Really concerned Guitarist is losing touch with reality

[Kiichi]

The way we put the 10 point rating when doing poetry slams went like this just about (applied to gear here): 1 point....this should not have been build
5 points: This is decent, works, but nothing special
10 points: this thing musta been build by angels somewhere!

Add a gradual curve in there, be honest and reserve the 9s and 10s for the truely exeptional stuff to keep being credible and then effectivly have most things end up in the 6-8 category, at least one can hope.
If this is done well it should give a nice indication.

The point about shite gear is valid though, the general quality is so much better these days.

Also one needs to see how on has the point system react to the different price categorys. Comparing a cheap transistor amp with a high end valve one in terms of points is nearly impossible. If you were to compare them properly you would probably have the transistor end up being like a 2-3, even if it does sound amazing for its price.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Very few pieces of kit are going to get less than 3 for a variety of reasons.

1 anyone sending kit in for review is going to make sure it's well prepared as you are unlikely to want to get a bad review
2 anything they get that is substandard - they are surely going to contact the company out of decency and fostering good relations within the UK marketplace.
3 Advertising revenue is naturally important and  reviews/adverts don't go necessarily hand in glove as in one can't exist without the other, but neither do they wish to stymy themselves for future advertising potential.

The UK industry is small and you could get the head honchos from every distributor, manufacturer or maker together in a good size pub. These people tend to know each other to some degree, and if a magazine got a reputation for scathing reviews (warranted or not)  it could be a short lived career path.
I feel that there is generally honesty in reviews in spite of some of the reviewers having pretty close relationships with the big 5 (Fender, Gibson, PRS, Taylor , Martin)
Sometimes the formula of having to find some negative point to offer balance on an otherwise glowing review amuses as they can find odd things to criticise.
Mags don't expect to keep anything they review in my experience, although that was what Chappers offered in exchange for a video review, hence I didn't go for that.

I would like to get some Guitarist reviews of my stuff and from Guitar and Bass Magazine - my previous reviews were with Guitar Buyer Mag. Hopefully they will accept them for a review.

[Philly Q]

Mags don't expect to keep anything they review in my experience, although that was what Chappers offered in exchange for a video review, hence I didn't go for that.

That's done nothing to change my opinion of him....

But your comment reminded me, one of the more interesting things Guitarist have done in recent years is the "Long Termers" section, where the staff keep things for an extended period and use them in real-life situations for recording, gigging etc before deciding if they really are "keepers".  That is a good idea, and not something I've seen in the other magazines I read.

[Gizmo]

This is an interesting thread and many good points.

I wouldnt says its affordable to the majority of guitar players, but it is in line with many of its competitors and boutique amp manufacturers. In fact compared to some brands boutique brands it is cheaper. However, if a particular piece of gear is £2k and its really good then I think nowadays more and more people are splashing out on boutique gear for something that is special.

I find it strange forum threads often say why spend so much on an amp, in particularly a bedroom amp, but the amp is the biggest thing to affect tone. Why not spend that much if its good and you can afford it or save for it. Guitarists dont often question spending lots on guitars. Guitar prices are getting out of hand now CS Gibsons £3-7k, PRS £2.5-12k, etc etc. Even spending upto £1k on a guitar and having lots of guitars for variety is common now, but one killer amp is hard to justify??

Regarding the Rating system. I agree its rubbish. Its nigh on impossible to really understand how good something is that is being reviewed with only 5 stars. They should use 10/10 or % like other mags. They also should rate it as a stand alone guitar but also within a price band. E.g it might get 3/5 compared to a guitar which gets 5/5 but that guitar might cost 5x the price but for a guitar in that price bracket its amazing. that isnt easy to get from the reviews.

I also dont think the videos are great. They had the excuse before when it all had to fit on the disk now its online they should have extended videos and more variety of tones and playing styles in the demos. I find the magazine doesnt go into detail and add much value over the reviews and comments on the net. They need to have more opinions and do lengthy demos to add value.

I should mention i do subscribe to Guitarist but my major gripe is the fact that some reviews of gear become available online on Music Radar at the same time i get the magazine delivered!! WTF? i am partially tempted to cut my subscription and see the reviews as they trickle onto Music Radar.

[tekbow]

Good points!

I don't think we're saying "why spend so much on an amp" though, unless it's a point you're raising having read other threads with those kind of feelings?

Thread has evolved nicely i must say though.

[Philly Q]

I should mention i do subscribe to Guitarist but my major gripe is the fact that some reviews of gear become available online on Music Radar at the same time i get the magazine delivered!! WTF? i am partially tempted to cut my subscription and see the reviews as they trickle onto Music Radar.

I only occasionally look on Music Radar, but I get the impression the reviews are only shortened versions of the reviews in Guitarist?  Your point's still a good one, though.

I must admit, I can't warm to the idea of online magazines - I like going through a paper magazine because I'll find myself reading stuff that wouldn't have sounded interesting if it was just a link at the side of a webpage.  I guess I'll have to get used to it though, I suspect printed magazines will die out in the next few years (possibly just before I completely run out of space in my flat....)

[Andrew W]

But your comment reminded me, one of the more interesting things Guitarist have done in recent years is the "Long Termers" section, where the staff keep things for an extended period and use them in real-life situations for recording, gigging etc before deciding if they really are "keepers".  That is a good idea, and not something I've seen in the other magazines I read.

Really agree with that, I think it's a great feature. It's quite illuminating seeing them go through the honeymoon phase and, often, out the other side. I always wonder how much time a reviewer gets to spend with a piece of gear under regular review circumstances? My guess is not much and that must be reflected in the reviews. Things that ultimately really annoy you about a product often take some time to fully manifest themselves.

