Has anybody checked out the last couple of months? These's some good stuff!

A couple of months ago, there was a cover story witha a lot of interviews (Bob Bradshaw, Pete Cornish, etc.) on build pedalboards.

This month, there's a feature on how to play like Tommy Bolin! Woo-Hoo!

Anyway, just thought I'd give a "Head's Up" about a couple of cool articles.

Guitar Player is the only magazine that I subscribe to. Though the quality of the content has fluctuated over the years, overall I still think it's the best guitar mag out there. I agree that the last few issues were particularly good. Of course I was very excited when I got the May '08 issue - "The Ultimate Guide to Pedalboards". Yes!

One thing that I really dig about GP is their lessons. They always have an eclectic bunch of artists featured in almost every style. And they teach you concepts that you can apply to your own playing, as opposed to Zakk Wylde showing you how he plays 'Miracle Man' or something like that. Much of the music theory that I've learned was through GP...

I'm digging this months Wayne Krantz master class on improvising. I love Wayne's playing, so a peak into how he approaches improvising is alone worth the cover price for me...

I am really digging the article on Harmonics, too!

Have you checked out GuitarPlayer TV?

Coincidentally I grabbed an old GP before going to sleep yesterday and the amount of lessons (in comparison with Total Guitar or GuitarOne) did surprise me. Nevertheless, I keep saying that the best mag out there is Guitar Techniques from Britain. After being on this forum for so long I don't really need gear reviews anymore and I never did need interviews with punk/emo/poprock "guitar players".

GP interviews are very insightful, usually talk about tone and gear.

Many feature artists on GP are not that appealing to me. I have a bunch of selected magazine lessons lying around to be studied.. must get to it. Guitarworld has improve recently on the lessons department.. but their interviews are not that tone-wise, seem more "glamour" oriented stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by NJlo:
Coincidentally I grabbed an old GP before going to sleep yesterday and the amount of lessons (in comparison with Total Guitar or GuitarOne) did surprise me. Nevertheless, I keep saying that the best mag out there is Guitar Techniques from Britain. After being on this forum for so long I don't really need gear reviews anymore and I never did need interviews with punk/emo/poprock "guitar players".

+1 on Guitar Techniques as the best for lessons. The problem for me is that over here in the United States they charge 3-4 times the cost of magazines from here. I usually check out the whole magazine in the store to the point of reading some of the articles. Then after that if I think the content is what I want I make the purchase. That being said, I usually find that I buy the magazine for multiple reasons and not just one lesson. Total Guitar is another magazine that is good from the UK although I don't buy them as often.

quote:

Originally posted by Tonewolf:

...

+1 on Guitar Techniques as the best for lessons. The problem for me is that over here in the United States they charge 3-4 times the cost of magazines from here. I usually check out the whole magazine in the store to the point of reading some of the articles. Then after that if I think the content is what I want I make the purchase. That being said, I usually find that I buy the magazine for multiple reasons and not just one lesson. Total Guitar is another magazine that is good from the UK although I don't buy them as often.

Yeah, they're more expensive here than in the UK already. The Dutch magazines generally suck, they actually buy articles from international mags and translate 'em! I'm going to subscribe to GT though, and I think they'll probably be a third of the price in the States that way as well.

I like Guitar Techniques, too. And Guitar Edge, Acoustic Guitar, Fingerstyle Guitar, and probably a couple more I can't remember!

I really hate that Guitar One and Guitar World got bought by Future (the guys who also publish all of the UK mags), and they discontinued G1.
Also, Guitar World markets to kids but I can't recommend it to the parents of my students. They've got "unedited" interviews, which basically means a lot of needless profanity is peppered throughout the magazine. Also, there's a bunch of "Girls Of Guitar World" soft core pix on their website.
I'm not a prude. But, if they market directly to kids with this stuff, it's kinda pointless. Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Right? But seriously......

Kinda funny that Guitar Techniques doesn't have the same "features".?.

Probably gonna run themselves into the ground. Or, marginalize themselves even more. The whole music playing public in the USA is about 15%. So, any kind of self-limiting is not going to be productive!

Okay, rant over.

quote:

Originally posted by Swain:
Has anybody checked out the last couple of months? These's some good stuff!

A couple of months ago, there was a cover story witha a lot of interviews (Bob Bradshaw, Pete Cornish, etc.) on build pedalboards.

This month, there's a feature on how to play like Tommy Bolin! Woo-Hoo!

Anyway, just thought I'd give a "Head's Up" about a couple of cool articles.

Tommy Bolin! Awesome! What did they say? How was the article?

quote:

Originally posted by Swain:
I am really digging the article on Harmonics, too!

Have you checked out GuitarPlayer TV?

Yeah, there's some cool content on there as well, lessons, gear demos etc.

I'll have to check out Guitar Techniques. It's about $17 up here in Canada but I don't mind shelling out the cash if the content is good. I've noticed that they usually have jam tracks included too which is pretty cool...

Bought it this afternoon, could not stop reading, just finish reading wow! Dream come true another cable testing.. I have Evidence cables and they came with 100% score! Talk about tone security.

Great info on the pedalboard building. Every aspect is discussed, highly recommended. Thanks guys for the heads up I usually just buy the GUitarworld (for all the mahogany star glamour).

quote:

Originally posted by darth dildor:

quote:

Originally posted by Swain:
Has anybody checked out the last couple of months? These's some good stuff!

A couple of months ago, there was a cover story witha a lot of interviews (Bob Bradshaw, Pete Cornish, etc.) on build pedalboards.

This month, there's a feature on how to play like Tommy Bolin! Woo-Hoo!

Anyway, just thought I'd give a "Head's Up" about a couple of cool articles.

Tommy Bolin! Awesome! What did they say? How was the article?

It was cool. It's a "10 Things You Gotta Do To Play Like Tommy Bolin" piece. They cover some of Post Toastee, and some of his work with Billy Cobham.

Not a lot of info, outside of the musical examples. But, the examples were pretty good. Lots of focus on Tommy's rhythmic ideas.

I'm just glad they got something about Tommy in there!

Here's some fun stuff:

http://www.videospot.org/index.php?tag=tommy+bolin

Cheers!

Vintage Guitar is my favorite (even tho alot of the magazine is ads for vintage stuff, and I own NO vintage stuff!), I just feel their reviews are more objective than other mags, and there's alot of off-the-beaten-path stuff in there.

GP is my 2nd fave, and Guitar World has it's moments... good & bad... for example, last month was Yngwie, and love him or hate him, it was a cool interview & a cool "lesson" on the included CD-ROM/DVD. I also think GW video demos (with the editor, Paul) are some of the best out there. But in general, GW is focused more on the young/loud/heavy crowd, and that ain't me.

I also subscribe to Premier Guitar, which was cool enough to keep the sub, and I did 20th Century Guitar for 1 year... that sucked. Cancelled it.

I dig Guitar & Bass Magazine UK. Although I'm in the USA and pay a premium, it is well worth the price, in my opinion. They even offer pedal kits! Carole is the best customer service person in the universe. I placed an order with her and it arrived on a rocket. Flawless.

Another one that I enjoy is Bass Guitar Magazine, Oyster House, Devon, England . It's a quarterly periodical. Although bass is not my primary instrument, I like this journal because it offers more "personal insight into developing one's craft". Many of the interviews are deep and thoughtful. The journalistic style provides more of an engaging window into the musical journey. In other words, it's not a self-congratulatory, self-promotional, glorified wank-a-thon. At the very minimum, no columnist therein refers to themselves as "El Commandante" ... of what? The Chic-O-Stix factory??!