Bass Guitar Magazine. Do you get it on subscription or only if you're interested in the cover star?

[Barking Spiders]

I usually buy BGM depending who's on the cover. If I see e.g. Mark King, Bernard Edwards, Andy Rourke - as in recent issues - I'll shell out the four quid plus without even a quick thumb through. If it's Gene Simmons or Nikki Sixx I might get a copy of Razzle or Simply Knitting instead. I've only been getting BGM over the last coupla years and there a few players I think deserve a main feature. Top noms for me - Rocco Prestia, Louis Johnson and Nate Watts fr'instance, unless they've been in earlier issues. I know LJ's no longer with us but then again 'Nard's been on the cover this year.

[BassBus]

For me just buying for the cover artist would be a bit narrow. I subscribe annually. I often get onto youtube and look up artists and bands I don't know about. That way I can find new music I might like. If I don't like their music then I just move on to the next. Keeps an open mind about music in general.

[BrunoBass]

I subscribe to the Readly app which is brilliant, £4.99 a monthly for ipad versions of pretty much every magazine I used to buy in hard copy form, including BGM.

[NancyJohnson]

I've never read it (sorry!)...was put off by the disparaging comments over journalistic accuracy and editorial content a while back. (I still get (US) Bass Player, but that's turning into a catalogue with each passing month; September '16, 37 pages of adverts in a 68 page magazine!)

[gary mac]

There was a time when I subscribed but these days I only buy a copy for a holiday or hospital read

[Lozz196]

Subscription for me. I love reading about new gear and interviews with the big names, but mostly I like the section where regular bassists go through their gear.

[BigRedX]

I have zero interest in the cover "star" if it is a person. A particularly unusual bass on there might persuade me to buy a copy though.

[mikel]

I read the gear reviews, and thats it.

[jezzaboy]

Not bought it for a few years now. Half the people in it I havent heard of and such a thin magazine.

Read Dood`s bass stuff in Guitar interactive mag instead.

Edited October 13, 2016 by jezzaboy

[visog]

Total hokum... avoid.

Spend the time you'd go into town buying it on practising. The reviews are non-committal to appeal to advertiser but with softened signals to say to buyers, 'we warned you this was a bit meh'. Contributors are total bollocks with bizarre tapping lessons interspersed with grindingly basic tutorials on the ins and out of a C chord. (Spoiler: it's C E & G). Or you could listen to Stew McKinsey's spewings on extended range basses - a genre which has an audience of... well you buying this magazine.

Listen, I'm not Putin, if you want to buy it go right ahead but be clear it will do absolutely nothing for your playing except degrade it by using up time to buy and read it.

[yorks5stringer]

Notice it has changed ownership again.

[JimBobTTD]

I used to subscribe but found the magazine to be poor, both in content and in quality, and stopped subscribing years ago. Each time I see the magazine in a shop, I pick it up and flick through it. I still think my decision to cancel my subscription was a good idea.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Manufacturers don't pay BGM for reviews; the items to review are chosen because they're new on the market or interesting in other ways. The reviewers have a common template to follow in their articles; they are obliged to be factual with the information quoted (technical specs, custom options etc.) and are expected to express their own opinion, whether positive or negative, without being influenced by any correspondence they may have had with the manufacturer while looking for information.
You won't see anybody writing that 'x is utter rubbish': you have to express your opinion in polite, factual terms, and justify your statements. If a reviewer doesn't like something, they'll say so.

[ead]

I subscribe, but only just in the sense that I find the reviews increasingly annoying. I'd like to believe what Bluejay says but I don't think the evidence supports it. I find the reviews pretty anodyne as in not wanting to offend and any opinions expressed are pretty guarded to the point of being mostly oblivious.

Main frustrations with the gear reviews:

When you get £5k basses getting 9/10 for value when there's nothing in the text to really support that score, and frankly there should be for those eye-watering prices.

When some features are commented on adversely and score of 8/10 or 9/10 still appears.

Why so few affordable bass reviews?

Why is when a specific feature is mentioned that is a bit unusual that there is never a photo of it?

I could go on....

[CamdenRob]

I've let my subscription slide... I do pick it up for a holiday read or when I've a long train journey though

To be honest I don't think it's really aimed at BCers, who in general are highly knowledgeable about the gear available on the market and obdurately opinionated on most thing bass... I always though it was more for the mass market (as much of a mass market as bass playing is anyway) who couldn't give a toss about their gear as long as it sounded like a bass and looked the way they want

Edited October 14, 2016 by CamdenRob

[christhammer666]

i used to buy it by what was on the the cover, then I got into the habit of flicking through after the main draw and really enjoying different interviews of people id never heard of.so now I buy it regardes

[Geek99]

Nate Watts has been in it. I did subscribe, but its a little expensive and I'm too busy most days to even open my post, let alone read a magazine.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Geek99

[NJE]

I subscribed for years and years and then just stopped as I got fed up with the same old people being featured and I had very little interest in any of them. Also I think the internet and forums are so much quicker at getting information on new products, I have already seen reviews on youtube or on forums before BGM get their hands on them.

