Now, that's a really cool one for the guitar players (I really can't tell why are they so lucky and so much gear is made especially for them -anyway I like that!). Tascam were never a bunch of people too well-known for what they've done for the guitar world but rather for their excellent other electronic and sound gear. Now it's time for them to tick another checkbox in their development charts as they're releasing one of the coolest guitar gadgets I've ever seen: the GA-30CD.

If you've played guitar for some time now you don't need me to tell you that this gear will output a max of 30W and the last two letters have something, somehow to do with compact discs. Indeed, this newest contraption from Tascam is a weird combo: it sports a mixture bet ween an actual guitar combo (15W from a 6.5" speaker) a full-controllable CD player (pumping the beat in a separate amplifier driving two dedicated 3" speakers) and a guitar processor. Neat isn't it?

The amplifiers are both solid state and for guitar control we have Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Boost (two channels, one clean and one boosted). The guitar sound can be also altered by means of one of the two effect programs: the first will let you add chorus, flanger, phaser, picthshifter, tremolo, auto-wah, delay and panned delay to your sound while the second program is dedicated entirely to reverb.

The GA-30CD sports a 1/4" jack for the optional boost footswitch and another 1/4" for headphones while the 1/8" connector allows you to insert signal form an external MP3 player, drum machine or mic preamp so you can jam along exactly the way you like.

The CD unit sports some features you don't normally meet in ordinary players such as Variable Speed Audition, looping, built in tuner and oscillator and some other two awesome things: the Guitar Canceller (which will diminish the guitar tracks in most songs thus letting you hear better what you're playing) and the Pitch Adjustment tool - it will eliminate the necessity to differently tune your guitar according to various tracks you'll be jamming along with; simply "tune" your CD according to your guitar's pitch and hit them strings!

With a total weight of under 14kg and selling for more or less than $530 the Tascam GA-30CD is one real bargain for the discerning guitarist or for those who are preparing lots of cover songs.