i’ve been a keen reader of guitar world since 1997, when i’ve religiously bought it monthly without fail (except for a couple of issues, when for some reason they were nowhere to be found in any of the newsstands). i was first introduced to it by my brother, earlier in 1990. my first issue was one with kirk hammett and james hetfield on it (i have all the ones with metallica on it bar one, the november 1988 ish), just when metallica released the eponymous black album. these mags are instrumental in my learning of the repertoire of songs that i could play. as much as i’d love to nail it not-for-note, i also took the liberty of simplifying bits that i can’t play. hoho. it was from here i’d learn of concepts like downtuning, drop D’s, and most importantly, the ultimate cop out: tablature. they also have a-list axemen the likes of satriani, petrucci and (eric) johnson giving lessons in the mag.
guitar world celebrates their 25th anniversary this year and for their commemorative february issue, they got ross halfin capturing some (not all, unfortunately) of the greatest guitarists around. whilst the editorial board can’t exactly please everyone, it saddens me not to see the like of hammett or king on the cover. i’m sure many a disgruntled reader would be sending some hate mail down their way in time for the march 2005 ish.
they also had a reader’s poll where jimi hendrix was voted greatest rock guitarist and led zeppelin IV was voted greatest classic rock album. stairway is voted the greatest solo, by the by. SRV is blues icon, if you really wanna know, the neon (clapton came in third after b.b. king). also noticed dimebag darrell in one article and a couple of ads. he probably wasn’t dead yet when they were doing this ish (american mags are usually distributed way earlier stateside, as compared to the UK). that aside, for this month you could learn master of puppets and black magic woman, among others.
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on the subject of mags, i also bought vanity fair today. why? the photography is by annie leibovitz, and it’s of this:
I love those fold out VF covers. cool sial…esp that last issue with supermodels. 😛
Dah lama tak beli GW…one thing i notice is that in every poll, it seems that most of the time, the SAME people wins it. i mean, really, is there lacking of new talents out there???:P
babe, how can you not love URTV? Vf mana ada mama juwie and BAM?
Wah.. top guitarist ada Slash!
It’s a wonder what they can do with digital photography, no?
john frusciante pun ada. fascinating man. true, hammet should have been on the cover.