WTB: Guitarist Magazine. All 12 Issues from 1988.

bigjon

My first Guitarist mag was ?September '88 I think, of with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the cover looking oh so cool in leather armchair. Purely on the strength of that photo I checked him out on a Radio 1 documentary about the Fender Strat, BAM! heard Scuttle Buttin', my future guitar-playing course was set. 

Also hugely influential were the technique columns, I think Phil Hilborne was covering three-note-per-string major scale modes at the time so I learnt those before I learnt the minor pentatonic! :-D

Alnico

bigjon said:

My first Guitarist mag was ?September '88 I think, of with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the cover looking oh so cool in leather armchair. Purely on the strength of that photo I checked him out on a Radio 1 documentary about the Fender Strat, BAM! heard Scuttle Buttin', my future guitar-playing course was set. 

Also hugely influential were the technique columns, I think Phil Hilborne was covering three-note-per-string major scale modes at the time so I learnt those before I learnt the minor pentatonic! :-D

Every aspect of looking back at these is mind blowing..................how we did all this before the Internet!
The Phil Hilborne tutorials are great.

I'm up to March issue so far and there are LOADS I've already made notes to go back to just in the first 3 issues.
Every page is "Wow" and "Oh My GOD !"

The prices are quite a shocker, not just the obvious stuff either.
For example, a USA Strat was only £399 BUT a Shure SM58 was £130!
That's more than they are now and back then that was a HUGE amount of money.
There are a few other items which show how much technology has become much cheaper to produce and afford, it's not all about how cheap things were back then.

To have them all together like this in such great condition it's like a book in itself of memories and almost a re-education.
It's certainly given me a new appreciation for what we have these days and it's woken up circuits inside me that have helped motivate me in ways that I wouldn't necessarily have found. Ways that it would have done back then, almost like the visual reminder of all this has brought back some of the enthusiasm I had when I was 15 in 1988.

@Skipped
Thank you so much for this.

Alnico

Alnico said:

I managed to remember something else last night...

 Christmas '88 was when I got my first 'Proper' guitar, a cherry red Gordon Smith GS II.

'Frets Old and New' in Liverpool was an institution for those who knew the place and the shop owner 'Dave' was a friend of John's at GS so he took custom orders.
My Dad and I placed a deposit in the summer time and I worked my butt off throughout the whole year to contribute as much as I could towards the cost. £400 as I remember which in '88 was almost on par with a new Gibson Les Paul and definitely on par with the USA Strat of that era.

I got to custom order my guitar and spec every part of it and in doing so, I had 'Guitarist' magazine for ideas.
I vividly remember seeing an advert for a certain well known double locking tremolo system in those pages and it would have been in one of the 1988 magazines.
I ordered it and got it and,......well let's just say it was an experience!

I can only Imagine the look of horror on the mans face as he "Modified" the brand new guitar he'd just built to accept a KAHLER FLYER !!!

I'm looking forward to trying to find that advert again, even just for that memory.

It's things like that which make the '88 year of this magazine so special for me.

My original Gordon Smith GSII is now for sale at Curly Music in Liverpool. I tripped over it while I was looking through their used guitars last week. Someone has refinished it in a metallic burgundy, very similar to it's original cherry colour and they've also fitted chrome covered pickups and a Roland GR pickup.

It's mine, It still has the original Kluson tuners I asked for and the Kahler Flyer, all working perfectly. I know the serial number and I've checked it, it's mine.

I haven't played it and don't want to.

When I stood there and looked at it, I realised that aside from it needing a lot of work to put it back the way it was I just don't think I want to get that close to that part of my life anymore. Some things are better left in the past and despite the want to grab it and hiss all kinds of golumesque profanity, I just don't think going back to that guitar would be a good thing.

For decades I've dreamed of that moment and when it finally happened it was more shock than anything and not really in a good way.

I took a couple of photos which are below.

BTW - I still read the magazines that @Skipped very kindly sent me and plenty of people who've seen them have loved looking through them again so the part of all this was a great success.

Ordered June '88, Delivered Dec '88, Paid £450 at Frets Old and New guitar shop.

Playing with my first band in school in '89...

https://i.imgur.com/a6yoUEv.jpg

Now for Sale in Curly Music...

https://i.imgur.com/9uXCAQZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yxd9Tfc.jpg

I sold it around this time of the year in 1990 and it shows up around the same time of year exactly 30 years later, just around the corner from me, where I go all the time to see what new guitars they have in.

Wow.

Just wow.

Alnico

This is the hardcase that we ordered with the guitar, after seeing this advert in the April issue of the magazine...

I remembered when I was stood looking at the guitar and then found this advert when I got home. That's where the extra £50 was on the total price in '88.

It looked and felt like something from Star Trek at the time, I didn't ask if they had got this with the guitar.

https://i.imgur.com/oJs29UD.jpg

danishbacon

Curious, one of these cases surfaced for sale on on of the fb groups just a couple of days ago. 

Alnico

danishbacon said:

Curious, one of these cases surfaced for sale on on of the fb groups just a couple of days ago. 

There would be no way of identifying my actual case.

All I can remember is it was black with a red rubber seal around the edge and I sold it with the guitar to a shop on Lord Street in Southport.

I never, ever saw another one out in the wild.

hollywoodrox

Parker said:

Good luck matey. Not sure if you get guitarist any more (I don't) but they used to often have people in the classifieds selling bundles. It's actually quite sad how irrelevant Guitarist has become in my life. I vividly remember buying my first issue in 1992 and subsequent years - it sculpted my tastes and knowledge today. I wonder if a 13 year old today gets that same buzz from the current issues? I hope so. But I fear not too. The internet has changed so much of the populations habits!

I see guitarist these days as a glossy coffee table book. It was ok up to the late 90s even early 2000s into 2010 there were the odd gems,    it really does seem bland to me now though.

like the original poster I like all my old 80s and early 90s ones. I have 6 or 7 1988 but they are my personal time machine along with 85 to 90.

my big passion is my guitar world mid to late 80s and early 90s magazines  great articles ,features , letters page,hometown hero’s ,adverts . Guitar world is all corporate politeness now without the backbiting crazy letters page with crazy cartoon depictions of what people had said ,  witty writing and interesting players .  I have some ace guitar player magazines too .  I like to look through them and travel back in time

hollywoodrox

Alnico said:

This is the hardcase that we ordered with the guitar, after seeing this advert in the April issue of the magazine...

I remembered when I was stood looking at the guitar and then found this advert when I got home. That's where the extra £50 was on the total price in '88.

It looked and felt like something from Star Trek at the time, I didn't ask if they had got this with the guitar.

https://i.imgur.com/oJs29UD.jpg

Wonderful , those cases, the colours ,the Pac-Man style font  excellent