Is ultimate-guitar.com - worth a visit? (ultimate-guitar.com)

Member Name: Caveat-Emptor

Product:	ultimate-guitar.com
Date:	23/06/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of guitar centred info, searchable tablature database

Disadvantages: Intrusive adverts, innacurate tabs

A Guide To ultimate-guitar.com - by an experienced guitarist.

As you'd expect ultimate-guitar.com is a website based around the guitar -from a guitar players point of view.

Included on the site are regular columns, a community section so like minded guitarists can join in and swap ideas and opinions, music reviews (based squarely around the 'axe' of course -lol!!), as well as music news and exclusive interviews...

Those are all worthy features, but that's not why most guitarists visit the site (at least initially). No, ultimate-guitar.com's popularity is based around its (searchable) database of guitar tabs.

(Tabs; short for taablature -a popular way of writing out guitar parts, so they can be quickly understood by players who don't necessarily read musical notation).

You'll find tabs for most of the classic guitar riffs, solos and songs here - and it's a great resource; do be aware though that for copyright reasons the tabs must be the work of individual members/enthusiasts posting what they believe to be the correct tablature to well known songs.

So even though the folks who post tabs do their best; you can't rely on the tabs being totally accurate -as the standard of musicianship among the 'posters' varies considerably.

(Generally only a keen amateur guitarist will take the time to write out tabs and post them, because pro guitarists -who could write the tabs out with unnerving accuracy, are invariably too busy with their own careers to spend time posting).

That's not to say that it isn't a good website -it is (though the adverts can be a little intrusive) and kudos to the guitarists who take the time to write out tabs and share them -just remember to use the tabs as a general guide, and not take them as Gospel; cuz their often far from perfect (and occasionally wildly out).

Hope you found my review of some help, and good luck with your bargain hunting!!

Best wishes,
Brett

Summary: Worth a visit -but if you will need more than the tabs on offer here to play songs perfectly