The Lounsberry Pedals Gear Grinder is a stereo overdrive pedal built for keyboards and clonewheel organs. It is based on the company's Organ Grinder Preamp Overdrive, the first Lounsberry pedal designed for keyboards, but adds stereo operation: when only channel one is used as the input, the signal is routed to both outputs, so no repatching is needed when moving between mono and stereo setups1.
What it does
Lounsberry describes the Gear Grinder as "a fat, tubelike overdrive for clonewheel organs" that can cover organ sounds from Greg Rollie to Jon Lord, Uriah Heep, and Canterbury sounds. RockBoard's PedalPedia says it sounds and plays more like an amp than a pedal, bringing to mind the tube power amp section of an overdriven Leslie cabinet1.
The Organ Grinder it is based on was developed with the aid of Roger Powell of Utopia and Meat Loaf fame, and is a gain staged preamp using Germanium diodes for clipping12.
Guitar and bass use
Although the circuit was designed for keyboards, RockBoard's PedalPedia says it easily handles low notes, which makes it work well with bass guitar1. Pedal of the Day reviewed the Organ Grinder circuit with guitar and bass in November 2023 and reached a similar conclusion:
"As it easily handles the low notes, the Organ Grinder Overdrive also sounds awesome with bass guitar."
For players comparing overdrive voicings across instruments, the Gear Grinder sits apart from guitar-first designs like those in Overdrive Pedals, and players looking at low-note-friendly gain may also find the Bass Pedals page useful.
Videos
Lounsberry Pedals
Lounsberry Pedals
Lounsberry Pedals
Sources (2)
- Gear Grinder by Lounsberry Pedals, RockBoard PedalPedia, 2026
- Lounsberry Pedals Organ Grinder Preamp Overdrive, Pedal of the Day, 2023-11-28
