Alesis Guitar PlayMate

The Alesis Guitar PlayMate is much easier to use than the Tascam Guitar trainer. It is set up with control knobs instead of having to navigate through different modes. It is easy to use....when it works.

I listen to the unit through headphones or connect it to my stereo. I play through my guitar amp rather that hooking my guitar to the unit because this is the amp I will be playing through at gigs.

I caution anyone that is going to spend money on this product. I suspect there is a serious design flaw in the unit. I purchased the Playmate in early January 2006 and at first it worked fine, for about 4 weeks. Then it quit reading any CD's. It would give the read out "scanning disk", but it would not play the CD. This is with factory produced CD's as well as burned ones. I had to return the unit to the Alesis repair affiliate in New Jersey. It weighs a lot and it was expensive to ship. This was in February. After 3 weeks I was told that it would me MAY before they could get parts from Alesis. I contacted Alesis again and expressed my dissatisfaction. They sent me a brand new unit in April. It worked fine for about a day. Now this one displays "scanning disk" for a few seconds then "no disk". You have to open and close the unit and turn it off and on for it to finally recognize that there is a disk in the machine.
I have friend that owns one, and his is doing the same thing. Again, it has to be a design flaw.

I got a pretty good response from Alesis, but when they send you another machine with pretty much the same problem, what is that worth?
I haven't contacted them again. I'm not sure I can stand the aggravation.

I've been playing in bands for 35 years and I can't remember purchasing any piece of equipment that was replaced with one just as bad.
Buyer beware!!!!!!!!!

The layout is very intuitive and there is a knob for most functions. You won't need the manual unless you need to edit the preset effect patches.

My primary use for the playmate is to slow-down, fine-tune and/or transpose recordings so I can transcribe the music for my own learning. The sound quality of the CD playback is just like any other CD player. When you get to extreme settings of playback speed, the audio quality suffers but then it is still fine for transcription purposes. Besides, compared to a marantz/superscope player I owned in the past, and a software program that I currently own (Amazing Slow Downer by Roni music), I see that the Alesis is no worse than these other options. The music I typically work on are either very acoustic Paul Simon or James Taylor or Fogelberg type stuff, Blues like BB King or Robert Cray, some bossa/jazz stuff like Jobim, Michael Franks, as well as play-along CDs that come with the various jazz learning books I have. The playback quality with tempo/transpose adjustment sounds just fine with all these styles of music.
The playmate also offers built-in effects to work with the guitar input. The presets are pretty nice and definitely useable for practice. I'm typically just switching between the 'Bright jazz', 'Dark jazz' and the couple of Blues presets and find these good enough for my practice. Perhaps some tweaking would make them sound even better, but the generic presets are very useable and I'd rather spend my time playing. The guitar I'm playing is either an Ibanez AF120 hollowbody OR Taylor 414 (w/Baggs M1 pu) into the Alesis playmate, and the output goes to either a Roland AC-60 acoustic amp OR a Traynor YCV-20 tube amp. I have no complaints with the sound.

I would expect this to be as reliable as any home CD player. It is a practice device and I can't think of why anyone would want to take it to a gig. In the past I've owned other Alesis products, such as the QS6 keyboard and the Nanocompressor and found them to be problem-free for the 3-4 years that I had them. My playmate is about a year old (although I bought it used just recently). No problems so far.

No experience. I was happy to find that Alesis has the manual online. I could not find online manuals for similar products from Tascam and Superscope/Marantz.

I've been playing guitar for about 20 years which includes 4 years on bass. Other gear besides those mentioned above include - Yamaha Pacifica 112 guitar, Traynor YCV20WR tube amp, La Patrie classical guitar, Digitech GNX4 (I mainly use it as a multi-track Recorder and a Loop Sampler), Aphex Punch Factory compressor, Aphex Acoustic Exciter, Digitech Bad Monkey OD, Boss GE-7, Sansamp Acoustic DI and Kawai GB-2. I used to play in a band when I was a bassist. These days I don't really gig except for accompanying a local prayer group on acoustic guitar. My interests are jazz, blues, acoustic singer-songwriter type stuff and classical.

I think the Alesis playmate is an excellent practice tool for all guitarists. As a transcription tool, it has all the essential features and an intuitive user-interface with knobs and switches for everything. Compared to the Tascam CD-GT1MKII, it does not offer a center-cancel function, but that wasn't a drawback for me. The advantages of the Alesis over the Tascam are - easy to use with knobs for many functions, built-in power supply, 1/4" connectors for everything (more reliable than using adaptors with 1/8" jacks), and the fact that it is compatible with CD-R/RWs (maybe the Tascam also works with CDRs, but they don't mention it on their product features). The device by Superscope (don't remember model name) is nice as well, but costs way more than the Alesis or Tascam.

