{"id":123,"date":"2026-09-16T12:13:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/how-we-review\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T12:13:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:13:45","slug":"how-we-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/how-we-review\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Review Gear (and Why We Don\u2019t Score It)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many Riffbound articles are called &#8220;owner reviews&#8221;. This page explains where those reviews come from, what we do and do not do, and how the site makes money. The short version: <strong>we invent nothing, we receive no free gear, and affiliate links never change our conclusions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What an &#8220;owner review&#8221; is on Riffbound<\/h2>\n<p>We are not a test lab. A site run by an amateur guitarist cannot buy and measure every guitar and amp on the market, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Our review articles are <strong>syntheses of real-world feedback<\/strong>: what hundreds of owners and teachers write about a model, a brand or a type of gear once the novelty has worn off.<\/p>\n<p>For each topic I read the threads and user reviews on the communities below, then note what comes up again and again: the strengths people mention unprompted, the complaints that appear after months of use, reported faults, and the advice experienced players give to beginners.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Guitar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">r\/Guitar<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ultimate-guitar.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ultimate Guitar<\/a>: huge volume of owner feedback.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegearpage.net\/board\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Gear Page<\/a>: in-depth gear discussion; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.talkbass.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TalkBass<\/a> for bass.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fr.audiofanzine.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Audiofanzine<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guitariste.com\/forums\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guitariste.com<\/a>: the French-speaking communities behind our French edition.<\/li>\n<li>Manufacturers&#8217; official spec sheets, to check pickups, scale length and electronics before we quote them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What we refuse to do<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No fake testimonials.<\/strong> You will never read &#8220;Mike, 34, says\u2026&#8221;. We summarise trends; we do not quote people we have not interviewed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No invented specs or prices.<\/strong> Prices are wide ranges observed at the time of writing, always to be checked with the retailer. If we are not sure about a spec, we leave it out.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No numeric scores.<\/strong> An &#8220;8.7\/10&#8221; would suggest a precision this kind of synthesis cannot offer. We prefer a three-line verdict: who it is for, who it is not for, and the alternative worth a look.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Who writes, and with what experience<\/h2>\n<p>Articles are written by Teddy Aribo, a guitarist since childhood, trained at the Stains municipal conservatoire (near Paris), who plays electric and acoustic guitar, piano, and sings. Teddy is not a music professional and does not claim to be: he is a committed amateur who has been through the starts, pauses and restarts most guitarists know. That experience sets the angle of the site: what actually matters when you start or buy your first serious gear, without jargon.<\/p>\n<h2>How the site makes money<\/h2>\n<p>Riffbound is free. It is funded by <strong>affiliate links<\/strong>: when you click &#8220;See on Thomann&#8221; and buy something, the retailer pays us a small commission, <strong>at no extra cost to you<\/strong>. Those links are marked as sponsored and do not influence the content: a verdict is written before links are added, and a model owners advise against stays advised against even if our partners sell it. We receive no free gear, no payment from brands, and no brand reads our articles before publication.<\/p>\n<h2>Updates and corrections<\/h2>\n<p>Gear changes: models get replaced, prices move, early faults get fixed. We update articles when the feedback shifts noticeably, and the last-modified date is shown on every page. If you spot an error or a dead link, write to contact@riffbound.com. Factual corrections come first.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top:24px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/electric-guitars-guide\/\"><strong>Electric guitars: the complete guide &rarr;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many Riffbound articles are called &#8220;owner reviews&#8221;. This page explains where those reviews come from, what we do and do not do, and how the site makes money. The short version: we invent nothing, we receive no free gear, and affiliate links never change our conclusions. What an &#8220;owner review&#8221; is on Riffbound We are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-123","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhuffguitars.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}