The Boss TU-88 is a versatile micro monitor and tuner. It offers a tuner, metronome and built in headphone preamp in one device.

The guitar tuner, which can be accessed wirelessly or by connecting your instrument to the input jack, is very easy to use. It also can play a reference tone for you through the “Accu-Pitch” speaker. This built-in speaker will also play another tone indicating that the instrument is in tune (within 5 cents sharp or flat in actuality).

The metronome is also a nice addition. I often avoid metronomes while playing because I don’t want to put the time into finding my exact tempo with it, but the TU-88 bypasses that with a unique feature I had never seen before. The “TAP” button allows a user to set the metronome’s tempo to his or her tempo. Pushing the button with the beat of whatever your playing will set the metronome to your beat. This ensures that you stick to the beat that you intend to. You feel the beat — you set it, and you keep it. If your’re reading music and do know exactly what tempo you need, the TU-88 can certainly accommodate you.

The tuner and metronome are very useful and innovative, but what really makes the TU-88 stand out in my mind is the headphone amplifier. There are tons of devices that tune guitars, quite a few of them offer built in metronomes, but this is the first device I’ve seen that includes a tuner, metronome, and headphone amplifier.

The headphone amplifier allows one to plug their instrument cable into the TU-88’s input jack, plug and pair of standard headphones into the “phones/line out” and play straight to their headphones. This is ideal for an electric guitar player who wants to work on something quickly without dealing with large amplifiers. Often times while traveling a headphone preamp is useful. Noise level is minimal while using a headphone amplifier, which makes it an ideal addition to your gear for private practice sessions. The “Mix in” jack even makes it possible to plug in a CD/MP3 player to play along with — all within your headphones.

Weighing in at only 7 ounces, the TU-88 has everything you need for your next gig whether its in the living room, a friend’s garage or Gillette Stadium.

Claude Strayer is a Blast staff writer