Wow 2012 really has been the year of the online guitar magazine with some already great mags launched this year including Guitar Connoisseur and Gearphoria and now we have another amazing online magazine to add to our virtual reading pile called Pure Guitar. Now I don’t want to take anything away from the other online magazines but Pure Guitar is a little bit special because it has been setup by the legendary Jas Obrecht and Tom Wheeler.
Jas Obrecht become an editor for Guitar Player magazine in 1978 and his first major interview was with a young Edward Van Halen, also doing his first interview. Jas spent 20 years at the Guitar Player Magazine and authored books ‘Rollin’ & Tumblin’: The Postwar Blues Guitarists’ and ‘My Son Jimi’, co-authored with James “Al” Hendrix.
Tom Wheeler was Editor in Chief of Guitar Player and the founding Editorial Director of Bass Player until 1991. Tom has published a number of books including ‘The Soul Of Tone: Celebrating 60 years of Fender Amps’ which I reviewed back in 2009, other books include ‘The Stratocaster Chronicles’ and ‘The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop’.
Other contributors include Tom Mulhern, Jon Sievert, and Joe Gore who were all staff editors during the so-called the “golden era” of Guitar Player so expect great things from this website, the first issue is already leading the charge with some great content including an interview (audio and transcribed) with Jason Becker from 1990 just after finishing recording “A Little Ain’t Enough” for David Lee Roth and being diagnosed with ALS, it is so fantastic that Jas has made this recording publicly available finally. There is also an 1 hour interview with Eric Johnson, Gear articles, Lessons and album reviews.
