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Dave Burrluck, Guitarist magazine’s renowned Gear Editor and our colleague and friend, passed away last week following a short illness. Dave was known throughout the industry as a game-changing journalist who set the standard for in-depth gear reviews.
Dave’s knowledge and approach to reviewing – acquired over four decades of experience writing and reviewing instruments, gigging, attending trade shows, and visiting factories – was, frankly, unrivaled, and we will sorely miss his friendship and insight.
He began reviewing music-making gear in the 1980s for International Musician and Recording World, before launching The Guitar Magazine in 1991. He joined Guitar World’s UK sister publication Guitarist around the turn of the millennium as Reviews Editor and held the position throughout a period of massive upheaval in both publishing, and music-making and gear design.
He fiercely championed quality builds wherever he saw them, and consistently offered a rare platform for small and innovative guitar builders, particularly those in the UK.
Here, Guitarist editor Jamie Dickson, his closest colleague, explains just what made Dave such a force for good in his role and the wider industry.
“Dave had something so many guitar reviewers lack – a rigorous, luthier's eye for the measurable, verifiable qualities of an instrument. He kept a cool head about the hype that surrounds so many guitar launches, reserving judgment until he'd had the instrument on his workbench, calipers and gauges ready to hand.
“A thorough workshop survey of each guitar he reviewed was typically followed by using it at gigs, too. Dave judged guitars based on how successful they were as tools for working musicians, and he remained a busy, gigging musician right up to the end of his life, so he knew what he was talking about in this area as well.
Dave was a walking library of guitar industry contacts and backstories
“He wasn't unmoved by perfectly inlaid abalone or a beautifully figured maple top – but he was just as fulsome in his praise for a £400 guitar that was perfectly executed for the price as he was for a £4,000 boutique dream machine – yet he also understood the difference between those two guitars and what buyers should expect of them, too.
“Dave was a walking library of guitar industry contacts and backstories, and he usually knew all of the prior variants of any given mainstream guitar by heart. Guitar makers respected and appreciated the experience, knowledge and objectivity he brought to his reviews – for they knew that when Dave found fault with a guitar, he wasn’t being partisan or blinkered by his own personal tastes. He was simply reporting what he found, giving verifiable evidence for his judgment.
“He knew when a guitar looked and sounded cool – but that wouldn't be enough to get it off the hook if it didn't stay in tune or the fit and finish was sloppy. The reverse of that coin was that when Dave saw fit to grant a Gold Award to a guitar, makers knew they’d really nailed it. Such was the respect commanded by Dave’s reviews that a good one could put a fledgling guitar company on the map – for he opened doors just as often as he guarded gates.
Sometimes gruff but always genuine, he was a one-off – a custom build, one might say, from an inspired but idiosyncratic maker
“As a friend and a man he was just as reliable as his reviews. If you had trouble in your life, Dave had warm but practical words of advice and support to offer. They really helped because you knew what he was saying was genuine.
“For every feather he ruffled with his frankness, there was a person who felt steadied and reassured about a tough situation – in the guitar industry or in private life – because Dave had been kind enough to support them.
“He was good fun, too – after a grueling trawl round the expanse of the NAMM show halls, you always learned something you didn’t know about how the guitar industry really functioned when you sat down to chat with Dave over a meal or a pint.
“Sometimes gruff but always genuine, he was a one-off – a custom build, one might say, from an inspired but idiosyncratic maker. So many people benefited from his knowledge, and the warmth and affection he was held in can, sadly, be read in the dozens upon dozens of big names who have paid tribute to him since his passing – nor were their comments merely standard condolences.
“One commented that his death was “a gut punch” and it's hard to disagree. Like Keith Richards, whom Dave admired, we always thought he’d go on forever – an institution of the guitar scene in his way but mainly a much-loved, trusted friend and mentor to maker and reader alike.”
