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What features would you like to see more/less of in guitar magazines?


Tidal Rhythm

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For me, tabs. I remember the old "guitar for the practicing musician" tabs. Those kicked major ass and were the biggest reason I would buy the mags. To this day I'm still searching for some kind of archive of all their old tabs. I know it has to exist somewhere, it just HAS to!!!!!!

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I like the mini-lessons on the styles of various guitarists.

 

Tabbing out the entire song of "The Thrill Is Gone" doesn't do much for me, but an article which breaks down B.B. King's playing & writing techniques, including maybe some *short* tabs of examples of signature licks, is way cool... if done well.

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GFTPM was great for tabs. I remember getting copies of whatever songs were in there and working through the tab to get things note for note - there was some friendly rivalry between my freinds and I with that. GP used to be best for lessons - the Chet Atkins, Arlen Roth and Rik Emmit lessons were always great.

Studio Log with Tommy Tedesco was always my fav. gruhn did the rare bird colukm whoch was cool and Teisco Del Ray had a fun column.

Today, guitarists are more interested in buying gear then playing guitar. That's why we pretty much get 100+ pages of ads and "shootouts" - with the winner being an advertiser these days.

I remember when GP didn't even do gear reviews. They had the product spotlight for new stuff, but it was rare that one specific thing was reviewed.

Today if people want to get better they change pickups or get another guitar. Playing is kind of passe.

Sign of the times.

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Funny, I've been playing for 29 years, and I never bought a guitar or music magazine...

 

+1, except I've been playing around three years now. My parents got me "Total Guitar" magazine the other day... meh. It has Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White on the cover, and I don't really like any of the three's music.

 

The high point was a review of the Simon Neil Strat from Squier. That was pretty good. But on another review page, they shot the acoustic they were reviewing (proper photo for the mag)... and it had a string missing, and another was seated oddly in the saddle. Brand new guitar, pro photo :facepalm:

 

And all the tab... it has sections and sections of tab. The build-your-speed ones look good (I'm actually taking them), but the ones for riffs. Maybe I'm missing something about tab, but I always thought it was just better to learn the fretboard note positions and train your ear? How are you to start writing songs and get into music if you only know how to play from tab? I started on tab (which I regret), and played from it for nearly all of my guitar playing life, and I never got anywhere until recently when I started training my ear and fretboard memory :idk:

 

I will never buy another guitar magazine as long as I live. I'd rather make my own way, ta...

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For me, tabs. I remember the old "guitar for the practicing musician" tabs. Those kicked major ass and were the biggest reason I would buy the mags. To this day I'm still searching for some kind of archive of all their old tabs. I know it has to exist somewhere, it just HAS to!!!!!!

 

 

There used to be one online before GFTPM merged with Guitar One, then with Guitar World (used to be on for those two as well), but they are gone now.

 

I have hundreds of guitar magazines going back to the mid 80s and have a spreadsheet that currently has 2494 songs in it from those magazines. Makes things much easier to find that way...

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There used to be one online before GFTPM merged with Guitar One, then with Guitar World (used to be on for those two as well), but they are gone now.


I have hundreds of guitar magazines going back to the mid 80s and have a spreadsheet that currently has 2494 songs in it from those magazines. Makes things much easier to find that way...

 

 

yeah, that's what's frustrating. I'm sure someone out there has the entire archive. I wish someone would put it on bittorrent or something like that.

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I could do with a little less ads and a little more about guitarists and their gear and technique. Call me old fashioned. The internet has sort of negated the need for a hard copy since the information gets disseminated on the web at some point anyway.

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I'd like to see more instrument reviews, but only when objectively written. I have no use for any more "this guitar is great" reviews for a $4,000 guitar. I can do without any interviews with guitarists and really, REALLY hate ads with ersatz swimsuit models "posed" with guitars. Rarely is seen the model who looks better than a really good-looking guitar, and when she is seen you can be assured that she's not doing a spread with "some stupid guitar"...

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I like the mini-lessons on the styles of various guitarists.


Tabbing out the entire song of "The Thrill Is Gone" doesn't do much for me, but an article which breaks down B.B. King's playing & writing techniques, including maybe some *short* tabs of examples of signature licks, is way cool... if done well.



:thu:

Less adds as well. A more mathematical approach to tone would be cool too. We always talk about lows, highs, and mids but there is not much of a functioning understanding of what those words mean. I would love to see a more technical approach to gear reviews, especially when talking about frequency response and compression.

Profiling Top 40 rock acts that don't do a whole lot of note worthy guitar playing should be included but not the headline. Devoting 10+ pages to discussing Nickelback's new album is pretty pointless when there isn't much to be gained from breaking their stuff down. The tab examples wind up being like "well, sometimes I play one finger power chords with my first and second fingers but sometimes when I'm in a jam, I use my third :rawk:. Oh yeah, and I like to use down tuned Ibanez and PRS guitars into Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers." I understand that some articles might be worth recycling, but geez, recycle some articles about some people that can play.

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I'd like to see more instrument reviews, but only when objectively written. I have no use for any more "this guitar is great" reviews for a $4,000 guitar. I can do without any interviews with guitarists and really, REALLY hate ads with ersatz swimsuit models "posed" with guitars. Rarely is seen the model who looks better than a really good-looking guitar, and when she is seen you can be assured that she's not doing a spread with "some stupid guitar"...



I'll raise you one, I'd like to see some beautiful women model guitars who can actually play them. Hell, most male rock musicians who have any kind of mainstream following have got to have some kind of sex appeal going on (even if its despite their looks). Its not there aren't any beautiful women who also play guitar. Its pretty stupid to open up a guitar magazine and see some porno skank holding up an incredible guitar. I know their famous for holding wood, but not that kind :lol:.

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I would like to see an end to Dimebag Darrel coverage. He's the reason I stopped my Guitar World subscription.

 

 

Agreed. I'll admit that I damn near cried when I found out he died because I loved his music and playing SO much. Pantera will always be a part of my life, but he was no saint and shouldn't be deified like that. I don't mind an article here or there but its really excessive at this point. He should get the same kind of treatment any other dead guitar god gets. John Lennon had a much more profound influence on music and he doesn't get half the coverage Dime does in guitar rags.

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I like the mini-lessons on the styles of various guitarists.


Tabbing out the entire song of "The Thrill Is Gone" doesn't do much for me, but an article which breaks down B.B. King's playing & writing techniques, including maybe some *short* tabs of examples of signature licks, is way cool... if done well.



This! I especially liked the issue of GuitarWorld with the HUGE Dime article, where they reprinted a lot of his interviews and mini lessons :thu:

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