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What guitar magazines do you subscribe to or buy?

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- Rated: 22 ↑
May 13, 2008 3:43 p.m. Boyko:

What guitar magazines do you subscribe to or buy, and more specifically why? I thought this would be interesting and thought of it while browsing the "What other forums are you on?" thread.

I buy Guitar Player and Guitar World, but recently haven't been able to find Guitar Players in my town. I like Guitar Player because it has good coverage, but sometimes is kinda dry. A negative for me is that it lacks a CD, and though it has an online video cache of most reviews and lessons, my net can't take me going on there all the time (darn satellite internet). But all around nice coverage of things I'm interested in.

Guitar World, I like it because when it has the stuff I'm interested in, it does it well. However I've noticed they are starting to more and more get into shred and metal, and its getting kinda annoying. I feel that the editors are getting nostalgic of the players when they were kids. But I digress. bonus is it has a CD each month, with great reviews and a good range of lessons. Still though, with main articles usually being shredders (This month I believe is the top shredders of all time) its just not my type of mag all the time.

I've seen other mags, but don't buy them really unless they have a cool caver article. I'm trying to decide right now which to subscribe to, GP or GW.

But anyways, what do you buy or subscribe to?

Boyko
- Rated: 41 ↑
May 13, 2008 3:46 p.m. J(et)D:

Nonezero

No plans to, either
- Rated: 41 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:01 p.m. dubkitty:

none at all. in fact, i don't buy magazines at all any more...i just don't have the time to read them. if i was going to buy one, it would be GP, because i used to read it back during the 20th Century. but the only thing that really interests me in the mags is the gear reviews...the whole "here's how so-and-so sets his effects up" thing doesn't interest me any more.
- Rated: 8 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:04 p.m. BrianBlaut:

I used to get Vintage Guitar magazine. I really liked that one. A little large to read on the potty, but very interesting articles.

Right now, I get Guitar World just because it was $12 for a year. Every once and while theres an interesting article or interivew, but mostly, I grow tired of all the constant Nu Metal guys with grimaces on their faces looking like death warmed over. Lighten up guys, you play guitar for a living! Oh well, it beats looking at the musicians friend catalog on the potty again...

Is there a guitar magazine in existence that primarily covers Country, Rockabilly, Roots rock and is geared towards adults, and isn't full of clothes and "lifestyle" stuff, but concentrates on music, specifically guitar?
- Rated: 3 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:17 p.m. wittyair:

Definitely Vintage Guitar.....awesome mag. I desperately look forward to it's arrival every month, devour it for a couple days and then agonizingly wait for next months issue. 20th Century Guitar is pretty cool as well.
- Rated: 37 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:17 p.m. Nobody:

Vintage Guitar is pretty enjoyable on occasion.
- Rated: 56 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:41 p.m. otterbean:

Premier Guitar You can view this mag on-line. Its pretty good sometimes.
- Rated: 26 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:47 p.m. ksdaddy:

I've been getting Guitar Player since 1976 (off and on, mostly on). I probably won't renew because I am sick of nothing but ads and reviews. Back in the 70s I could actually read the articles and learn something about a player, be they a star or behind-the-scenes player. Now all I get are reviews of stomp boxes. I think I have a Behringer delay around here somewhere, so I'm not a good candidate.

It's gone to Hell, I tells ya.

Good thing I still have 32+ years of back issues.
- Rated: 93 ↑
May 13, 2008 4:48 p.m. Pappy:

I stopped reading the guitar magazines. They caused too much GAS and was too influential. I felt less like an individual who played guitar and more like a piece of still-liquid jello being put in the mold right before getting slid into the fridge.

That and interviews with guitarists usually left me not liking the guitarist as a person and that made me end up not liking the music. It's awful, I know but still.

But now, I can't get enough. I'm older, less maliable and could care less what rock star is hopped up on what drugs and banging what groupies. It's all about the gear and music for me. None of that drama stuff.

