Where are the impartial YouTube reviews?

digitalkettle

On the clickbaity theme:

• Use of the words 'secret' and 'trick'
• Use of the phrase 'only the pros know'

mburekenge

Don't forget to hold up the number of fingers corresponding to your number of incredible 'hacks'

 '5 SECRET TIPS TO GET OUT OF THE BEDROOM AND INTO THE STADIUM!' 

(That's 5 fingers btw)

digitalkettle

Number of fingers...classic!

I’m grouping ’pro guitarist/producer/whatever reacts to...’ vids in with this lot too.

Dan_Halen

digitalkettle said:

Number of fingers...classic!

I’m grouping ’pro guitarist/producer/whatever reacts to...’ vids in with this lot too.

Those ones make me want to punch the bloody screen.

hotpickups

monquixote said:

I think the reason there aren't any decent guitar reviews is because of something we don't really want to face up to which is broadly speaking it's all the bloody same.

What Pete Thorn, Ola, Mike Hermans, PGS Andy, etc shows you is that if you can play well and know a thing or two about production then there is virtually no gear on the market that you can't get a decent sound out of.

For the last 20 years there is hardly any really shit gear out there with the possible exception of some of the high end Gibsons with terrible QC from a few years back.

I've been watching the reviews of American Original Fenders. Guitarist chose the Jag as the pick of the litter whereas Lee Anderton really obviously hated it. It tells you nothing informative unless you can get the thing in your hands.

If you'd handed it to Danish Pete he could have recorded a demo that made you think it's amazing, but the same is true of anything you gave him.

The only thing that is relevant and does shine through on line is workflow. The quality of sound between the Helix and the Amplifire is splitting hairs, but one is a joy and the other make me want to jump out of a window.

I have to say I do agree with this too. I love a good demo like anyone but they’re all sounding the same to me nowadays I.e. delays and modulation even OD (how many more ODs do we want etc. How many more types of amps do we need that are all based on old vintage style circuits etc. And then there’s the feeling that these demos are paid for so maybe not that altruistic or impartial Maybe it’s all too much and oversaturated to be taken seriously. I’m certainly feeling that tbh as you can probably tell lol. Still love a good demo though but will be keeping most of my staple pedals now  

I’m more interested in filters, auto wahs, synth type pedals nowadays as these are more interesting to me and feel there is a gap in the market for them. Not that i have use for any of them but still love some of the sounds from them

Anacharsis

I like Justnick. He comes right out and says that he only demos pedals that he likes. If he doesn't like it, he sends it back and doesn't demo it.

Moominpapa

I do - but also don't - feel very sorry for the YouTube guitarists. If you subscribe early enough in their career, you can watch them get more and more popular and feel happy about it, but then you start to see the signs where the channel becomes their main source of income and, at the same time, the monkey on their back. As they get more subscribers, they get noticed by gear manufacturers who ask them to demo products - which immediately introduces the "how sincere are they about this product?" suspicions. As they glance nervously at the constantly-up-and-coming competition they start to try and be more and more sophisticated and "professional" in their video productions. At first that is great:their sound and production values make their videos much more pleasant to watch than other people's. But soon that desire to be more "pro" becomes a desire to use every "pro" trick in the book - and then we get the awful shit that others have already  mentioned: the clickbait titles, the fake facial expressions, the BIG RED LETTERS! Prime example #1 of all this is Rhet Shull. I subscribed to him about 18 months ago. He was a very competent if not especially inte3esting guitarist & put out some moderately interesting if not spectacular videos. I started checking out his videos because of seeing him interact with Rick Beato & RJ Ronquillo. He was watchable because he seemed quite personable and earnest. But over the last few months his videos have just put me off: I can't even get past the awful hackneyed thumbnails. I'm willing to bet that he's still basically a really nice guy if you met him: it's the YouTube monkey that is riding his back which has got him trapped in the need to keep viewing numbers up, to get eyeballs on the screen & hence on ads; to keep his equipment manufacturers happy. Live by social media popularity - die by the same. I've seen the same thing happen to gamers I used to follow. I understand that the rewards can be great if you break through that 100K subscriber mark, but to me it seems it's a hard and unforgiving way to make a living. Of course, the successful YouTube guitarists might be laughing all the way to the bank and not give a shit about the fact that they have had to adopt the same cheesy tactics as their competition in order to keep up with their competition, so I'm sure they don't give a fuck about what people like me think., which is fair enough (and why I don't feel too sorry for them).