Before buying the Playmate, I was already using a software named 'Amazing Slow Downer' on my computer for transcribing from CDs and mp3 files. This worked great, but I wanted a change from having to use my mouse and keyboard to control playback and set loop points and have to listen to the music through my wimpy computer speakers. Besides, I sit at a computer all day (at work) and don't really look forward to the idea of coming home and playing guitar at my computer. The playmate has worked out well and I really enjoy the practice time that I spend with it. Also, playing the music through my amp with my guitar signal mixed in and listening to everything from the same speaker somehow seems to help me better focus on the music and be more confident of the accuracy of my transcribing. Overall, it feels nicer than using my computer program.

I found the control layout very comprehensive and easy to use. Though the unit had a much larger footprintn than I'd anticipated.The overall impression I'd got about this unit was that it was primarily a learning tppl with added bonus of effets for the musician. (Lets face facts folks... no one likes to practice with a bland guitar sound. comming out of thier amp!). Where the Guitar PlayMate falls short is the fidelity from the CD. at best the output sound s like it's coming ou in mono. consquently the experience is at best sufferble. As a learning ttool it could use a metronome and foo operated start stop function to free up your hands. Given that this unit is not necessarily touted as a "Effects Processor" in the normal sense tthe incluion of MIDI inputs and user storage for the alterable factory presets are not absulutely essential,... but would have been a nice touch.

I use A Fender Start, Parker Nitfly both with EMG Pickups A Gibson ES-336 with a set of Lindy Fralin PAF Overwounds and a Takamine CS135 electric classical for my work. spent most of my time with unit matching the preset volunes so that they'd mix with tge CDs in pleasing manner. most of the presets are good and adjustinng the prameters wa breeze once you got the rythmn down. I peronally found the ring modulaton prests annoying bu thats just me. Overall Alesis should develope n upgrade to improve the stereo imaging from the balance output from the duitar effects and the CD.

I have several Alesis pieces in my studio and live sound setups I've always found them with a few exceptions ( a Quadra-Verb GT guitar processor) very reliable. I have the same expectations for the Guitar Playmate. I would probable not replace my roland GP-100 with this unit because of the lack of MIDI functions and I/O.

I play Rock to Bach, Jazz , Gospel, Classical and anything else in between that;ll pay the bills,Baltimore has a lot of musical potential, but is a slack town. usually i have to travel to freelance and subcontract for tours. In addiion I have a small project studio and teach on the side locally. I,ve found this unit to be invauable with my students . They can come in with their little CDs and learn smusic that directly peaks their interest all i have to do is schipt up the theory to help give them the insight on what they're learning.

Wasn't difficult at all to plug and play. Had some cool effects but the CD playback just didn't cut it at all. The unit was also much bigger and heavier than I anticipated. Not that it was a huge drawback. It's not necessarily 'pocket sized' and easy to lug around.

I saw an ad for this product on musiciansbuy.com before Christmas and hoped it to be in my Christmas stocking. Why they advertised it that soon is beyond me. It didnt come out until March! So I was eagerly anticipating its' arrival. I love the idea of being able to jam all night in the house while my wife is sleeping and practice on different songs. I demoed the Tascam version back in December and was HIGHLY disappointed. I only played it about 5 minutes before I realized that it was a dog. Unfortunately the Alesis wasnt much better. The overall look was really cool but the sound was worthless. The effects weren't bad but who wants to play along with a CD that sounds like it's muffled and garbled? So much for my Christmas present. I feel bad because I have other Alesis equipment that I really like but this was not what I had expected.
I must admit that musiciansbuy.com was very good about returning it. They have a 45 day return policy. I had to pay return freight and they credited me the price less the original freight (it was originally free freight). I ended up purchasing a Digi-Tech RP200A effects pedal that has a jam-along plug in. I bought small portable CD/MP3 player to use and it sounds great! 120 onboard effects with expression pedal built in. I can play along to my mp3's on CD and jam all night!

Wouldn't gig with it (no pedal to switch effects) but being an Alesis I'm sure it's reliable

Very helpful. While I was waiting for it to come out I had several questions and they made sure to put me in touch with a rep who could answer them.

I play mostly rock style and I like some good sustain and distortion. Love to jam along with 80's bands, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Eddie Money as well as current stuff, Green Day, MXPX, Jimmie Eat World, etc....