Guitar magazines

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tadpui
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I'm at the point in life where I don't buy stuff just because some woman has been paid to don a bikini and have her picture taken next to it. In fact, it annoys me that the effort is made to cloud my judgment. I much prefer that ads tell me about the product and leave the pseudo sex for the television shows.

I also received a gratis copy of Premier Guitar, and I was turned off by the adoring attitude toward what are, after all, nothing more than artifacts, whether factory- or craftsman-made. Some are pretty, some are pretty weird, some are pretty ugly. Me, I go for tone and playability, so I'm still using my old '70 Norlin LP Deluxe: ain't no flametop that sounds as good to me. But, as I have said before, I play Fender Precision (passive) basses, so maybe your idea of an attractive instrument is different.

But more than anything, it's the hysterical tone of the magazines that turn me off. Each featured item is revolutionary, incredible and a stone tone machine...then why do they seem so ordinary, when **I** try them out in a store? And don't get me started about tone differences between $80 guitar cords!

Nurse, bring me my medication.
 
But the ad said that these were the world's best guitar pedals! And they had a naked chick! How can that possibly be disputed?

In all honesty though, I don't mind the ads themselves. It's more the ratio of ads to content that pisses me off.

The ads themselves at least keep me in the loop of what all is out there, what's new, what's popular, etc. I'm not really a gear whore since I rarely purchase gear, but I like knowing what's out there anyways. I'm no sucker and I know better than to take an ad's word for the quality of their product. I just like knowing of a product's existence.

Normally I just browse MF.com or ZZounds to keep my finger on the pulse of new gear. But I was surprised to see, even with their huge inventory, buying power, and presence in both mail-order and the internet arenas, those giant retailers don't sell many botique or "little guy" brands. So ads in guitar rags is another avenue to learn what all gear is out there.
 
Tadpui said:
I can't remember what specific guitar magazine it was, but I received an unsolicited free issue from some guitar rag in the past year. Maybe it was Premier Guitar. I'm not sure.
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lpdeluxe said:
I also received a gratis copy of Premier Guitar, and I was turned off by the adoring attitude toward what are, after all, nothing more than artifacts, whether factory- or craftsman-made.
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Premier Guitar is total crap, but it DOES have one excellent article every month by RG Keen. It's usually the best article on electronics in any of the music/guitar magazines out there. He doesn't buy into the bullshit hype on stuff, and he is good at explaining what is going on in circuits. His website (www.geofex.com) is one of the better ones on guitar electronics out there too.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Premier Guitar is total crap, but it DOES have one excellent article every month by RG Keen. It's usually the best article on electronics in any of the music/guitar magazines out there. He doesn't buy into the bullshit hype on stuff, and he is good at explaining what is going on in circuits. His website (www.geofex.com) is one of the better ones on guitar electronics out there too.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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I'll trust you on that, but it's not worth one column a month to have all that shrieking in my ear. I'll check out his web site. I seem to remember that somebody had a good amp column, too (I've seen a total of two issues of the magazine) but I'm now smart enough to haul my amps off to a tech when they need work (although I'm in a small town the local music store has a retired Navy electronics guy working there who is very conversant with tubes).
 
I just got my first issue of Fretboard Journal. Very nice, with a piece on Mickey Baker (if you know who he is, you're as old as I am), another on early 12-strings and a number of others, with high-quality photography.

I'd like to see more coverage of electrics, but that's just me.

Thanks, Light.
 
lpdeluxe said:
I just got my first issue of Fretboard Journal. Very nice, with a piece on Mickey Baker (if you know who he is, you're as old as I am), another on early 12-strings and a number of others, with high-quality photography.

I'd like to see more coverage of electrics, but that's just me.

Thanks, Light.
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You're welcome!

They usually have both, but a bit more acoustic stuff. They had a great article a while back on Steve Cropper. And Paul Reed Smith has written several articles for them as well.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
lpdeluxe said:
I'll trust you on that, but it's not worth one column a month to have all that shrieking in my ear. I'll check out his web site. I seem to remember that somebody had a good amp column, too (I've seen a total of two issues of the magazine) but I'm now smart enough to haul my amps off to a tech when they need work (although I'm in a small town the local music store has a retired Navy electronics guy working there who is very conversant with tubes).
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Agreed, I'd never pay for that rag. They just keep sending it to me.

I read one page out of the whole thnig, and then I usually throw it out (though I sometimes keep it if Keen's article is particularly useful).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
You're welcome!

They usually have both, but a bit more acoustic stuff. They had a great article a while back on Steve Cropper. And Paul Reed Smith has written several articles for them as well.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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I see that, now that I've had time to delve into it and look at what's been in the back issues.

Right now I'm playing harmonica in the orchestra (sounds like an oxymoron, I know) in the local state U production of Big River, so free time is limited. We started rehearsals the first of the month, had dress rehearsals from Saturday, performances Tuesday through this coming Saturday, but by Sunday I'll have my life back.
 
