Do any of you still buy Guitarist?

Skipped

p90fool said:

Why on earth would I buy a specialist magazine written by people who don't know anything?  Or if they do they hide it well because they're so busy writing it in terms my mum can understand.

Don't write "P90 growl" for the bazillionth time, just fucking tell me, is it like an early 50s P90 or one from the mid-50s on? Didn't know there was a difference? Why not? It's your JOB you useless wannabe-tabloid prick...

A random example I know, but they never get any more in-depth than explaining how a humbucker works, surely it's supposed to be aimed at guitarists, not just random readers in a dentist's waiting room?

I think you already know that I agree with every word . I feel a bit of sympathy for them because even if they turned it into the guitar version of Angling Monthly (think Doug and Pat show) we will soon be at a point where the numbers don't add up.

SNAKEBITE

I admit to being a magazine whore. I prefer a real magazine to a digital copy or looking on the internet. Maybe because I'm old, I'm not sure.

Magazines have always been grouped, for me anyway, Total Guitar was for the "yoof" and Guitarist was for the middle aged person with more disposable income.

At present I have a subscription to Total Guitar, mainly because I wanted the subscription gift and it made financial sense to get it, especially as I often bought the magazine anyway.

I sometimes buy Guitarist, I'll have a look in Smiths and then buy it if I like the articles.

As mentioned before I HATE it when magazines really big up an article on the front cover then when you look at it it's just half a page with chord diagrams and a brief explanation. (Guitarist - "Surf Guitar Special I'm looking a you).

EricTheWeary

Just seen the new issue in Tesco.

Reader survey, 30 years of Guitarist,etc. Surely this is the stuff of an in house magazine, not something for the shelves of Tesco?
:-O

Plot:lost
:-<

Dave_Mc

57Deluxe said:

/\ I used to be in PR and had a division of Hewlett Packard Networking as a client. I had a good relationship with one of the Networking magazine's editors... One day we were all sitting round after a mind-numbingly boring presentation and got talking about stuff we would rather do if we could. He pipped in he wanted to work on a classic car mag by virtue that  A) he was an editor already and    he had a 1975 VW Golf... He now is a staff writer on a Classic car mag... or 'Classic Horse & Cart' as I call it...

)

Skipped said:

p90fool said:

Why on earth would I buy a specialist magazine written by people who don't know anything?  Or if they do they hide it well because they're so busy writing it in terms my mum can understand.

Don't write "P90 growl" for the bazillionth time, just fucking tell me, is it like an early 50s P90 or one from the mid-50s on? Didn't know there was a difference? Why not? It's your JOB you useless wannabe-tabloid prick...

A random example I know, but they never get any more in-depth than explaining how a humbucker works, surely it's supposed to be aimed at guitarists, not just random readers in a dentist's waiting room?

I think you already know that I agree with every word . I feel a bit of sympathy for them because even if they turned it into the guitar version of Angling Monthly (think Doug and Pat show) we will soon be at a point where the numbers don't add up.

That may well be true- I'm not saying having genuine experts would fix all the problems (I'm not saying all of the writers aren't experts, but presumably some arent, if that job ad I saw was anything to go by, plus just going by some of the writing). Just it gets a bit annoying when the £5.50 (or whatever it is now) cover price is justified because "Ah but on the internet you're reading stuff written by idiots, we're all experts" and then you kind of find the mags aren't either (at least in some cases).

SNAKEBITE said:

I prefer a real magazine to a digital copy or looking on the internet. Maybe because I'm old, I'm not sure.

Same here, but there are only so many times I'll fork out £5+ for the same old, same old... or for stuff which I can often find better (more indepth, and more accurate) info about online for free.

JAYJO

I used to get guitar techniques but ended up with 12mnths worth of study i didnt get round to. They come around too quick.

i used to buy Guitarist while shopping with the Mrs in Tesco because it felt right, She was spending all my money on stupid things like Food, soap,bog roll etc so why not?

I would read it while she unpacked the shopping as she multitasked making me a cuppa! (Shes younger than me and i bought it!). She would then pick it up for me when she went shopping alone and bring it home for me but it wasnt the same!! so i told her dont bother getting me that mag anymore theres nothing in it, just pick me me up 24 cans of Guinness instead.

57Deluxe

JAYJO said:

...

i used to buy Guitarist while shopping with the Mrs in Tesco because it felt right, She was spending all my money on stupid things like Food, soap,bog roll etc 

/\ Yeah - what is it with women and bog roll?? we get through 4 a week between us but when she goes away I get through *one* in 4 weeks!

Loobs

usedtobe said:

Loobs said:

You bought it just for a pedal review? Why didn't you just read it in the shop? 

