NAMM 2023: Peterson shrinks its super-accurate, feature-packed StroboStomp HD guitar tuner into a mini-pedal format

NAMM 2023: Peterson has taken of the most popular guitar tuners on the market, the StroboStomp, and done the one thing that would make it even more popular – made it smaller, more pedalboard-friendly, and every bit as accurate feature-packed as its larger sibling.

The StroboStomp Mini is definitely a part of the Peterson family. Its compact enclosure is dominated by a high-definition LCD display that is abundantly visible even in the most difficult lighting conditions. 

It still offers users a ton of sweetened and guided tuning options – over 80 – and its strobe tuner maintains its reputation for accuracy to 0.1 cents, but the StroboStomp Mini is by any standard pretty tiny, weighing just 0.56lbs and measuring just 94mm x 46mm x 33.5mm (LxWxH).

Peterson has also made some improvements under the hood, with the incoming signal path in true-bypass mode now 100 per cent pop-less when you are muting the signal. It deploys a dual relay circuit that takes the incoming signal out of the game before you power the tuner down, making for a “silent transition” and for a tuner that doesn’t mess with your tone. The bypass is switchable between true and buffered.

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The LCD display is user-configurable. You can change the colour of the display from 10 presets or make your own via Peterson Connect, and these colours are not just useful from a visibility point of view but allow players to assign different colours to different tunings. 

The unit itself is firmware updatable. Simply connect it to your computer via the USB-C connection and via the Peterson Connect platform (for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave and Vivaldi) you can perform update the unit, or or perform deep edits, designing custom presets from sweetened tunings. 

Other tech specs for the StroboStomp Mini include its 390Hz - 490Hz Concert A Reference, +5 to -6 Transposition, and it runs on a 9V DC pedalboard power supply or via USB-C bus power.

The StroboStomp Mini is a studio-quality guitar tuner. Some players take a bit of time to get used to a strobe tuner like this, but for many, the options it presents with regards sweetened tunings and guided tunings, allied to the accuracy gives it the edge. 

Among the sweetened tunings it offers are for acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, 7-string guitars and guitars with True Temperament necks. Guided tunings are easy peasy, with a heap of options for drop and open tunings already dialled in on the presets. 

You can access these functions via two buttons mounted on either side of the pedal. The pedal ships in always-on monitor mode so you can get tuning feedback in real time, but you can easily set it up so it mutes when you step on the footswitch to activate the tuner.

For more details, head over to Peterson.