March 27th, 2009 by Andres Gallo

$130

Design

When it comes to music, every musician knows how obviously important it is to sound good. Out of all the things that can make us sound bad, being “out of tune,” is perhaps the worst of evils, a musician can face during a performance or any event for that matter dealing with making music. With that said, I am sure most, if not all musicians, have used a tuner, then again not all tuners are equal; although it can seem like that at first.
This tuner for example stands out with it’s strobe display, true bypass, and insane accuracy. Being one of the few strobe tuners, the display response is incredibly fast and accurate, aiding for quick reliable tunings. I want to emphasize that I say incredibly fast, I mean incredibly fast. There are some videos of it live here in the internet; check them out to see what I mean. At +/-0.02 cents of accuracy, not only it is the most accurate compact tuner in the planet, but at 5 times the accuracy of the Peterson StroboStomp tuner, it might be the most accurate tuner period.
Although not the only stompbox tuner in the market, what I found most attractive amongst its many features is that it is true bypass. But I will discuss more about that in the sound section. It’s other features include factory preset tunings, and user defined preset tunings with up to 5 strings, a reference pitch that may be set anywhere from 300Hz to 599Hz, in 0.1Hz increments, and a muted out (when the unit is on). Most of those are features I don’t use, and I think most musicians probably won’t either, but I thought they are worth mentioning.

Sound

Since it is a tuner, there is not much I can say about what it does to the sound. Bringing the instruments to glorious harmony, or in other words in tune, helps the instrument sound more musical. Then again I could say that about other tuners. Although the accuracy is indeed superior, it is inaudible to my ears if compared to the competing tuners. The big plus on the sound here, however, and in my opinion the coolest feature here is its true bypass. There is nothing worst than a pedal eating your tone when it’s off, which makes true bypass godsend, as it will keep your tone heaven just how it should be.

Reliability

Physically this tuner is built like a tank. It’s definitely constructed to last. Furthermore, it is a very reliable tuner. When the strings are shown to be almost in tune, other tuners will show the strings as being in tune. It can get your instrument really in tune, which is really good, especially for techs and luthiers who need such precision for intonating and such. Overall, very reliable.

Customer Support

Have not dealt with their customer support so far.

December 30th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

$350

Design

Boss is one of those brands that really care about the design behind their products. I am not the biggest fan of boss pedals, but one thing I like about their pedals and products, is that they are very cleverly designed to enhance their intuitiveness. In other words, these are products that tend to be as simple to use as possible in spite of their beautiful complexity. This product is a great example of what I mean. The BR600 is complete recording station in a small package. It has all you need to make a decent recording, with enough simplicity for anyone to use.
Built in, it has 2 microphones which are really good, and capture the sound in stereo, and inputs to capture line in level signal, as well as a guitar input, and a 1/8” microphone. Unfortunately, however, this Boss unit lacks a XLR input and phantom power to make it truly a do it all machine, yet considering most people will use the built in microphones, it probably is not too big a deal. In addition this great device also includes a metronome, a drum machine, and a bunch of effects. With this device and a guitar, you can be a one man band. For what it does, it does very well. Furthermore, this device allows you to cut, copy, paste, and much more which are techniques used by the pros. It does all these things with lots of precision.
Now don’t get me wrong; you will not get the same quality you will get with a professional setup. On the plus side, this device is brilliant for recording rehearsals, and rough demos. It captures the live sound very well, and clear, but still lacks the headroom of a professional setup. Take it for what it is, and that is a portable recording package. With a lot of recording knowledge and technique, you can get some really great sounding recordings out of this unit, and without it, you can still get some decent sounding recordings.

Sound

Like some of Boss multi-FX units, this boss unit has a COSM modeling system. This means that this unit will model lots of effects, amps and cabinets and that it does. I tried recording with just a guitar, and the BR600. I was able to make a song with clean effected tones, some distorted parts, a bass track, an acoustic part, and a drum beat. It can make your guitar sound like a bass, or acoustic, and as mentioned it simulates a huge variety of amps. As for the sound quality, it is pretty decent to make mockup recordings, and perhaps even for real recordings, although I find the tones to be a little too bright and cold for that, then again I am very picky.
As for the quality of the recording through the microphones, and the fidelity of the signal, I am impressed due to the size of the unit. With that said, don’t expect it to rival a pro setup. The sounds is very good, but lacks headroom and dynamics, which is why I say this product is amazing for recording mockups, or rehearsals rather than actual album recordings.
Compared to other portable devices this unit is amazing, but here “portable” is the key word.

Reliability

Boss products are built like tanks. This one is made out of plastic, however, let us just call it a “plastic tank”. It feels very sturdy, with every button and knob feeling rock solid, and smooth in motion. I carry this device a lot and it still works and looks like new. It is definitely very reliable, and has more features than I know how to use, which makes it a reliable tool for all sorts of people.

Customer Support

I have little experience dealing with their customer support.

December 23rd, 2008 by Andres Gallo

$39

Design

There is a reason why this is marketed as the best capo in the world. This capo is indeed the best capo in the world, and if it isn’t it’s has to be there with the best. I remember the day I bought it I was somewhat hesitant to buy it, for it has a price tag thats twice of other options. Fortunately the salesman convinced me to buy it.
There are all sorts of different capos. On some you clip the capo onto the guitar, and on others you tighten the capo with a screw/cam. This capo however is very different in design. I always found the other capos very annoying to use, and here is something that fixes every problem in all the other designs. The string clamp capos, and most other quick on/off capos would sometimes drive the strings out of tune when on, applying too much pressure against the fretboard. The cam lever capo, allows the player to set the necessary amount of pressure against then neck, which is great, however setting up and removing the capo is annoying as it takes longer.
You may all be wondering how the g7th is different. Well, it is really easy to setup on the neck of the guitar. You just place it on the neck and push the capo closed on the neck. And you can close it with as much or as little force as you want which means that it will always have the right amount of pressure on every guitar. To top it all up, the capo is also much smaller than the other designs. In other words, the design is “pure genius.”

Reliability

I have had mines for a while, and it looks very durable. The metallic material looks and feels very sturdy. The mechanical system used to hold the pressure for the capo moves so smooth, that the construction seems top notch.

Customer Support

I have no experience dealing with their customer support. This product is so well done and intuitive, I don’t see anyone needing any customer support anyways.