Tiny pedals have been godsends to those of us who want to fill our boards and still travel light. And hear us clearly: we at Sweetwater love our XL pedals. But it’s hard to deny the appeal of fitting twice as many mini enclosures on a board as a fleet of BOSS units.
Even if you’ve got a cozy pedalboard that’s nearly at capacity, you can still probably find room to fit one of the following slim enclosures. A new overdrive, a special effect, or even a looper can be just what the doctor ordered to bulk up a boring tone.
Thinking of augmenting your board with some fresh new minis? Looking to build the ultimate travel rig? Here are 10 tiny pedals that are definitely not small in terms of tone and that no well-established board should be without.
Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini
You’ll find lots of talk online about the “right” version of the TS808/TS9 Tube Screamer — the classic mid-gain dirt box that spawned a generation of tone fiends from SRV to Adam Dutkiewicz. Despite its reduced size, Ibanez’s Tube Screamer Mini hits all the right notes. Made in Japan? Check. JRC4558 IC? It’s got it. Classic green enclosure and 3-knob layout? It’s all right here. Fact is, whether you play blues or metal, you’re always going to find a use for a Tube Screamer. With the TS Mini, you’re getting the real deal at a greatly reduced size.
TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 Mini
The Hall of Fame 2 Mini isn’t just a shrunken version of the beloved TC Electronic Hall of Fame digital reverb — it may, in fact, be the superior pedal. Now, sure, it doesn’t have the dedicated controls for reverb types or recallable custom presets. But, barring that, it brings the very same lush reverbs; wireless TonePrint beaming; pressure-sensitive, assignable MASH switch; and true-bypass switching to a size that any pedalboard can fit. Many players will actually prefer the Mini’s simplified control scheme for fine-tuning reverb tones in the heat of a performance. And, for players who want more control, TC’s TonePrint mobile and desktop apps allow full access to those hidden settings.
Wampler Plexi-Drive Mini
Brian Wampler’s boutique designs have been fueling and extinguishing pedal debates for well over a decade. If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that the man knows tone. So, when even Brian says his Plexi-Drive Mini is every bit as convincing as his best-selling Plexi-Drive Deluxe, you know that news is gospel. Like the original, the Plexi-Drive Mini succeeds in hot-rodding amps with a taste of KT66 British breakup. But, quite unlike the classic, the Mini fits in a front shirt pocket and features a decision fatigue–fighting layout that any fresh player can dive into and enjoy. There’s even a new Mids toggle for punching up the harmonic content. Even if there’s only one song in your set that requires that crunchy AC/DC kick in the teeth, the Plexi-Drive Mini is a sensible solution that, in our book, is totally worth the add.
Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
Love creating loops to share with bandmates? Need a set’s worth of accompaniment for solo gigs? The Nano Looper 360 is the slimmer and better-dressed cousin of the EHX 720 Stereo Looper. This mini mono looper packs 11 recallable loops and six minutes of shared 24-bit record time into a compact pedal format. As far as loopers go, the 360 is about as streamlined as they come. Cable in, cable out. Loop level and number. Red means recording; green means playback. And the sheer fact that you can store multiple ideas on this one pedal makes it an essential for any board that can spare the space. It’s not quite as slim as some of the 1590A-style enclosures on this list. But, compared to the 720 and 1440, it still comes in at a massive savings.
MXR Timmy Overdrive
Paul Cochrane’s touch-responsive Timmy overdrive is legendary for its ability to enhance tone without getting in the way of your amp and hands. Fifteen years ago, you could only get one of these handbuilt beauties in super small quantities from Paul himself. The MXR Custom Shop brings Paul’s beloved design to the masses in an ultra-modern mini form factor. Think of the Timmy mini as a transparent gain and tone enhancer, able to sweeten amp tones with a musical low-/mid-gain breakup and without the pronounced midrange hump of a TS. The result is a drive that perfectly preserves your dynamics while giving you loads of boost and breakup along with enough tone controls to tighten up rhythms and take leads over the edge.
