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!

Tascam TC-1S Tuner Review

Hiya!

I hate having to buy and replace batteries, so I was intrigued when I heard about the Tascam TC-1S tuner. You see, this is a solar-powered tuner, so you would never have to worry about it crapping out on you during a gig or having to go to Radio Shack to find a bizarre-sized replacement battery at the last minute.

At first I thought “What a dumb idea, it is always dark at gigs, so how is it going to get power?” Well, it turns out that the TC-1S is solar rechargeable, and can also be recharged from with its micro USB port. When fully charged, it will work for about 6 hours of continual use, and has a standby charge life of seven years. There must be some Lithium Ion in there somewhere.

The TC-1S is attractive and compact. It has a silicone cover that comes in six different colors, and includes a clip so you can clip it to something. Actually, I have not figured out what I would want to clip it to, but maybe something will come up. It measures about 3 ¾” by ¾“ by 1 ½”, and weighs just a couple of ounces.

There is a ¼-inch input jack as well as a microphone, but there is no output jack. The controls are simple, with a power, mode and calibration switches. The mode switch provides four options: a bar tuning, fine tuning, strobe animation and needle animation. The calibration switch allows tuning to a different pitch (a piano that is slightly off, for example).

The tuner is accurate to one cent, and the fine tuning mode is in one cent intervals. It responds very quickly, and works well on my guitars and basses. I have used it a fair bit and have never had the charge crap out on me, so the solar charging works well.

But…the LCD display sucks. It is hard to read unless you are looking directly at it, and there is no backlight so forget about using it in the dark. I guess it would be ok for around the house, but I really cannot recommend it with all of the better choices that are out there. You can buy a Snark Tuner that is easy to read and works in the dark for about 15 bucks, and you will get a lot more features, including a metronome.

The Tascam TC-1S solar tuner has a list price of $39.99, and a street price of $20 to $25. Buyer beware...

Mahalo!