I'm letting my Bass Player subscription lapse.

[40Hz]

I gave up on BP after the first five or so years. Glanced through a copy at B&N recently and was saddened how much further down from its already low height it sunk. The publisher's heart never really seemed that into that magazine.

About the only print music rag I still bother with is Premier Guitar.

 

[HamOnTheCob]

Playboy brings back nudity, saying its removal was a mistake - BBC News

Article is SFW.

Dang, looks like Bass Player needs to bring back nudity as well! LoL

 

[blixild]

It's an okay deal if you let your subscription lapse and get the 2 year subscription for $26 (I think it's like $24 to renew your subscription for a year). I liked the instructional and theory articles but they were the smallest part of the mag.

In addition to the ridiculous amount of advertising (even I got sick of seeing Warwick ads, and I love Warwicks), my big gripe was the amount of spelling/grammatical/print errors. It seemed like nobody even proofread the thing.

 

[Joebone]

The mag was subject to the same forces whacking most of print media, but the downward spiral accelerated sharply after Bill Leigh was done. I give the staff credit for trying to keep the ship afloat - when I let my subscription lapse several years ago (and I'd kept it up only because the subscription price was only like $1.380 per issue) it seemed like only two guys were doing all of the writing.

I do miss the transcriptions - I'd usually read them through, even if I didn't play them, and consider the stack sitting on a shelf to be a potential practice resource at some point.

But for knowledge of equipment and playing situations, it would be hard for any contemporary magazine to approach TB. Instant interaction across a mass of folks with common interests, and access to past interactions and data, is downright empowering. Ain't no magazine gonna give you that. The only magazines I see that seem to have kept their standards up are those that offer a lot of thought and extended analysis to their readers - The New Yorker and The Economist come most quickly to mind - which are products that also can be accessed via the Internet, but some of us find the paper format more flexible or comfortable in use.

 

[travep]

Agree w all...I find the writing super-immature and I just can't read it. Anyone looking for a better alternative may want to try to pick up Bass Guitar. It's out of the UK and expensive in the US...I have to get it in the bookstores...for maybe $12-13. However, the articles are more thorough and it has much more content. Even the ads are different to me b/c they are advertising products we don't see every day in the US

 

[birminghambass]

At $18 for a two year subscription I'll continue to support them. I keep the latest issue in the bathroom for when I'm dropping a deuce and don't have my phone.

 

[AztecViking]

I only get the free copies they give out at NAMM now. It's rare they cover an artist whom I'm actually interested in anymore. Mostly ads.

I now will occasionally pick up an issue of Prog magazine though. Top shelf toilet reading! The somewhat recent Chris Squire issue is quite decent.

 

[AltGrendel]

Dang, looks like Bass Player needs to bring back nudity as well! LoL

Flea would be thrilled.

 

[jwilson67]

BP Magazine is sooo pre-internet!

 

[Obese Chess]

I question the literacy of those presently contributing – or if they actually 'play' bass. Ronald McDonald-dyed hair and Cameroon, ear hoops don't exactly make you an authority on gear, practice strategies or a viable music critic.

Thank God for TalkBass…

I think BP has been on the decline for a while for reasons others have mentioned, but I just wanted to pop in to say I think you're doing yourself a disservice here. Judging books by their covers and all that. There are a lot of really exciting and innovative players with dyed hair and earrings, which is a very strange thing to have to defend in 2017, though that may be a function of yours and my respective ages.

 

[GretschWretch]

Dang, looks like Bass Player needs to bring back nudity as well! LoL

I don't think the format being print had anything to do with Playboy's decision to drop nudity. Nor to bring it back. And back in the day, some BP ads featured, shall we say, the under-attired?

 

[HeavyJazz]

I think BP has been on the decline for a while for reasons others have mentioned, but I just wanted to pop in to say I think you're doing yourself a disservice here. Judging books by their covers and all that. There are a lot of really exciting and innovative players with dyed hair and earrings, which is a very strange thing to have to defend in 2017, though that may be a function of yours and my respective ages.

My insinuation is along the lines of looking the part (in a stereotypical sort of way), but not being able to deliver.

 

[Obese Chess]

My insinuation is along the lines of looking the part (in a stereotypical sort of way), but not being able to deliver.

Eh, I think all music publications are going to tend towards what's "popular" even when what's popular really sucks, but I wouldn't write most of these folks off just for how they look. Again, lots of really interesting stuff being done in genres that are only slightly off the beaten path.

That said, to my point above as well as I think what you're getting at, I do remember when that nu-grunge thing was starting to happen - god-awful bands like Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback, etc - and BP was all about those dudes. There was like a four page story about the guy from Nickelback which made me roll my eyes.

It was when the second wave of nu-grunge happened that I cancelled my subscription. There was this unbelievably mediocre band that I won't mention, they had like one hit that cracked the top twenty, barely, and there was like, a two-page interview with their bass player. BP tried to use all this flowery language about "fitting the song," "catchy simplicity," and "being tasteful," but they were really clearly just trying to mask the fact that the dude could barely play his instrument and that quarter notes on the root were about as much as he could handle.

So yeah, I think I get where you're coming from.

 

[Lee Moses]

It's not incredible, but for the subscription price it's worth reading. The transcriptions and "woodshed" sections provide regularly refreshed practice material. And I think it's gotten a little better with Chris Jisi as editor than under the previous editor. All IMHO.

 

[jd-ns]

I never have a problem finding a couple of interesting things in every issue.

 

[AndyLES]

Edited my post and put a pic up.

I used to work for a guitar magazine back in 1999-2000. I think the issue some of you are thinking about with Geddy on the cover was what's known as a "one shot," where they run one issue as a sort of test, to see if it catches on. If it does, THEN you get the "premier" issue. Confusing, I know, lol.

 

[pholli00]

I have 30 years of BP and I just don't feel the need for it anymore. I can get everything I need right here at TB. Well, not everything.

That reminds me to finish reading the October 2016 issue I have in front of me. Nice little article on Bakithi Kumalo. And I always like to follow along with the transcriptions.

 

[PluckyThump]

I stopped subscribing to BP in the late 90s, too repetitive. The old players they'd already interviewed several times over had nothing really new to say and the new players coming up then weren't interesting for the most part. Then came the internet. I still have all the old issues though.

 

[klejst]

Do what you have to, I feel in many (not all) cases printed media is pretty much dead anyways.

 

[tycobb73]

I don't subscribe right now but I do subscribe to guitar world. A subscription is cheaper than what a subscription to a magazine was 30 years ago. It's the price of a candy bar. I usually tell my mom to get a subscription for me for Christmas. I'm not going to pretend that these are great magazines but for the price of a candy bar the player interviews are worth it.