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Boss TU-80 Chromatic Tuner and Metronome

The Boss TU-80 brings super-accurate LCD tuning to musicians at a very affordable price, while adding unique high-end features like a built-in metronome and Accu-Pitch. Learn More...

    • New $29.95
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Overall User Ratings

Overall:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Features:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Quality:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10
Value:
* * * * * * * * * . 9 out of 10
I Want It:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10
Sound:
* * * * * * . . . . 6 out of 10
Ease of Use:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10

Individual User Ratings

Overall:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Features:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Quality:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10
Value:
* * * * * * * * * . 9 out of 10
I Want It:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10
Sound:
* * * * * * . . . . 6 out of 10
Ease of Use:
* * * * * * * * . . 8 out of 10

Feature:
I like that there are ways to get a very fast ticking that is unaccented. It will allow you to have 8ths, triplets, or 16ths with no accent for much faster beats. I like that it provides very useful special click functions. You can pick different measure lengths and beat patterns (like swing 8ths, 3-2 and 2-3 clave, etc.) I like that it takes two AA batteries! (Very convenient!!) The tuner works fine. Includes a square wave tone generator. In order to keep this unit in an inexpensive category, certain features were omitted. * There is no DC power input. * No metronome headphone * No volume control for the metronome (which is not loud enough)

Quality:
For the money it's fine. I think it will last a while.

Value:
The next competitor is the Korg TM40 which does have a headphone jack but no instrument-thru jack. Otherwise, it is similar, but for only a little more money is a bit more deluxe.

Desirability:
It's ok. The fact that it allows for some pretty useful different metronome patterns is the main selling point for me. My old Boss Chromatic tuner which I had for 20-some years finally croaked.

Sound:
The metronome click is a good "tink" sound. It's not quite loud enough for practicing louder instruments. I found though that if I can't hear it at all, I'm pretty much on. Some of the other Dr. Beat products are much louder.

Ease of Use:
The interface makes sense. One stupid thing is that to change the tempo you have to press the select button 3 times, then press the value buttons. Once you are in that mode of changing tempo, it does let you stay in that mode and change tempos at will (even while the metronome is running).

Support:
I have not dealt with Roland support in a while, so I can't speak from recent experience. Hopefully won't have to deal with that on a low-dollar item like this.

Overall:
It's only a metronome. I've already gone way too far with this review!!

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