The Ye'Old Youtube Gear Review Index

[MaxMaps]

You have a youtube channel that does great gear reviews?

Post them here

Mine

HP42



Megan L (such a hidden gem)



And if you love him or hate him Glenn Fricker is squarely in my wheel house.

[Blackened Soul]

I love AND hate Glenn.... if I ever get to record with him I am bringing a bass with 30 year old flats.
I haven't come across any review channels I really like in some time.. all the ones I like are old and known like


I find too many people are turning it into their attempt at having a tv show and trying to entertain like "that harpist"

[frodog]

What do you mean? Making youtube videos is all about being entertaining in some way. Otherwise you're just making an ad for a product purposefully not engaging, and then why would the people giving you the product want that? I think you're overlooking that for many people this is a job.

[Blackened Soul]

Can’t tell if sarcasm or you lost your own argument to yourself

[coupleonapkins]

I love AND hate Glenn.... if I ever get to record with him I am bringing a bass with 30 year old flats.

I hope you have a time machine, because he hasn't been credited on a physically released record since 2012

Gear Talk YT is simply salesmanship minus the salary & bathroom breaks, but I do love me some post-Trent guys in black t-shirts who make encouraging vids about process/theory, with a few deep dives here & there:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUlQbfL7v4k


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdLGkas4oA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Giw1KCxtyzw

Can't talk about gear reviews/big hawk chops without taking a moment to talk about our lordth & saviour, Johnny Demarco


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB1wtw_jwtc

Also shoutout 2 all the semifreddo/trepidation-era vids I can't get enuff of


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCtUtI3IeFQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzgvJlsEyvQ

[alexsga]

[frodog]

Can’t tell if sarcasm or you lost your own argument to yourself

To be fair I was pretty high when I posted, maybe didn't word it the best. You said "too many people are turning it into their attempt at having a tv show and trying to entertain", and I took that to mean you don't think gear channels should be 'entertaining'? If you don't like Emily Hopkins that's fine, but she's obviously doing quite well in terms of views for a gear channel.

[MaxMaps]

I love AND hate Glenn.... if I ever get to record with him I am bringing a bass with 30 year old flats.
I haven't come across any review channels I really like in some time.. all the ones I like are old and known like


I find too many people are turning it into their attempt at having a tv show and trying to entertain like "that harpist"

I am absolutely with you - make sure its a Gibson Bass with bad tuning machines.

Also agree on the tv-show aspect on most gear reviews - seldom do you see a channel that is straight to the point. I love HP42 as his gear reviews are entertaining but in depth and you get the man's honest opinion, he also comes across as arrogant and his music is super over produced ( in my opinion).

Megan L is a fantastic straight to the point pedal review channel - no talking, just her tunes and a great layout. Even if you don't dig her style of music, you always get a good idea of what pedal she has does.

[Blackened Soul]

Can’t tell if sarcasm or you lost your own argument to yourself

To be fair I was pretty high when I posted, maybe didn't word it the best. You said "too many people are turning it into their attempt at having a tv show and trying to entertain", and I took that to mean you don't think gear channels should be 'entertaining'? If you don't like Emily Hopkins that's fine, but she's obviously doing quite well in terms of views for a gear channel.

It’s not that I don’t think they should be entertaining or not.. but for me I don’t watch gear reviews to be entertained, I watch stuff I want to know how it sounds and if there is something the reviewer doesn’t like about it (that tells you more when you compare how and what they play against your thang), most of the personable bits are going to get a skip to the demo… if you like watching them for entertainment that’s cool.. as for me I’d rather watch something not based around my main interest in life for entertainment

[frodog]

...if you like watching them for entertainment that’s cool.. as for me I’d rather watch something not based around my main interest in life for entertainment

No I pretty much agree, I don't watch gear reviews for entertainment, I'm just saying that for those guys who want their channel to grow and reach a wider audience, that seems to be the way to go. Ultimately when it comes to this type of content, it depends on what you want to learn from the review as well as whether you enjoy the music and general vibe the content creator brings to the table. If you want to only see and hear the piece of gear and get the information via text, there are channels who do that, like Collector//Emitter and Noise Generator. If you prefer to watch a 45-minute nerd review like HP42 does, then that's a commitment I don't understand but have at it. These days I mostly skip through the occasional video just to hear what the pedal does, and then dip out.

Actually the gear demo I've appreciated the most recently is this one (and other old synth demos in general), because it helped me learn how to use my SQ1

[Seance]

I've made this (pedantic?) point before, but I guess I'll restate it anyway.


I don't think what has been posted in this thread are even "gear reviews" in the first place.

Almost all of them are actually "gear demos".

A distinction without a difference? I don't think so. I see there being a major difference.
A demo... demonstrates.
A review can be of the Siskel & Ebert type (thumbs up/down) or of the critical review type in which the history of the form and societal trends are discussed THROUGH the iterations of the specific thing (pedals, movies, books, etc.) over time as articulated through the vision of different people. Sometimes this type of criticism situates something in terms of another something (the relationship between Film Noir lighting/cinematography of the 1940s-1950s and the chiaroscuro light effects of 16th- and 17th-Century European paintings, etc.).

Most of the people who demonstrate pedals on YouTube don't know about or provide details about the history of circuits, so their "background info" often consists of shorthand or conventional wisdom snippets devoid of fact/background/context that they provide almost as an aside before saying "here's my clean tone" and hitting an open G chord drenched in copious amounts of gain and delay and reverb.

For the record, I don't really make gear demos or reviews. I animate things even though the way I do it, animation is time-consuming and not cost effective and evidently of limited appeal.

[frodog]

You're right, i shouldn't have used the word review, rather demo/advertisement.

Your videos I would say are art, an entirely other thing, and a refreshing anomaly in that space.

[coupleonapkins]

I don't think what has been posted in this thread are even "gear reviews" in the first place.

Almost all of them are actually "gear demos".

I wish they all could be gear demons, honestly

[moozz]

GAS is just the manifestation of being possessed by gear demons.

[Blackened Soul]

I don't think what has been posted in this thread are even "gear reviews" in the first place.

Almost all of them are actually "gear demos".

I wish they all could be gear demons, honestly

GAS is just the manifestation of being possessed by gear demons.

Yeah totally different problem is most of the time the demos/reviews you aren't into that aren't review give the most gas... like




I mean I don't need another high powered tube bass amp... but I keep looking up demos....