Donner Tuner Pedal Review

★★★★★★★★★★

“Preforms exactly as described and as desired.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Great tuner, the product arrived in a box but the inner case was even more protected by the foam layers in between the tuner itself. I was very pleased by the quality of shipping not only did they exceed my expectations but they included stickers with their product. This purchase was for my daughter, it arrived before her practice— she plays bass and was in need of a new tuner. Price was great, although they do not include a cable to plug in and turn on they do tell you exactly which kind to buy. Be sure to read all the instructions!! Thank you again to seller for a great product!”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Just received this pedal today, so my apologies for the hasty review. But I did want to give my first impressions as they are still fresh on my mind.This tuner replaces a D'Addario Planet Waves pedal tuner that I bought in 2007. That pedal has a clock-like dial showing around 12 increments of each note. When the note centers at 12 o'clock, the note is on pitch. It was (and still is) an ingenious way of showing note accuracy in a continuous view. But after 12 years, the pedal now does not detect notes in the path anymore, so I had to replace it.What frustrated me about this situation was the fact that I dropped probably 80 bucks on the Planet Waves, thinking that the tuner was so rugged that would outlast me (the thing is built like a proverbial tank--I could actually hammer nails with it if I so chose). The fact that the Planet Waves conked out after 12 years is actually disappointing. If I'm going to pay good money for quality products, I want stuff that's going to last a long time.But enough of laying down hard cash for quality that won't last! That's where this pedal comes in. I've recently made a habit of buying inexpensive, Chinese-made clone pedals from Mosky and Caline. Mooer and Donner were two other names I've added to my wish list. My new aesthetic: don't worry about getting the best, just get something that works well and doesn't cost a whole lot, so if it doesn't last a lifetime, I'm not going to sweat it anymore.So here's the nitty gritty on this Donner pedal tuner. It's in the small form factor that's taking pedal boards by storm. The main display is an LCD readout, which shows the current note choice as a bold letter plus an accent. When the note is off center, the LCD background reads blue. When the note is centered, the LCD turns green. Kind of cool. Above the note letter is a line with a marker to show how close the note is to the center. I suppose the marks are roughly in cents. When I'm tuning, the marker doesn't hesitate when I'm centering the note, and that's encouraging.Above the LCD display are three brightly lit LED lights--green in the center, with the flat side in red on the left, and the sharp side in red on the right. These help me tune by providing some feedback when I get close to centering the note--the red and green lights trade off more quickly the closer I get to nailing the note. That's pretty cool, too. But the drawback is that the LEDs are too bright--especially when seen straight above the pedal--so that it overpowers the LCD. Maybe I'll put a strip of Scotch tape on it and color over the lights with red and green.I also like that when I get the note centered and the LED is green, it's more stable than my old Planet Waves was. The Planet Waves was much more fickle when I got the note centered. The display would waver and tell me it's off again, sending me on a wild goose chase to recenter the note. Not so with the Donner. When the note is green, I feel like I've got it and I'm not chasing the wind.The only other minor knock on the tuner is that it's not a pass-through signal. When the switch is engaged, it mutes the sound from the rest of my pedal board, and I can't toggle it to choose muted or unmuted. Not a deal breaker, but I got used to hearing notes through the amps with the Planet Waves and now I'll have to get used to unamplified tuning.For the money spent, if this thing lasts three years, I'll be fine with getting another one to replace it. Cheers.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Well-made, and reasonable price”

★★★★★★★★★★

“This is a well built pedal, no question about it. The foot switch/button is smooth, positive and quiet. This is a silent pedal when not activated so it also serves as a handy mute feature for anything past the tuner.Accuracy is spot-on in accordance with my Korg tuner (Y-splitter with the two side-by-side), the Donner matches approximately 1 cent accuracy - this is more than sufficient for ANY gigging or recording that I ever plan to do.The bottom of the pedal includes nice rubber pads that keep the pedal in place on hard surfaces, yet they're thin enough that Velcro/hook-and-loop will protrude enough to mount to a board with Velcro without having to remove the rubber feet - while this seems like a minor thing, IMO this is huge and I wish more pedal manufacturers did this.The case is super tough (metal) and the surface has a nice matte finish which reduces reflection and glare from bright lighting - again this seems like a minor feature but it makes a big difference in the real world and it goes to show that Donner has thought through EVERY detail of this pedal. And I have found that what is apparent on the outside is consistent with the attention to detail given to the inside.Of course as with most pedals it does not come with a DC power supply but if you're reading pedal reviews you probably already know this :) and you probably also have a variety of workarounds. I prefer a battery clip snap connector anyway (search "Mr. Power 9V Battery Clip Converter 2.1mm 5.5mm" - they're $3ea) or just chaining another connector on my board's DC power supply, no biggie. I don't understand why some people complain about this - powering a pedal isn't complicated or expensive. In fact, I appreciate pedal manufacturers keeping prices low while allowing ME to decide how to power the thing anyway.The ONLY potential downside is the brightness of the LED, particularly the red, it's borderline blinding (the pics don't begin to illustrate it :)) The LCD display is awesome, lots of useful indicators in there that help bring you to tune quickly but in low light conditions the red LED is overpowering; in low lighting I can't even read the display until the green LED kicks in - at which time I don't need to see the LCD display screen. I may dim it with some tape to take the bright edge off - and of course mine may be an exception but I thought I'd share just the same.Overall this is a minor issue and doesn't take away from the awesomeness of this pedal. IMO it's worth every dime, it's WAY better built than its competitors in the price range and it performs at least as good as (if not notably better than) other tuners I have that cost 2x as much or more.It's hard to imagine regretting this purchase, I plan to get one for each amp even though I don't have pedal boards for each amp. At this price I think everyone should have one sitting on/near every amp.”