User Reviews at zZounds

"It IS AWESOME!" submitted December 9, 2004

By a customer from hotmail.com

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Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Rock/Alternative

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Sound: Sounds great, At times I forget that others can't hear me through the head phones. I can blast and not piss anyone off. Had to play with tone on a few effects to get rid of background hum and hiss. Then Effects sound great. Feature: This is the coolest! I can now play along with a CD. And, slow it down to 1/2 speed, & set in a repeat loop where I want to figure out the hard fast solos. You can increase the speed in increments as you get better, and soon I am playing hard fast solos at regular speed! Seriously, it has saved time 100% in learning really hard stuff! And made playing along with anything fun and easy. Quality: This is the only CD play-along Guitar set out there. I used to have to use 2 headphones; 1 to listen to music, and 1 for my guitar. With this you get to use one pair of headphones and not have wires hanging everywhere. Value: This is the coolest way to practice a song and play along with it. Speeds learning time, Headphones keeps noise down, it is small, and an easy to use without a lot of cables. Manufacturer Support: Never had to use it, but I too did print out a larger manual off their site. The Wow Factor: Nice and tight. It does what I need and is not big. Overall: This makes playing with any CD fun! The only thing is that it does not come with a power supply and eats AA Batteries. Like the sales man said. "You will get hooked and buy a power supply." He was right! Radio Shack is an expensive quick fix. It needs a type "K" connector on a 9VDC power supply. But, I ordered the power supply from TASCOM.

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"VERY NICE -CD PLAYER/HEADPHONE AMP- NICE LOUD JAMMING WITHOUT DISTURBING THE PEACE WITH SLOW PLAYBACK OPTION" submitted November 16, 2004

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

The Wow Factor

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Sound: Sounds good, ( I had to play with the tone to adjust minor background noise- very minor though) After that it as Crisp and clear. It does get a little choppy when slowing down the playback, I can hear the notes fine and it has DEFINATELY helped me figure out some tough licks where I would have been helpless. It called a Guitar Trainer a it is AWESOME! Feature: Does not include a power supply. I ordered the manufacturer's(9Volt 500mA) for about $23.00. Otherwise it eats 4 AAs in about 2 hours. I did find a 6 volt/400mA power supply in my house that runs it just fine too. The only thing is be sure the connector matches, there are so many different DC connectors. Quality: Very well made. I keep it by a window and cover it from UV rays/Heat (common sense stuff) Minor caution, Like all things made of plastic. Value: This is the Best! Hands down. Manufacturer Support: Did not need to call support. Most questions were found on-line ( including a larger copy of the manual for easier reading). The Wow Factor: Like I said, it is a Guitar Trainer. It has excellent effects that make my inexpensive guitar Sound Awesome while playing along with any CD, without waking the neighbors - via the headphones. Like my friend said when I first asked him how he liked it, he said "IT ROCKS"! I agree! Overall: This will be my New Guitar instructor. I might replace it when technology comes out with a smoother slow speed playback, But I don't really need to hear it crystal clear during slow playback. It works just fine. If it were lost I would buy a new one immediately. I do wish it came with a power supply, but that minor for the benefits it brings.

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"Why did it take so many years?" submitted September 7, 2007

By a customer from aol.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Serious Hobbyist.

Music Style: All types.

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Sound: the sound is good enough. Feature: the loop and slow down features. Ease of Use: the product is easy enough to use. Quality: Had now since it first came out ,holding up great. Value: Yes! Manufacturer Support: Have had no problems. The Wow Factor: Great product. Overall: Would storage capacity added to product .Perhaps 1000, songs.

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"Guitarist best friend" submitted December 29, 2003

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Music Style: alternative and anything acoustic

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Sound: it's great. you can slow down the music, but keep the same pitch that you need so you know the note and rhythm as well. Feature: Great features, but the battery life SUX!! Buy the AC adapter, because without it the unit will just randomly shut off. Quality: works great, looks good, and does what it's suppost to do Value: it's the first thing like this on the market, so the price is iffy. But i would say, from how much it's helped me, it's worth it Manufacturer Support: haven't had to use it The Wow Factor: looks good, and works great. I love it Overall: it does what it's suppost to do...and that's that.

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"No space, little money, angry roomates, wanna play guitar?" submitted January 8, 2005

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Sound

Features

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Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: hobby

Music Style: Rock, "Alternative", "Country", "Jazz", "Drum and Bass", "Techno", etc.

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VERIFIED BUYER

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.

Sound: It's a great little personal amp, sound thing. I was using the Marshall MS-2, which by the way if you only have $35 is excellent, but this has way more sounds and options. You'll need good headphones or maybe some small speakers, my wife sez you need to smoke some dope, but the sound is great even if yer not high, because I'm not high and it sound good, it's got, like, 60 different tones. Super funky, heavy, blues rock...... Feature: It's got lots of tones, inputs, outputs, footswitch (which I've never used). You will need the AC/DC converter, good headphones, a 3-5 foot guitar cable. Don't drop it. Quality: Plastic Value: It's kind-of a personal amp & CD player, but personal amps are cheap and so are personal CD players, it's kind-of combined, so it's different. It's more expensive, but more fun. For $100 USD, you should buy, for $150 think about it, it's the best personal amp I have, but not the best CD player, it will be great in your dorm or if your wife is asleep. Manufacturer Support: N/A The Wow Factor: I wish I would have bought this earlier. It's fun. It rocks. Need headphones. Overall: If you want one personal mini-amp that does almost everything get this one. It's basically a practice thing. It's pretty fun. You can rock out with your headphones. The sound is great. If all you can handle is dials get the Marshall MS-2, because the menus are a little complicated. You can play along with a CD, loop a riff, and learn it. Great toy....

