Bgm! is pants or is just me?

[ead]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1424335168' post='2695154']
Has anyone actually taken up Joel's offer and emailed him? I suspect he may be too busy to read this thread often.

Just wondering really.
[/quote]

I've not personally, but then he did start a thread on here for feedback so it would be reasonable to expect him to read it.

[Dood]

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1424352136' post='2695436']
I've not personally, but then he did start a thread on here for feedback so it would be reasonable to expect him to read it.
[/quote]

True, I do check back on threads I've started - but I have to say it has been so long since I've seen the last thread about BGM that I didn't know who had started it. If it has long gone I suspect members won't go looking for it specifically. Just a thought really.

[louisthebass]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1424356173' post='2695486']
True, I do check back on threads I've started - but I have to say it has been so long since I've seen the last thread about BGM that I didn't know who had started it. If it has long gone I suspect members won't go looking for it specifically. Just a thought really.
[/quote]

I've had a look back at the thread in question, and Joel held his hands up to a lot of the printing errors that caused the bulk of the complaints, which is commendable on his part.

However, looking at this thread in particular, it would appear that a number of the members on here who initially started buying the magazine over 10 years ago have been disappointed with how the magazine has turned out. I think it has gone downhill in the last couple of years and it's very sad to see that happen. Unfortunately the same thing has happened to Bass Player as well, and there is now a gap in the market for a really good quality Bass magazine.

It would be good for Joel to come back on here and maybe readdress the direction of BGM?

[Drax]

Blaze Publishing doing ok as a business but their transition to online seems dire.

The 'Gear' section of BGM website was last updated in July(!) and doesn't carry videos. Nothing there to entice you to the print product.

Gear reviews in the print product read like rehashed press releases, they seem terrified of upsetting any manufacturer. You get a load more insight from a 5 min Dood vid.

[yorks5stringer]

Guess what arrived today? My new BGM.

Straight to the Editorial " Ears still ringing from the London Bass Guitar Show? Ours certainly are and what a mighty event it was! here at the Bass Guitar Magazine command bunker we're still reeling from the sheer amazingness of the bass players and gear we witnessed over that epic weekend in March...."

Clearly time travel has been invented and Blaze Publishing have stolen a March(!) on the rest of the industry......

Oh there's a free CD as well.

[xilddx]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1425730641' post='2710120']
Guess what arrived today? My new BGM.

[b]Straight to the Editorial " Ears still ringing from the London Bass Guitar Show? Ours certainly are and what a mighty event it was! here at the Bass Guitar Magazine command bunker we're still reeling from the sheer amazingness of the bass players and gear we witnessed over that epic weekend in March...."[/b]

Clearly time travel has been invented and Blaze Publishing have stolen a March(!) on the rest of the industry......

Oh there's a free CD as well.
[/quote]

You're kidding me?!

[toneknob]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1425730641' post='2710120']
Straight to the Editorial " Ears still ringing from the London Bass Guitar Show? Ours certainly are and what a mighty event it was! here at the Bass Guitar Magazine command bunker we're still reeling from the sheer amazingness of the bass players and gear we witnessed over that epic weekend in March...."
[/quote]

Maybe they're referring to March 2014, and they're in need of better earplugs

[Kevin Dean]

This may have already been said , I'm stopping my subscription because it's in WH Smiths two weeks before I get it through the post .

Edited March 13, 2015 by Kevin Dean

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1425732869' post='2710146']
You're kidding me?!
[/quote]

I never joke on Basschat.

[Grassie]

This issue is better than last months foe sure (apart from that editorial nonsense). Free CD too from Albert Rigoni, the Nathan East interview is good, much nicer thanks. This probably means next months will be all about the LBGS and we'll be back to a shocker...

[ubit]

I can't get it locally, so rely on subscribing. It's not arrived for a couple of months so must have run out again. No reminder again! That's my only gripe!

[seashell]

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1426182904' post='2715404']
I can't get it locally, so rely on subscribing. It's not arrived for a couple of months so must have run out again. No reminder again! That's my only gripe!
[/quote]

Strange about the lack of reminder. I get bombarded with reminders from about 2 months before my subscription runs out!

[DorsetBlue]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1426227479' post='2715808']
Strange about the lack of reminder. I get bombarded with reminders from about 2 months before my subscription runs out!
[/quote]

Still getting bombarded after my subscription has run out lol.

[lou24d53]

Same, I get letters through quite regularly trying to get me to take my subscription again. Last copy I bought was in Glasgow Airport just before Christmas a few months ago - force of habit for me, I always seem to pick one up anytime I'm in an airport, which isn't exactly often - I had a 6 hour flight coming up, with no TV on the plane and I still never got passed the first ten or so pages after skimming through looking at the pictures. Jeff Berlin being the 'cover' interview, didn't exactly help matters.

