Greer Black Mountain Crunch Drive

The Greer Black Mountain Crunch Drive is a crunch overdrive pedal from Greer Amps, a Georgia-based boutique builder. It is aimed squarely at the sound of British amps: Greer describes it as a "Giant stack based CRUNCH drive," and the company says it covers everything from simply adding crunch to "that famous midrange snarl and growl of those metal panel amps that came out just" after the Plexi era. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio heard the same character, writing that "the Black Mountain offers a definite tonal flavor reminiscent of the British amps, with their mid-range emphasis and crunchy saturation."¹²

Greer is not shy about where the pedal came from. The company says the circuit "was inspired by many conversations with many friends, and developed with The Darkness' album Permission to" Land blasting in the background. Delicious Audio adds that the pedal is "inspired at least in part by the post-Plexi era Marshall amps, also known for their metal panel."¹²

The circuit: imbalanced diodes for texture

At the heart of the pedal are its clipping diodes, the components that do the distorting in a hard-clipping drive. Greer's approach here is unusual enough that the company leads with it: "The two clipping diodes responsible for the drive in this circuit are purposefully imbalanced, selected to impart the proper texture and crunch" for the circuit. In other words, the two diodes are deliberately not matched, and that asymmetry is what shapes the pedal's crunch.¹²³

Pedal of the Day's reviewer places the pedal in a slightly different frame, calling it "a tone quest for the sound of one particular recording of a crunchy British amp." Either way, the design goal is the same: a specific British crunch, not a generic distortion.³

The circuit has also been picked up by the DIY community. GuitarPCB publishes a build document for its Black Mountain Bonus PCB, which the company describes as "Based on the Greer Amps Black Mountain."⁴

Power and practicalities

The Black Mountain runs on a standard negative center 2.1mm power supply and accepts anything from 9 to 18 volts DC. Greer states the requirement as "9-18 volt neg. center pin ONLY" and lists the current draw as 10mA at 9V.¹²

Bass players, shipping and warranty

Greer markets the pedal to more than guitarists, describing it as "bringing new dimensions of vintage tone to guitarists (and bass players, too!)"¹²

A few practical points from the maker:

• Pedals are built to order and ship within 1 to 2 weeks of order and payment¹
• The warranty runs 5 years to the original owner¹
• RockBoard's PedalPedia entry points readers to Delicious Audio's written review and a Pedalboard of the Day demo⁵

What reviewers said

Delicious Audio's writeup frames the pedal as a new British-style crunch overdrive and highlights the midrange emphasis and crunchy saturation it shares with the amps that inspired it.² Pedal of the Day's 2025 review treats it as a crunch-based drive born from chasing one particular recording, which fits with Greer's own account of a circuit developed with a specific album on the stereo.³ The pedal sits among Greer's drive lineup alongside circuits like the Greer Southland Harmonic Overdrive and the Greer Mori Drive, each taking a different route to amp-like saturation.¹

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