YouTube Reviewers Can’t Be Trusted?

Snags said:
Well, obviously the ones from Guitarist (UK) where absolutely nothing ever scored less than 8/10 and you had to read so far between the lines to suss out the flaws that you often found not only another magazine, but sometimes Narnia. Because you don't want to piss off the advertising $$ that keep the magazine afloat, or the manufacturer/distributor who keeps you in gear to talk about.

In defence of YouTube reviewes, be they sponsored, paid for, borderline advertorial or whatever, at least with the medium you get to see and hear something of the product, and kind of see the presenter's method and approach, which all helps form a judgement on just how balanced, accurate, or in tune with your own tastes they are. Unless people are doing outright deceptive things (re-recording through different gear, massively messing with the EQ in post etc. etc.) then it's better than words on a page from a magazine where if it's shit they just won't cover it at all, because they can't afford to upset anyone.
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That’s kinda what I was trying to get at with my question; you can hear the pedal and hear the specs. Like I said previously, any comments about the quality of design/toughness tend to fall by the wayside because unless the reviewer has gigged/toured the gear, sitting in a bedroom holding it up for a camera is no marker of it’s road worthiness.

But outside of those things, what else is left to be deceitful about? I mean, if one dude is EQ’ing tracks/using different gear to make a piece of gear sound better, ALL the rest of the reviewers would have to do the same to keep it consistent sounding, so I don’t put a lot of credence into that idea.

I just don’t know what else can come from a review that would be deceitful that would cause someone to buy a piece of gear under false pretenses. There’s all kinds of possibilities and what if’s, but I‘m not sure there’s actually been a case of “I spent so much money on this because of reviews and they all lied”. I don’t think I’ve seen any of our members say they bought any gear that didn’t deliver what a reviewer said it would or note any discrepancies between the review and reality…

I guess drilling down more, have we any proof that GearTubers are doing a disservice in any way whatsoever, outside of annoying us with thumbnails?
 
la szum said:
Maybe. But you introduce $$$ into the equation and science has proven time and time
again that rewards impact decision making and our judgment. It's human nature and
not just a slap on the face of YT'ers. We are all susceptible to it.

To deny it seems utterly blind to reality and completely disingenuous. :idk
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I did say "they appear even-handed". :rofl
There will always be the ones that are only about the clicks and revenue, and will do or say anything to get that.
As a viewer I know this and can make my own judgements with who I trust. I don't need a video like in the OP to explain that. I mean it's cool that he's honest about it but for me it's not necessary. I'm not holding these guys on such a high pedestal that I'm going to be super disappointed if they merge into deep Shillville.
 
Boudoir Guitar said:
I think folks are waaaaaaaay overestimating how much money a lot of these folks are able to pull from YouTube. Henning is probably able to pull a decent chunk of his income from YouTube and associated YouTube stuff. Guitar Jon...couldn't support himself, much less a family, from YouTube earnings.
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Their words. Not mine. I should have quoted them.
 
Orvillain said:
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Hmmm. Do people really know what hard work is? Try laying 1" steel pipe in a 5 foot ditch in 95° F heat then tell me how editing a video until 1am is hard work.

Although it was hard work listening to that video. I made it to the guitar in a box and lost interest.

Seriously, what's the appeal in watching that kind of video? It's about music. I prefer gear demos where the person is actually making music with the gear, like Brock's stuff.
 
James Freeman said:
A real review is from someone who paid for the product and expects it to be worth his hard earned money in value, only then the truth is told with no strings attached and no subconscious or conscious interests.
That's science, it outweighs "trust me".
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Some dude paying for a product and then making a video about it is not a whole lot more likely to be free from bias as what plenty of the shills have to say. I mean, plenty of folks around here provide “reviews” of stuff they paid for that is utterly predictable in its biases.

The bigger issue is that folks have decided “doing my research” amounts to reading/watching reviews and focusing on the opinions of the reviewer. Research is sifting through all that garbage to find FACTS and DATA; and using enough gear yourself so as to know which of those facts and data are important.
 
Trollbait said:
Hmmm. Do people really know what hard work is? Try laying 1" steel pipe in a 5 foot ditch in 95° F heat then tell me how editing a video until 1am is hard work.
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100%

Shills complaining about being called shills while doing some freelance "hard work" of what they truly love from their air conditioned home office/studio in their own time.
I think they need to shut the fuck up real quick before they really ruin their reputation and their nice cozy jobs.
 
