Improving the magazines...

dampoldman

Following on from a thread earlier in the week...

I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of ways in which the guitar magazines (TG, Guitarist, Guitar Techniques etc) could be improved. Where as that last thread turned into a list of (justified) criticisms, maybe this one could offer something more constructive...

Who knows, maybe they're reading this forum

So - two (very) little suggestions to start the ball rolling...

1 - Review scores

Seeing as nothing ever seems to score less than 3 stars, why not make the rating system out of 3 stars, with stars awarded for things which lift a product over and above a basic 'it works and didn't blow up'... We can assume that guitars can be strummed, and amps make things louder, so why not make the grading system solely reflect the features/facets which elevate a product above its peers. 

(As an aside, as a video gamer, do you think a Metacritic-type system would work for guitar products? Can of worms alert...) 

2 - Pros and cons 

Is a minor issue this, but I get fecked off when so many high-quality products have "pricey" written in the cons section. Of course it's pricey, it's a boutique, hand-wired amp/pedal etc... Is the price relative to other, similar products though? 

Phil_aka_Pip

And ban giving a half a star. they do it even now with 5 stars, so why not a %, then the granularity is plenty fine enough.

Categories to score in: what they do now (sound, build quality etc) but also add maintainability, ease of finding spare parts, durability, ease of use (which could include not only dialling in a decent sound, but are the connectors in a convenient place, do the handles help or hinder lifting, can one man lift/carry it, etc).

I like the "competition for this product" boxes ... could also add "If you liked that [product] then try this [product]"

 

57Deluxe

dampoldman said:

Following on from a thread earlier in the week...

<SNIP>

Who knows, maybe they're reading this forum .

... Chris Vinnicomb does..!

xSkarloey

I used to get Guitarist in the late 80s and it was all original journalism by the house staff. Hardly any generic stuff provided by press agencies and the like. 

Honestly, I reckon if we did our own Fretboard online guitar fanzine it'd cover stuff of relevance to us all, in a sprit and a style that we'd all chime with. 

dampoldman

Skarloey said:

Honestly, I reckon if we did our own Fretboard online guitar fanzine it'd cover stuff of relevance to us all, in a sprit and a style that we'd all chime with. 

This is not a bad idea at all...

xSkarloey

Co-ordinating it would always be a challenge, but if we could agree on a format and the basic ideas to cover, there's enough pooled knowledge and experience here to make it work, make it worthwhile and  make it fun. 

dampoldman

Suppose the question is...would anyone read it? 

Jetfire

I generally wonder how many people actually give a crap about how solid an amps chassis is?

Lets be fair, no one is going to give a magazine a product to review if they are going to give it a poor review..

Lew

They should interview more middle aged and white pentatonic messiahs.

Have an SRV special edition every other month and rotate the free month between Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer.

Give more 5 star reviews and increase the adverts by 500%.

Whilst they're at it may as well add a few pages to the classifieds as they are so useful in this day and age.

Gagaryn

Printed guitar magazines are dead in the water. Maybe not dead quite yet but certainly floundering - as is all print media. Sadly I don't think there is anything that can be done to reverse the trend - they are expensive to produce and distribute, are out of date as soon as they are printed and are full of adverts for Guthrie Govan's whatevva! Whether you like it or not, the future lies in social media like youtube channels and that clumsy PGS Tonereport thing - and fan forums.

I know there will people who think that this is a terrible thing and will vow to buy the printed article, but there are still folk who drive Morris Oxfords and eat tripe and onions - doesn't make it right!

FelineGuitars

Jetfire said:

I generally wonder how many people actually give a crap about how solid an amps chassis is?

Lets be fair, no one is going to give a magazine a product to review if they are going to give it a poor review..

Nobody with any sense would hand in a product for review that wasn't the best it could be seeing that a good review would give the potential for sales.

The magazine generally doesn't want to give a scathing review to something (especially someone getting started) and will call the maker or distributor to see if the item is really up to snuff if they find issues - maybe giving the option to take the itm back to be checked over or improved and resubmitted for review later.

Magazines that may rely upon advertising revenue from that company  want to watch how they treat those companies as £20,000 of advertising revenue can disappear overnight if the company feels an unjust review was given.

