The new influencers in Guitar land

[thereformant]

Ola Englund (fearedse on youtube) has his own signature amp and guitar, basically off the back of youtube videos.

I love his demos. He seems to manage to coax a great metal tone out of anything.

[p90fool]

I think for a lot of us magazine reviews had had their day long before Youtube's current dominance.
I can remember a review in Guitarist years ago when they praised the first PRS SE models to the heavens, how fantastic it sounded etc.
A year later when the new model came out they loved the new pickups, much better than last years' "uninspiring" effort...

The internet is a hotbed of myth and rumour, but years ago that's ALL we had.

[TheGuitarWeasel]

I think for a lot of us magazine reviews had had their day long before Youtube's current dominance.
I can remember a review in Guitarist years ago when they praised the first PRS SE models to the heavens, how fantastic it sounded etc.
A year later when the new model came out they loved the new pickups, much better than last years' "uninspiring" effort...

The internet is a hotbed of myth and rumour, but years ago that's ALL we had.

Here's a story: nearly year or so the editor of a major music magazine approached me about the possibility of supplying a review sample of my Diesel Tap tapped Telecaster pickup. he said he was a Tele user and thought this was exactly the sort of product that other Tele owners would be interested in ... if it did what I claimed. I duly packed off a pickup and waited with baited breath for a hint of what he thought. Tim and I had only just gone into business ... and giving away £50 worth of pickup was quite a big deal. Then we got an e mail saying he was delighted with the pickup ... it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that he would be writing a positive review. Yay ... go us ... we geared up to produce more 'Taps' for demand that would follow a good magazine review ... then waited ... and waited. The months dragged by ... excuse followed excuse: no editorial space available, wrong pictures. Then it finally dawned on me ... the scumbag had fancied a pickup and simply used his position to get one. I had no real respect for the magazines after that.

[Neil.C]

^^^

If that was his intention all along, what a creep.

You should email him and ask for it back!

[TheGuitarWeasel]

I found out later that that is pretty common ... editorial teams fancy a new gizmo ... and the company producing it are not savvy ... perks of the job they consider it. He had the cheek to ask for a Strat pickup later ... after the non appearance of the original review. No magazine will get review samples from us now unless we have a signed agreement for their return.

[Dave_Mc]

Of course, they're adverts not reviews, and he does it so well. I'm collecting my PGS exclusive Supernatural reverb pedal from the PO in the morning!

oh yeah, he does do them very well. It's just worth bearing in mind (this isn't aimed at you, just in general) that they're trying to sell the things, so they're hardly objective reviews, lol.

I think for a lot of us magazine reviews had had their day long before Youtube's current dominance.
I can remember a review in Guitarist years ago when they praised the first PRS SE models to the heavens, how fantastic it sounded etc.
A year later when the new model came out they loved the new pickups, much better than last years' "uninspiring" effort...

The internet is a hotbed of myth and rumour, but years ago that's ALL we had.

agreed. I'm just old enough to remember life before the internet, and believe me (and this isn't just related to guitar), the internet will have to get pretty darn bad before it's worse than "no internet", lol.

Here's a story: nearly year or so the editor of a major music magazine approached me about the possibility of supplying a review sample of my Diesel Tap tapped Telecaster pickup. he said he was a Tele user and thought this was exactly the sort of product that other Tele owners would be interested in ... if it did what I claimed. I duly packed off a pickup and waited with baited breath for a hint of what he thought. Tim and I had only just gone into business ... and giving away £50 worth of pickup was quite a big deal. Then we got an e mail saying he was delighted with the pickup ... it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that he would be writing a positive review. Yay ... go us ... we geared up to produce more 'Taps' for demand that would follow a good magazine review ... then waited ... and waited. The months dragged by ... excuse followed excuse: no editorial space available, wrong pictures. Then it finally dawned on me ... the scumbag had fancied a pickup and simply used his position to get one. I had no real respect for the magazines after that.

that's ridiculous

[TheGuitarWeasel]

.

that's ridiculous

As I say, I kid you not ... and he was on the earole for a tapped Strat pickup the moment I did one too. I actually prefer to trust what people say (filtered through my personal bullsh*t detector) on forums like this. In general there are no axes to grind. Okay you occasionally get the odd loony fan-boy who would buy the output of a company ... and swear it was brilliant ... whatever they made; but in general you get balanced 'personal experience' views here.

[BucketheadRules]

Of course, they're adverts not reviews, and he does it so well. I'm collecting my PGS exclusive Supernatural reverb pedal from the PO in the morning!

Let me know how that is - I'm SERIOUSLY interested in one myself.

Anyway, Ola Englund was mentioned earlier - agreed, he's a wicked guitarist and seems to be able to make anything sound good (albeit with a fair amount of production tweaking), and was able to do a lot of stuff off the back of YouTube - a shitload of publicity for his band Feared, as well as a signature guitar from high-end custom builders Strictly 7, a Mike Fortin-designed signature Randall amp, and a gig in Six Feet Under (American death metal band, not a fan personally but they're pretty big for what they are).

[thermionic]

I don't think there's anything new here, magazines have always had suspect reviews because they can't say anything too negative about anything when it's advertising that pays a large part of their wages. A symbiotic relationship between writers, readers and manufacturers. I'm not talking guitars here specifically btw, in fact I've found it more noticeable in the world of bikes where every new frame is "stiff yet responsive" and every wheelset is light and spins easily...

Most video reviewers are very non-committal, gearmanndude especially says nothing much either way, letting the viewer listen and come to his own conclusions. If he is associated with any specific product, it's basically an artist's endorsement by that point.

[Dave_Mc]

As I say, I kid you not ... and he was on the earole for a tapped Strat pickup the moment I did one too. I actually prefer to trust what people say (filtered through my personal bullsh*t detector) on forums like this. In general there are no axes to grind. Okay you occasionally get the odd loony fan-boy who would buy the output of a company ... and swear it was brilliant ... whatever they made; but in general you get balanced 'personal experience' views here.

yeah definitely. Obviously just like in real life some people know more than others etc. etc., and you should put everything through your personal BS meter (as you said), but as you said at least most people on forums don't have axes to grind and are genuinely just "normal" people. I mean obviously I like what I like, and so does everyone else, but I don't like what I like because I'm being paid to like it, lol. Which does tend to skew things a bit.

what actually annoys me a lot online is how those fanboys you're talking about throw the "hater" accusation at anyone who doesn't agree with them. that gets old fast. Or how newspapers act like everything that's written online is BS (yeah, because newspapers are always 100% accurate). I guess a lot of the time those who throw the muck are doing it to distract from what they're doing...