Guitarist Mag: Living in the past

Sassafras

The next issue will have an in-depth article about the Tubescreamer.
What it does, how the controls can be used to change the sound, how it should be connected, which chip is more desirable, which famous blues players use it.
Can't wait.

EricTheWeary

Sassafras said:

The next issue will have an in-depth article about the Tubescreamer.
What it does, how the controls can be used to change the sound, how it should be connected, which chip is more desirable, which famous blues players use it.
Can't wait.

I have no idea wether that's parody or it is what is actually coming next month. 

Phil_aka_Pip

TTony said:

Which may well be right.

saw what you did there lol awarded

Grocer_Jack

Sassafras said:

The next issue will have an in-depth article about the Tubescreamer.
What it does, how the controls can be used to change the sound, how it should be connected, which chip is more desirable, which famous blues players use it.
Can't wait.

Also the correlation between the exact shade of green paint and the size of the mid-hump. 'SRV believed that only the first production run were suitable for the blues and we guess that something changed in the pigment used, resulting in loss of tone'. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Sassafras said:

The next issue will have an in-depth article about the Tubescreamer.
What it does, how the controls can be used to change the sound, how it should be connected, which chip is more desirable, which famous blues players use it.
Can't wait.

I have no idea wether that's parody or it is what is actually coming next month. 

It could very well be both.

thomasross20

It's dire.

Strat54

This just came on my FB feed from Guitar Magazine.... a must for all you guys...the latest...

https://shop.anthem-publishing.com/store/products,the-les-paul-bible_587.htm

I recently bought both Guitarist and Guitar Magazine cos I was going to a place where you couldn't use the internet, hadn't bought either of them for a while. Couldn't get over how thin both mags had become and how dull the content was. Worst £12 I've spent in recent memory. I'm middle aged but there's not much of interest in there for me musically and its all old news to be honest if you keep abreast of things online. You can get more enjoyment on Instagram than in there.
 Not sure the age demographic for buying mags in general these days but the parent company are making plenty of millions still and the chief exec earns £350,000per annum so they are doing something right. He could buy a Burst every year with that. 
I still think that magazines like Guitarist could die out in our lifetime, however I thought the same about bloody caravanning and I was wrong about that......hipster campers...ffs.

Sporky

Then again, having taken up a trial of Readly, I thought I'd have another go at *Wallpaper.

The first 40 pages are adverts. I kid you not.

andyp

jeztone2 said:

To be honest I’m bored out my mind. I’ve been blogging about guitars for years. Never found an in at either guitar magazine. Yet they seem happy to trot out the same articles over and over again. I mean let’s be honest I’ve a greater knowledge of Bernie Marsdens Les Paul than some of my ex girlfriends genitals. It’s gone beyond repetition now. 

Also their entire knowledge of the UK music scene seems limited to the Bath/Bristol corridor. It’s hardly a national magazine anymore. 

i think it’s something to read on a train when I’m bored. But that’s about it. 

Fancy sharing your blog's web address?

p90fool

I have to disagree about Guitarist Magazine going downhill in recent years - it was always shit. 
It's supposed to be a specialist magazine, but every tech article has always been written as if they were explaining it to my mum. 

Before the internet I used to crave detailed knowledge about amp guts, or pickup mods, or any other tech stuff which could help me get to where I wanted to be, and occasionally I'd grab a copy of Guitar Player and a booklet of wiring tricks by Dan Erlewine or someone would fall out. 

But Guitarist? Not a chance, just a bunch of know-nothing journos without the slightest clue (or even interest) in how anything actually works, which is fine in a one-off coffee table book for beginners, but every month for decades? 

Is their target market just anyone with a passing interest who just grabs any old thing to read on the train, or is it actually guitarists? 

crunchman

p90fool said:

I have to disagree about Guitarist Magazine going downhill in recent years - it was always shit. 
It's supposed to be a specialist magazine, but every tech article has always been written as if they were explaining it to my mum. 

