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Tools for the Task: Mini Pedal Tuners

Keep your tuning on point with one of these 10 minis and carve out a little more space on your ’board at the same time.

With pedalboard real estate always at a premium, even an extra square inch or two can make a world of difference. Here are 10 mini-format tuners that will ensure you're ready to play—and might even clear enough room to cram just one more pedal underfoot.

Chromatic Pedal Tuner

This mini boasts four times the processing power of a standard headstock tuner for a fast and accurate readout on its vertical-sweeping LED pitch display.

D'ADDARIO
$69

Pitchblack mini

This sleek tuner with a large LED display is outfitted with stabilizers to prevent it from overturning and boasts a tuning accuracy range of +/- 0.1 cents in strobe mode.

KORG
$69

MTU1 Baby Tuner

The 108 LED display on this mini tuner is intended to provide superior visibility—be it in a dark club or on a bright stage outdoors.

MOOER
$59

PolyTune 2 Mini

This little box provides +/- 0.1-cent sensitivity in strobe mode and features polyphonic tuning, which allows a player to strum and tune all strings simultaneously.

TC ELECTRONIC
$89

Big Mini

IBANEZ
$49

TinyTune

This rugged aluminum-housed tuner offers tuning precision within +/- 0.5 cents, flat tuning from one to four semitones, and a large multi-color display.

KLIQ
$35

Turbo Tuner ST-300 Mini

Driven directly by the analog input signal and a precision internal-frequency reference, this mini’s LED ring is a true stroboscobe and is intended to provide highly accurate tuning with no latency.

SONIC RESEARCH
$129

Coral Tuner

Efficient tuning is on tap thanks to the big display on this mini, which is built to last—with an aluminum-alloy die-cast enclosure and heavy-duty footswitch.

VALETON
$39

JF-326 Irontune

This mini boasts a semi-transparent flip-top design and brings high sensitivity and tuning precision together in an uber-compact package.

JOYO
$49

Skyline Tuner

This tiny tuner not only tunes with +/- 0.5-cent accuracy, it also has a topside volume knob that provides up to 12 dB of clean boost.

HOTONE
$79

Featuring a unique Blah Blah Circuit for expressive filtering effects, versatile tone control, and premium Morley buffer circuit. Available exclusively through the LERXST Reverb Store for $299.

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With a few minor fingering adjustments another world of musical expression can be unlocked.

Beginner

Beginner

  • Look at the pentatonic scale in a new light.
  • Understand how to navigate diagonally across the fretboard.
  • Use this newfound knowledge to create more musical phrases.
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Likely the first melodic device any improvising musician learns is the pentatonic scale. It’s a simple pattern to learn on guitar, it’s easy to play, and it always sounds “correct.” It contains mostly the “good” notes and usually you don’t need to think too much about which notes to avoid. What’s not to love? After a while, however, a certain sameness begins to emerge, and one begins to wonder, “Is there something more here?” Well, it has much more to offer than what you see on the surface.

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Blackstar's 30-watt combo amp with two footswitchable channels, ISF tone control, and built-in tape delay. Available in vintage cream or black finishes.

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John Bohlinger on Why the Hardest Gigs Can Be the Best
- YouTube

At a recent outdoor NHL Stadium Series performance, it was so cold that my hands went numb. So, I had to improvise. Last month, I wrapped the NHL Stadium Series at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium in front of 68,619 screaming fans and an army of TV production, crew, etc. The network chose to lean into Nashville’s Music City theme by including performances by 12 of the city’s biggest names in music. About a month ago, the director, Michael Dempsey, whom I worked with on several award shows, hired me as the music director. Here’s how it went....