Since its humble one man startup beginnings in 1999, Pedaltrain has mushroomed into a global brand that has everything guitarists need to create a travel home for their effects pedals. But once you've attached your power brick, distortion and modulation stomps with Velcro, you may find that there's little or no space for a board tuner. Now there's a chromatic tuner designed to squeeze into the tiniest of gaps.
The Pedaltrain Space Saving Tuner (SST) was first teased on the company's Instagram page earlier this week and has now been added to the company's online store. Actual dimensions are not given on the product page but the tuner is reckoned to be less than an inch tall and wide.
It's slotted into the effects chain using two instrument jacks sprouting from its head, and is powered by a third 9 V branch that's connected to the pedalboard's power brick.
The SST will stay powered on so you don't have to worry about stomping on a footswitch when tuning up, but this does mean that your attempts to achieve pitch perfection won't be muted. Once positioned between two stomps on the board, the connectors can be tucked under the board.
Pedaltrain says that musicians can select from eight reference pitches over an A438 to A445 range and then look forward to an accuracy of +/- 1 cent. An LED display up top shows when a string is in tune.
At US$59.99, the SST isn't the cheapest way to keep your guitar in tune while on stage, but it looks like a novel space-saver for a small board or one overflowing with effects, and the combination of aluminum and ABS should make for road-ready durability.
Product page: Pedaltrain SST