Why are all the guitar boards dead?

[Mudlark]

Aside from facebook, this is the only forum I belong to. My recent association with the Ultimate Guitar forum lasted approximately 30 days.
Joining there was not a good idea.

They seem to have a plenty active board, though.

[Sanctuary]

And they probably drive on the wrong side of the road, too.

Pretty sure they invented English so one could argue their spelling is correct. But then of course they didn't invent GrindR, so you have them there.

[Snoogans]

And they probably drive on the wrong side of the road, too.

I say! That's not cricket. I don't much care for the cut of your jib Sir! In fact you've got my dander right up!
When I've finished my tea and crumpets, I shall dispatch my butler to administer a sound thrashing!
Dashed colonials!

[eakinj]

I say! That's not cricket. I don't much care for the cut of your jib Sir! In fact you've got my dander right up!
When I've finished my tea and crumpets, I shall dispatch my butler to administer a sound thrashing!
Dashed colonials!

Professor Elemental?

[TKEblue]

Sup?
I still read here everyday,,, but don't post too much. I should post a vid or something.....lol

MOSHON
DAVE

Yeah man, you really should.

[Carcaridon]

I like the facebook groups. I look at them as another reach if I'm looking for something. But for info and conversation, the forums are much nicer. Plus, there's a search option which makes finding stuff way easier than scrolling through an FB group.

[Snoogans]

Professor Elemental?

Splendid chap! I really didn't think that anyone outside of the UK would have heard of him. In fact, most people inside the UK haven't either.....

[eakinj]

Splendid chap! I really didn't think that anyone outside of the UK would have heard of him. In fact, most people inside the UK haven't either.....

Paul's a good guy, got to hang out with him a couple years back when he was in the states.

[Nightbat]

Meh I'll stick with terrorizing the Youtube comments on the Social Justice Warrior videos
It's something like therapy to go ballistic against regressive braindead zombies

[diablomozart]

most of us are around...i don't post much anymore as i play mostly ibanez these days...but i do have one of the red eerie dess guitar center anniversary dinky models that will never leave my house too...lol...d.m.

[Razor]

I'm still here, but my focus has been more on guns than guitars for quite a while now. I still enjoy checking out the site, and still focus on the Import Charvels, Efraid of Ebay, Artists and Their Gear, and of course this section of the forum.

[Snow007]

I think the OP is right about guitar forums being dead. I'm still here but don't have anything interesting to ask or contribute but I always lurk.

[YetAnotherOne]

The Gear Page is pretty active. I think this place ramped up over a few years as C/J fans found it and has slowed as that initial surge wore off. I still stop by here once in a while but I don't have much to contribute so I don't usually post.

[442w30]

The Gear Page is pretty active. I think this place ramped up over a few years as C/J fans found it and has slowed as that initial surge wore off. I still stop by here once in a while but I don't have much to contribute so I don't usually post.

For me, i started finally being able to afford a second or third guitar in the early 2000s, AND everyone was ashamed of their metal/hair bamd roots, so killer custom guitars coyld be pucked up locally cheap on craigslist/boards and eBay. Reliving the past, figuring out stuff you didnt understand in the 70s/80s/90s was cool.

Once all the people squeezed the $$ out of the finds, people could easily find the value and it wasnt shameful to be into pointy guitars and tacky graphics, the thrill simmered down.

Add to that chinese electronics, recording equipment, and throway tube amps the allure has simmered.

My skills as an axe slinger never materialized and the quirky music stores are part of a generic corporate monoculture for the most part.

My sears POS with a platic fretboard, Rheem (yes the airconditioning company!) Amp and stella acoustic i started on are unusable in comparison to a $79 epiphone les paul from china and a used line 6 amp for the same money today. People dont have to think much or research to figure out what to get, get started or keep going anymore.

[PowerTube]

My sears POS with a platic fretboard, Rheem (yes the airconditioning company!) Amp and stella acoustic i started on are unusable in comparison to a $79 epiphone les paul from china and a used line 6 amp for the same money today. People dont have to think much or research to figure out what to get, get started or keep going anymore.

Ah, Memory Lane! That's a very accurate statement. I started on my uncle's mid-60's Harmony Holiday, similar to the one pictured here:



Yes, it was every bit as shitty as it looks. It took every bit of finger strength you had to turn the tuners, and one of them cracked off so I had to use a pair of pliers.

The amp was a tube type of some description. I don't remember the brand. It wouldn't distort at all unless you turned it way up there and then it would just fizz out a little.

These days:

1. Pawn Shop
2. Squier Strat or similar - $79.99
3. Line 6 Spider or similar - $69.00

Walks all over what I started with.

Kids today really have no idea what it was like not that long ago. Also, if you bought a guitar and it turned out to be a piece of crap, guess what? You owned that piece of crap until you sold, traded, or destroyed it. There was no returning it to Guitar Center within 45 days or whatever. But the best part is that there was no Internet (or at least not one that most people could access), so you had two sources of information on what was good and what wasn't:

Advertisements (and they were oh, so HONEST!)

Your friends (who also viewed the same ads)

As for instruction, yeah, it sucked! Even tablature hadn't yet been invented. If you wanted to learn to play something, you became a master of placing that record needle right where you wanted it and then quickly got ready to play. Even if you could read music and found the sheet music for it, good luck on it being accurate, including the solo, telling you what effects were being used, telling you that it was tuned down a half step. There was usually that kid in school who could play a few things, but if you weren't in with him you were on your own. I struggled for years until I joined the Air Force and finally had a few guys around who could play and teach me some things.

These days there's a YouTube video for almost anything. There's tab. Cheap, decent guitars and amps are everywhere.

Yep. Kids just have no idea how easy they have it now.

I sound like my granddad.



But it's still a great thing.