D'Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner

The D'Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner is a chromatic pedal tuner from D'Addario, built to sit on a pedalboard and mute the signal while you tune. Its defining feature is a full-color vertical display, which D'Addario says "allows for quick intuitive tuning at home, in the studio, or onstage"¹. The pedal is housed in a rugged aluminum enclosure and carries a 1-Year Limited Warranty¹.

Guitar World reviewed it in January 2019, and reviewer Paul Riario found it "nicely compact and slim, just about an inch bigger than most mini-pedals"², so it fits a crowded board without taking a standard-size slot.

The display and how tuning reads

The vertical display is the pedal's main draw. Rather than a needle or a single row of LEDs, it shows the note name with arrows surrounding it when the string is in tune, and rows of colored LEDs above or below when it is sharp or flat. Guitar World described the scheme in detail¹³²:

Paul Riario, Guitar World²

In practice that means sharp notes light the upper LEDs in yellow and red, flat notes light the lower LEDs, and a green readout with arrows around the note name confirms the string is tuned. The layout reads at a glance from a distance, which is the point of a vertical format on a dark stage²¹³.

Brightness holds up outdoors too. On That Pedal Show, the presenters found it "accurate quick and bright" and readable in bright sunshine⁴.

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The pitch button and calibration range

Calibration is handled by a side-mounted "pitch" button rather than a front-panel control. The range it accesses is wide: A414 to A475². For comparison, budget chromatic pedal tuners such as the Monoprice Stage Right calibrate only from 436 to 445Hz in 1Hz increments⁵, so the D'Addario covers far more ground both below and above standard A440 pitch. That matters if you play with instruments tuned away from 440, or want to intonate against a reference that sits outside the usual band.

Power: 9V battery or adapter

The tuner runs on a 9-volt battery or a 9-volt adapter, and the battery is included². That gives it an edge over pedals that require an adapter out of the box: the Monoprice Stage Right sells its batteries and power adapters separately⁵. No voltage, current draw or polarity figures are given beyond the 9-volt supply, so if you run it from a pedalboard power supply, plan on a standard 9V output.

True bypass and signal path

D'Addario lists the pedal as "32-Bit, True Bypass"¹, so with the tuner disengaged your signal passes through without active circuitry in the path. That is the same approach taken by most of its competitors: the GoGo Tuners The GoGo is true bypass⁶, as is the Big Top FX Chromatic Tuner Mini with an all-analog true bypass signal path⁷, and Electro-Harmonix notes that the true-bypass switching on its EHX-2020 means zero coloration of the guitar's tone when bypassed⁸. If you prefer a buffered tuner to drive long cable runs, the standard D'Addario is not that pedal; the Tuner Plus version is the one with a buffer.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's Paul Riario reviewed the pedal in January 2019 at a direct price of $69.99², and his verdict was positive while honest about what a tuner can and cannot do:

Paul Riario, Guitar World²

The earlier Guitar World listing gave a street price of $69.99 as well⁹. On That Pedal Show, the presenters' shorter assessment was that the display is "accurate quick and bright" and stays readable outdoors in bright sunshine⁴.

The Tuner Plus version

D'Addario also makes the Chromatic Pedal Tuner Plus. It is the same idea, a chromatic pedal tuner with a full-color vertical display, true-bypass wiring and an easily accessible foot switch, plus what D'Addario calls "superb accuracy, wide calibration range"³. The differences are in the extras: the Plus adds a signal buffer and a set timer³, where the standard version is true bypass only with no buffer listed.

D'Addario lists bassist Becky Baldwin among its players, quoting her on the tuner: "The Chromatic Pedal Tuner is simple to use, with a very clear display that works in all lighting"³.

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