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James Freeman said:
100%

Shills complaining about being called shills while doing some freelance "hard work" of what they truly love from their air conditioned home office/studio in their own time.
I think they need to shut the fuck up real quick before they really ruin their reputation and their nice cozy jobs.
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my favourite one’s are geartubers who spam forums and social media, beg for discussion on their youtube comments and then either shut down or ignore any kind of attempt at discussion, or make videos complaining about not having time or being good at the social side.

It’s also so easy to hear when they’re being fake with how amazing or great something is. 99% of the time if they’re making a big deal about telling you it sounds great then it doesn’t.

and lastly….. it’s hilarious how many demos/reviews/videos can’t be bothered to learn or understand the gear they’re trying to sell. Kind of part of being good at your job is to understand what you’re doing.

There are some folk here with WAY better understanding, attention to detail, objectivity and a level of scrutiny that is very hard to find on youtube
 
MirrorProfiles said:
and lastly….. it’s hilarious how many demos/reviews/videos can’t be bothered to learn or understand the gear they’re trying to sell. Kind of part of being good at your job is to understand what you’re doing.
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This is a pet peeve for me. Reading from the manual in a video is not the way to go about it. Learn to use the device first, then bring your a-game in showing what it can do.

Not a fan of some channels releasing unboxing videos either. Unboxing videos can have a bit of value for something like a phone or anything requiring assembly because they don't always clearly list what kind of accessories come with it or how to put it together. I've watched e.g videos of a TV being assembled on its stand before buying, so when I get it I have to do as little as possible to get it up and running.

But for guitar gear that is basically "take it out of the box" stuff? Unboxing is nonsense. It gets worse when it's something like "got a new mystery amp/guitar!" clickbait.
 
For myself, I tend to mainly watch no-talking demos. Primarily because I just don't want to listen to some guitar nerd wax lyrical, I want to hear the stuff. But every now and then I have a weak moment and watch TPS, coz I'm a fucking neo-boomer it seems.
 
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After reading this and some similar discussions around various places, I'm thinking we need to set up a channel to review the reviewers/demos.

Every time there's a big product launch and World+Dog cover a product, we watch them all and then produce a 15 minute overview of what everyone's saying, who's full of shit, who's clear just in it for the money, and who might add value. All carefully worded to avoid getting bummed by lawyers, obviously. Unless that's your thing, but you'd have to arrange it on your own time.

Then we set up a second channel under a different name, and react to our reviews of the reviewers.

Rinse and repeat until the machine eats itself.
 
Snags said:
After reading this and some similar discussions around various places, I'm thinking we need to set up a channel to review the reviewers/demos.

Every time there's a big product launch and World+Dog cover a product, we watch them all and then produce a 15 minute overview of what everyone's saying, who's full of shit, who's clear just in it for the money, and who might add value. All carefully worded to avoid getting bummed by lawyers, obviously. Unless that's your thing, but you'd have to arrange it on your own time.

Then we set up a second channel under a different name, and react to our reviews of the reviewers.

Rinse and repeat until the machine eats itself.
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That’s actually not a bad channel idea.
 
Yeah, I wasn't entirely taking the piss. Not sure I have the chops to pull it off though. More than happy to take royalties :beer
 
Ah too bad, somebody just posted this and deleted it but I wanted to comment:

The problem with GearTube is when professional GearTubers start making “content” about being GearTubers. Nobody gives a fuck.

If nobody cares, why are so many people watching those videos? I'm not talking about my own channel now but there are quite a few channels out there that do many videos where they just talk about random gear (or YouTuber) topics and they get a LOT of views. I guess a lot of people just enjoy talking and discussing gear and stuff after all, just like on this forum... ;)
 
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I also want to echo what some have said regarding this topic: of course you should always try to form your own opinion based on the things you see, hear and read! As I say in the video it's always good to check out multiple reviewers to get different perspectives either in terms of tones or their opinions. I do the same thing!
 
GuitarJon said:
Ah too bad, somebody just posted this and deleted it but I wanted to comment:

The problem with GearTube is when professional GearTubers start making “content” about being GearTubers. Nobody gives a fuck.

If nobody cares, why are so many people watching those videos? I'm not talking about my own channel now but there are quite a few channels out there that do many videos where they just talk about random gear (or YouTuber) topics and they get a LOT of views. I guess a lot of people just enjoy talking and discussing gear and stuff after all, just like on this forum... ;)
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You may not be able to see the reason the comment was deleted, but just so ya know, the poster deleted it because they felt it was directed at you and that wasn’t their intent. ;)
 
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