BluesLover

John Robson comes across as a straight talking no bullshit kind of chap.

soma1975

Did Rick Beato steal your paragraphs? 

wesker123

Maybe Rhett will do "5 ways to lose you're job at Fender" video next 

pintspiller

Schull's channel is probably the next to be dropped from my list. He's lost whatever I was I thought was worth subscribing.

soma1975

Speaking of which, this is one of the most cynical videos I have ever seen. Actually trying to turn a dollar on what's happened with Fulltone. 

So much so that I had to comment about his selective stances and his happiness to shill for a guy who literally defrauded and stole from guitar community. Unsubscribed from RJ Ronqillo now. 

mburekenge

soma1975 said:

Speaking of which, this is one of the most cynical videos I have ever seen. Actually trying to turn a dollar on what's happened with Fulltone. 

So much so that I had to comment about his selective stances and his happiness to shill for a guy who literally defrauded and stole from guitar community. Unsubscribed from RJ Ronqillo now. 

Hahaha i knew that was you! We all do shady shit, and Fuller is a tool, but if he's aware of this, there's no way he doesn't know about vertex

soma1975

He's done so many videos actively promoting Mason and Vertex and like an absolute wanker he's gone on in on Fulltone because Fuller doesn't pay him and he found an angle to make a dollar out of it. 

Disgraceful. 

WiresDreamDisasters

soma1975 said:

He's done so many videos actively promoting Mason and Vertex and like an absolute wanker he's gone on Full-time because Fuller doesn't pay him and he found an angle to make a dollar out of it. 

Disgraceful. 

And I'd go one further. If the rumours are true, that GC didn't pay Fulltone for their consignments, then GC are just as bad.

RustySpanner

Agree about Rhet Shull, I'll give him a month.
Too clickbaity now.....

I do like Henning Paully, Dave Simpson, The Guitar Geek and a few others. 
Shane is pretty good but often seems to sit on the fence. 
I hated Stevie T at first, but am now addicted. Not proud, just addicted.......

Did like 60 Cycle Hum, but his recent pedal reviews have put me off a bit - too much just crammed in. 

Agufish can be fun, Trogly seems to all about unboxing these days (which puts me off).

I do like Robert's Guitar Dungeon, although I don't  really know why. 

MagicPigDetective

I prefer less talking and more showing what the pedal can do. With reverbs, delays and more out there pedals, you need someone demoing who understands how to use them musically, and not just playing tired rock and blues licks. I’ve been watching a lot of more experimental/ambient demos. There are a lot of inventive demos, some also using synths, apps, etc. I don’t know if they are impartial or not, but they show what the pedal is capable, so at least you have a good idea of what it’s about. Not much need to hear the demoers opinion, and in many cases they don’t give it, they just play.

The Pedal Zone is the king at this. Ok probably not impartial, but he does understand the pedals and the demos show what they can do in a musical and creative way. Other less know channels such as this, where it’s often enjoyable to just listen to the playing, include:

Collector//emitter
Dennis Kayzer
Ambient endeavours
Ponderer Sounds
Sofa Jams
Devon Blue Whitaker
Pedal Partners

Not a fan of knobs though, who seems to play plinky crazy delay sounds that you only hear on youtube demo’s, not actual proper songs. 

longshins

Remember to obnoxiously slurp on coffee before starting your ‘review’ video.

JerkMoans

Johan Segeborn. Truly dedicated to the dark arts of comparing and contrasting 27 Celestion speakers in an otherwise identical rig, and similar japery.

soma1975

Something about Segeborn.... I bet there is some utter filth on his hard drive.