Making a parts and hardware review section

[Eric Schmitt]

As usual, searching the internet for reviews and in general for that matter gives all kind of info but 90% of the time it's nothing useful. A great example of this that I'm running across is trying to find reviews of pickups. I used to use the harmony central reviews of pickups for this but they've been long since taken down. Now I can't find anything decent for reviews. I was looking for some info on a set of Ibanez stock pickups, just the basics build quality, output, a brief explanation of how they sound... All I come across is worthless comments of "stock pickups are always crap get duncan's/dimarzio's, or youtube videos of people running stuff though a bunch of effects. Anyway I was thinking The MIMF forums would be a great place to come to get reviews of parts, hardware, and electronics/pickups from builders that would actually be informative. Anyone else with me on thinking creating a reviews section of the forum would be a good idea? And would any of the moderators be willing to set it up?

[Charlie Schultz]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for the suggestion. If enough of the members are interested it such a section, we can add it. My fear is that the opinions could be highly subjective, though we might be able to come up with some kind of "report card" format to mitigate that.

Other opinions folks?

[Eric Schmitt]

Reviews/opinions are going to be a bit subjective by nature, that's not a problem as long as you give a reasoning behind it. The ones that get me are when people say 'it's a piece of junk' with no reason why. Is it junk because you don't like it or did it fall apart in your hands? I'm pretty sure the members here would give good informative reviews even without some kind of format. That said I think there would still need to be some sort of structure for organizations sake. I think there'd need to be a couple of sections under reviews like hardware, electronics, tools/supplies, etc. to keep everything a bit organized.

I've bee giving the structure of an actual review some thought. I think something like this would work well to cover the basics and give a chance for opinions without getting too subjective:

Price/Purchased from: (Was it bought new or used. Did you buy it from a local or online retailer, auction site)

Background info: (how long have you had the item, how often do you use it)

Features: (basic description of the item - measurements, material it made from, is it adjustable, output for electronics etc.)

Quality/Durability: (is it well built, will it last for the long haul)

Sound Quality/description: (this section would probably only be needed for pickups. how does it sound, bright and clear, dark and muddy)

Overall Opinion: (overall impressions, how many starts would you give it, would you recommend the item)

[Jason Rodgers]

Over the 13 years that I've been on this forum, I've read more than my fair share of reviews of components (bridges, tuners, pickups, preamps, etc.) within the context and flow of various discussions. I'll agree that it would be nice to have that information in a dedicated and organized forum section. There are more than a few folks around here whom I'd trust completely to give their opinion. This is a good idea, and though I can't comment from an administrative perspective, it shows good growth and flexibility of the Forum.

[John Sonksen]

I would love it if this was added, and I'm not too worried about things being too subjective, that's pretty much standard with any review you read on the interwebs. There are good reviews and bad reviews so it can be up to the reader to weed through the stuff, but even with that said I'd expect most things that would be reviewed by the people on here would be better than average as far as useful information.

[Charlie Schultz]

I've set this up (just below the library) and let's see how it goes. I've adopted Eric's suggestions as the template (thanks Eric).

[Adam Savage]

I think this will be a valuable addition to the forum. The community who post on here seem to do so with complete honesty, and whilst there may, at times, be disagreements, I would trust anyone's opinion. There are no other forums I am part of that I could say such things about.
Reviews, as stated, are always subjective, but subjectivity doesnt remove worth.

Just my tuppenceworth of ramblings,
Adam

[Eric Schmitt]

It's cool to see we're testing out a reviews section. Since no one's posted there yet I figured I'd kick it off with a quick review of a active distortion circuit I picked up a while ago.