Guitarists / bassists - I need your opinion

[death metal dan]

Ok, I've been running with the idea for a little while to start up a website for metal guitarists, by metal guitarists. I know there are similar sites out there, but for this one, I was thinking of having some features like:

• Messageboards (obviously)
• Tons of tab, submitted by visitors
• Lessons submitted by users
• Interviews w/ metal guitarists they're asked questions specifically about the guitar, including equipment, sound, technique, etc.
• Lessons submitted by guitarists in bigger metal bands, as well as tabs of some of their songs so they're 100% correct.
• Giveaways, etc.

I'm sure there'd be more too, but this is my initial idea. I have a lot of contacts because I've spent the past 4 years running a somewhat successful online metal zine.

My question is... before I go through will building the entire website, would you guys use something like this? And what features would you want to see on it? Anything that youd like to see that you can't find on another website?

Please post your opinions as well as any suggestions you have. Also, if you'd be interested in helping build this thing, email me. Thanks.

Regards
Dan
www.into-obscurity.com

 

[Silverhaze]

Sounds cool to me! I don't really know of a great guitarist site, I usually come here if I have questions.

I'd be interested in a lot of technical guitar info too. Stuff like setting intonation correctly (tuned to the "pluck" vs tuned to the decay), fretboard care, finish repair, coil splitting and pick up replacement, truss rod adjustments, eliminating feedback, using effects loops...all that kind of stuff. Maybe a new topic a month or something. Even an article on something simplistic would probably help somebody out there.

If you build it.....they will come....

 

[Pallas Athenea]

ok I like that!! COOL IDEA!!
I do visit that kind of sites very often. They also have info about how to repair your guitar, and reviews or Q&A of new guitar/bass gear.
Well, i`m totally in!!! I`ll send you a PM later!!

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Yeah it's a great idea, but I think there should be some other features. Like forums for metal vocalists, keyboard players and so on. I'm available to help as a moderator in the forums (i'm Darkane's forum moderator if that's any help)

 

[death metal dan]

The only thing I'm worried about is that the guitarists of metal bands wouldn't want to contribute to the site because it takes a lot of time to tab stuff out. But who knows. I was thinking of trading ad space for their new albums or whatever in return for them contributing.

I'd like to open it up to other instruments, but I wouldn't want the site to get extremely large. Plus, drummers are weird people. They can make their own site if they want to haha.

Dan

 

[The Yngster]

Yeah I could definitely use a site like that. With exercises and how to do stuff, and tabs and forum. Do that.

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

The only thing I'm worried about is that the guitarists of metal bands wouldn't want to contribute to the site because it takes a lot of time to tab stuff out. But who knows. I was thinking of trading ad space for their new albums or whatever in return for them contributing.

I'd like to open it up to other instruments, but I wouldn't want the site to get extremely large. Plus, drummers are weird people. They can make their own site if they want to haha.

Dan

I see. Getting guitarrists from known bands is a good idea, but you also should consider tabs from other guitarrists or make a compilation of tabs from other sites and add them to your site.

 

[Sonnenritter]

I'd use it, so I think it is a good idea. Go for it.

 

[death metal dan]

I see. Getting guitarrists from known bands is a good idea, but you also should consider tabs from other guitarrists or make a compilation of tabs from other sites and add them to your site. If you think i'm of any help, send me a message.

Oh yea. Of course. Anyone will be able to submit tabs. I just think sometimes it would be cool to have like a featured tab that was actually done by the band's guitar himself.

Dan

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

Cool, btw I sent you another e-mail.

 

[chaoticmanifesto]

and post clips of fellow normal guitarists playing and have various people comment on them! that'd be awesome!

 

[Sonnenritter]

This page would suck down bandwidth if all the suggestions were included, but I think it would be the best page out there for guitar. For a suggestion, I remember seeing a "war of guitars" or something where two people would play against each other and the listeners would vote who they liked best. That would be interesting as well.

 

[Valdemius]

A well-moderated tab-site and good lessons would be very welcome, can't seem to find a decent site anywhere... I'm pretty shure that once the site got running users and contributers would come along. The idea for trading ad-space for tabs or lessons is an excellent one.

 

[Break Zero]

I'd definatly use this... especially if you explained some of the guitar terminaology, and also, information and lessons and all that for 7 stringers...

 

[death metal dan]

and post clips of fellow normal guitarists playing and have various people comment on them! that'd be awesome!

Yea, there's a site called guitarwar.com or something similar where players can go against each other head to head. I always liked that idea, except you have to pay to compete on the website, so I never bothered (plus, I'd probably lose often and that would kill my ego haha). I think that'd be a fun thing to do.

Whoever mentioned it... you're right, the website would use a ton of disk space and a lot of bandwidth, but with enough attention surrounding it, there'd be paid advertisers (hopefully?) who would cushion some of the costs. I wouldn't want to charge members to use the site, but if it got costly, I don't think I could afford it out of my own pocket. I'm a poor college student.

Also, I think the best idea would be to start small with some of the core features, and slowly, as more people join start adding some of the features. That way, I could delay the costs of the additional server space I'd need until the bigger sections would actually be getting used. I mean, there's no need for a guitar war type page when there are only 10 members on the site, you know? You'd have to compete against the same 3 people over and over.

All in all... I think this could start small and get rather large. But it sounds like there's interest and I think I'm going to go ahead and start building it. Continue with suggestions and whatnot and I'll let you know how progress is going, and of course, if and when the site ever sees the light of day, you will all know. Thanks for the input thus far.

Dan

 

[death metal dan]

One last question... does anyone have skills with designing webpages? I'm great at programming them (using databases, etc.) but I'm no good at making my websites appearance look good. I don't know a thing about Photoshop. If someone would be interested in helping out with creating a nice design for the site, that would be great. Email me. I can't pay you, but you'll get credit for the design.

Dan

 

[union9]

Sounds kool. I'd suss it out for sure when it's up and running.

 

[Opus(sy)2]

This sounds like a good idea, i would probably check it out once in a while, im sure there are many other sites which have probably done this already, so make sure your site is different from the rest. Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

[Ultimate_Symphony]

One last question... does anyone have skills with designing webpages? I'm great at programming them (using databases, etc.) but I'm no good at making my websites appearance look good. I don't know a thing about Photoshop. If someone would be interested in helping out with creating a nice design for the site, that would be great. Email me. I can't pay you, but you'll get credit for the design.

Dan

Reno, webmaster of Hmas.org is good at this. Send him an e-mail and he might be able to help you.

 

[Floyd]

great idea i'd say
a litle idea: would be cool to have all different typs of tabs (guitar pro, powertab, text).
most sites specialize on only one kind.............