Guitar Review Websites, anyone know a good one?

[Jonny]

Just wondering, I sometimes go on Harmoney Central and Ultimate Guitar but I heard they weren't that great, obviously for the latter.

Anyone know any?

[Ben_W]

I think the rumour is that a lot of people on Harmony Central post very good/biased reviews about there own gear, to make them feel better about themselves.

That was said by someone on this forum. Can't remember who.

I think they can be good, just, as has been said infinite times, you have to take them with a pince of salt.

[Philly Q]

Harmony Central is OK if it's a model that's been reviewed by lots of people.  Then you can skim the reviews to see what people say about their other gear, musical preferences, age(!) etc and find those whose views seem to be most "in tune" with your own.

I haven't really found any sites with good, in-depth reviews except where they're being reprinted from magazines.

[dave_mc]

Harmony Central is OK if it's a model that's been reviewed by lots of people.  Then you can skim the reviews to see what people say about their other gear, musical preferences, age(!) etc and find those whose views seem to be most "in tune" with your own.

yeah, pretty much. Take them with a pinch of salt, and if the article sounds like it was written by an idiot then it probably was. But if you wade through 20 reviews you might find a good one, as long as you're extremely sceptical about everything you read.

I think the big problem about reviews is that it polarises everything; unless you're the type of person who likes writing reviews, two things are likely to act as an incentive to make you actually get round to writing one- feeling like you've got a kickass deal and wanting to let everyone know, and feeling like you bought a cr@ppy product and/or got ripped off in which case you want to warn others to make yourself feel a bit better, like you got your own back. You're not likely to bother if the gear is decent but unspectacular, kind of thing.

Oh, and the third thing which can make people write reviews, showing off new gear: the person writes a review the same day (probably the same hour) as getting the new piece of kit. Those reviews are useless too.

EDIT: it also depends very much on what kit is being reviewed. if you're reading a review of beginner kit, there's a good chance a lot of those reviews are being written by beginners. If you're reading a review of a more obscure piece of kit, there's a better chance the review will be sensible.

of course, it's not foolproof.

[Philly Q]

All very true.  Wise words, Dave.  :)

[dave_mc]

haha, cheers philly. Comes from the fact that I get random GAS about twice a day, and then I hit the reviews etc. Certainly reading every one and giving equal weight to each one is next to useless, but once you sort of learn which ones are a little more trustworthy, they're worth a read. Still treat them with a pinch of salt, of course. :lol: EDIT: you could probably use similar advice for wikipedia. :lol: people say wiki is useless because people can edit it, but for certain things it's very useful indeed. Certainly stuff like hardcore academic subjects, you aren't likely to get too many trolls editing stuff for a laugh. And if you do, it's going to be bleeding obvious, kind of thing.

[Matt77]

I think Premier Guitar isn't a bad resource for reviews. You have to drop lucky if you are looking for something really specific though

http://www.premierguitar.com/Reviews/Default.aspx

[Ratrod]

Skip the reviews that:

Give everything a ten;

Are written by beginners;

mention a long FX chain;

mention a solid state amp;

mention only boutique gear.


Read the reviews that:

Are sincerely critical;

Are written by experienced guys that have had low- and high end gear and play live with a band.

[hunter]

Usually I check overall score (and the question here is, does it get 8.9 or 9.7 average?).

Indeed few people would critisize their own gear.

Second thing I do is skim them and look at the ones that only gave a 7 or 8 to "Sound" and read through what they didn't like about it. People giving 4 or 5 are usually worthless, as I cannot believe someone is actually buying an amp that he'd only give a 5. But if someone bought an amp and realises later that it doesn't work on louder volumes, or that he cannot get the channels to balance out in practise etc, that's what I'm looking for.

Problem is that usually after I was on the HC reviews, I have GAS and wanna buy it.

[Lew]

I've read a few reviews over there but they're either written by fanbois or haters so...