Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Petre on June 17, 2006, 08:59:36 PM
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Anyone know of any really good guitar magazines for someone more oriented towards heavy metal? I thought about getting a subscription but nowhere nearby sells any guitar magazines :? . Just wondering what people generally read and stuff.
Im heavily into gear reviews and stuff
Cheers again lads
Petre
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Dunno, but for me "Guitarist" is by far the best one.
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There a japanese one called Young Guitar, Ive bought some off ebay for not bad prices. The maganises cover technical metal playing mostly, and I would say that it is definattley advanced.
I bought a Chris Impellitteri special one which contained spot on tab and backing tracks. I think the latest young guitar has dvds now with the actual player demonstrating techniques.
The major problem though is that the writing is in Japanese! but if you can read tab this isn't a problem I guess. Check out:
http://www.young-guitar.com/
Honestly though its an awesome mag but its a bitch to get in the UK.
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Guitarist is the best mag IMO. Total guitar is good but they aren't nearly specific enough in their reviews for me, although I do prefer their straight-to-the-point album reviews. I buy both. Their interviews are more interesting in TG too. But I prefer Guitarist. Better song tuition and it's got more stuff in it.
For heavy metal, Total Guitar is a better mag IMO. It caters more for a younger audience (more metal, classick rock and indie) than Guitarist, who cover blues, jazz, country and rock as well as a bit of metal.
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+1 on Guitarist
...Total guitar just seems abit childish...(not always a bad thing 8) )
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+1 on Guitarist
...Total guitar just seems abit childish...(not always a bad thing 8) )
yeah it is, its really gone downhill.. Well actually maybe its not changed atall and I've just matured? I dont know but I used to like it, now I cant stand it and the cr@p songs they tab out all the time, you only get the occasional good one. For gear alone, Guitar Buyer seems to be a pretty good one.
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if only TG had the balls to run actual proper technique \ lessons on stuff it glorifies\promotes in short 1 page spreads and rave album reviews (eg Dragonforce, Satyricon, Darkthrone, Malmsteen, Children of Bodom, Helloween etc etc) then itd be ace!
They talk alot about 'who will be the future guitar heroes??' but they have missed alot of the good ones :(
I know they have to make money and sell issues (and get permission to print stuff) but I think the general readership would buy the mag just to hear some unusual stuff from around the world... there are so many amazing talents which could be used instead of endless flavour of the week bands.
another 'Metal Special' issue with some of the big alt bands (like Exodus, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Bodom, Darkthrone etc) would be killer 8)
Young Guitar is good but its all technique really.. Guitar World is more adverts than content but its good, and they have done some great lessons\dvds.
I think we do ok on the whole for guitar mags! ;)
I wont even read Kerrang \ Metal Hammer though, different 'this band is the next Led Zep\Sabbath\Metallica' feature every issue and lots of poserific posturing and 'scene setting'. Last couple i bough for the cover cds, walked out of Smiths and just binned the mags! :roll:
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cheers guys! useful info here thx :)
But chrisola, about kerrang. I must say, i hate kerrang... the mag, the tv station, and its huge involvement with download festival. Last straw for me was crowning trivium "gods of metal" :roll: . Yea trivium are great but they arent gods. They are good and stuff just there are bands with far more talent. Then of course trivium took the slot at download above bands such as Alice in Chains, Stone Sour. and on the sunday, Bullet for my valentine took a slot above bands of the likes of In Flames. Then Evergrey (if you havent heard you REALLY SHOULD) were put on the snickers bowl :roll: (i know they arent big over here but in sweden they are legends)
/end rant
Sorry, i get carried away with these things
Petre
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Another thing about Total Guitar, is that they give EVERYTHING a good review! So annoying, not everything can be good!
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Another thing about Total Guitar, is that they give EVERYTHING a good review! So annoying, not everything can be good!
Most mags will do that. The majority of the time the company whose product they're reviewing will send out a "review" for them to use. Basically, it's advertising under another name. Newspapers are full of this sort of thing, too, posing as real articles.
Anyways, I like Guitar Techniques, followed by Guitarist, and then Total Guitar. None of them are great for metal, though TG would probably be better than the other two. TG used to be much better, but they've gone the way of Guitar World and are so wrapped up in creating a sale-able image for young people that anything interesting to musicians who don't care about image or industry wanna-bes has pretty much been flushed out.
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Anyways, I like Guitar Techniques, followed by Guitarist, and then Total Guitar. None of them are great for metal, though TG would probably be better than the other two. TG used to be much better, but they've gone the way of Guitar World and are so wrapped up in creating a sale-able image for young people that anything interesting to musicians who don't care about image or industry wanna-bes has pretty much been flushed out.
+1 to that,,, Its fine for me I'm mostly into blues rock so theres plenty on tap
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Searcher, what you say is a little extreme. I did write for a magazine once (synthesizer mag tests) and the reviews are written by the mag editors, and if you read well between the lines, you will understand which product the reviewer like and which not. But a reviewer cannot "destroy" a product, especially if it comes from a major company that advertises in the mag.
You cannot go too confrontational, unless your editor-in-chief backs you up or the product is a huge screw-up. Anyway, there are not many really bad products being released anyway (depending on the price range for sure). But read the reviews well, if a product gets 4 out of 5 in sound, it will already be flawed. The effect won't have the same dynamics as the best analog pedal, and the amp with 4 stars didn't excite the reviewer with it's sweet and rich midrange. In today's business, where competition for gear is huge, a 4 out of 5 product is inferior. Or do you think BKPs would get 4 out of 5 for sound? Anway, you should always, always, always play stuff yourselves before purchasing. Also a wah might get a 3 or 4 in sound because it has a special frequency range that doesn't sound great with the reviewer's rig, but maybe it just hits the right frequency for your guitar, amp and taste and you could be the luckiest guy with it.
A guitar mag for me is giving an overview, nice stories, feeding my GAS and offering some new ideas for playing - and as said, Guitarist is #1 to me in that field, it's just real good quality journalism ...
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Searcher, what you say is a little extreme.
Fair enough. I was generalising for magazines altogether, not just guitar mags. There are certainly quite a few mags out there that don't come up with their own copy for every product they review. But perhaps it's not as common as I was lead to believe.
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American mags are much worse for reviews, in my opinion. You tend to get a slightly rewritten press release and a number higher that 7 but less than 10 at the bottom.
I'd be all for a dual scoring system in Guitar mags. 1 score as an absolute, and 1 a "for the money" assessment. I mean, maybe the new behringer pedals are grand jobs for sub-20 quid, but how do they really stack up?
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I'd be all for a dual scoring system in Guitar mags. 1 score as an absolute, and 1 a "for the money" assessment. I mean, maybe the new behringer pedals are grand jobs for sub-20 quid, but how do they really stack up?
Which is exactly what Guitarist do - 1 for sound/quality absolute and 1 value for money ...
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Just subscribed to Guitarist actually, what a coincidence...
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I did mean two complete overall scores.
I used the behringer pedals as an example. The Blues Driver knock-off got 4/5 stars for sound. Is that 4/5 the same 4/5 a unit costing 200 quid that sounded the same would get?
Not being arsey, I'm just curious. It's all well and good saying "It's a great wee pedal for 20 quid", but does that mean it's genuinely great or is it more of a case of lowered expectations?
I know. I do want the moon on a stick...
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Another thing about Total Guitar, is that they give EVERYTHING a good review! So annoying, not everything can be good!
Most mags will do that. The majority of the time the company whose product they're reviewing will send out a "review" for them to use. Basically, it's advertising under another name. Newspapers are full of this sort of thing, too, posing as real articles.
NOT TRUE!
- certainly not for small companies here in the UK with the UK guitar mags
Ask Tim and he will tell you the same
I have had reviews and they were in general very good - but that was because we gave them great guitars to review
It can be hard for mags to piss off a company who maybe takes out thousands of pounds worth of advertising with your mag, but I know the editors of a few mags and the determination to be honest is there.
I mainly speak of the guys at Guitar Buyer and also The Guitar Magazine
Tim can probably give a more even picture of the Future Publishing titles as he advertises with them
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I myself read Guitar and Bass Magazine (formerly The Guitar Magazine) by Future Publishing.
Over the last few issues they've just started TABbing songs (not why I buy a guitar mag) but I've always found their product reviews to be very good and usually honest about the item they're reviewing :)
It also doesn't have an ad on every other page, which would do my head in after a while :)
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NOT TRUE!
- certainly not for small companies here in the UK with the UK guitar mags
Ask Tim and he will tell you the same
I have had reviews and they were in general very good - but that was because we gave them great guitars to review
Ah well. Lol! :oops:
I probably should have said, "As far as I know" or "So I've heard" or something in my message.
I've had two or three people who made a living doing copywriting and journalism say this and I just repeated it. They were Americans though; perhaps it's more common in the US.
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- slightly off topic ( for which I apologise) Jonathan, I see there is a small piccy of you in Guitar Buyer- their photomontage of LGS- you are not named but there is a reference to long hair.
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Haha legend, Jon is famous :P
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i've not bought a guitar magazine in about 2 years, they're all cr@p.
www.chopsfromhell.com, www.guitarshredshow.com - an abudance of technical stuff to learn.
www.harmony-central.com - reviews
www.outsideshore.com/index.htm,
www.freakguitar.com - plenty of scales and theory to keep you going
I dont see the need in buying there stuff, as for transcriptions that come in magazines they're mediocre i've seen wrong tabs especially on more technical stuff I once say a disgraceful tab of Die To Live by vai in a magazine years ago.
And you should all be trying to figure it out by ear anyway, also getting a propper musical education (eg, music diploma/degree) is more useful that learning the same licks and songs as 10,000 other people that week.
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- slightly off topic ( for which I apologise) Jonathan, I see there is a small piccy of you in Guitar Buyer- their photomontage of LGS- you are not named but there is a reference to long hair.
hah, i saw the one. Some reference to chocolate and beer and strange goings on at the party afterwards...
seriously.
if you don't believe me, read it!
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I was seen standing with a marshmallow on a skewer by the chocolate fountain it is true.
All those lovely guitars on my stand and all they picture is a food fetish shot..........
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NOT TRUE!
- certainly not for small companies here in the UK with the UK guitar mags
Ask Tim and he will tell you the same
I have had reviews and they were in general very good - but that was because we gave them great guitars to review
Ah well. Lol! :oops:
I probably should have said, "As far as I know" or "So I've heard" or something in my message.
I've had two or three people who made a living doing copywriting and journalism say this and I just repeated it. They were Americans though; perhaps it's more common in the US.
It may be more prevalent in the USA
News stories are often "managed" by people with financial sway in the daily newspapers and i am sure that it must exist in the music press but it certainly doesn't seem to happen in reviews for smaller companies.
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Well, If a magazine gets sent an MG100 to review...They're hardly gonna say that it's overpriced, it sounds terrible and you could buy a much better amp for the money...Reason being that Marshall are probably one of the biggest advertisers in the magazine, and a big source of money - if they give a terrible review and Marshall remove their adverts, then the magazine loses out
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cheers guys! useful info here thx :)
But chrisola, about kerrang. I must say, i hate kerrang... the mag, the tv station, and its huge involvement with download festival. Last straw for me was crowning trivium "gods of metal" :roll: . Yea trivium are great but they arent gods. They are good and stuff just there are bands with far more talent. Then of course trivium took the slot at download above bands such as Alice in Chains, Stone Sour. and on the sunday, Bullet for my valentine took a slot above bands of the likes of In Flames. Then Evergrey (if you havent heard you REALLY SHOULD) were put on the snickers bowl :roll: (i know they arent big over here but in sweden they are legends)
/end rant
Sorry, i get carried away with these things
Petre
Evergrey are such an underated band. So much better than most of the cr@p you hear now.