Bass Review Magazine

[Hutton]

I was thinking about subscribing to the new Bass Review Magazine. I had looked at the website at the weekend and was sure that the subscription for a paper copy delivered to your door was £5.99. When I went back to the website today I notice the price is £6.99. My ageing memory may be failing me but I wondered if anyone else can throw light on the pricing.

[spyder]

I've just looked up the magazine and it looks interesting.

Is it run by anyone we know?

 

[spyder]

https://bassreview.co.uk/subscribe/

 

Here's the subscription page.

[toneknob]

I've ordered the first issue today. The cover content looks like everything we've seen before (Jaco/slap/fender jazz) but I'm looking forward to seeing inside.

 

[spyder]

Just subscribed.🤠

[TheGreek]

I'd be interested in knowing how much is bass related and how much is adverts.

[Cato]

I prefer BC to magazines, either online or printed.

 

Just as example, taking into account their other brands such as Gretsch, Charvel and Jackson, Fender account for a huge chunk of all guitar related advertising revenue.

 

No commercial guitar related business can afford to give a Fender product a negative review.

 

Here on Basschat people offer up honest experiences and opinions and have no problem describing the negative aspects of any instrument or amp.

Edited February 8, 2024 by Cato

[toneknob]

Anyone got theirs yet? Still awaiting issue 1 after placing an order a couple of weeks ago.

[lksmks792]

Would it be possible it's not an actual magazine but ... a scam?

I'm not sure, but there's a lot of things that seem a bit off about it. Both the covers of the first two 'issues' are filled with the most cliche bass-related titles in the universe. There's no trace of any real contact information, an editor or even a printing house. Who in their right mind would invest in founding a new bass magazine these days, without any online content? 

On the other hand: imagine maybe a couple of hundred people interested enough to pay for a first issue. That's an easy way to earn a fair sum, without offending anyone enough to even consider taking legal action.

Edited February 20, 2024 by lksmks792
Typo

[Boodang]

Between BC, YouTube and No Treble I’ve got my bass bases covered. Not sure there’s a market for a new bass magazine especially if they’ll going to cover the history of Fender…. spare me!!

[Burns-bass]

10 hours ago, lksmks792 said:

Would it be possible it's not an actual magazine but ... a scam?

I'm not sure, but there's a lot of things that seem a bit off about it. Both the covers of the first two 'issues' are filled with the most cliche bass-related titles in the universe. There's no trace of any real contact information, an editor or even a printing house. Who in their right mind would invest in founding a new bass magazine these days, without any online content? 

On the other hand: imagine maybe a couple of hundred people interested enough to pay for a first issue. That's an easy way to earn a fair sum, without offending anyone enough to even consider taking legal action.

It would be an impressive but surprisingly easy scam when you put it like this. 
 

What’s weird is there’s no contact details or business info on the site. Most magazine journalists (like me) have sources they work with, so seems weird they wouldn’t want the profile.

 

Can any subscriber access the digital version?

 

 

[toneknob]

The BRM Facebook feed goes back to October 2014. If anything dodgy is afoot, that's quite the long game. 

[lksmks792]

3 hours ago, toneknob said:

The BRM Facebook feed goes back to October 2014. If anything dodgy is afoot, that's quite the long game. 

It does, but there's a big gap between 2020 and October of 2023, and there's a lot of gaps in the years before. Most of the content since October consists of nothing more than a picture of some exotic bass with a link to the website home page; there's no trace of any review whatsoever. You'd think someone founding a new bass magazine, which would be a rarity in itself nowadays, would at least try to find an original angle, instead of 'the history of Fender' and 'Jaco Pastorius'.

My guess is: the FB page existed as a run of the mill bass content page, under a different name (you can even find the original profile picture form 2014 at the bottom of the feed), posting pictures of exotic basses to gather some likes. Someone bought the page last October, knowing it would reach a couple of thousand people who or interested in bass guitar, changed the title to Bass Review Magazine and put together a website and some previews of a magazine - none of this being all too difficult for someone with a bit of experience in graphic and/or web design - and posted some 'content' to create the impression of an actual upstart.

