Bass Player mag-- who needs it?

[freddy]

Off Topic: This is a spin-off of Kristopher's thread.

I think I've read every bass player issue except for the first Jaco one (can't find a copy). Like some of the other posters, I'm a sucker for bass info and Bass Player had it covered especially in the early nineties when I was starting out on bass. Most of my gear purchases were influenced by Bass Player articles including the decision to get an SR5 (it scored very high in the 5 string shootout many years ago), an SWR Basic Black (also scored highly- unfortunately since stolen), an SWR SW-900 (great amp) and Eden cabs.

I think I have a kind of addiction to Bass Player mag-- every 3 weeks or so I check the mail more closely and something twigs in my brain when I see it laying on the floor under the letter slot in the door. The fix is comin'...

Anyone else want to share? Are there 12 steps that I should know about?

 

[bob atherton]

Freddy, I get BP each month and every month I think, Why do I buy this mag?

Then as you say about three weeks later I start thinking, hmmmm soon be another Bass Player out.

I think tweleve steps would help me.

FWIW I live in the UK and every summer end up at some time in Cornwall. Every time we end up at some point at Padstow, a very pretty but totally zooed out fishing village, you really can't move in the place. Every year I say that's it never again. We should be down there again in about a month from now.....

 

[Kristopher]

Honestly, I preferred GW's Bass Guitar mag when it was still around, probably since I'm more of a rock player. Guitar World really knows the questions to ask that make me want to read. That aside, I think Bass Player has some good articles, although it leaves me wanting more at times. I seriously doubt any magazine can please all bass players in 88 pages (including ads, which is 1/3 to 1/2 of the mag?). Kudos to BP for trying and doing a decent job.

 

[INMT]

I stopped my subscription many years ago when they started selling full page ads that looked like articles on players. Basically praising crap unknown players.
I found out that for $700.( back then) you could send them an article with a pro quality pic of yourself and have it look like an article.....sad.

That's my $0.02

 

[Thornton Davis]

I stopped my subscription many years ago when they started selling full page ads that looked like articles on players. Basically praising crap unknown players. That's my $0.02

+1

I did the same thing for the same reasons. BP mag has no credibility in my opinion.

TD

 

[Caca de Kick]

Bass Player lost my interest back around the end of '01...something just didn't seem interesting about it anymore. I have only bought 3 issues since.
I got a few boxes full of most of the 90's BP issues (including the 1st Jaco one freddy speaks of), and I find myself going back and referencing those quite alot.

Now Bass Guitar did seem interesting, but I probably only bought 7 or so of those.

 

[Lucas G]

i have a subscription. i've been reading it off and on since the early 90's, i guess. some issues are pretty good, some have almost nothing in them that interests me.

i always considered bass player to be a slightly more 'grown up' version of the guitar world bass magazine... bass player has more jazz dudes on the cover, the other one had pete wentz and metal guys in make-up quite often, if i recall. which is cool... young folks are likely far more inclined to buy a bass magazine with the guy from slipknot on the cover than someone like jonas hellborg or cachao lopez. whatever gets 'em hooked, i guess.


the bottom line: it makes for some decent toilet reading.

 

[freddy]

Very interesting comments from different points of view. Now that you mention it, some issues have been a bit of a let down after the initial high. Also, in an effort to please the advertisers (I surmise), there's usually alot of hoopla about the next new thing while the quality standbys (like the SR5) get little mention. In the recent issue with the top gear poll, the SR4 came out very well, however. And the issue with the transcription of 'Havona' kept me busy for awhile (do not assume I can play this song with any authority by what I just wrote). I've got to admit that reading the mags and checking out the forums, like this one, sometimes keeps me from practicing which would be a better use of my time (is confession one of the 12 steps?).

 

[adouglas]

I haven't bothered for a long, long time, especially now that there's so much good info on this here Interwebnet thingie.

I read it even before BP spun off from Guitar Player, and that was a LONG time ago. Back then people like the late Tommy Tedesco and electronics guru Craig Anderton were columnists. I learned the term "Mother of Toilet Seat" from a Tedesco column. He had a soft spot for those awful, cheap Japanese guitars from the 1960s.

More recently Dave LaRue wrote some really good theory stuff.

But the real gems are so few and far between that I just visit the newsstand from time to time and flip through it. I actually buy a copy maybe once every couple of years, if there's something particularly interesting in it...usually some instructional article or a transcription that grabs me.

The gear reviews haven't been useful to me in longer than I can remember.

 

[Kristopher]

Any of you guys visit their bass player tv site (http://www.bassplayer.tv)? Free videos, lots of interesting stuff.

Useful? Yes/no?

 

[freddy]

Any of you guys visit their bass player tv site (Bass Player TV: Channels)? Free videos, lots of interesting stuff.

Useful? Yes/no?

I'd say Yes. I just spent about an hour on Bass player TV. The best thing so far was the demo of Earth Wind and Fire, 'The Way of the World'. I'm going to find that issue and work on that one-- funky, yet smooth.

 

[steve21]

Honestly, I preferred GW's Bass Guitar mag when it was still around, probably since I'm more of a rock player. Guitar World really knows the questions to ask that make me want to read. That aside, I think Bass Player has some good articles, although it leaves me wanting more at times. I seriously doubt any magazine can please all bass players in 88 pages (including ads, which is 1/3 to 1/2 of the mag?). Kudos to BP for trying and doing a decent job.

Same here. I think when my subscription runs out I won't re-up.

 

[bovinehost]

I subscribed back in the old days. When the internet thing really got rolling, I let my subscription expire. (I think I can learn more in an hour or so of careful perusal of the internet, frankly.)

I re-upped a couple of years ago then began to wonder why after the 2nd or 3rd issue. I could blow through the interesting parts in....five minutes? And the internet has better pictures, too. (And porn!) So once that subscription expired, I just let it go, no doubt for good.

But it depends on what you want, I suppose.

I sure hope they put Flea on the cover again.

Ahem.

Jack

 

[DTG]

i love the 3 week mail watch !!!

for me i just love to sit in front of the tv skiping through the pages,i am old school, i love the web but you just cant beat the feeling of having a mag in your hand !

most of it is chewing gum for the brain but i still look forward to it every month.

 

[p5string]

I've been a long time subscriber-from the very first issue. Why? I need something to read on the can!

 

[joshbrake]

I used to buy them in stores until I finally got a subscription. It's like 40 bucks a year and I've got reading material for car trips, waiting rooms, sittin' on the throne, etc.

 

[BluesBassPlayer]

I too wait every three weeks, for a new issue, then wonder why?

Bill Leigh (editor) needs to be replaced. Period

The reviews are horrible. The don't answer basic questions we all need to know about a product. If you need to know how a bass slaps, that bs they answer.

I guess I like reading an equipment review as found in Stereophile and the Absolute Sound. Complete and thorough. BP is like going to consumer reports. a photo, a quick assessment, and usually wrong specs.

Jimi

 

[freddy]

My wife gives me subscription every year as a Christmas present-- the gift that keeps on giving. The August issue came in today. I'm itchin' to check it out once I finish this post...so yeah, it's a kind of need.

 

[Jim_F]

I check the articles out first - if there is an article that interests me I buy

( I usually buy 2 or 3 copies a year) ....

 

[Jazzbassman23]

I pay $15/yr for my subscription, so that's what, $1.25/issue. You mean to tell me that you don't think it's worth that?