USA guitar magazine gear reviews.

[geetarmikey]

Has anyone noticed how gear reviews in US guitar mags such as Guitar World are always positive and rarely, if ever, give out bad reviews? Even when they do the "pros and cons" thing, the "con" is always something only vaguely related like "Might be a bit too expensive for some people" on a $10,000 guitar or "Pedal does not come with charger... but you can still use batteries."

I understand that this is mostly done to keep the advertisers happy, but I remember reading Total Guitar (UK mag) years ago and they gave out loads of 2/5 and sometimes 1/5 star reviews for gear when it was a POS.

I just skip over the gear reviews in the otherwise really good US mags, it's so relentlessly positive as to render them pointless!

Anyway, just my opinion.

Mike

 

[Kelly]

They've been awful for years. They won't even review companies that don't advertise in the magazine anymore.

 

[rlord1974]

You summed it up quite well. They're absolutely worthless. How about when Guitar Player does a "Top 10" style review, and then they assign 4 or 5 of the 10 items an "Editor's Pick' award. Give me a break. What a complete farce.

And, if Michael Molenda uses the word "myriad" one more time, I'm going to stop buying that magazine for good. The guy must use that word about 15 to 20 times in every magazine. Get a dictionary and thesaurus for the love of God!!!

 

[baron55]

Has anyone noticed how gear reviews in US guitar mags such as Guitar World are always positive and rarely, if ever, give out bad reviews? Even when they do the "pros and cons" thing, the "con" is always something only vaguely related like "Might be a bit too expensive for some people" on a $10,000 guitar or "Pedal does not come with charger... but you can still use batteries."

I understand that this is mostly done to keep the advertisers happy, but I remember reading Total Guitar (UK mag) years ago and they gave out loads of 2/5 and sometimes 1/5 star reviews for gear when it was a POS.

I just skip over the gear reviews in the otherwise really good US mags, it's so relentlessly positive as to render them pointless!

Anyway, just my opinion.

Mike

Keep in mind, these reviews are "rewards" for the company advertising with the magazine. One of the un-said requirements for a review, is to advertise in the publication. As you said the generic negatives are there to make the review look somewhat unbiased.

 

[Bob Savage]

I haven't read a guitar mag in many years but consider the reviews to be just another ad, generally.

 

[Anonymous]

Has anyone noticed how gear reviews in US guitar mags such as Guitar World are always positive and rarely, if ever, give out bad reviews? Even when they do the "pros and cons" thing, the "con" is always something only vaguely related like "Might be a bit too expensive for some people" on a $10,000 guitar or "Pedal does not come with charger... but you can still use batteries."

I understand that this is mostly done to keep the advertisers happy, but I remember reading Total Guitar (UK mag) years ago and they gave out loads of 2/5 and sometimes 1/5 star reviews for gear when it was a POS.

I just skip over the gear reviews in the otherwise really good US mags, it's so relentlessly positive as to render them pointless!

Anyway, just my opinion.

Mike

Keep in mind, these reviews are "rewards" for the company advertising with the magazine. One of the un-said requirements for a review, is to advertise in the publication. As you said the generic negatives are there to make the review look somewhat unbiased.

Premier Guitar doesn't require advertisement to do a review...

Steve

 

[baron55]

Not the impression they gave me

 

[Ventura]

They've been awful for years. They won't even review companies that don't advertise in the magazine anymore.

This.

I've only been party to one magazine now, and that's via a 3 year subscription to UK Guitarist. Might be a bit pricier than the usual rags out there, but man, talk about great articles, great reviews - HONEST reviews - and wicked pre-releases on music, etc. Maybe a slight bent towards PRS guitars, and definitely a bent towards "all things British", but overall - excellent mag.

I can't do the N. American rags anymore... They're like bubblegum pop mags for infants.

 

[glassjaw7]

I still grab one now and then but for the most part I agree that most of them suck and the reviews are pretty bad. The last really good and useful mag I bought was a GP featuring Dave Friedman, Bob Bradshaw and Pete Cornish. Tons of good stuff on cables, pedal order, building boards and racks, etc.. That was in 2008.

The last GW I flipped through a few years back had an article on how to dress like ...(forgot his name) from some horrible shitty band.. Couldnt believe that.

 

[fenderbender4]

Agreed with the OP's point. Even Premier Guitar, if you look at the "Tones" category, it's almost always 4 picks or more. It gets to a point of hurting credibility.