[Machines]

I haven't bought it since the editorial and management changes. It's too focused on boutique basses no-one can afford and jazz soloing techniques.

[yorks5stringer]

I just revisited it this morning, sat on the loo....

Far too much of it is Bassists talking about their instruments,but not in a good way.
BGM obviously send out a list of questions to loads of Bassists (most I have never heard of and I'm a bit of a nerd): "What was your first Bass, who do you regard as the best bassist, do you slap, do you use a 5 string bass etc etc? " This then get stitched together, either in a section where all these sit together or in subsequent pages where the slightly more famous ones are given a page to themselves but still answering the same questions.
This does not strike me as good journalism, more the results of a slightly unscientific survey!
So instead of getting some interesting comments about bass-playing you get "Geddy/Jaco/Alan Lancaster was the best player ever/ I never/always slap/ my first bass was Marlin Sidewinder, the action was 12' high etc etc. It's just variations on a theme and not that interesting.

Anyway, rant over, I'm guessing as digital media takes over, the budget and margins on this type of publication are getting squeezed and advertisers will only book space when their instruments are being reviewed. This has a knock-on effect to the level of scrutiny and about the worst Con I've seen of any bass reviewed is "outside of most people's price range" which is stating the bleeding obvious!

[drTStingray]

Methinks there's far too much moaning on this forum.

Remember the olden days when your choice was guitar and (in minute letters under the main word) bass magazine. That's right folks a guitarist magazine with a little subsection for those lesser subset guitarists who play bass. As if to reinforce that stereotype I have come across often (a belief amongst some that bassists are failed guitarists whose place can be substituted by the guitarist playing the bass whenever they want). Unfortunately such people usually have no clue what the role of the bassist is let alone how to play it.

I rejoice in the fact my local newsagent can get me Bass Player and Bass Guitar magazines monthly and oh yes, as well as leafing through and reading the odd things that take my eye, if I really want to get into it I can learn a song from a transcription - I rarely do it but bask in the glory of having learned kid Charlemaine, Sir Duke and others over the years. Or even look into some wierd scales or the Coltrane system in Giant Steps. So these magazines have had a cumulative effect on my bass playing and general joie de vivre as it were ......

As I say far too much moaning guys. The one thing that does piss me off is the number of bass players shown playing Fenders. I just watched U2 playing one of their v early singles and Adam Clayton was playing a proper bass - an Ibanez Musician :-)

Edited March 13, 2015 by drTStingray

[Sibob]

Generally speaking I think it's fine, to be able to have a print magazine for bass is great!
I agree about the 'Bassically Speaking' though, ultimately pointless. Would be much more interesting giving these players a free platform of 300 words (of whatever it is) to talk about what they want.
That said, when I was in it, I didn't answer the questions linearly like a lot of them "I don't slap because"....and they printed it, so part of the fault lies with the players themselves .
Theres one recurring column that I think is boring to the point of tears, but I'm sure other readers get plenty from it

Si

[JimBobTTD]

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1426286326' post='2716717']
Methinks there's far too much moaning on this forum.

Remember the olden days when your choice was guitar and (in minute letters under the main word) bass magazine. That's right folks a guitarist magazine with a little subsection for those lesser subset guitarists who play bass. As if to reinforce that stereotype I have come across often (a belief amongst some that bassists are failed guitarists whose place can be substituted by the guitarist playing the bass whenever they want). Unfortunately such people usually have no clue what the role of the bassist is let alone how to play it.

I rejoice in the fact my local newsagent can get me Bass Player and Bass Guitar magazines monthly and oh yes, as well as leafing through and reading the odd things that take my eye, if I really want to get into it I can learn a song from a transcription - I rarely do it but bask in the glory of having learned kid Charlemaine, Sir Duke and others over the years. Or even look into some wierd scales or the Coltrane system in Giant Steps. So these magazines have had a cumulative effect on my bass playing and general joie de vivre as it were ......

As I say far too much moaning guys. The one thing that does piss me off is the number of bass players shown playing Fenders. I just watched U2 playing one of their v early singles and Adam Clayton was playing a proper bass - an Ibanez Musician :-)
[/quote]

I remember those days - you had a magazine with a few pages of bass stuff (usually not so bad, but nothing too exciting) but you got the rest of the magazine with guitar and music stuff in.

Now, BGM is no better than those few pages at the back of Guitar & Bass Mag but you don't get the guitar stuff. I wish BGM would stop thinking that it is the only bass guitar magazine this side of the Pond (and the American magazines are not overly good, either) and start thinking that they are a small player with enormous amounts of competition. They need to be the as good as they can be, not as good as they mistakenly think they have to be.

