Boss DB-88. It's expensive, but it's pretty well worth it. Notice that I explicitly did NOT mention the newer DB-90. I don't think it's as good, actually. Don't waste your money on the upgrade. The DB-88 will be cheaper too. If that's too expensive, you can try one by Franz mfg. co. A little harder to find, but worth it for approx. $100. Cheaper than that, just make sure it's quartz or digital and it has a power supply. Don't trust the wind up jobbies. Good luck!
Just curious as to why the DB-90 is not as good I looked at the DB-88 and DB-90, and ended up buying the DB-90 since I got it cheaper than a DB-88 My decision was solely based on price, so I'm interested in the features that make the DB-88 a better option. So far I'm really enjoying mine.
The DB-88 has a click sound and not a beep, so there is not a "tone" to it. It sounds more like an mechanical style metronome, which I find more comfortable to play along with. It also has a mode where it has what sounds like a Japanese women's voice counting 1-2-3-4; I use that mode for my cardio training....just kidding
If you have a PDA/pocket PC you could try one of these shareware programs. Don't know if they're any good, I downloaded one a while back but can't find the link to it http://www.tucows.com/downloads/Windows/PDA/PocketPC/Multimedia/Audio/
Agreed on not getting the windup models, they can be unreliable especially compared to today's technology. For portability purposes, I like the Boss DB-12 Dr. Beat. It does everything I need and I think is the cheapest in the Boss line. http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/DB-12/index.html
I like the DB-90 I recently purchased. But it goes through batteries rediculously fast. I don't like being tethered to a wall wart so I've gone back to using my $15 cheapy, I think it's called QuikTime, it does nothing fancy, just a solid beat, the slowest is 40bpm.
Well, okay, the DB-90's not necessarily worse except for a very bad decision to move the power on from a switch on the side (top) to an easy to press button on the front of the unit. I find myself kicking the thing on by mistake and draining my battery a lot. It was a bad decision, esp. considering that there is a hole for the switch to be where it was...but someone decided at the last minute to move it to the front. Also for what they've added over the DB-88, it's not worth it to me. They have a midi in but that's only to set the tempo remotely or to use the rhythm trainer. Rhythm trainer's nice, but if you have to rely on midi, it's not the best thing for a guitar player. They also spent more time on a couple extra sounds and programming options (I think you get more tracks with the 90), but they didn't add anything to deal with complex counter rhythms, which I'm thinking isn't very hard to add the ability to play a few tuplets other than triplets. Overall I was just very disappointed in the new model. I expected it to be a much more useful tool than the DB-80, but it turns out to not be much more useful for a guitar player than the 80 is. That's why I say, save $20 or $30 and stick with the DB-80. P.S. Someone mentioned the sounds being different from the 80 to the 90, I think the 90 has all the same sounds as the 80 plus maybe 1 or 2 more.
Scott, I've seen http://www.metronomeonline.com/ I don't know how accurate any online metronome can be, though, since it will depend on the computer being used and any processes that may be running can interfere with accuracy. dkaplowitz, thanks for the reply. It does have some features that I will never use. I use it most of the time with a Boss adapter I already had, so batteries are not an issue for me. Again, price was a big determining factor for my purchase. For some reason this model was cheaper where I purchased it.
Korg TM-40 http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM05/Content/Korg/PR/TM-40.html :AOK A great metronome and a tuner combined. Adjustable volume, different time signitures, not expensive. Has my vote. Yossi
This is a Seiko metronome: http://cgi.ebay.com/Seiko-SQ-50-Digital-Metronome-SQ50-Top-Selling-NEW_W0QQitemZ7377108601QQcategoryZ41404QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I don't have one but if they are anywhere near the quality of the Seiko ST777 Tuner, they are exceptional!
I finally got a new one for Xmas - a Matrix MR600. I first saw this model over by Tyrone Shuz. The thing I liked the most about it is that it has a volume level with a click click sound rather than that horrible digital beep beep sound. My old digital one was horrible, I used to have to stuff a pillow over the top of it as the sound it made was most annoying. Plus with this model you can get an accent beat on 2/3/4/5 or 6. They run about $50 from MF.
