The beauty of a tach is that if you have a good ear, the tach will quickly teach you how to get along without it. And if you happen to be one of those guys born with a bad ear, you need to have a tach. And you won't know if you have a bad ear unless you either use a tach or you don't and wind up burning a couple of engines up with lousy needle settings.

Want a little chuckle? Awhile back, a guy asked me to set his 4stroke for him. He said he couldn't seem to get it right. When I came over with my tach and set his engine (and both hi and low speed needles were bad off) he said that he had a tach but had quit using it because no matter what it said the engine always sounded the same.