So reviewers do need to tread carefully

stickyfiddle

Tbh I can't imagine anything that would make me buy a guitar mag again. Unless I was going on a long train journey and my phone was dead

FelineGuitars

Sadly I've never felt able to offer a guitar for review in Guitarist as they are deemed too derivative of classic designs and Dave Burrluck has a no copies rule. Sad as I suspect they'd be really well recieved and years ago Sid Poole did create a stir with his versions of classic guitars.

RocknRollDave

For me, it comes down to one thing: More words.

Simple as that, they need to make the interviews more in-depth. I'll sit at my PC all day watching youtube videos of product demos, or checking out the spec of a new piece of kit, but I won't sit and read page after page of an article. With a magazine, i'll put it down halfway through a piece and come back to it later. Of course, I can do that with a web-based article too...point being that I won't with an online piece, even though I can. I'll just distracted by something else on the net and forget to come back to the article I started.

xSkarloey

dampoldman said:

Suppose the question is...would anyone read it? 

I s'pose that depends mainly on the content and the quality of it. 

Not everyone will, but I'm sure a lot would.

A bit like the 'Fretboard Challenge', you could issue a 'call for articles' every couple of months and take it from there with what you have. 

Profiles of favourite players, 'it happened to me' stories, 'how to' guides, dare I say it even reviews of gear. There's a fair bit of scope. 

Steadhock

Gagaryn said:

Printed guitar magazines are dead in the water. Maybe not dead quite yet but certainly floundering - as is all print media. Sadly I don't think there is anything that can be done to reverse the trend - they are expensive to produce and distribute, are out of date as soon as they are printed and are full of adverts for Guthrie Govan's whatevva! Whether you like it or not, the future lies in social media like youtube channels and that clumsy PGS Tonereport thing - and fan forums.

I know there will people who think that this is a terrible thing and will vow to buy the printed article, but there are still folk who drive Morris Oxfords and eat tripe and onions - doesn't make it right!

Agree with an awful lot of this. A great website will be streets ahead of any magazine IMO, and the likes of Rob Chapman and other YouTube personalities prove that there is room for a huge amount of growth in the video area in particular. However, what many websites and digital enterprises lack is a magazine's strict approach to consistency, tone of voice and directional control. It's not as easy as it sounds and just agreeing between ourselves on a format doesn't guarantee it'll be implemented strictly enough to adhere to professional standards. Put simply, it needs an editor. While an online fanzine is a good idea, if it's to be a really serious project then timeliness of content delivery becomes an important issue, and that's something that the magazines lack as a result of being restricted to a monthly cycle. If the powers that be behind the Fretboard decide to take things to the next level, then it'd probably be a good idea to sound people out and see who would be on board to contribute and how reliably they would be able to do so. I'd certainly be interested in finding out more to help out and have a fair bit of experience behind me! 

dampoldman

Steadhock said:

 If the powers that be behind the Fretboard decide to take things to the next level, then it'd probably be a good idea to sound people out and see who would be on board to contribute and how reliably they would be able to do so. I'd certainly be interested in finding out more to help out and have a fair bit of experience behind me!

Me too. I don't know who the 'powers that be' are on this forum but I would be keen to be involved with something like this. 

Elx

I love guitar magazines, they take me back to the time when I was starting to play. There is something sexy about it and I still anxiously wait for every issue of Guitar Techniques to arrive at my door. I don't see it changing anytime soon. I am not as picky as the rest of you guys seem to be about it. I am happy with the diversity of lessons I get, I go through all of them every month. That could be the reason I don't have a social life  

Phil_aka_Pip

I won't read a long review on a computer screen. I want a mag that I can read in bed with the cat on my chest

xSkarloey

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I won't read a long review on a computer screen. I want a mag that I can read in bed with the cat on my chest

As a 'print person' then, I'd be interested to know how would you feel about reading online articles written by your fellow forumites. 

Is it just that you don't like reading longer stuff online, or is it just a personal preference for printed matter? 

(FWIW I prefer reading longer stuff on the page, but I don't mind getting stuck into swathes of material online on a screen if I'm motivated and I know I'm going to find stuff out.)

Jetfire

I like guitar magazines because of the fact any schmo can write a guitar review. Heck, even I can rant on about how awesome something is with very limited experience and my poor use of english which is why I tend not to read online reviews, I tend to watch the videos of stuff so I can hear how it sounds instead.

I understand reviewers having to play the game to get advertisers etc etc but if a product is poor, then a product does deserve poor reviews. Some may even say that they would purposfully not review something because it was poor..