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Bass Guitar Magazine and Bass Player to merge


Kevsy71

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  • Kevsy71 changed the title to Bass Guitar Magazine and Bass Player to merge
1 hour ago, Kevsy71 said:

 

Been a while since I picked up either print copy tbh, but the best of both in one could well be worth it, especially for the tutorials.

I haven't bought Bass Player for years. I used to subscribe but there were a few major changes in quick succession - a drastic drop in pages, loads more adverts, and it even changed shape! It didn't help that most of the players it featured didn't mean much to me. But, it did have decent transcriptions, something BGM lacked.

BGM, for all it's faults, always strived to be fun and enthusiastic.

 

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5 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

That's going to be interesting given that one is a UK publication and the other US...

Are we sure this is genuine and not "fake news"? 

Seems genuine: the article claims that "MIN has learned that Future Publishing’s Bass Guitar Magazine is to be merged with its newly acquired US title Bass Player."

Visit each website and click subscribe, and in each case you will be taken to MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk, "the official magazine subscription store of Future Publishing".

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3 minutes ago, Kevsy71 said:

Seems genuine: the article claims that "MIN has learned that Future Publishing’s Bass Guitar Magazine is to be merged with its newly acquired US title Bass Player."

Visit each website and click subscribe, and in each case you will be taken to MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk, "the official magazine subscription store of Future Publishing".

I wonder what that will mean for Bass Player in the US? I can't see Future Publishing running two versions with localised advertising as that defeats the object of merging the titles, not to mention that US magazines are a completely different format (size) to UK ones. Do Future Publishing's other music titles sell in the US? If they do are they the same as the UK editions?

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That'll halve my Bass magazine monthly costs - unless they increase the cost......

For those who don't take these mags my recent copy of BGM had two v interesting bits:-

1) Guy Pratt interview referred to DIs and mentioned an instance of going to house DI with a famous artist at the most famous of festivals - and it bypassing his sound and pedals - basically causing him to play an entire passage totally reliant on delay - which came out as an incoherent mess to the huge live and tv audience - so much for 'trusting' the sound guys - glad I always go post EQ via the amp DI.

2) Marcus Miller (excellent interview by Silvia and Happy Jack 👍) mentioned adding a Pre amp to his bass so he could control the sound going to the board to be used by the Engineer. Great stuff and my thoughts entirely!! 😀

Edited by drTStingray
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43 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I wonder what that will mean for Bass Player in the US? I can't see Future Publishing running two versions with localised advertising as that defeats the object of merging the titles, not to mention that US magazines are a completely different format (size) to UK ones. Do Future Publishing's other music titles sell in the US? If they do are they the same as the UK editions?

I'd guess the focus will be on their online content. I'd bet that these days their online readership absolutely dwarfs their physical sales and targeting advertising to local regions won't be a problem.

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38 minutes ago, Cato said:

I'd guess the focus will be on their online content. I'd bet that these days their online readership absolutely dwarfs their physical sales and targeting advertising to local regions won't be a problem.

Absolutely. Their income will be mainly from advertising.

I subscribe to Readly which costs me something like £8 a month. It currently gives me BGM, Guitarist, Guitar Techniques, TGM, Total Guitar, Vintage Guitar and Future Music, all of which I have bought in print form now and then, but never all at the same time, with all issues going back to 2014 or so... plus a whole bunch of interesting and weird magazines (The Magic of Piers!) I would never have bought in the past.

 

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44 minutes ago, dlloyd said:

Absolutely. Their income will be mainly from advertising.

I subscribe to Readly which costs me something like £8 a month. It currently gives me BGM, Guitarist, Guitar Techniques, TGM, Total Guitar, Vintage Guitar and Future Music, all of which I have bought in print form now and then, but never all at the same time, with all issues going back to 2014 or so... plus a whole bunch of interesting and weird magazines (The Magic of Piers!) I would never have bought in the past.

 

is that £8 for all of those mags?

 

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3 hours ago, drTStingray said:

That'll halve my Bass magazine monthly costs - unless they increase the cost......

For those who don't take these mags my recent copy of BGM had two v interesting bits:-

1) Guy Pratt interview referred to DIs and mentioned an instance of going to house DI with a famous artist at the most famous of festivals - and it bypassing his sound and pedals - glad I always go post EQ via the amp DI.

2) Marcus Miller (excellent interview by Silvia and Happy Jack 👍) mentioned adding a DI to his bass so he could control the sound going used by the Engineer. Great stuff and my thoughts entirely!! 😀

Thanks for your kind words, drTS. :)

Marcus was referring to when he was at the beginning of his session career, when in NY producers would be happy to record the guitar sound through amps and cabs, but usually demanded bassists plug into the desk directly. As a result, he and his colleagues began to have preamps installed in their basses, so as to have some control over what reached the desk in the first place.

Another point that Marcus makes, which makes me feel vindicated, is that the bass needs the mid frequencies to cut through the rest of the band's sound and avoid competing with the drums (especially the bass drum). He admits that those frequencies, in themselves, sound nasty, but have to be added to the overall sound of the bass if it is to be heard clearly in the mix.

The reason why I feel vindicated by that is that I have always preferred the bass sound to be middy rather than P-Bass-style, which to my ears is far too muddy. I apply that rule to live sound too, as in, when @Happy Jack can't be heard properly out front with his bands, I will usually yell at him to up the mids rather than turn up his volume. :) 😎:sun_bespectacled:

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3 hours ago, discreet said:

Frankly there's so much good info online, I don't much bother with print any more. Though I will read Viz when having a dump.

Totally agree - Adam Neeley, Rick Beato and Scott Devine will give you (free - not even talking about Scott's subscription site)  so much bass and wider music to work on, plus a broad  industry perspective which is intelligent, witty and contemporary.

The mags on the other hand are little more than advertising catalogues with bizarrely esoteric bass reviews interspersed with bearded post-metal players of which you've never heard. And Victor Wooten on an endless loop.

That said, even the mighty Viz is being challenged online now by the consistently high hit-rate Daily Mash... (At least the wordy articles rather than the cartoons..) 

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The adverts can be really dangerous..... I was once driving to Southampton from Blackpool, and to keep myself awake I tried remembering all the basses I've had in the last 18 years. Embarrassingly it's almost 50....50 basses that I've bought and sold because I've believed that the grass is greener. All those wonderful instruments I wish I had back. All down to the advertising brainwash 

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