RIP Guitar Player magazine

[Xpensive Wino]

​

After nearly 58 years in print, Guitar Player magazine will cease publication with its December 2024 issue.

Founded in 1967, Guitar Player was the world's oldest continuously published magazine devoted to guitarists.

Over nearly six decades of publication, GP featured some of music's most important and iconic guitarists, beginning with its December 1968 cover story on Jimi Hendrix.

For its last cover, the magazine presented Jimmy Page, who discussed upcoming re-creations of the guitars and amplifiers he used on Led Zeppelin's classic recordings and tours.

The final issue comes out 15 October.

The closing editorial:

You have witnessed a revolution. When Guitar Player made its debut 58 years ago in 1967, it marked a new era for guitar. For the first time, the instrument was celebrated in a regularly published magazine devoted to furthering guitarists, guitar gear and its makers, and guitar virtuosity. What founder Bud Eastman began laid the first stone of an empire that would go on to launch many other magazines. Guitar Player’s success also opened the door for numerous other titles, further enriching the lives of guitarists everywhere.

And now our run has come to an end.

 

[goldtop0]

Yep, bought heaps of them back in the day, still got most of 'em.

 

[gary buff]

Me too, back to 1974.

 

[Amp360]

Sad news. I've subscribed for a long time with the hope it would stay in business.

I would love it if old magazines like this put all their back issues online and charged a yearly fee to access them. When I was in college there were huge books of all the GP issues. So fun to look at.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

Sad news. I've subscribed for a long time with the hope it would stay in business.

I would love it if old magazines like this put all their back issues online and charged a yearly fee to access them. When I was in college there were huge books of all the GP issues. So fun to look at.

Readly.com.

If you subscribe, you can view magazines online, including back issues, for one monthly fee.

 

[Amp360]

Readly.com.

If you subscribe, you can view magazines online, including back issues, for one monthly fee.

oh wow, i never knew that. i wonder if that will continue when publication ceases.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

oh wow, i never knew that. i wonder if that will continue when publication ceases.

Imagine so. It has for other magazines that have ceased publication. They have the back issues all archived digitally.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

Imagine so. It has for other magazines that have ceased publication. They have the back issues all archived digitally back to August 2018.

 

[Midnight Blues]

Very sad. Another part of the by-gone era of my youth ends.

I've subscribed for years and still have all of the magazines from the early '70s/'80s and more recently, the ones that were of interest to me. For the last several years, I've had four subscriptions; my own and three others, for my niece and two of my nephew's who play guitar. They raised the price this year and I decided not to renew, so I haven't been getting the issues since about May, but I went out yesterday and bought the final issue.

For me anyway GP, you'll be missed.

 

[mikeslub]

Sad.

 

[corpse]

I subscribed for a decade or so. I kept a bunch- and then pared that down to a few.
I was given 4 from the late 70's early 80's- one with the Wrecking Crew and the other with Mick Taylor (four years after he left the Stones).

 

[jb_abides]

I haven't bought a guitar mag for decades, although I used to subscribe to a few, including GP.

Internet displacement, plus I think the content drifted a bit into more hyping, less substance.

Congrats to them on a worthy run.

 

[seafood]

I'm super old ! I was playing before there was a Guitar player magazine !! I bought the first one as a teenager in the 60s...so it is sad .....time marches on !!!! Tons of vintage guitar action on " The Gram " ............it's a 2024 thing !! Cheers to piles of old magazines !!!

 

[bern1]

Wow, yes time marches on. I had many many issues, as a subscriber and advertiser for years. I gave them all away some years ago.

I kept only one and I still have it: 1972 with Dickey Betts on the cover. In the interview he describes himself as “Les Paul poor”, with a rundown of some of the ones he had at the time.

It was a great mag for all of us enthusiasts pre internet.

 

[E.M.]

Major bummer. Long time subscriber here back to the 80s. Got the last issue in the mail the other day and on the top it says "Our Final Edition 1967-2024" - needless to say I was shocked and disappointed.

 

[Patrick Ginnaty]

I've got 5-6 milkcrates full of back issues.
And, I had a letter published, once upon a time. Nothing profound hahaha.

 

[fred dons]

used to buy each and every guitar magazine that came out just to stare at pictures of guitars and to study the tabs, i still buy a few every now and then when i'm at an airport so i have something to read during the flight, some observations; they have become thinner and thinner over time, they have become much, much more expensive over time, due to the internet the info they provide has become outdated the moment the magazine hits the shelves, just like Vogue magazine the ratio adds vs actual content has moved negatively in favor of the adds. So no not surprised that they had to stop, I'm surprised they survived this long.

 

[Grog]

Drove to Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy of the final edition, they were down to three copies left. I did subscribe years ago, but only kept the VG subscription going all of these years. I wonder how much longer they will last……..

 

[jb_abides]

I guess Gibson paid a significant promotional consideration for the final publication:

From Led Zeppelin News --​

​

Jimmy Page’s Guitar Player interview contained three bits of news:​

​

Jimmy Page’s cover story interview for the final issue of Guitar Player magazine was published on October 15. The interview was light on any reflections on his career but was surprisingly full of news.​

​

In the article, it was revealed that the second replica guitar to come from Page’s new partnership with Gibson will be a line of replicas of the 1964 Gibson SJ-200 acoustic guitar that Page played on Led Zeppelin’s debut album.​

​

We expect a full reveal of the replica to come on October 22. Before then, we dug into the surprising history of this guitar. Page never owned it or played it on stage with Led Zeppelin. Instead, he borrowed it from Mickie Most, it was stolen, and Page now owns another copy of the same model of guitar.​

​

Page played and signed the new replica guitars during his trip to Nashville earlier this year. Thankfully our mention in our August article that “it’s possible that Page was visiting Gibson in Nashville to review the latest replica guitars being prepared as part of the partnership” turned out to be correct.​

​

There were two other bits of news in the Guitar Player story. Firstly, a wider (and cheaper) release of the replica Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar is on the way in December, minus the precise aging techniques that the $50,000 version released in March had.​

​

And finally, Page’s amp company Sundragon is releasing a smaller amp model called Nymph in late 2024 or early 2025.​

​

It’s a shame that Guitar Player’s final cover story was almost entirely reliant on advertising imagery from Page’s various projects. The magazine’s final cover was actually a Gibson promotional photo first released in March, not a new photoshoot. And the interview with Page contained 15 photos, 12 of which were advertising images from Gibson or Sundragon.​

​

A final tidbit of information: LedZepNews hears that Page may be working on a signature guitar with a guitar maker that isn’t Gibson or Fender.​

A cropped image of the final cover of Guitar Player magazine, showing its December 2024 issue

 

[ElChivo]

The only mag I've found that covered as wide a range of artists is Guitarist. This has been staple for me since the Styx issue in 80(?).