Mooer Baby Tuner

There are quite a few tuners out there that are designed to fit snugly in a small space on your pedal board. Originally I had been looking at the Korg Pitch Black, because, let's be honest, it looks freakin' cool! But I managed to reign-in my aesthetically driven gadget-geek GAS, and went looking for something a bit more compact. Yes the Korg looks awesome, but it's not as small as they come, and pedal board space is my priority.

I trawled Thomann's list of tuners, and whilst there are cheaper alternatives to the Mooer Baby Tuner, I was concerned about visibility. The Harley Benton and Warwick models looked functional, but these days my eyesight is not what it used to be and I find myself having to squint a lot to see small LED's at floor-level. The Boss and Digitech options are always a solid choice, but they take up a standard-sized pedal space.

The next up the list was this pedal, the Mooer Baby Tuner. One look at the display in the pictures really get me interested. It's big and bold, and the tuning needle was larger than the other LED types present on any other pedal leading up to this price, so I ordered it.

On arrival, I plugged it in and was very pleased with the display. It was immediately very clear when I stood up and tapped it on. Like I said earlier, I have trouble seeing LED's / small lights when standing and looking down at the pedal board, but even turning my living room lights on and off, the display was more than clear enough for me to see exactly what note was displayed and the tuning needle LEDs moving up and down.

I am always trying to find a good balance between product quality and price, and I was very pleased with what I got for this amount of money in the Mooer Baby Tuner. I would recommend this tuner for people whose eyes might not be as good as they used to be. ;)

It is a highly responsive and stable tuner, and the size, solid metal casing and LED lighting make it a great item that is easy to use and see on a dark stage. Having said that, the (defective?) unit I received makes very noticeable electronic noises when in tuning mode.

Stepping on the switch to engage the tuning mode cuts off the signal from the signal-out connection. There is no option to allow for tuning without cutting the signal, which is sometimes necessary in a live situation or due to the set up of your pedal signal chain.

As the LED lights switch on and off rapidly to display the graphical equivalent of a shifting needle on a tuning meter (to indicate your pitch) the unit buzzes, whizzes, hums and beeps like R2D2 -- only not nearly as cute. It would have been somewhat tolerable if I had the option to let the guitar signal through and perhaps hide those horrible noises, but I can't.

I had thought about returning this unit, but am now considering keeping it for its size, price, high responsiveness and LED-lighting feature. I will just have to go to the amp and turn off the standby switch every time I'm tuning. I haven't made up my mind yet *sigh*