[Lew]

Guitarist is really out of touch, seems like it's being run by a member of TGP.

 :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK4I-NmeXS4

lol thanks for that. I did used to post there so I'm familiar with Tag  :lol: this one is funny too The plight of the guitar salesman

[tekbow]

lol hadn't seen that one, I feel sorry for sales guys, but then again, i feel sorry for customers sometimes too..

Was on guitar guitars site a couple days ago and saw they had some vemuram jan rays in stock.. for ridiculous prices as expected. Do those guys not keep tabs on what the latest holy grail/flameout is?

saying that, probably the majority of the guitar buying public don't know, will be a bad day for the guy who walks in and buy it. although maybe the majority of the guitar buying public wouldn't buy a pedal when they could buy a guitar for the same money lol

[Philly Q]

Was on guitar guitars site a couple days ago and saw they had some vemuram jan rays in stock.. for ridiculous prices as expected. Do those guys not keep tabs on what the latest holy grail/flameout is?

saying that, probably the majority of the guitar buying public don't know, will be a bad day for the guy who walks in and buy it. although maybe the majority of the guitar buying public wouldn't buy a pedal when they could buy a guitar for the same money lol

I've never heard of it, but I'd never waste £295 on an emperor's-new-clothes pedal (not when I could waste it on another guitar, or a neck, or something).  Presumably there's a story about this pedal I've missed out on....?

[tekbow]

Ahhh.. the flameout was spectacular.. on par with the freekish blues thing..

and not a million miles from what freekish blues had done either..

Basically Vemuram is a Japanese company, and they released a pedal called the Jan Ray, the latest TGP holy grail "transparent" mojo OD. 5 years of R&D or some such, beautiful polished brass case, this was Gods own OD, not even Jesus would have been allowed to play it.. and the reviews on it (written before it had even been released) were stunning

And when users opened it up, it had been gooped.

You see whats coming next..?

Someone got suspicious and degooped it, it was flagrant and outright Timmy clone, with a couple of minor component values changed (i guess in the same way an 808 differs from a TS).

The thread went on for 30 pages before it was shut down, then another started up that 24 hours later was 15 pages long. People swore blind the pedal they just blew $400+ on didn't sound anything like a Timmy.

"I don't care what you say, I can hear a difference" wrote one TGP newb who drank the koolaid.. meanwhile a lot of "as new" janrays suddenly started appearing on ebay before the general public caught wind.

Guess the goop was mojo sauce.

And i laughed my arse off. TGP for me is much like a canary in a coal mine.

[Philly Q]

"I don't care what you say, I can hear a difference" wrote one TGP newb who drank the koolaid..

 :lol:

[dave_mc]

^ yeah the jan ray thing. I feel sorry for the guys who got ripped, but i nearly got an infraction over there for advising caution before it had been reversed... :lol: EDIT: the guy who degooped it is a guy I know well on another forum. he's a good guy, and deserves a lot of credit for spending money to get one when he knew it was gonna be a clone. Not to mention credit for doing the work to reverse it. IIRC it was actually tweaked in a similar way to the freekish- neutered controls to keep it more within mojoville settings :lol:

FWIW there's another super-expensive d-style pedal which is currently being hyped. trolling the thread as we speak :oops:

That's possibly the most annoying thing about it. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I dare say I get caught out once in a while. But when i do, I learn from it and don't do it again. With them over there it's like "Dur I got ripped off with that last pack of magic beans but I have a good feeling about this next pack of them..."

Nomatter how many times this happens, there's always another new holy grail, flavour of the month pedal which'll make you sell all your existing pedals. And which definitely can't be a clone, nosiree, I have golden ears and fingers and they tell me this is a unique circuit.

I'm sure most of us have, by now, remapped Guitarist's reviews in our own minds:

*** = pretty rotten, they never give anything less than *** so that's as bad as something can be.
**** = OK, decent enough
***** = Ranges from "really quite decent" to "the greatest thing to tickle ears since Leo Fender said 'I wonder what would happen if I bolted these two planks together a walloped a pickup in one of them?'"

Trouble is, because Guitarist now effectively only have one three grading levels, none of them are very useful other than ***, which I take mean "probably avoid".

It's also true that the overall quality of gear has improved vastly over the twenty odd years I've been playing so perhaps there actually aren't many really shocking pieces of kit out there any more and perhaps that too has something to do with it as well as advertiser pressure?

I'd say it's even worse than that. In my experience (and bear in mind I haven't read it now for maybe a year), anything 4 stars or better is liable to be great. In fact, many times something which got 4 stars I'd prefer to something which got 5 stars.

I also think the "gear is so much better now" thing is a massive red herring. You rate stuff based on what's currently available, or else what's the point? I'm not buying a guitar in the 1960s, to some 15 year old kid spending the money he's saved up for 3 years to get a guitar it doesn't matter one iota what gear was like in the 1960s, he/she wants the best instrument which is available now for his/her money.

If computer magazines rated computers based on what they were like 20 years ago they'd be a laughing stock (and rightly so).

[tekbow]

^ yeah the jan ray thing. I feel sorry for the guys who got ripped, but i nearly got an infraction over there for advising caution before it had been reversed... :lol:

FWIW there's another super-expensive d-style pedal which is currently being hyped. trolling the thread as we speak :oops:

oh yeah? what pedal would that be?? lol

[dave_mc]

ah woops I edited my last post as you posted, if anyone is interested :lol: (probably not, it's just a rant :oops: )

here's the link to the thread, it gets good by about page 5

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1275881

(it's the dumbloid pedal, I think)

EDIT: oh yeah, the guy who says it looks like it was made by a 5-year old is the guy who reversed the jan ray. :lol: