
I found the Treble, Mid, and Bass controls to provide a useful range of sounds without going overboard at the extremes. The Gain control runs from completely clean to about as much crunch and saturation as a cranked vintage amp, with minimal compression. It's relatively uncolored, and can be dialed in via the three-band EQ controls to sound identical to the direct signal.

The Allied Overdrive uses JFET gain stages to create amp-like, low-to-medium levels of overdrive and early distortion. The pedal runs on a standard center-positive 9v power supple, features ¼” stereo inputs and outputs, and true-bypass footswitches for the Overdrive and Boost (more on that later). The Electro-Harmonix Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive (we'll call it the Allied Overdrive for short), in addition to being a mouthful, is a stereo overdrive pedal with controls for Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, and Volume as well as a Boost overdrive with independent volume control and a Dry knob to blend the direct signal with the overdrive. As they’ve added one more overdrive effect to their roster, one has to wonder what’s left to cover? The pedal in question, the Electro-Harmonix Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive, answers that question with a unique feature-set. Electro-Harmonix Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive Effect Pedalįor a special overdrive, sometimes you need to call in special forcesĮlectro-Harmonix has no less than 45 current production gain-based effects listed on its site, so it’s fair to say they’ve covered a lot of ground in the distortion arena.
