Update: *Many of these guitar blogs since outdated and shut-down as of 1/20/20
!**!! Stay tuned as we research and find more NON-SPAMMY and useful blogs. Many guitar websites out there [as of 2020] are spammy “affiliate” websites who just publish fake “top 5” and “Best xxxxx” bullshit for click $$ revenue. I recommend never clicking links on a blog you DO NOT like. !!**
Originally published July 30th 2009:
Though Gear-Vault is a committed webzine, an all-in-one resource musical instrument palace, we strive to supply matter-of-fact information and music gear reviews for musicians researching straight forward, no fluff, no frills wealth of knowledge.
With that said, we also enjoy surfing and reading some of the over-populated guitar blogs that can be found plastered all over the interweb when we’re killing time, and if you, the reader, has the patience and don’t mind spending the time and energy digging through authors muck and useless personal opinionated force-fed bloats, you will eventually find a diamond in the rough that actually supplies some knowledgeable and useful information. Gear-Vault has been secretly auditing guitar blogs around the blogoshere for the past 6 months. We took the liberty to compile the best guitar blogs which do not fall into the laziness of posting useless garbage and personal bio-hazard poo, here they are listed for you.
Gear-Vault’s Top 10 blog picks:
- Dolphinstreet — Robert Renman (dolphinstreet owner/writer) is probably one of the most straight forward and down to earth writers in the blog community, period. He’s a no bullshit, tell it how it is, a straight shooter. No fluff, no BS. A personality trait that you’d expect from a person in Alberta, Canada.
- iheartguitarblog — iheartguitar is making waves not only online, but in print. This blog is pure professionalism. His content is very well written and the writer (Peter) flows with knowledge, and his website’s name [iheartguitar] is the perfect name for Peter, because he truly does love guitars. Read his blog and you’ll quickly see how passionate he really is. Keep up the good work Peter!
- Stratoblogster — Personality. Stratoblogster flows personality and gives a sense of wholesome and kindness in every post JP publish. JP displays great knowledge and writes captivating material that not only makes you think “wow“, but also makes you want to read more. Time goes by very quickly when reading stratoblogster. I tie this blog evenly with iheartguitarblog.com.
- Fretbase — Fretbase is only a year old and are making a splash in the music community across the web. These guys are the real deal and I expect them to upgrade to a Webzine and be our competitors one day. That’s okay, we love challenge! If you have not bookmarked Fretbase, I suggest you do it now. Keep up the good work guys.
- Musicgadgets — This site is a bit strange, they don’t seem to come out much and their template is a bit bland, but they do get big props for posting useful matter-of-fact information. I hope they come out and network in the music community a bit more. Show face fellas, your website made Gear-Vault’s Best Guitar Blog list! NO LONGER UPDATED
…. Okay wait! Where are the 10 best blogs? Our intention was “Top 10 Guitar Blogs”, however there isn’t 10 useful blogs out there, only 5 rockin’ blogs that totally grabbed our attention. We rate these guitar blogs with complete professionalism and are held to the highest regard. If you are a guitar blogger or want to start a guitar blog, take lessons from the aforementioned guitar blogs. These guys are the real deal and will be successful beyond the blogosphere. These guys get it! Don’t feel bad if your blog didn’t make it, it is hard work and not for the faint of heart. Keep up the good work guys, we solute you! Please feel free to join our Guitar forum at Gear-Monkey.com Forum.
Hey! Peter from I Heart Guitar here. Thanks so much for the compliment! I’ve written a post about how freaking cool this is: http://www.iheartguitarblog.com/2009/08/news-i-heart-guitar-mentioned-on-gear.html
Thanks again!
WOW! Now you’ve really lost your friggin’ mind!!!
;)))
jp
pft… I can easily think of another five to fill out this list
Plus here’s another list of guitar blogs of note
http://www.netvibes.com/markmcguigan#Guitar_Blog_Discovery_Project
Thanks for the comments guys, keep ’em coming.
Hey Peter, I really enjoyed your G&L Legacy Review, it got me GAS’n for one in the worse way! 🙂
Laurie Monk — that list has numerous outdated blogs and some abandoned blogs. Yet they didn’t include Fretbase, iheartguitar or Dolphinstreet blog. It’s hard to include a blog in the top 10 that hasn’t updated in a year.
Did you check out Mark McGuigan? and Guitarnoize? Obviously Iheart guitar is great, but Fretbase and Dolphinstreet are new to me. I would be interested in the stats for these blogs.
Maybe one day I will be in top guitars blog: http://www.guitarwink.com 🙂
Speaking of GuitarNoize — Jon recently published a really nice review on the TC Electronic NDR-1 Nova Drive. You can read it here: GuitarNoize NDR-1 Review.
We have a nice blog at http://www.rhythmstrummer.com/wordpress. Mostly dealing with acoustic guitar and things to help get beginners started. Check us out if you are interested.
Anton
Nice site Anton, love the graphics. We need more acoustic websites, I don’t acoustic guitars get enough attention. I am going to save your site to my favorites list!
Fretbase is one of my fav’s. also is a new one http://www.guitarblogstar.com an interesting story in the about page too. There arent many blogs focussed on guitarists that have damaged hands or the like ..
I like this site and I would not mind saving this site in my favourites.
“Hi, I’m the proprietor of http://www.myguitarspace.com . We’re the social network for guitarists. I thought your readers might like to know about a new contest we’re having: http://www.myguitarspace.com/contests/guitar-co…. Also, join to promote yourself and your efforts. Please feel free to contact me any time.”
Nice info on the top 5 blogs you could find. I found good info on all of them.
Definately very high quality blogs. I hope one day the site I work on (although not quite a blog) will be able to be included in lists like these. I’ll have to get busy!
Hi Chaz. This is a helpful site. But I also want to share the guitars in my country, Philippines, particularly the guitars in Cebu.
I really admire the guitars in Cebu. I bought one a year ago and I always love it. I love it because it has a truss rod inside the neck,even though it’s handcrafted. Really great for playing live unplugged. This one I bought in Mactan is possibly the best Cebu guitars that I own. 😉
Oh hi Chaz! I found a site and their guitars are calledCrafter guitars. These are Korena made and are best for acoustic good sound quality.
How much would one cost in your country?..
This site is great thanks for the info, just bookmarked it
I just wanna say that I love this blog man!
Those blogs are of course fantastic, but I was a bit surprised with the statement ‘there isn’t 10 useful blogs out there’. Maybe that was true in 2009 but right now when I look around I see some pretty unreal blogs out there. Maybe it’s time for an update?
So many outdated guitar blogs on this list. I’m looking to revive Gear-Vault.com. I’ve been out of the game for over 7 years and noticed guitar websites on the webz now are just spammy affiliate sites trying to suck revenue. Sad the direction it has went.
I personally like character content with some grit and personality like we had back in 2007-2012.
I love your statement about bullshit blogs! Some year ago I was interested in getting into freelance writing and checked some writing jobs, found one that had to do with a guitar blog. When I checked it out it was full of exactly that type of generic nonsense, I almost suspected (in 2021) that it was AI-generated.
Now I’m working on an idea to start an own guitar blog, with the focus on beginners, to share my experiences and useful resources.