Tascam TG-7 Guitar and Bass Tuner / Metronome Review

Aloha!

Well, the endless succession of tuner reviews continues. Someday I will get caught up on these, I promise…

Today we are looking at the Tascam TG-7 guitar and bass tuner with a built-in metronome. This little tuner tries to do it all, so let’s see how it works in the real world.

For starters, this is a fairly small tuner, about 6 x 2 x 1 inches, or the size of a glasses case. It has a built-in tripod mount as well as two flip-out mounts that help it stand up on a table better. These mounts have slots in them so you can clip it onto a music stand, if you want.

There are ¼-inch jacks for input and output on either end so you can put it in-line and use it live. It has a built-in speaker with a volume wheel for the metronome and tone functions, and an internal microphone for acoustic instruments. Switches on top turn the unit on or off, turn on the backlight for the 5-inch wide LCD display, and change the mode from mute to thru-put. The tuner, metronome and tone select switches are on the front, as well as the setup and up and down select switches.

The TG-7 runs on two AAA batteries (included), with no provision for an AC adaptor. Tascam says that it will go for about 300 hours on a set. I find that kind of hard to believe.

The tuner has 12 different modes that include guitar, bass, chromatic, drop-D, drop-G, open-D, open-G and five user-definable scales. It has a full range from A0 to C8, and it is supposed to be accurate to within 1 cent. The tuner can be calibrated from 349.0 to 499.0 Hz, in 1 Hz intervals. There are plenty of tuner display modes: meter (bar graph, animated strobe, fine, and needle.

Should you wish to use a reference tone to tune to, there is a built-in tone generator that will play notes from B1 to B6. The volume of this function is controlled by the aforementioned volume wheel on the side of the tuner.

And lastly there is a metronome that will count at between 30 and 300 beats per minute. There are 16 pre-programmed time signatures, so you will probably find what you need in there. There is a tap mode where you can match an existing beat and the metronome will continue on for you.

This stuff all sounds really good, but there is quite a list of stuff that I do not care for with this tuner.

For starters, it feels like a toy. The switches on the top are small and cheap feeling and since one of these is the ON/OFF switch I am reminded of it every time I use it. The display is wide, but it is narrow and it is dim so it is hard to see in most lighting conditions, even with the backlight on.

The menu structure is not terribly intuitive, and the manual is lame at best. There are quite a few mysteries every time I start monkeying around with the presets. It is almost best to leave alone and use it the way it came from the factory.

The metronome tone is harsh, but it is still not loud enough to hear over most normal playing. They strident sound of it cannot be customized, so you either have to put up with it or turn the volume down and stare at the tiny display screen.

On the plus side it seems to be accurate, but the rest of the stuff that is wrong with is overwhelming so it is not a very good value.

The Tascam TG-7 tuner has an MSRP of $79.99 and a street price of $49.99, but I see them on sale for under twenty bucks on occasion. But even at that low price, I will have to say pass on this one. It tries to do everything, but does none of it well. There are a lot better tuners out there for the money.

Mahalo!

Ludwig Metronome iPhone App Review

Aloha!

If you are a studio rat and squirrel yourself away practicing all day, you had better get yourself a metronome. You can spend anywhere between $9.99 and $160 to get a dedicated metronome, or…if you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can download a free app that does the job just as well.

Lately I have been using the Ludwig Metronome app by Steinway Musical Instruments. Since when did Steinway buy Ludwig?

Anyway, the app downloaded quickly enough for me, and should work on any of the aforementioned Apple products as long as they are updated with at least iOS 4.2 or later. I used my iPhone initially, but have since put it on my iPad too. It seems to work about the same either way.

It took just a few seconds to figure out how to use it, and it does exactly what it is supposed to, which is help keep time. It makes the usual “tick, tick” noises, but it is customizable in a lot of other useful ways. It can be set up so that the downbeat has a different sound, and in one of nine different common time signatures (or none at all, hmm).

As you use the imaginary tempo wheel on the main screen to change the speed, the app will let you know the name of the time signature, and then the difference between allegro and presto becomes crystal clear.

You can set up the Ludwig Metronome app so that it flashes too (in one of seven colors) – and you can modify it so that it flashes on every beat, on just the downbeats, or on every beat with a different color downbeat. It can also be used with no flashes at all.

And the last thing in the function department is that you can tap in your own tempo (maybe for that Metallica song you are learning), and then hit the play icon so it will motor along at your selected speed. This is a surprisingly handy function when learning new music.

There are a few other fun features too, like the option of using new of vintage Ludwig logos, or selecting nifty Ludwig drum wraps as the decoration for your app. Of course there is a Ludwig dealer locater that is built in too – you have to expect that from a free app…

The Ludwig drum wrap is a stone cold awesome deal, and if you are looking for a metronome, you have nothing to lose by giving it a try. Check it out!

Mahalo