I'm not from the UK so I might be wrong, but I'd guess it would be very, very weird if a new bass magazine was founded without a) anyone from this forum being involved or at least knowing someone who is involved and b) the founder doing any direct marketing on this forum.

Anyway, of course I hope none of this is true and none of you actually got scammed (if you were, my guess would be you've only lost a couple of pounds, but still), but it doesn't really seem convincing to me.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to clarify my viewpoint.

L

 

 

[Phill]

Received my copy of Issue 1 today, Nothing you wouldn't find online but nice to have something in print. A few adverts here & there from the usuals but seems decent. I've heard a few murmurings around where they are getting the basses from to review from a pal who's been in contact with them but nothing solid. All the images from the reviews are stock and funnily there's no names attached to any of the articles either.

[toneknob]

On 20/02/2024 at 19:40, toneknob said:

Anyone got theirs yet? Still awaiting issue 1 after placing an order a couple of weeks ago.

 

Mine arrived today, obviously prompted by my previous post

[Fil1ip]

On 08/02/2024 at 10:45, Hutton said:

I was thinking about subscribing to the new Bass Review Magazine. I had looked at the website at the weekend and was sure that the subscription for a paper copy delivered to your door was £5.99. When I went back to the website today I notice the price is £6.99. My ageing memory may be failing me but I wondered if anyone else can throw light on the pricing.

Mine is £5.99 a month and free strings are on the way too

[sandy_r]

1 hour ago, Fil1ip said:

...£5.99 a month and free strings are on the way too

 

...Next Month: Free Bridge ?  😉

 

 

 

[iamtheelvy]

Curious to other’s thoughts on this. Have read the first edition and it felt like it may have been mostly AI generated? Seemed to repeat itself a lot and not really cover any new ground. 
 

It’s only just started, so don’t want to judge too harshly!
 

 

[Fil1ip]

Issue 2 has failed to arrive yet 😲

[JazzyJ]

1 minute ago, Fil1ip said:

Issue 2 has failed to arrive yet 😲

According to some fb posts neither have the strings from issue 1.

[Fil1ip]

4 hours ago, JazzyJ said:

According to some fb posts neither have the strings from issue 1.

Same, issue 2 or strings haven't arrived. It states it's released on the 15th of March too. 

[Phill]

21 hours ago, iamtheelvy said:

Curious to other’s thoughts on this. Have read the first edition and it felt like it may have been mostly AI generated? Seemed to repeat itself a lot and not really cover any new ground. 
 

It’s only just started, so don’t want to judge too harshly!
 

 

Yes. After reading through a few times and again not seeing any names associated with each review or article it does seem a bit suspicious

[Rusco]

What are people’s experiences with delivery now they’re three issues in?

 

Mine:

Issue 1 - arrived on time.

Issue 2 - didn’t, emailed them and Dan responded promptly, apologised, sent a link to their online version and sorted the hard copy which duly arrived.

Issue 3 - nothing, emailed them multi times and nothing.

Strings - nothing so far.

 

Hopefully only teething problems but it’s not a great start. I’ll probably cancel.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2024 by Rusco

[Fil1ip]

2 minutes ago, Rusco said:

What are people’s experiences with delivery now they’re three issues in?

 

Mine:

Issue 1 - arrived on time.

Issue 2 - didn’t, emailed them and Dan responded promptly, apologised, sent a link to their online version and sorted the hard copy which dully arrived.

Issue 3 - nothing, emailed them multi times and nothing.

Strings - nothing so far.

 

Hopefully only teething problems but it’s not a great start. I’ll probably cancel.

 

 

Just to add to this 

Issue 1 arrived on time 

Issue 2 arrived towards the end of the month after several emails. The strings finally arrived but they sent medium scale strings, so I returned them but now not received the promised ones. (Paid postage for the return) 

Issue 3 no communication whatsoever

 

When I email I always get a response, they will be sent today/tomorrow and then another week passes etc 

[toneknob]

This won't help anyone but after reading the first issue I decided to not get any more