For years, a pedal capable of authentically emulating the sound of an organ was pursued but never truly pinned down. Today, however, those searching for a little box packing big pipes may have finally come to the end of their journey. With Electro Harmonix’s B9 Organ Machine, you can now summon the might of a Sunday gospel choir, a smooth jazz joint, or a night at the opera with a few finger plucks. Meet the EHX B9.

Electro Harmonix, the originator of the stomp box and a behemoth in the effect pedal industry, are known for creating innovative pedals paired with equally sophisticated tone and quality. Running strong on their success with the POG and HOG synthesizer pedals, the B9 sets out to replicate the sounds of the classic B series tonewheel organ of the '60s and '70s. The unit passes the test with flying colors and offers guitarists hungry to incorporate organ sounds into their playing possibly the best bet on the market short of lugging a Wurlitzer on stage.

What types of organ sounds are we working with here?

Let’s get down to the rundown. The B9 offers nine unique settings from a variety of organs in a variety of genres (hence the “9” in “B9”). The settings are:

Fat & Full

Jazz

Gospel

Classic Rock

Bottom End

Octaves

Cathedral

Continental

Bell Organ

One of the beautiful things about the B9 is these presets all do incredible jobs of creating the sounds they’re named after. The Jazz preset immediately produces the refined, understated tones of on par with a Miles Davis recording. The Gospel preset sends the guitar’s tone soaring into church rafter beams with treble for days.

If you’re looking for more malleable sounds, the Continental preset offers some of the most intriguing options for experimentation. Every tone from “96 Tears” to “House of the Rising Sun” is up for grabs in this setting.

What’s going on with those knobs?

For such an expansive pedal, the interface is streamlined and easy to pick up on. The EHX B9 features four knobs on the face: Dry, Organ, Mod, Click, and a white knob a bit lower down for switching between presets. The Dry Volume knob regulates how much pure guitar signal is pumping through the output labeled “Organ” (the other output, “Dry”, as the name suggests, is just the guitar signal). The Organ Volume knob controls how much of the pedal’s selected effect is applied to the signal through the Organ output.

The Mod and Click knobs are a bit more interesting. The Click knob controls the percussive “click” associated pressing down a key on a piano or organ, and the Mod knob features a different effect for each preset. For instance, presets 1 through 6 feature a rotating stereo effect with the speed of the effect regulated by the Mod with the Click controlling the percussive effect mentioned above. In presets 7 through 9, things get a bit more interesting.

In Cathedral mode (preset 7), the effect has a built-in tremolo controlled by the Mod knob. For Continental, the Mod and Click control the speed and depth respectively of the tremolo built into the setting. In Bell Chime, the Click controls the amount of a layered electric piano in the effect, allowing for crystal clear ice bell tones.

In short, with a couple minutes of playing around with the pedal, it’s possible to produce the sounds of a Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Vox and countless other vintage organs. The EHX B9 is a top-tier pedal that would make any keyboardist jealous that such a short cut to incredible organ tone exists.

Specs and Features