Far too many bullshit incidences of those who are doing what they're supposed to be doing on a guitar gear forum getting team-trolled by a core group of talent-less hacks. Too many limp-wristed soyboys crying and sobbing.
For example, you can't even talk about the recent tube shortage without getting trolled.
And don't dare talk about the #1 tone that everyone and their grandma has been chasing for decades: EVH tone. You will get trolled.
One extremely disturbed hack (Securb) procured SDUGF members for his own forum (mostly dead but now defunct or hidden).
...and not surprisingly, said core group of talentl-ess hacks were long-standing members of Securb's (mostly dead but now defunct or hidden) forum.
Said core group of talent-less hacks, unsurprisingly, use Seymour's forum for their own personal social space and ego-massaging petri dish; they would much prefer to talk about pizza and sports than pickups and gear. And when they do talk about pickups and gear, they present themselves as the ultimate fonts of knowledge and experience... but you can smell the bullshit a mile away.
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Back in the day, we had a good amount of members who were not only serious about playing guitar, but were good at it, too.
They've all left except a few... undoubtedly, those who left figured out that those pretending to be said ultimate fonts of knowledge and experience are simply hacks who think that playing in bars ( ) and scoring with soccer moms ( double ) is some kind of "big thing" achievement.
Anyone else can also discern this easily by listening to anything they've produced; keep in mind these are "members" who present themselves as the pinnacle:
Securb's limp-dick, shitty recording:
Aceman's hackjob soloing:
https://fb.watch/dJJx8zTrs5/
Aceman's pathetic attempt at Accept Balls To Wall tone (submitted in our clip-off):
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Compare and contrast that garbage with this former valuable SDUGF member's stuff (who left years ago):
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Mentally ill... persecution & inadequacy complexes. Known and proven alcoholism. Aceman (the highest post count member) got banned for four months for dumbfuck drunken shit-posting one evening. Somehow he's back in the good graces of the management. Post anything... anything that might trigger their delicate sensibilities (could be a statement, could even be a clip of yours), and the trolling starts.
Securb once stated to the forum that his "musical resume" dwarfs mine.
Les Strat always comes out of the woodwork now and then to "remind" me that "you're not the arbiter of good tone!".
beaubrummels once said to me in response to an Accept Balls To The Wall clip-off between myself and Acehole:
...as if I haven't done the same (spent the better part of half a century performing, recording and producing music).It’s your arrogance that you seem to think only you are the arbiter of how to make a sound, and dismiss and disrespect all the others on here who have spent the better part of half a century performing, recording and producing music.
It's been put forth that posting clips is somehow "narcississtic" by some virtue-signalling jackass hypocrite named JOLLY. Never mind the fact that he's posted his own clips before, and has a Soundclick account with tons of clips.
You can easily tell these twats suffer from psychological issues by their reactions. And you can also easily tell that they stroke each other's cocks to the point of borrowing phrases from each other. I've heard Securb, beaubrummels and LesStrat all use the term "arbiter" in reference to me, so you know they're all talking amongst themselves while patting each others taints.
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Here's a few direct quotes from members who have expressed their extreme distaste with these useless clowns and their poseur bullshit:
Yeah, it's kind of a shame. Just doesn't feel like a techie community as much anymore. More like a club. Hell, even the mods have started parroting the same old boring recycled opinions like "the JB is a one trick pony" and "the best way to play metal is with a boosted PAF". Give me a break. I came here for years for high-level discussion of tone with an eye towards challenging expectations, not for juvenile arguments and groupthink. Plenty of that elsewheres!
Also there's something to be said for chasing tone... and then once you FIND it, try USING it. Don't just keep buying pedals and pickups and daydreaming about guitars and gathering 10 people that will cheer you on as you have package after package shipped to your house in an attempt to fill some personal void. It's like watching alcoholics chug beers together. And it's extremely disappointing to see 5 pages of responses to a thread of "what color pedal should I buy?" when legitimate issues like ground loops or broken coil wire get completely ignored. Again, this is a change in the dynamic of the forum which is fine but doesn't get me excited to show up.
In the last 1-2 years SDUGF the feel has changed significantly from "let's help each other build a great signal chain" to "yeah that's cool I guess but also 10-20 of us are going to hang out all day online together, insult people we don't like, and/or argue with anyone that disagrees with us." Yeah it will always be a thing in forums, but I'm just over the BS of people arguing for arguing's sake.
So he left the thread but deleted my response. How dare we upset the man-children.
Meh. I only stop by the board once in a while now. There's not much point in shouting into the echo chamber here these days.
Yep, your assessment is spot on. It really does feel like it's just the rowdies left and it's a bunch of circle jerk topics. Some forums come to a point where their relevance and usefulness drop off. I think this one has definitely run its course.
=====And yeah, as an actively gigging musician playing in bands, I feel like an outlier around here.
To summarize:
A forum is only as good as its members. We've seen this time and time again.
Just yesterday, after a clip thread was deleted (thanks to the usual talent-less cockfags and their jealous shit-posting), I stated this:
Will we see an improvement in the quality of members?In the grand scheme of things, at some point the powers that be need to make a business decision whether to support those who actually love playing the guitar (target market)...
...and those who just want a free space on the internet to socialize (not target market in the least)...
...before this forum becomes a shell of itself.
It's been looking pretty grim the last few years.
Will we see an improvement in the posts as far as subject matter (gear, not pizza)?
Will we see new members join up who actually care about playing guitar and who want to talk shop?
Not as long as that core group of talent-less hacks resides and keeps spreading their cancer.
The Soymore Duncan User Group Forum.