 

[Aristocat]

I haven't picked up GW since they did a Slash/GNR specific edition back in 2001-2004 (forget exactly but I was 10-11). Since then it's been one disaster after another.

I stopped subscribing to PG a while back to and decided to just read their online subscription. I love books/mags etc but if the material produced is inconsistent, I wouldn't want to invest.

Plus, there are some editors I can't gel with. I can't stand Barry Cleveland's reviews as they seem biased and a bit contrived. RLord was right above regarding M. Molenda. There are safe go-to words with him that give a faux sense of intellectualism.

Guitarist from the U.K is nice since it's mostly lessons with some tasteful reviews throw in to satisfy the basic urge to read.

 

[Anonymous]

Not the impression they gave me

Interesting. They went out of their way to give me editorial contacts who do reviews and specifically tell me I didn't need to be an advertiser to get a review.

Steve

 

[rlord1974]

Not the impression they gave me

Interesting. They went out of their way to give me editorial contacts who do reviews and specifically tell me I didn't need to be an advertiser to get a review.

Steve

Let us know if/when your Cherry Bomb review will be published. That's an issue worth buying!

 

[PWE Amplification]

Not quite true. I know for a fact that Guitar Player does not require a company to advertise and they didn't send me advertising materials or contact me after the review.

 

[rlord1974]

Not quite true. I know for a fact that Guitar Player does not require a company to advertise and they didn't send me advertising materials or contact me after the review.

I saw that review. Ten 100 watt heads, right? They gave out 4 or 5 "Editor's Pick" awards in that review - out of 10 amps in total! I seem to recall they went to:
* Badcat Hot Cat 100
* Carol-Ann Triptik 100
* Marshall Satriani JVM 100
* Diamond Hammersmith
* maybe one more as well.....

Sure, there are some good amps there, but pick a horse and place your bet. I would like to see them pick their favourite amp out of the 10 reviewed, and indicate in detail WHY it was their favourite. But no; they are happy to give 50% of the amps reviewed an "Editor's Pick" award.

The PWE EH3 100 watter got a decent review, but no "Editor's Pick" award. Yet, they gave one to the Diamond Hammersmith - a 2-channel, relatively bare bones hot-rodded JCM800-style amp that nobody has ever seen, heard or purchased.

At least Mike Molenda and his team of followers got to throw around their grossly overused "myriad" word a handful of times across those 10 amp reviews......

 

[rupe]

I don't know about Guitar World, but Guitar Player seems to review quite a few (a myriad?) "boutique" products that aren't advertised in their rag.

Both of those mags are worth the price of admission for their theory lessons alone, although those probably aren't high up on the priority list for those who are more concerned about what gear they have rather than their ability to use it.

 

[rlord1974]

I do like Jake Hertzog's column in GP.

 

[geetarmikey]

Yeah, Guitarist mag in the UK is the best for reviews. They do really in depth ones, especially on exciting new gear and acoustic guitars which I would find very difficult and mine would probably go like this -

"Here's yet another acoustic guitar; it's made of some sort of wood, has six strings and definitely sounds like an acoustic guitar when you play it"

 

[PWE Amplification]

Not quite true. I know for a fact that Guitar Player does not require a company to advertise and they didn't send me advertising materials or contact me after the review.

I saw that review. Ten 100 watt heads, right? They gave out 4 or 5 "Editor's Pick" awards in that review - out of 10 amps in total! I seem to recall they went to:
* Badcat Hot Cat 100
* Carol-Ann Triptik 100
* Marshall Satriani JVM 100
* Diamond Hammersmith
* maybe one more as well.....

Sure, there are some good amps there, but pick a horse and place your bet. I would like to see them pick their favourite amp out of the 10 reviewed, and indicate in detail WHY it was their favourite. But no; they are happy to give 50% of the amps reviewed an "Editor's Pick" award.

The PWE EH3 100 watter got a decent review, but no "Editor's Pick" award. Yet, they gave one to the Diamond Hammersmith - a 2-channel, relatively bare bones hot-rodded JCM800-style amp that nobody has ever seen, heard or purchased.

At least Mike Molenda and his team of followers got to throw around their grossly overused "myriad" word a handful of times across those 10 amp reviews......

I honestly have no clue what criteria is used to make those Editor's Picks and neither do most people so I wouldn't put much stock in it. At the end of the day you still have to play an amp to know what it's about. There could be a myriad of reasons to like or dislike said amp.

 

[rlord1974]