Ibass magazine which has now merged with Scots Bass Lessons is a great online magazine with superbly shot videos and interviews. I can also highly recommend iGuitarmag which has some ace reviews and videos of gear with our very own Dood and its FREE!!!!! you just need a tablet or clever-phone.

[BigRedX]

Actually, thinking about it I have only rarely in 40+ years of buying magazines, bought one on the strength of what was on the cover.

When I first bought a magazine - International Musician in the mid 70s - it was simply because that was AFAICS the only publication that covered the musical instruments I was interested in. It didn't matter what or who was on the cover. In fact IIRC the very first issue I ever bought actually had a picture of a miner on the cover and headline asking what the MU was going to do for me, so the cover really had nothing to do with wether I bought it or not. I bought it every month.

Several years later when I discovered Beat Instrumental, I bought that as well - after all in those days I wanted to get as much information about the musical instruments as I could, and the two magazines were quite different in the musicians they interviewed and the gear that they reviewed, so both were equally relevant to me, although the late 70s and early 80s incarnation of Beat Instrumental tended to be a little more left-field and the music and instruments that it covered so if I had to choose between them, that would have been the one that got my vote.

After that in the early 80s there was a massive proliferation of magazines covering musical instruments, and so I tended to buy all of the ones that covered whatever my current musical obsession was, be it synths, home recording, guitars or bass. I tended not to buy ones full of notation and tab, because I have zero interest in being able to play other peoples songs and TBH it's instruments (and the people who make them) that I am interested in rather than the people who play them.

Over the last 5 years I've pretty much stopped buying print magazines, mostly because by the time they are in the shops the information is already out of date compared with what is on the internet. I haven't bothered with any of the on-line magazines either. What I've seen of them has been a disappointment. For me they manage to combine all that is wrong with print magazines without really embracing the possibilities offered by non-linear interactivity of the electronic medium. The videos could be great but they all go on too long before they get to the point and most of "presenters" are simply unwatchable, because they need a proper script and education in the use of the edit.

These days the only time I buy print magazines (on any subject) is when my band is in them. The one exception is Wire magazine which I buy on the 3-4 occasions each year when it has the Wire Tapper cover mounted CD.

[drTStingray]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1476370153' post='3153726']
I've never read it (sorry!)...was put off by the disparaging comments over journalistic accuracy and editorial content a while back. (I still get (US) Bass Player, but that's turning into a catalogue with each passing month; September '16, 37 pages of adverts in a 68 page magazine!)
[/quote]

And an article on lots of little class D amplifiers which didn't include Mark Bass.... a bit like having a round up article on basses not including Fender!!

Back to BGM - I have it and it's US cousin and think they're a wonderful monthly read or scan read - I have them on order from my friendly local corner shop newsagent, whose business I like to support, so I pick them up with my Saturday morning paper. It's quite funny, when available they come out from under the counter in a plain brown paper bag........

I occasionally pick up on a theory (BGM) or transcription article (bass player) - I've learned some quite complex stuff from these over the years - and there's even an article written by one of the members here which is about this very forum!

Edited October 14, 2016 by drTStingray

[fretmeister]

I used to sub, then stopped.

I still buy it if I happen to find a rare newsagent with a copy. If there are new owners I might give it another try.

I do like a printed mag, and unlike my iPad it doesn't matter too much if I drop it in the bath!

[Barking Spiders]

I agree with ead about the bass reviews. These are largely geared towards kit costing £1,500 plus. If BGM is meant to be targeted at the ordinary bloke/ette in the street it'd be more useful to have more reviews of sub £500 basses. I buy it for a read on the train/plane and on balance it's a decent mag IMO, except when there's any mention of Gene Simmons.

[fretmeister]

I'm not fussed about sub £500 instrument reviews.

I don't want my mundane life reflected in a magazine. I want porn. I want really nice kit to drool over.

I don't buy car mags with VW Polos in them either. I buy ones with cars I want but could never afford.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1476437103' post='3154240']
I agree with ead about the bass reviews. These are largely geared towards kit costing £1,500 plus. If BGM is meant to be targeted at the ordinary bloke/ette in the street it'd be more useful to have more reviews of sub £500 basses. I buy it for a read on the train/plane and on balance it's a decent mag IMO, except when there's any mention of Gene Simmons.
[/quote]

As I say whenever this subject comes up. I don't need to read reviews of sub £500 basses. If I want to find about them I can go into a music shop where there will be plenty to try which beats even the best of reviews every time. For me the interesting reviews are of those instruments I can't easily get my hands on. Those tend to be the more expensive ones.

[Barking Spiders]

I get the bass porn angle but it gets frustrating as I know I'm not likely to own anything costing £1.5k plus. It's not the money per se, as I could go out and buy a Stingray today, but I cant justify it to myself I'm a hobbyist and there are too many other things competing for my hard earned.