Customer Reviews

Boss TU-80C Chromatic Tuner & Metronome

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I like the accuracy of the tuner, and it "hears" my acoustic guitar quite well if I put it on the music stand so that it's angled toward me. As a metronome, however, it leaves much to be desired: (1) the volume is not adjustable and I consider it not loud enough, (2) it makes a cheesy electronic chirp instead of a mechanical-sounding knock as some of the electronic metronomes can, and (3) the rhythm is "dotted," i.e., it puts a milder electronic chirp in between the "main chirps" and there's no way to turn it off (but this can be somewhat remedied by setting it to 1-4 time).

Reading through the reviews for the TU-80, it seems there's a lot of grumbling that misses the point of what a tuner should do. Above all, it should be accurate and clear in the readings it gives. Too often tuners fail to do this. The reading wanders back and forth, never quite settling on whether the note is flat, sharp, or dead on. For a tuner, this is entirely unacceptable. A tuner's job is to tell us whether or not the note is in tune. If the tuner can't make up its mind, then what's the point of having it?

While I can't say I've tried every tuner on the market, I've tried many. Most recently I auditioned the Guitar Research JC 200, Sabine MT 9000, Korg TM-40, Fishman FT-1, Korg MA-30, and the Korg GT-3. With the exception of the Sabine, all of them more or less display the problem I described above. (The Sabine MT 9000 has a different problem: it takes too long to give a reading after you play a string.) For my taste, the Boss TU-80 was superior to all the tuners listed here. It was quick to give a reading, and the reading didn't waver about.

Currently, these are my standard tuner recommendations to my guitar students:

* For a cheap tuner, the Korg GA-1.
* For a mid-priced tuner, the Boss TU-80.
* For a higher priced tuner, the Boss TU-12.
* For gigging players, the Intellitouch PT30, or the Snark Clip-On Chromatic Guitar Tuner

Regarding the complaints that the TU-80 has trouble hearing a note: All tuners have this problem to some degree, depending on the player, the instrument, and how far away the tuner is placed from the instrument. For acoustic guitarists, I suggest laying the guitar on your lap (soundboard side up) and setting the tuner directly on the soundboard. You needn't bang out the note, as doing this on the bass strings will cause the tuner to rattle against the soundboard. Just pluck the string at a medium volume, and the tuner usually will have no trouble sensing the vibration of the soundboard. Bear in mind also that some tuners have trouble hearing the bass strings. (The original Intellitouch tuner is notorious for this.) If your tuner doesn't hear the bass strings well, play the string at the 12th fret harmonic.

The tuning capability is only mediocre; the "Accu-Pitch" function might better be sold as "Approxi-Pitch." When I check my 2 TU-80 tuners against a high-end one, I find that the Accu-Pitch beep can sound as much as 5 cents out of tune, which is bad enough so that I have to retune.

As far as the metronome goes, as other reviewers have noted, it's just not loud enough to be anything but a toy. Too bad, too - there was an opportunity to send the metronome signal out of the output jack, so that it could have driven an earphone, or could have been fed into a mixer, which was a choice that Boss itself made in its much-superior DB-12 metronome, but absent that feature, this metronome can't be used as an aid for practicing any real-world instrument.

Works great in a quiet room. When I used it at a performance at a pub the ambient noise renders the tuner useless. Even with a plug-in clip-on mic on the instrument it did not register the note reliably. When this happened I would borrow a Yamaha TD-10 from my guitarist which worked great w/o a plug-in mic. I've since sold the TD-10 and bought a new Yamaha TD-10, which is sadly discontinued.

Since it bills itself as a tuner AND metronome, I can't fault it completely. I can't hear the metronome if I'm playing (which is when I'd need the metronome in the first place). I find the tuner to be quite accurate, but my amp, my effects processor, and two of my guitars have built-in tuners, it just takes up space for me. I'm giving it to my daughter because she doesn't have a tuner of her own.
Tuner - pass
Metronome - FAIL

One of the most annoying things when using the TU-80 as a metronome is the way you have to select the tempo. You'd assume this would be the number one function on a metronome, but no, you have to push the "select" button three times before you can change the tempo: the first click selects the rythm, the second one the meter, and then, finally, the third one selects the tempo function. Then you need to push the up/down buttons to change it. Why all this hassle when all I want is a simple click per beat?

What a difference with the 'large round knob' variety... where you simply turn the knob to change the BPM.

A second, minor gripe is that you can't switch off the 'in-tune beep'; while it is often a handy thing to have, sometimes it's annoying.

And indeed, the tuner has a hard time when there's background noise. I feel like a grumpy old man when I need to ask the members of the band to be quiet because I want to tune my bass. Every time again...

This tuner is alright. It works best in quiet environment. I used this tuner to help when tuning my acoustic guitar. I exchanged it for another tuner. Now I regret it. Sometimes I have to pluck the strings especially the high e several times to get it to register. I was confused with how to use the metronome. It had things like 0/4 1/4 etc. I didn't get that. The metronome was strange because it did not display time signatures . Also the beep sound was unusual for a metronome.

Length:: 2:55 Mins

In this review I do a quick summary of everything you want to know about the TU-80. I gave this product 3 stars because of the lack of headphone support while using the metronome. Also because the volume cannot be adjusted.

Like the title says, I found this at my local Guitar Center, and thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone and get a tuner and metronome together. The tuner works fine, but if you are honestly going to use the metronome, GET SOMETHING ELSE. This thing is way too quiet and there's no way to fix it.

For the price I've seen better...it really isn't all it's cracked up to be and the construction of it is just wrong...plastic? Really? I took it back and got something better.