AlanRatcliffe
Hi Folks
I was quite pleased to see the "Budget electrics" article in the latest edition of Music Maker mag, as I thought the concept of an explanation of features coupled with a roundup of cheap electrics was a good one. Unfortunately, when I started reading the article, I found that the article did not live up to it's promise. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it is atrocious - where the information is not vague, it is completely incorrect. To wit:
The sound of an acoustic guitar does not "resonate a few millimetres" through the top as the author implies - the top vibrates in sympathy with the vibration of the bridge. This vibration moves air, much like the cone of a speaker does. This does not relate in any way to how the acoustics of an electric guitar work, where the body is the mechanical link between the neck and bridge and only colours the sound with sympathetic resonance, rather than amplifying it.
The author uses the terms "laminate" and "plywood" interchangeably, which is incorrect. Plywood has alternate laminae (layers) of wood with grain running at right angles to one another, while laminates have the grain of the laminae running parallel. Plywoods are often used for acoustic soundboards, where their stiffness to weight ratio is an advantage, while laminates are used for 99.9% of electric guitar bodies - from inexpensive to many top-of-the-line instruments from major US manufacturers.
The claim that laminates were the industry standard until the Yamaha Pacifica is also wrong (in fact, the Yamaha Pacifica shown on the same page is obviously a three piece laminated body). If the author meant plywood, he is also wrong - early Asian budget instruments were mostly (and still are) made of laminates of cheaper species of woods (such as nato, sen and agathis). With the notable exception of semi-acoustic archtop electrics (in all price brackets), very few electric guitars have ever used plywood. The contention that sound will only travel a centimetre through plywood due to the density is completely wrong, as sound travels better through denser mediums. True, plywoods do not sound good when used for electric guitar bodies, but for completely different reasons to the one stated.
The tonal differences between popular woods such as mahogany, ash and alder are anything but subtle. Each imparts it's own particular voice to an instrument. Alder and ash are not expensive and can be found in instruments retailing under R2,500.
Necks - vulnerability and consistency do not go hand in hand, they are functions of design and manufacturing method respectively. Rickenbacker guitars do not have fragile necks - while relatively slender, their double truss rod system makes them many time more robust than anything other than composite necks. Why no mention of crucial neck aspects such as woods, scale length, radius and frets?
Pickups do not "pick up the sound resonating through the body" - they sense the vibration of the strings via their magnetic field. Why no discussion of single-coil vs. humbuckers?
Nuts are not a subtlety, and what about Tusq, graphite, corian, micarta and all the other common nut choices? Brass is sometimes used, but *never* bronze or wood as stated.
I can understand neglecting to mention tuners in a short discussion of cheaper guitars, but bridges are essential hardware and the different types (fixed, vibrato, floating vibrato) really should have been covered.
Coil taps do not "change the profile of a pickup" (whatever that means. They turn off part of the coil in a single-coil pickup to change it's output level, and are exceedingly rare these days. I suspect the writer means the far more common coil *cut* switch, which turns off one coil of a humbucker to effectively turn it into a single-coil pickup (but still does not "change it's profile").
Sorry to be so critical, but at best, this information is incomplete and totally misleading. It sounds more like the author was making up things as he went along rather than grounding them in knowledge of the instrument.
Regards
Alan Ratcliffe
Mr-M
Agree with you 100% Alan!
Music Maker is not my favourite publication by a long way. I've often noticed inaccurate info in some of their articles, not to mention their largely positive opinions on absolutely everything (probably because they are supported by the suppliers/ distributors of the equipment in the form of advertising money, so they don't want to upset them). I haven't read it in more than a year, so I suppose some of what I've said might not be valid anymore, but I don't think it could have changed too much since then.
Let us know how/ if they respond.
AlanRatcliffe
To be fair, they do seem to be trying. I emailed them about their website about a year ago and the publisher himself called me and we discussed it. Since then they have cleaned up the website considerably and while it has less information than before, it is more suited to being a magazine's online presence, without a dozen animated ads.
The magazine design itself has been gradually improving lately, and the pro audio articles are not too bad. As you have pointed out, the gear reviews tend to be one sided and often read like rewritten versions of the manufacturers' press releases. The editing is pretty bad too, In fact I sometimes wonder if there is any.
I do like supporting them however. We don't really have anything else locally, and they have to get props for that. My hope is that by pushing them with letters like the above whenever they truly drop a clanger, they will work at improving and become a good locally focused mag.
Mr-M
Just read it now myself - I was interested to see it after your letter - and I've got to say I'm amazed they would publish that. The author shows a demonstrated lack of knowledge, both of proper grammar and of guitar construction! In one article!!!! Bad show Mr "The Fussy Guitarist"...
AlanRatcliffe
Hi All
I got a speedy response from Andre at Music Maker on Monday the 26th:
Hi ! Thanks for your input. Will forward it to the author as well and
see if we can fix this asap
I've been waiting with bated breath to see how they can fix an already printed magazine, but no further response yet, from either Andre or the author almost two weeks later.
Oh, well. My subscription is up for renewal this month...