MXR M290 Mini Phase 95
Here’s another mini that might even improve upon the classic. The Mini Phase 95 packs two circuits and four decades of MXR phaser stomps into one pedal. Keith Barr’s iconic four-stage Phase 90 FET phaser gave players the wide, resonant sweep — think Van Halen — that defined the electric guitar. The later-released Phase 45 effect featured a two-stage circuit that resulted in a mellower, almost rotary-speaker effect. You’ll find both the Phase 90 and the Phase 45 authentically preserved in the Phase 95 along with a Script switch to toggle between the subtler swoosh of Script-era circuits and the feedback resistor’s more pronounced sweep of the Block Logo era. It all comes in that iconic tangerine-orange housing and at a size you just can’t say no to.
Xotic EP Booster
The FET preamp stage of an Echoplex EP-3 tape echo, employed on records by a laundry list of guitar greats ranging from Jimmy Page to Eric Johnson, is responsible for the hard-hitting character of the ultra-slim EP Booster. This weensy tone wonder will have no trouble finding a home on even the most packed boards. Use it in the front of your chain — as many Sweetwater players do — as a discrete, always-on tone enhancer. Place one at the head or tail of your board in place of a buffer to overcome treble loss caused by true-bypass pedals and long lengths of cable. Or take full advantage of the EP Booster’s rich +20dB boost, and push your amp in ways you never thought possible. Like most Xotic minis, this boost supports 9V–18V operation, which means cleaner headroom and greater power-supply compatibility.
JHS Whitey Tighty
If Mom taught us two things, they’re 1) never leave home without a fresh pair of drawers, and 2) never gig out without a quality compressor at your feet. Here’s a product that meets both needs: the Whitey Tighty mini FET comp by JHS. When Josh and company came to demo the pedal for us in 2019, we were gobsmacked by how good this pedal sounds and how quick it dials in. Singles or humbuckers, clean or dirty, subtle compression or over-the-top squash — there’s just no setting in which this compressor can’t make your tone sweeter. The fact that it takes up negligible space on your travel board is just a bonus.
Dunlop Cry Baby Mini
Dunlop’s Cry Baby pedals have proudly dominated our travel boards for years. So to think that it’s now possible to get not just the classic Cry Baby wah tone, but three distinct Cry Baby wah flavors, in a half-size pedal is truly baffling. Thankfully, Dunlop hasn’t cut any corners here. Inside the CBM95 Cry Baby Mini you’ll find a ’60s-spec Italian-made Fasel inductor capable of delivering the smooth sweeps and anthropomorphous wails of the genuine article. But, open it up, and an internal switch also gives you Vintage and Low settings to serve up a bouquet of inspiring wah tones for a variety of styles — from blues rock to high-gain metal. Factor in that the Cry Baby Mini allows you the option to power it via 9V battery or pedalboard power, and this is one wee wah that deserves a place on every Cry Baby lover’s micro
Wampler Tumnus Mini
The golden goose in Brian Wampler’s collection of transparent overdrives (to use an industry term) is undoubtedly the Tumnus mini, officially known as the Tumnus. This K-style breakup generator is able to give you subtle degrees of harmonic excitement for lower-gain material and mythical note sustain and gain enhancement when you push those dirt and output controls. The Treble control on the Tumnus is super musical and easy to dial in. Pushing it past noon starts to open up top-end clarity in a distorted guitar while gently rolling off bass. This ends up being the ideal recipe for 90% of lead work. Countless guitarists at Sweetwater rely on the Tumnus as an always-on pedal into our amps and modeling rigs. And, given the fact that it’s no bigger than a Twinkie, the Tumnus makes the perfect foundation to any board you’re building.
Tiny Pedals Make an Enormous Difference!
When you really need to make the most out of your pedalboard real estate, mini pedals are a great way to go. And, given that so many today sound so good and squeeze into the tiniest corners of a board, there’s no reason not to augment your setup. Want the best prices on tiny pedals and industry-leading customer service? Contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700 for your next pedal purchase.