Well I am going to take a different stance on guitar mags then what I have seen posted here so far. I actually think they are quite good and extremely useful tools. The Transcriptions are far superior to anything that is on the Web by miles and miles. It is not just the songs transcribed any particular month, but all the lessons that come with tab. Don't discount what you can learn just by playing with the lessons and the transcription for the lesson that come with them.

If you use tab for awhile it starts to become easy to use and read. I can just play many many songs just by looking at the tab like a violinist would do with sheet music I suppose. What you don't do is over analyze the tab, let it just be a guide to get you started feeling the songs/lessons and then let your hands and ears guide you from there.

I would agree with one poster who said you probably don't need a transcription to figure out most AC/DC songs for example. But it sure makes it easier to get to end of job quickly if you want to learn one. The real value to me is the transcriptions of the leads. It is far easier to master a lead with a quality lead guitar tab then paying a CD back and forth a thousand times. Again I use it to get my started quickly with what the guitarist was doing and then I let me instinct and my ears kick in from there.

I often don't use tab just to learn a song, I use it as a guitar tool to improvise with and generate ideas for playing. I will often play with a transcription of a band and a song I have never heard before and I will purposely not listen to the song. It will often just jump start my own creative juices flowing and will provide food for thought for the future.

I would highly recommend if you can find a copy of it "Guitar One" September 2004 issue. Inside it transcribed the 101 greatest guitar licks of all time. it covers Rock, Jazz, Blues and Country licks. Without a doubt that single issue has made me a better guitar player. I still go back and review all the licks all the time. What I found out by using it, is how many time I was learning a guitar lead for a song and said damn, that is really a similar run or pattern to one of those 101 greatest lick of all time. You start to see how the fret board is connected and how those same patterns will produce really cool sounding stuff all over the fretboard.

Lastly the cost, the adds, the articles, etc. As to the cost, if you have a two year subscription to "Guitar World" in the US it cost about $2 an issue. I get way more the $2 of value out of it every month. If you learn one thing then it is worthwhile, what can you buy for $2 anymore. As to the adds and articles I could care less, yeah I read them sometimes, but mostly I use the lesson and tabs just to keep me playing and improving every day.

To me guitar tab is one of the single biggest innovations to assist guitar players quick improvement in the last 30 years.
 
Corndog said:
"Minimal adds". That's a good thing??? Pictures and paper quality takes priority???
Forbid you ever start a business and need buyers to see your gear. Just sayin'..
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holy shit If I want to read ads all I have to do is log on to this forum and drag my cursor across the fricken page:mad:
 
Roguetitan said:
holy shit If I want to read ads all I have to do is log on to this forum and drag my cursor across the fricken page:mad:
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You know, it's not hard to turn that shit off. You can't do anything about the banner ads, but I've had that other shit turned off for so long I don't even remember what it's called. Of course, that means I can't tell you how to do it, but there is a post about it up somewhere on the site.

My favorite part of it was that the command to turn it off used the word fuck.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I been subscribing to Guitar Player for several years and just last night decided to let my subscription lapse. It's an OK mag, and in the past year they've had articles on guys like Steve Cropper, Pat Metheny, Glenn Campbell and Sonny Landreth. It's a decent mag, especially considering that you can get it for about $1 an issue. The other side of that coin is all of the clown-faced guitarists in the ads.

It sounds like I may have to check out Fretboard Journal this year, though.
 
I buy a lot of gear through Streetwater and they send me complimentary copies of Premier Guitar (they have an online version too). I occasionally pick up a copy of Vintage Guitar and I subscibe to TapeOp.
 
I think I'll check out Fretboard Journal. I've always been a Guitar Player reader, but I tire of the competitive feel of the writing. Every guitarist they feature is the best at something. which is probably true when you think about it, but I'm not into the guitar as a competition, but just to enjoy making music.

Do the other magazines do as many "Shredfest" style contests as GP?
 
Tioli said:
I think I'll check out Fretboard Journal. I've always been a Guitar Player reader, but I tire of the competitive feel of the writing. Every guitarist they feature is the best at something. which is probably true when you think about it, but I'm not into the guitar as a competition, but just to enjoy making music.

Do the other magazines do as many "Shredfest" style contests as GP?
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I bought my first issue of GP in 1970: it had a drawing of David Bromberg on the cover. At the time the editorial staff were into folk, blues, fingerpicking and flatpicking. It wasn't until the end of the '70s that the direction changed and it started to become obnoxious. I'm not against rock, by the way. I've played in rock bands as long as I've been in bands. The problem is that concentration on a particular genre deteriorates into the "awesome trick of the month" which is tiresome.

I have my first issue of Fretboard Journal and it's a breath of fresh air.
 
UPDATE- Recently, I became increasingly dissillusioned with 20th Century Guitar magazine. Suspecting, more and more, it is little more than an "ad rag," I did a quick count: In the edition I had in my hands, a full 80 pages were ads, out of a total of 108 pages. That's almost 75% ads.

If they want money from me to renew my subscription, I will tell them to piss off.
 
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