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"Not as useful as I expected" submitted January 24, 2005

Overall

Sound

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Quality

Value

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Hobbyist

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Sound is OK. The sound of the CD at reduced speed has a bit of flutter but judging from computer programs I have heard that seems to be an artifact of the signal processing algorithms and not a problem with the unit. Feature: The ability to slow down a recording and loop on a phrase is probably the neatest feature. For the selling price, you'd think that an AC adapter would have been included. But don't pay the $20 - anything from 7.5 to 9 VDC will work (e.g., I found something pretty cheap at the big discount chain store that works fine) The effects section is hard to understand and not very good. For example, I have putzed around with it for hours and have yet to figure out how to produce a simple fat sound with moderate distortion (see the next comment for more on this). Quality: The workmanship and quality seems to be fine. I would not recommend dropping the unit on a hard floor, but it seems rugged enough for a CD player. It's internal computer can evidently get confused. I was playing with the effects the other night (running on batteries) and the thing locked up. Had to power it off an on to get it going again and it reset the effects settings in the process. Value: You can find addins to WinAmp (Windows) and XMMS (LINUX) that will pretty much provide the same playback funcionality on your PC (maybe without the looping) and the effects are not very good. And for about the same money you can get a little practice amp with killer effects and a headphone jack. Manufacturer Support: Have not tried to contact Tascam but their web site has the same out-of-date user's manual. The Wow Factor: Aside from the looping capability, there's not much here in the way of playback control that you can't do for free on your PC. And the effects don't hold a candle to those you find on amps with DSP effects. Overall: I was thinking that this would be a lot more convenient than using my computer but looking back now, I wish I had just stuck with what I had. With all of the features, probably the most useful function will be to use it as a silent (i.e., headphones) practice amp in the hotel room when I'm on the road.

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"Pee away $150 bucks!" submitted July 15, 2004

By a customer from dot.state.ia.us

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

The Wow Factor

Music Style: classic and prog. rock

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VERIFIED BUYER

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.

Sound: The sound is crappy. If you like listening to uneven constantly wavering and fluctuating CD's, then this is for you. It will prove very frustrating when you are trying to play along with it. The volume controls between the player and your guitar plug in are incompatible. You won't be able to balance the levels between the two sources to blend them. It will prove annoying. It will slow the riff down, but that's it. This deal even sounds bad at normal speed. Feature: Fir the nearly two years I have owned it, it has sat on the shelf collecting dust. I tried to use it on a number of occassions, but always got fed up with its lousy sound and jerky-quirky speed characteristics. I even plugged it through the studio sound board in an attempt to improve the volume and tonal quality. It was a fun diversion for about two hours, but then it went back up on the shelf where it has been for the last 14 months. Don't get caught up with the features that are claimed. It has EFFECTS. You won't care for them. They are about as cheesy as they come. To some it up. I'm very dissappointed in the trainer. I have other Tascam products which I would highly recommend, but this thing is a hunk of junk. I don't know what Tascam was thinking about. It's a fine notion, but this doesn't cut it. It's not that useful. It's mostly just annoying. Don't waste your money. Quality: It will run. You won't take it anywhere with you. You will need to get the power adapter. It eats batteries like crazy. I don't and wouldn't expect to depend on it. I will never wear it out. It's a piece of junk. Value: You can get the riffs from this, but I find it more of an annoying nusance than a help. Manufacturer Support: Haven't ever had a problem with my other Tascam stuff. Portastudios and stuff like that. I didn't call them on this because it does wht it says it will do. When you get the instructions, you'll be surprised to find that even in the instruction manual, it will explain that sound quality will be crap, but unfortunately it's not explained in the sales pitch. The Wow Factor: I'm surprised and dissapointed that Tascam would actually market this piece of chinsy crap. Technical marvel? Doesn't even work as a decent CD player. Save your money. Overall: I won't be using it again. Even the effects aren't something I could use as a novelty recording. It will porbably sit on my studio shelf for another 5 years collecting dust, and then I'll toss it in the junk bin.

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Tascam CDGT1 Portable CD Guitar Trainer

User Ratings

"It IS AWESOME!" submitted December 9, 2004

"VERY NICE -CD PLAYER/HEADPHONE AMP- NICE LOUD JAMMING WITHOUT DISTURBING THE PEACE WITH SLOW PLAYBACK OPTION" submitted November 16, 2004

"Why did it take so many years?" submitted September 7, 2007

"Guitarist best friend" submitted December 29, 2003

"No space, little money, angry roomates, wanna play guitar?" submitted January 8, 2005

"Not as useful as I expected" submitted January 24, 2005

"Pee away $150 bucks!" submitted July 15, 2004