Guitarist magazine reviews why bother.....

Winny_Pooh

You think only Guitarist is excited about any gear they happen to have in front of them?

Have you seen Dan off the pedal show?

JezWynd

King85 said:

I think most equipment is pretty highly rated on here too tbh. It's rare that people say I've just got this and it's rubbish.

You'll shortly find it in the Classifieds; tells its own story.

MagicPigDetective

This months Guitar magazine gives a Gordon Smith Guitar 7/10! 

Normally there is nothing under 8. Must be a terrible guitar to get a 7 in a guitar mag.

https://guitar.com/review/electric-guitar/review-gordon-smith-gs-0-special/

randella

Pretty sure Mick Taylor has said in the past that they just don’t bother reviewing shit gear and, if something turns out to be bad, they just don’t write about it.

Plus, when was the last time anyone played a genuine 4/10 guitar or amp? I don’t mean internet hyperbole (“I had to lower the action slightly, kill it with fire, this is the worst thing ever, I hope everyone at the factory gets Coronavirus!!1!111!1”), but a properly bad bit of gear?  

I mean. You can buy a £150 Squier that’ll outplay quite a bit of the midrange tosh that was around 30 years ago when I started.

xchrisv

randella said:

Pretty sure Mick Taylor has said in the past that they just don’t bother reviewing shit gear and, if something turns out to be bad, they just don’t write about it.

Plus, when was the last time anyone played a genuine 4/10 guitar or amp? I don’t mean internet hyperbole (“I had to lower the action slightly, kill it with fire, this is the worst thing ever, I hope everyone at the factory gets Coronavirus!!1!111!1”), but a properly bad bit of gear?  

I mean. You can buy a £150 Squier that’ll outplay quite a bit of the midrange tosh that was around 30 years ago when I started.

Yep. Lots of people struggle to differentiate between "I don't like xxx" and "xxx is defective". Appraisals of sonics are hugely subjective and there are physiological factors that influence whether a player finds the ergonomics of a guitar appealing or not. The challenge for those of us who review gear is to put as much of that on the shelf as possible and evaluate products objectively based on whom/what they are designed for and where they sit in the market. Vibe is a factor too, and some gear is inspiring precisely because of the sexiness of the design, but there's nothing worse than someone giving a Fiesta a kicking for not being a Ferrari. 

Whitecat

randella said:

Pretty sure Mick Taylor has said in the past that they just don’t bother reviewing shit gear and, if something turns out to be bad, they just don’t write about it.

Plus, when was the last time anyone played a genuine 4/10 guitar or amp? I don’t mean internet hyperbole (“I had to lower the action slightly, kill it with fire, this is the worst thing ever, I hope everyone at the factory gets Coronavirus!!1!111!1”), but a properly bad bit of gear?  

I mean. You can buy a £150 Squier that’ll outplay quite a bit of the midrange tosh that was around 30 years ago when I started.

I was talking to a guy who used to write for Sound On Sound and he said similar - if the gear is bad or doesn’t excite them they just don’t bother. 

That said, there is perhaps a market for critical reviews - Jay Rayner’s negative restaurant reviews tend to get way more clicks than his positive ones. But the bridges that would get burned I suppose are the problem since print media is on a razor’s edge already... 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/22/jay-rayner-bad-restaurant-reviews-some-just-deserve-it

scrumhalf

You have to ask yourself why would a magazine waste editorial space on reviewing crap gear that nobody would want to buy. surely it would be better to review things that people might want to spend their money on.

There's also the overall increase in quality of gear these days. Back when I and many others on here started playing a good 50% of what you could buy was at best bang-average and generally very poor. You rarely get that these days.

grappagreen

Fuengi said:

Don't give up on Guitarist yet, I hear that next month they have an interview with Bernie Marsden and a six page spread of new photos of Rory Gallagher's Strat from previously unseen angles. 

Don't start me off on another 'The Beast' / Bernie Marsdon / Guitarist magazine rant.. where's my blood pressure monitor when I need it..

Funkfingers

Do the magazines invite manufacturers to submit samples for review? Is unsolicited gear foisted on the mags in the hopes of a favourable write up? Is it a mixture of both?

It should come as little surprise that high-spending advertisers get fulsome exposure and (almost always) positive reviews. The magazines cannot afford to bite the hands that feed. 

steer

Long gone are the days when people had to rely on paper magazines to decide whether gear is any good or not. Internet and youtube reviews have made magazine reviews pretty much obsolete. If you were interested in a pedal, why simply read about it and look at a photo, when you could actually hear it being used?

King85

I think any magazine would be better off ditching a scale scoring system of any sort and just having the review and a summary of products.

JAYJO

My sub has just finished. I'm left handed but my money and eyesight are right handed. Too many lefties No. for my liking. Won't be renewing. Too annoying to read about how good these affordable Right handed guitars are. 

hermannkymn

DrJazzTap said:

I only buy it at the airport 

Funny, I seem to do this habitually also. It’s almost therapeutic to purchase and carry something so mundanely familiar in magazine form across different time zones. 

hollywoodrox

jeztone2 said:

I imagine the writer submits their copy and the editor does the scores. But I really don’t know who reads Guitarist mag now? To me, its heyday was 86-95. It’s been slowly going down the pan. The last one I read had pretty much the same articles as another one a year earlier. Also this whole “the world doesn’t exist beyond the M4 corridor” approach has become quite laughable. 

Yes 86 - 95 the golden years

LPManic

The magazine business is essentially dead. So either such magazines are full of good reviews of good (expensive) stuff for the people who buy magazines, or, equally, such reviews are essentially paid advertisements.

I enjoy Guitarist simply because I just accept what it's about. I enjoy the contributors columns more than anything.

And I still prefer magazines to reddit or mobile for a good session on the bog away from the wife and kids.

dindude

richardhomer said:

It’s the same in many other areas - Naim Audio’s Atom streamer gets 5 star reviews in hi fi magazines all the time. I think it sounds very little music and a lot like a box of electronics. I have one - and after half an hour listening to it, I want to turn it off. All reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt in my opinion.

Yeah Hi Fi is terrible for over enthusiastic reviews - I have KEF LSX powered speakers, you’d think they were the second coming from reviews. In actual fact they’re only one small step up from a sound bar to my ears, and good deal away from quality Hi Fi.

MattBanshee

Good reviews get more advertising revenue, ultimately, and more future products to review from those brands, leading to more advertising revenue etc etc

MagicPigDetective

Imagine a guitar magazine as archaic and humorous and ready to give a 3/10 for a shite product as Your Sinclair was......

Loobs

I bought it religiously from about the age of 12 (when I started) to probably 26 or 27 and learnt a lot from it. I also remember TGM being really good in the late 90s/early 00s and dare I say it, a bit more alternative? 

I had a look at Guitarist recently (in the airport, no less) and it was exactly the same stuff, but I guess their buying demographic wants to read about boomer blues rock guys and PRS guitars? As others have said, the era of the print guitar magazine is unfortunately over.

I work in the bike industry and work pays for subscriptions to various expensive cycling magazines which just stack up at home and collect dust after I've read them, but there is something nice about having a paper magazine in your hands. 

axisus

I remember they had a big spat with Frank Gambale once when they didn't like his signature guitar.