So I read Guitar World and Guitar Player. One's a quality magazine, the other not so much but still kind of fun to read.

If I had a magazine I'd entitle it The Woodshed and it would be about the same size as Reader's Digest and be filled with reviews and interviews, sure, but about the music not about anything else that comes with being a rock star. I understand that a magazine so small, though GREAT for portability, would hardly be the best for reading out TABS, but honestly I wouldn't put TAB in the magazine. I think too much space is wasted on TAB in Guitar World. The Woodshed would come with a CD and on the CD would be the songs of the month all TAB'd out and maybe a video of a staff member showing how to play them. There would also be bigger, more brilliant ads and photos. The CD would be an annex to the magazine but the meat of the reading material would be in the magazine and all the playing stuff would be in the CD. It would have more photos, more detail of the reviews and there would be videos of the the reviewed stuff too.

Maybe the magazine would be inside a DVD case with the CD (which would probably be a DVD for all the content).

Anyway, that's what I would do.
- Rated: 21 ↑
May 13, 2008 5:30 p.m. Gretschmaster:

I guess I will echo the same sentiments as most of the previous posts. I used to read guitar one and guitar world on a pretty regular basis but got sick of them mainly focusing on shredders and nu-metal goons. Every month they seem to try and unearth some "lost" dimebag video lesson. It just got to the point where I lost all interest in those magazines.

Last summer when I was in British Columbia I bought an edition of Guitar Player because its main feature was a long interview with Alex Lifeson from Rush. I found it to be great. So the next time I was in need of a magasine I purchased Guitar Player (I think it was the issue for march or april) and was extremely disappointed with it. I guess you have to be interested in the main feature article for it to be worth buying.

I find Vintage Guitar to be similar to Guitar Player. Sometimes its great but other times it can be very boring IMO.

Pappy, which interviews left you not liking a guitarist?
- Rated: 57 ↑
May 13, 2008 5:40 p.m. Curt:

In the 70's and 80's I subscribed to Guitar Player and if I'm looking to buy something I'll pick up Vintage Guitar.

The new GP is awful and everyone in the pictures look angry!
- Rated: 10 ↑
May 13, 2008 5:48 p.m. GhostRadio:

I've still got a sub to Guitar World, mainly because it's so cheap, and it usually has at least one article that's interesting in it. But like a lot of you have already said, it's leaning a little too heavily towards the shred and metal club. That, and Dimebag is gone. It's time to move on.

I'd LOVE to find a magazine that focuses more on rockabilly/country guitar.
- Rated: 93 ↑
May 13, 2008 5:49 p.m. Pappy:

Gretschmaster, I remember one interview with Kirk Hammett talking about cocaine and I hadn't thought they did anything worse that booze. I don't know. I cut my teeth learning to play along with James Hetfield and reading that they were all doing drugs and releasing songs like Master of Puppets made them seem... fake to me. That night I lost all ideas of a Guitar Hero because the ones I looked up to the most I found to be just human. I guess it was a valuable lesson but I felt let down.

And then Mushroomhead spent a good deal of an interview trying to convince the guy interviewing them that they were the first ones to wear masks and play metal which seemed so trivial to me that I didn't care to delve any deeper.

There are tons of instances.
- Rated: 14 ↑
May 13, 2008 6:11 p.m. MarkW:

Guitar PLayer and Guitar World. All those Drugs and Womanizing etc...Ain't nothin new and never will be! The ancient Romans and the Greeks had the lutes, a little olive oil, some amatuersih dancing and shebang-there you go.

But I do love the pics!!!
- Rated: 8 ↑
May 13, 2008 6:18 p.m. Diga:

Vintage Guitar and Premier Guitar
- Rated: 13 ↑
May 13, 2008 6:51 p.m. Joao Erbetta:

Guitar Player (not sure why)and Vintage Magazine (pretty cool when there's something for players - like me - and not only for collectors - no offence). EQ Magazine (not sure why) and, my favorite about studio: Tape Op.
- Rated: 56 ↑
May 13, 2008 7:51 p.m. fieldhdj:

My wife got me a Vintage Guitar magazine subscription for Christmas and I like it. I haven't bought anything regularly for years, but I'll pick up an occasional rag if something gets my attemtion. A few months ago I picked up a British import, Guitar Techniques I think, and it was ok. It had some TAB and technical stuff that was useful.

