Electro-Harmonix Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive Pedal Reviews

Bought this for keyboards due to the stereo ins/outs, blend knob, boost option for solos, and headroom switch. It does that well enough to justify the price for sure… dialing in the blend knob in particular lets you keep the character of your keyboard tone while adding grit. But then I plugged my guitar into this thing and wow, it sounds just amazing! I've got way more guitar-centric dual-od pedals that have been benched by this thing. EHX is an incredible bang-for-buck pedal maker.

I was looking for a pedal that would give me a slight bit of OD without coloring the sound of my guitar or amp. After hearing a ton of positive reviews on Youtube about the Boss/JHS Angry Charlie I bought one.
That purchase confirmed for me that I don't like anything with a lot of knobs or switches. The other thing it confirmed was that there was absolutely no bottom end to be had with that pedal. I knew immediately that I'd wind up just fooling with it and would never be happy so I took it back for an exchange.

Everyone swears up and down that the Tube Screamer is the best OD to fit my needs and prefaces the statement by adding "Stevie Ray Vaughn used one." So, traded the Angry Charlie for an AnalogMan modded TS. It was a piece of sh-crap. On one side it was muddy as he-ck. On the other end it was brittle as a windowpane stuck in an icecap. There was no in-between.

I only need one more piece of this puzzle to complete my quest for the heavenly sound. ONE MORE PIECE!!! So, I call up another store that specializes in pedals and they suggest the Way Huge Pork Loin. I once had a Way Huge Russian Pickle that was nice, so I grabbed that piece of crap TS (that everyone seems so fond of because STEVIE RAY VAUGHN USED ONE), and headed for the store. With time to browse I decided on 3 pedals to compare... the Pork Loin, the Fulltone PlimSoul, and the EHX Operation Overlord which, before this time, I had never seen or heard of but because it was an EHX pedal and I replaced my Russian Pickle with a Big Muff Pi, I figured I'd give it a try. I tried the Pork Loin and the PlimSoul twice before trying the Overlord. Nether of those were worth my money because nether one had any TONE. I'm searching for TONE. Is that so heard to ask for? TONE. I finally plug into the Overlord and it was like an addiction. I couldn't believe it! I was in love! Then, I noticed something about it that no other OD pedal has... a freaking dry knob! How hard is it to put a dry knob on a pedal so you don't lose the sound of the instrument???? EHX rocks! Not only is the Big Muff Pi the best sounding, most versatile fuzz pedal in the world but, the best sounding, most logically made OD pedal is made by the same company.

The Electro-Harmonix Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive can supply OD for days without coloring or overriding the sound of your amp or guitar. I'm using mine for crunchy chords and it is perfect for that as well. My quest for the heavenly sound is complete. My Mesa Boogie Fillmore 25 (which I bought from Roq Martin here at Sweetwater), has all the OD/distortion I need, and clean channel is as beautiful as a woman on her wedding day. Combined with the EHX Big Muff Pi and my TC Electronics Corona Chorus, the Boogie Fillmore sings praises to the heavenly host. I simply needed one more pedal to add some crunch to my chords without sacrificing my tone. The Overlord fits the bill.

Like every other pedal, I first watch as many demos as I can find. The "Overlord" didn't have that many, being a fairly new product for EHX, but I liked what I saw and heard, so I bought it. There's a lot of possible variations here, especially adding in Mix and Boost control, along with Boost foot switch. The 3-band EQ controls the flavor nicely. The sound is solid and warm (great natural O.D.). The foot switches are easy to "tap" on/off w/ no annoying "click" (better than other pedals with similar-"looking" switches that have to be stomped hard, producing a heavy "click"). It's now my favorite O.D. pedal (I own 3 others).

As the title suggests, I'm a keyboard player. Searching for quality outboard effects can be a monumental task for keyboardists, as most manufacturers have guitarists in mind when they design effects pedal.
Not so with the Operation Overlord. It was originally intended for keys, and it does a very commendable job at that. What sold me on it was the stereo signal path (a MUST for most keys), and the dry/wet knob.

Using the Dry, Gain and Boost knobs you can dial in the perfect amount of grit for pretty much anything you can think of. It can be very transparent or very torrid, from just a hint of grit all the way up to distortion overkill.
You want Deep Purple? This gives you Deep Purple. You want to ' trip the light fandango'? You can with this. You want some Boston style 'Foreplay'? You got it. "Green Onions"? This pedal will serve 'em up for you.

My one minor disappointment is that the tonal character still seems aimed at electric guitar. There are 3 EQ knobs, thankfully, to help retain the tonal character of your sound, but "flat" is not actually flat - there is a distinct low-mid emphasis when the pedal is engaged. I find that I have to boost the treble a good bit, and bring the bass down a tad to retain the key's original tone.

Otherwise, exactly what I was looking for. Highly recommended, and Thanks Sweetwater, for breaking the sound barrier to get this to me!! I ordered on Friday afternoon, Pacific time, and it was in my mailbox Monday afternoon. Can't beat that!

Got this pedal originally for my Minimoog Voyager Electric Blue. Plugged it in and tried it individually at both points (Moog Stereo Out - Pedal - Mixer and also at the Mix Out - Pedal - Filter In junction of the Moog) and quickly realized that a lot of the richness of the tone was taken away by the pedal. Not happy with using this pedal with my Moog. Doesn't bring anything interesting in this application.... Pretty nice for Synth Bass tones on the Moog but I don't use Synth Bass tones too much when playing live....

I also play E.P. tones a lot on a stage keyboard and this pedal brings some nice dirt to E.P. tones and that's where I'm using it now. You can setup the pedal to have different levels of dirt on the Boost and Overdrive sections and effectively have 3 levels of dirt on your tone from super subtle to super harsh using the Bypass and/or Boost switches. The Dry/Wet knob is great also. Best part of the pedal is that I can continue using my live setup in Stereo.

This pedal is going to be part of my setup for sure....

I thought I'd try the pedal because of the features; dual channel distortion modes, the addition of a Mid range tone control, and the Dry knob for mixing distorted and clean signals. When I first started using the unit I didn't realize that you have to remove the back cover and flip a switch to get the Boost mode to work independently. Haven't yet had too much time to experiment with the sounds, though.

I am giving this 3.5 stars because I think with some alterations it could be fantastic. Firstly I am a bassist and I have been searching for a couple viable overdrives for a board I have been putting together. When I saw the Op OL I was very interested in its features. Blend, input level selection, 3 band eq, and built in boost.

I will say the pedal was built well and is of high quality but I have several other pedals that perform better than this as OD's (Porkloin, EBS Multidrive, SA Aftershock). The overdrive works well enough but the eq points are not really voiced for bass and my biggest complaint was that it is a buffered bypass, and not a particularly transparent buffer either. I had a similar issue with another ehx pedal in the past and this one fell into the same category, there was tone loss when bypassed.

I was impressed with the multiple innovative features included on this pedal but unfortunately it didn't make the grade for me as a Bass OD, I think if it the eq points were set to lower frequencies and the the pedal was true bypass it would definitely be worth another look.

This is just a commentary for this pedal on bass, I did not try it on guitar.

I was hoping to get some serious crunch and destruction for synths and drum machines, but it just doesn't have the power that I had thought it would have. Guitar-based reviews had said that it could get very distorted, even going into fuzz territory. I was disappointed, but I will find another use for it where I don't need a ton of distortion.