Mini pedals seem to be spreading like a plague of mice these days. But where many manufacturers use the mini-pedal platform to simply stuff a simplified, more compact digital circuit into a matchbox-sized enclosure, TC Electronic has adapted their Tone Print parameter editing-and-uploading technology to the super-compact pedal format.
Those who play the Corona Mini without dabbling in Tone Print tricks will find the pedal capable and musical. It’s great for ’80s-vintage Johnny Marr tones, and I particularly enjoyed the Leslie-style sounds at faster speeds and depths. The real fun of the Corona and its other mini siblings (there are mini versions of the Flashback delay, Shaker vibrato, HOF reverb, and Vortex flanger, among others) is the Tone Print capability. You can download plenty of existing artist-created Tone Prints that will add, say, additional thickness or warble to the default settings. But if you really want to reshape the Corona to suit your playing, the Tone Print editor is both fun and a genuinely powerful tool for tailoring sounds. The editor is intuitive—especially after a little practice—and the adjustments can be surprisingly transformative, particularly with more aggressive depth settings. Whether you use Tone Print or not, the Corona Mini is an impressive little chorus. But the combination of compact convenience and Tone Print flexibility set the Corona apart in the now-burgeoning mini-pedal marketplace.
Test Gear: Fender Telecaster, Marshall 1958X
Ratings
Pros:
Tone Print technology and compact format add up to a great value.
Cons:
Can’t switch between factory default settings and Tone Print.
Street:
$119 street
Company
tcelectronic.com
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
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Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
Wong Notes is presented by DistroKid.
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LR Baggs HiFi Duet High-fidelity Pickup and Microphone Mixing System
