from a clean boost that fills out the sound and adds mids to a cranked-amp kind of drive⁶:

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Jacks, effects loop and power

The pedal has five quarter-inch jacks: input, send, return, dry out and effect out¹⁷. The dry out jack outputs a buffered version of the input signal, and guitar.com's reviewer, Chris Vinnicombe, noted that the Nano POG's separate wet and dry outputs have been retained, which lets you split the effected and clean signals to different destinations¹⁷.

The send and return jacks form the effects loop, and it works exactly where a player would want it: between the Soul Food and Nano POG sections. Connect the send to the input of whatever pedal you want in the loop, and the return to that pedal's output¹.

Where it came from and what reviewers said

Electro-Harmonix announced the Soul POG at NAMM in January 2016, and it was available immediately⁴². It joined the Epitome, Holy Stain, Tone Tattoo and Turnip Greens in the multi-effect category of the EHX catalog, a pattern of the company pairing established circuits into single boxes⁷. The enclosure follows Electro-Harmonix's usual style, with "Built in New York City, USA" on the front⁵.

At launch, MusicRadar reported a price of $381 including the power supply⁸, and Premier Guitar gave the USA list price as $381.40⁴. The current maker's page lists it at $324.80¹. In the UK, guitar.com reviewed it at £219⁷.

Vinnicombe's guitar.com review compared the overdrive side against the J Rockett Archer Ikon, another Klon-style transparent overdrive, and found the differences were matters of fine detail⁷:

For players weighing the Soul POG against separate boxes, the pitch side is the same polyphonic octave generator family as the Micro POG, the POG2 and the later POG3, while the drive side sits in the transparent overdrive lane alongside the rest of the overdrive market. The Soul POG's pitch is the combination: two pedals, one power supply, one loop, and an order switch that separate pedals would need a switching loop to match¹³².

Videos

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Questions