Feynman Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 I have a couple of CG subscriptions, but no electric.I'd like to subscribe to something with decent gear reviews and worthwhile articles rather than a long collection of advertisements.Which magazines might you suggest?
BadgerDave Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 1. Guitarist - published in the UK and expensive for those of us in the US, but IMO it has the best gear reviews and a diverse approach to interviews, lessons, etc. Plus a very good regular technical feature called "Ask Dr. Robert"2. Vintage Guitar - Best in the US, IMO3. ToneQuest Reports. Quirky and focused on the corksniffer stuff, but I find valuable information in this newsletter. Not cheap.4. Guitar and Bass - also from the UK, sort of "Guitarist lite".5. Guitar Player. Seems to be recovering from a period of hopeless pandering to nuMetal players and the Gibson corporate machine. Not great, but better than it was a year ago.
jerseydrew Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 Vintage Guitar is my favorite of all the guitar magazines.
HamerHokie Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 5. Guitar Player. Seems to be recovering from a period of hopeless pandering to nuMetal players and the Gibson corporate machine. Not great, but better than it was a year ago.There was a time that they handled equipment reviews as 'shootouts' in which they actually picked winners and rated several factors objectively. But even then, the worst Gibbys were getting the highest ratings.Now, everyone's a winner. They review gear on its own merits, and they don't review anything bad. You have no way of assessing whether guitar A is better than guitar B from their reviews. So the advertisers are happy, and the readers are clueless.
Lew Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 I have literally two, four foot high stacks of ten years worth of Guitarist, Guitar Buyer, Guitar Techniques. The only guitar magazine I buy now that I think is up to scratch is Guitar buyer, the other Future publication titles are just the same re hashed crap month to month. The old guitarist magazines have some great interviews, Frank Zappa's last interview for example. I have tried the american magazine's guitar player and guitar world but to be honest I find them even more dull and full of advertisments than the current english offerings
Steve Haynie Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 Vintage Guitar is the closest thing to early issues of Guitar Player.
Feynman Posted January 2, 2008 Author Posted January 2, 2008 Cool...thanks all.I found an online savings code (CGGP1) and just subscribed to VG for $15. Seems cheap enough to see what I think.
Special J Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 +1 for Vintage GuitarI also get an online 'zine called Premier Guitar. I have no idea where I signed up for it, but it's free and it's actually pretty good.
Stike Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 The different mags seem to have different strengths and/or weaknesses.I'll agree that while Guitar Player is overflowing with glowing reviews their coverage of a very wide variety of players and styles is broader than the other major mags. Guitar World still seems to be the choice for the 13-21 YO rock/metal types. Vintage Guitar has really good articles but for me it's whole lot of dealer ads.
Imiss85 Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 +1 for Premiere Guitar. They have an online version and a magazine version. The MAgazines are pretty good, the focus is mainly on the boutique type stuff - with some interesting articles.
Guest JackButler Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 Premeire Guitar is the old Musician's Hotline retooled.. best real world playing info out there in English is Guitar Techniques. Best balance across the genres as well.
guymandude Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 I like Guitar Player because they have a great website with all kinds of cool stuff. I think it is more diverse than the other publications. Guitar World is a waste and I miss Guitar One.
tonyvieira Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 Guitar Techniques from UK, each issue comes with a CDSo worth it, exccelent articles and transcriptions. Not cheap but you will actually use what is in there, lessons and transcriptions are done very well, they presented nicely in print and in the recording.You can get it in the USA via Amazon.com or buy individual at Barnes&Noble and Bordershttp://www.guitar-techniques.com/I am not sure of the difference between the previously mentioned Guitarist and Guitar Techniques. Seem very similar to me, (same publisher?). I usually pick them up at a bookstore when there is something in there I find interesting, like BeBopDeluxe or Holdsworth transciption, just don't find that stuff in other mags.
serial Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 Vintage Guitar has really good articles but for me it's whole lot of dealer ads.VG used to be THE magazine to have if you were looking to buy a guitar. I think that the internet killed the value of having dealer ads with stock lists (which was pretty much all that mag was for many years-not a bad thing at the time). I let my subscription run out in 2001 after the Hamer articles appeared that I contributed on (I wasn't really happy with the accuracy of the articles that Michael Wright ended up putting together, but the idea was pretty cool). I used to be able to get guitars from the stocklist ads, but by 1999 or 2000, with the lead time needed for a magazine ad, the guitars on the lists were long gone to internet postings, making them useless.I absolutely expected that the magazine would not be able to survive past 2002, but they've changed formats and actually had some decent photo spreads of collections, more color pages and good interviews in the few I've picked up since then. $15? Well worth it for the eye candy, I'd guess.
Lew Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 I am not sure of the difference between the previously mentioned Guitarist and Guitar Techniques. Seem very similar to me, (same publisher?). I usually pick them up at a bookstore when there is something in there I find interesting, like BeBopDeluxe or Holdsworth transciption, just don't find that stuff in other mags.Yea, they are both Future publishing as well as Total Guitar, they pretty much have the monopoly here in the UK.Guitar Techniques is all about learning as you would imagine from the title and has some really advanced lessons published by guys like Guthrie Govan(a king amongst guitarists) but not alot more bar some readers letters.Guitarist is thick with adverts and has limited lessons/transcriptions but ton's of reader input and gear/music reviews.
Guest JackButler Posted January 3, 2008 Posted January 3, 2008 Guitar Techniques gets my vote..can't go wrong with it.. I was in the December issue! LOL!
DavidE Posted January 13, 2008 Posted January 13, 2008 Cool...thanks all.I found an online savings code (CGGP1) and just subscribed to VG for $15. Seems cheap enough to see what I think.THanks for that code. For $15 it seemed silly not to give it another try.
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