[bagsieblue]

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1426412062' post='2717661']
I remember those days - you had a magazine with a few pages of bass stuff (usually not so bad, but nothing too exciting) but you got the rest of the magazine with guitar and music stuff in.

Now, BGM is no better than those few pages at the back of Guitar & Bass Mag but you don't get the guitar stuff.
[/quote]

Fully agree - the content of the 90's American Mags was Excellent. Not a great deal of specific bass info admittedly, but great sheet music, high profile regular lessons (Kirk Hammett, Dimebag Darrel, Dave Mustaine, John Pettruci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani). Lessons were mainly guitar focussed but tons of transferable stuff in there that is applicable to bass.
I've still got all mine and still stumble across some gems in them.

BGM is woeful. Shame really, being that Basschat is probably their best access to their single target market they would be well advised to not just listen to the comments on here but to implement them.

For me, the single biggest thing that would attract me back to it would be lots of transcriptions and analysis.
The Bassist magazines from the 1990's must have approx 25% of the mag given over to sheet music.

Edited March 15, 2015 by bagsieblue

[BigRedX]

IMO the small section of Guitar and Bass Magazine devote to bass gear has always been superior to the majority of the content in BGM.

I think the problem is that everyone wants something different from the magazine. Personally I have little interest in the theory or technique sections, and for technique in particular most people could learn more from 30 seconds of well produced YouTube video than any number of words in a magazine.

My interest is mostly in the gear. I don't care what the price is so long as what's being reviewed isn't something I can easily try for myself at my local musical instrument emporium. I don't need a magazine to tell me what I can find out for myself, I want a magazine that will tell me about things I didn't know existed.

[Grassie]

I agree with the idea that different people want different things from a magazine - I have no interest in techniques or lessons, nor am I actually interested in gear reviews. The last few bits of kit I've bought I've done so through loads of web research, youtube vids and online reviews. I find one fairly generic essay by one person does not give me all the info I need. I would rather have more in-depth interviews with players and not these pathetic copy and paste, expanded "bassically speaking" pieces currently being passed off as interviews. It's like the players in question are given a questionnaire to fill in. Rubbish.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1426581119' post='2719415']
I would rather have more in-depth interviews with players and not these pathetic copy and paste, expanded "bassically speaking" pieces currently being passed off as interviews. It's like the players in question are given a questionnaire to fill in. Rubbish.
[/quote]

Having been the subject of "Bassically Speaking" several years ago I can confirm that it is done with a standard questionnaire. Back when I did mine the section was only a page or two with about 3 musicians per page, and if you were already aware of the format it was possible to answer it in such a way that you didn't fall int the same old clichés and therefore have something interesting about yourself, your music and the band(s) you played in reproduced in a proper print magazine.

Three years ago, when I was asked to be in it, it was a no-brainer. If I was being approached now I would have to think very carefully before agreeing. It has become IMO a cheap to produce space filler in the magazine, and one that I generally gloss over. Also there are some musicians featured in this section who are important and popular enough to be featured in a proper interview and not tucked away in this ghetto.

AFAICS unless you ramble on at length or are completely illiterate, your "interview" is reproduced almost verbatim. If that section takes more than 30 minutes per page to produce from receiving completed Word documents and JPEG images to having a print-ready PDF, then BGMs production staff are incompetent.

[stubass]

I've decided not to renew my subscription, by the end of the year, id get one through the door and realise I hadn't read the last one yet. For me, there isn't enough written on the tinkering aspect. Testing pickups, tone circuits, strings etc. More of this and an old "Guitarist" magazine style tutorial of a classic bassline would keep me interested. I'm going too see if I miss it, probably will after a while.

[72deluxe]

I'd agree with bagsieblue on the old 90s guitar magazines. I have a few (Guitar Player I think) and they have pages and pages of transcriptions, as well as interviews. There is an interesting interview with Eddie Van Halen and Nuno Bettencourt at the same time; also I think one has the Star Trek theme transcribed from Stu Hamm, plus I recall an interesting interview with Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith. Some real insights in all of them, as they were free interviews not questionnaires.

I have a bunch of old Bassist magazines (yes I have the 1994 edition with the CD, there's some dreadful tracks on there interesting though it is) and all the early BGM issues that I am working my way through. There are some interesting articles in there but even though that old and perhaps in the "golden" years of the magazine it doesn't feel like Sound on Sound or some of the Bassist articles. Transcriptions are always interesting.

Reviews of gear is fairly interesting but it isn't my main concern, as I'd have to spend more money! It looks like a balance is to be had (some people complain they don't like all the expensive boutique basses reviewed) yet some want to be informed of gear they don't know about (which would include all the boutique basses, right?). Tricky!