Seiko SQ70 Quartz Metronome Metronome Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Nice looks and ergonomics. Has a nice big transparent dial to adjust the tempo. Beware that some cheap metronomes have a fake dial and instead use push buttons to adjust the tempo. A real dial is so much nicer to use. Note that you must push the 'on' button down for about one full second to turn the unit on. Probably to prevent it from accidentally turning on if the 'on' button bumps against something. On a fresh battery, its volume can be turned up quite loud. Has a headphone output.
The clicks have two tones to choose from, one higher one lower, but if you set the Beat button to 1, you actually have four tones to choose from. The Beat button allows you to highlight every second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth beat, by playing it at a higher pitch (a 'bing' sound). But this highlighted beat is actually a bit quieter than the non-accented ones; if anything, it should be a bit louder. This metro also produces a sine wave tone in A (440Hz) for tuning instruments by ear.
This metro seems to go through batteries a bit more quickly than most other metros. It uses one 9V. I bought a rechargeable 9V NiMH battery (it's really only 7.2V) and charger for this and it's perfect. You can also use a proper adapter if you don't mind plugging it in.
Also, about the green light at the top that arcs left and right in time with the beat; trailing behind the main (leading) light are two slightly dimmer lights ...looks a bit like a 'comet' effect. The two trailing lights are not a whole lot dimmer than the the leader, so especially at faster tempos, it can be a bit difficult to discern the exact position of the light relative to the beat. This is only an issue if you want to use the lights as a visual cue to the beat.
Nowadays you can get metros with much more complex beat patterns for less money, but if you only need a simple but good metro, this one might be worth its somewhat high price.

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Seiko SAT500 Blue Chromatic Tuner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Impulse buy at Guitar Center, [...] they were out of basic tuners. This has tons of features I did not need which confused me, but learning. Had to call a friend that is a REAL musician to find out what key I should tune in(C). Guitars tuned up fast with it in auto mode. Directions not really needed (useless) if your reading this, unit is very self teaching and it remembers how you used it last time, so you just turn it on and tune. I now know what transposition tuning is thanks to a 5 minute phone call. Or you can read this: [...]

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Seiko STMX1 Clip On Tuner/Metronome Tuner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I expected much more for a tuner at this price.
PROS:
It's very rigid and doesn't vibrate like other tuners I've used. With other tuners you have to remove the tuner when you are playing because it vibrates, making a little bit of noise. This one is very stable and doesn't vibrate so you can leave it in position while playing.
CONS:
Back light is not automatic as in other tuners. You can tune just with the leds in the dark, but if the guitar is way out of tune or not using the usual tuning you want to check the notes displayed in the screen.
Buttons are small and ugly.
One of the worst: In metronome mode, you can increase the tempo, but you cannot decrease it!!! You have to go all the way up to 250 bpm and it starts again in 30 bpm... if you want to decrease tempo 1 bpm you have to go all the way up and up again from 30 bpm. It has 7 buttons!! Why in the world they didn't assigned one button to go down in tempo.
The volume of the metronome is not very loud. I would have prefered a louder metronome.
The tuning is not very stable, i don't know if it's because it's too sensitive, but that's not practical...sometimes there is too much variation with a very small change in tuning.
Also usually tuners have some trouble recognizing E (6th string) and recognize it as B because it's a strong harmonic. But with this one, sometimes it recognizes E (1st string) as A, which it's very weird.
I'm not returning it just because I live outside USA and shipping would be very expensive.

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Seiko STH100SE Metronome/Tuner with Stopwatch-SV Metronome Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Before this Seiko metro-tuner, I had a Korg tuner and a Qwik Time metronome. Using them separately, they functioned well, but I couldn't use them simultaneously because the tuner kept picking up the metronome sound. Also, there wasn't enough space on the music stand to place them both along with music. I practice long scales on metronome and like to check my intonation once in a while during playing, so I started looking for an alternative.
This Seiko metro-tuner is a great multi-product with flawless features that run truly simultaneously. While one of the three functions is running, you can turn on/off/change settings of the second and/or third function without any problem. It's really awesome!
The tuner works great, is sensitive and quick enough, and never gets disturbed by the metronome sound. The metronome has a digital "tot-tot-tot" kind of sound that is soother than the Qwik Time's but is still audible over my violin. There's a volume control (upper right corner) and an earphone jack, too. I don't use the stopwatch function, but it's there if you want one.
The lights on the top light up left right with metronome beats, and this is much more helpful than both my previous metronome (one small blinking light with tiny digital dots moving on the screen) and my teacher's (big digital slider moving left-right); it's hard to keep your eyes on the metronome screen while playing music, so you end up relying on the beeps only. Since the metronome sound is sometimes dwarfed by my own playing sound, I love the visual ques that the several moving lights provide.
Also, this product has a small flip-out stand/hanger in the back that lets me hang it on the music stand. The hanger's groove isn't deep enough though, so the product fell off the music stand a few times when I bumped into the music stand by accident. But despite the falls, it's still going strong.
I recommend this highly to anyone who's looking for a tuner and a metronome. Not only you get a three-in-one product that's easy to carry around, but also being able to run multiple features simultaneously is great. If I lose this tomorrow, I won't hesitate to buy the same one again.

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