Electro Harmonix

FEBRUARY 2020 TOTAL GUITAR
With thousands of variant models on the market, TG is here to
help you pick an overdrive pedal off the shelf, right now.
105
T
he Operation Overlord is an interesting
beast. When we fi rst plug it in, with all
the knobs at 12 o’clock, we fi nd it to be
very diff erent in timbre from the overdrives
we’re used to, much more mid-forward than
the norm. In terms of the voicing, it feels
more geared to a keyboard or electric piano.
However, while the bass, mid and treble pots
give you fi ne-grained control over the tone,
the voicing never sat quite right with our
setup. The gain range is so-so, until you
switch it into boost mode, where it comes
into its own. It’s relatively picky, and
required careful dialling in.
O
kay, when we said these were
all overdrives, we might have told
a slight lie. Popping off the back of
the Marvellous Engine reveals it’s a ProCo
Turbo RAT circuit with some mods, making it
technically a distortion, although it has some
decent low-gain tones as well. At the higher
end of the gain spectrum it gives the amp
a decent workout even with the volume down,
and stays relatively articulate throughout.
The one major change to the original circuit
is a voicing control that can add in additional
clipping; more akin to a presence control, but
it does open up some additional sonic options.
EHX Operation
Overlord Nano
PATIENCE NEEDED
Snake Oil Effects
Marvellous Engine
THE OUTSIDER
BYPASS:
Origin: buffered bypass
Snake Oil: true bypass
EHX: buffered
POWER:
9-volt psu (all pedals)
CONTAC T:
Origin: www.origineffects.com
Snake Oil: www.andertons.co.uk
EHX: www.ehx.com
AT A GLANCE
£85
£149
ROUND-UP
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
TGR328.gear_pedals.indd 105 07/01/2020 12:29