I hate people who do that! Buy it, or don't buy it - it aint a ******* library, fella!

go and play call of duty or something 

RobDavies

I'd been looking for an excuse to cancel my subscription for a while and the Music Radar debacle was the final nail in the coffin.

Can't say I miss it either....

hubobulous

I don't buy any of them any more. Used to love Guitarist and Guitar Techniques, but the advent of YouTube stopped that. I still like the Guitar Interactive Magazine from the Lick Library guys. Its free, online and got good content.

fretmeister

I'm going to stick with online free stuff now.

iGuitar is ok, and No Treble is a great bass site.

kelvinburn

I stopped buying it when they stopped giving away the CD and put the price up by 50p. I bought the other months Strat anniversary edition because I had a journey to pass by. Nothing new at all unfortunately. I'll stick with t'interweb too.

In fairness going through old editions of Guitarist a lot of the bands in "Frontend" through the years have ended up in my record collection

tbm

I have a digital subscription. S'alright.

DLM

I've almost never bought it new, but over the years I've amassed a substantial collection of back issues. Some I got free, most I bought second hand. When I started playing, I was always more into the players featured in the back issues (80s rockers/shredders) than the 90s indie/grunge/nü-metäl bands featured at the time. Plus I had a low budget, as a student. I've had the most enjoyment from late 80s to early 90s issues, even from reading about music that I don't really listen to.

I still subscribe to Guitar Techniques and have collected all the back issues to such an extent that I have masses of doubles which I must selll off one day, but use very little of the content these days, sadly, it'd take too much time I don't have to go through more of it/my level isn't high enough to make easy use of it/I focus my playing on what I need for my band.

I've had some use out of all the technique and transcription stuff over the years, though. For me, it was a cheaper alternative to physical lessons.

When it comes to general guitar reading, I've got most of my info from forums for years, though I've also been reading and buying the German magazine Gitarre & Bass, which is a bit like Guitarist, but with masses more text and covering a broader scope of music.

jaygtr

I'll just continue to do what I've always done. If it looks like it will be interesting to me , or Ive got some time off work I will get it.

I probably buy between 6-8 issues a year.

Neil

Twenty years ago I used to wait with excitement for the next copy of Guitarist to hit the doormat (used to subscribe for the free gifts!) same with Guitar mag but there was nothing else then and they were my only source of guitar info.

Nowadays with the 'net they have sadly been rendered pretty much irrelevant. 

usedtobe

Loobs said:

usedtobe said:

Loobs said:

You bought it just for a pedal review? Why didn't you just read it in the shop? 

I hate people who do that! Buy it, or don't buy it - it aint a ******* library, fella!

go and play call of duty or something 

I don't play call of duty, you muppet!

Mark_R

I subscribe to the digital edition although I'm about to cancel it.  When first launched it embedded the audio and video files into the magazine so I view them on the train.  Then it changed to links to the web and now the video content is virtually zero.

This is how good it was, the adds had videos, extra images, audio files.  Very immersive, now its cheap and feels cheap.

BUT WTF has happened to Total Guitar???  Popped into Smiths to buy it as I wanted to learn something different and checked the front cover CD to see what songs are in this month, nothing, checked the spine, nothing, checked the inside and its techniques and style files only??????  Where has the songs gone?   Not bought it for about a year but very disappointed, and promptly swapped it for Rail Magazine instead....

minky

Bloody train buffs....

lol.

This is why I never threw out my collection of the first 120 TG's very useful stuff.  Can't remember the last time I bought Guitarist, even when I was buying mags, it was always TG. Guitarist was too stuffy and had too few songs to learn.

xchrisv

Hey @Mark_R - I'm a confused by your comment about 'virtually zero' video. The digital edition of Guitarist on Newsstand has video for almost every gear review (when the product can physically be demoed), plus Nev's Blues Headlines column and often one or two other videos if there are other tutorials, or if we've done some filming with one of the artists in the mag that month. This is currently all embedded and doesn't need to be streamed. Do you have a sub for the iPad version?

Mark_R

chrisv said:Hey @Mark_R - I'm a confused by your comment about 'virtually zero' video. The digital edition of Guitarist on Newsstand has video for almost every gear review (when the product can physically be demoed), plus Nev's Blues Headlines column and often one or two other videos if there are other tutorials, or if we've done some filming with one of the artists in the mag that month. This is currently all embedded and doesn't need to be streamed. Do you have a sub for the iPad version?

Chrisv its the iPad version.  Everytime I try to access the digital content on the train it tries to connect to the web to download it.

If the videos are embedded then it might be a problem at my end.  Will re-install the app tonight and check the privacy settings to see if there is something there.