Before the internet I used to crave detailed knowledge about amp guts, or pickup mods, or any other tech stuff which could help me get to where I wanted to be, and occasionally I'd grab a copy of Guitar Player and a booklet of wiring tricks by Dan Erlewine or someone would fall out. 

But Guitarist? Not a chance, just a bunch of know-nothing journos without the slightest clue (or even interest) in how anything actually works, which is fine in a one-off coffee table book for beginners, but every month for decades? 

Is their target market just anyone with a passing interest who just grabs any old thing to read on the train, or is it actually guitarists? 

When I first started reading it, I didn't know that stuff though and it was interesting.  When you have read 15 articles on the history of bursts over the years though, they just get repetitive.  The recent one in Guitar Magazine, where they had a lesser known burst, was more interesting for me and probably a better take on it.

It is a difficult balancing act to try and do something that works for newer readers without boring the long term readers.

Jalapeno

I really miss International Musician & Recording World .....

Rocker

The magazine might be rehashing the same old stuff over and over but it is still on the shelves. So someone must be buying it. It appeals to a fair number of guitarists. It is a cheap shot to sneer at a magazine that people buy and read. Especially so if you don't buy it any more. Leave it be.

HarrySeven

Jalapeno said:

I really miss International Musician & Recording World .....

And Beat Instrumental!

HarrySeven

Rocker said:

It is a cheap shot to sneer at a magazine that people buy and read. Especially so if you don't buy it any more. Leave it be.

I’d have to disagree - as one of the very(!) few UK publications targeted at guitarists, I’d say their content is very much up for discussion.

There’s obviously *something* pertinent, considering the number and range of responses on this thread...

halfdiminished

Sassafras said:

The next issue will have an in-depth article about the Tubescreamer. [...] which chip is more desirable [...]

I recall seeing a funny video by Dean Wampler where he basically breadboarded the different TS versions behind a switch. The results where that you really cannot tell any difference. He says that the different toans come from tolerances in all the different components and the fuss about vintage 808 chips or whatever is basically hype and money-making.

martinw

Neil said:

TTony said:

Neill said:

I honestly think the quality of print journalism has gone downhill across the board in the last twenty years.

In a strange coincidence, earlier today I went back through the BBC archives to read a (football) match review from 2010.

It was far better written than today's equivalent.  Today's is simpler, more repetitive linguistically, less textured and more sound-bytey as if they assume that today's reader can't read a sentence longer than 6 words, with no word having more than 2 syllables.



Which may well be right.

Wisdom.

In a generation that now often writes in textspeak the quality of writing in all sorts of stuff is quite frankly abysmal.

And not just writing; speaking too.
Rising inflections, starting a sentence with 'So.....', lazy speech such as saying wiv and vhe instead of with and the.
And that's a typical 'spokesperson' on Radio 4. I often have to fight the urge to throw my radio against the wall, but just as often turn it off rather than listen to some triumph of  education over intellect talk like a teenager.

lasermonkey

Jalapeno said:

I really miss International Musician & Recording World .....

You and me both.

DaevidJ

It was this very magazine that lead to my joining the Guitarist forum and later Musicradar and even later after being ditched en masse lead to my eventually joining this forum. I stopped reading Guitarist over ten years ago when I realised a) I rarely revisited a magazine unlike Sound on Sound b) It was really a needless cost and c) aside from the rare article or review there was not a lot I would call decent content. When shopping I still have a peak to see if much has changed (if it is not bagged that is) and it is almost like they are trapped in a time bubble. One thing I would give as a positive, both my Pawn Shop Mustang Special and PRS Mira purchases despite being bought second hand years after they were released were fuelled by reading/ glancing at this magazine.

ZenOvertone

Guitarist seems to appeal to the middle aged indeed, plus people who are coming back to it after family with more disposable income - I see a few of these from time to time at jam nights, shiny new EC Sig Strats or PRS CU24's etc but it keeps the industry alive.  For a number of us the reviews are not that relevant, once you get the stuff you are really happy with "that's it" unless you are collecting of course, a whole other story. 

Maybe it'll morph into another US "Guitar Aficionado" type mag, expensive watch adverts alongside the guitars.