Back in the '70s, Rolling Stone and Creem were damn entertaining. I pretty much lost interest before the end of the decade though.
- Rated: 19 ↑
May 13, 2008 8:35 p.m. CnW:

Curt said: In the 70's and 80's I subscribed to Guitar Player and if I'm looking to buy something I'll pick up Vintage Guitar.

The new GP is awful and everyone in the pictures look angry!

What he said.

I still remember stuff I learned from those old GP interviews. Like Jeff Beck saying he didn't like to change guitars between songs because he'd rather stand there and look cool. Said he couldn't be bothered with all that "toiletry." Very inspirational stuff to a young guy in a rock and roll band (who only had the one guitar anyway).

I have subscribed to VG for the last couple of years. Now I gas for even more expensive, older, more impossible to find stuff. And a CR-4 with underwound Lollars.

I got up to the front of the line at a recent vintage guitar show. As I was paying admission, I said to the pretty young lady taking my money, "have you ever seen so many middle-aged men in one place before?" She looked at me like she'd just seen one too many. Hmmmph!
- Rated: 83 ↑
May 13, 2008 9:53 p.m. Mark Synchro:

I rarely buy guitar mags. I've bought a handful of GPs over the last 10 years or so but usually I regretted spending the money. VG is probably my favorite among the current offerings.
- Rated: 19 ↑
May 13, 2008 10:05 p.m. CnW:

The annual buyer's guides usually have some nice...swimwear in them.
- Rated: 47 ↑
May 13, 2008 10:12 p.m. Timthom62:

Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Ad....I mean Guitar Player.

(Speaking of ads in GP, the Gretsch ad in the latest issue was just outstanding! Congratulations to the marketing folks.)

I don't expect I'll be renewing the GP when the subscription expires. There are only so many articles of Slash and Zakk and tutorials on speed-metal arpeggiation that a fella can take.
- Rated: 41 ↑
May 13, 2008 10:32 p.m. bwallace1:

nope. never have and never will.brent
- Rated: 13 ↑
May 14, 2008 12:02 a.m. MedinaMade:

Greetings, I like Vintage Guitar, Guitar Player, Fingerstyle, Acoustic Guitar Player, and Guitarist (from England). I find them all informative and I love reading about other guitarist/gear out there old and new. The lesson's are cool and I use the mags for reference as well. I don't mind the ads cause they let me know what's out there. I can't tell you how many times other players have asked me "How'd you know that?" or " Who showed you that?". So many times I tell them that I saw it or read it in one of the guitar magazines. I love to read them cause reading to me is knowledge and education. I do steer clear of the shred and distortion oriented mags though. It's just not my bag. Peace, Julius
- Rated: 17 ↑
May 14, 2008 2:13 a.m. Dr Nyl:

Guitarist (UK), great gear reviews, interesting artists and a CD with sound clips, gear demo clips and an updated gear review database.
- Rated: 20 ↑
May 14, 2008 2:37 a.m. TAG4:

I sometimes buy (but browse first) Vintage Guitar or 20th Century Guitar, but all of them including Guitar Player and all its clones get pretty tedious--fast. Seems like every one I pick up has an article about a "new" guitarist (or a "loothier") that I've never even remotely heard of, playing a new brand of guitar (or new KIND of guitar) I've never heard of through an amp I've never heard of. I realize I'm pretty old school, but I would like to pick up a guitar mag once in a while that had a guitarist living or dead that I'd even heard of on the cover playing a Gibson, Fender, Gretsch or Martin... sometime.

TAG4

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