I want to give my boyfriend a magazine subscription for his birthday. From what I can tell, there are three guitar magazines out there: Guitar One, Guitar Player, and Acoustic Guitar. I, of course, know next to nothing about guitars. Can anybody give me a quick compare and contrast so I know which one to pick? He just plays guitar as a hobby, but has been playing for years and is pretty good.
Guitar Player is probably the largest and most well regarded guitar magazine. You can’t go wrong with it, because they’ll cover both acoustic and electric, along with theory, gear reviews, you name it. Guitar One, if I recall, focuses on tablature of popular songs and instructions on how to play them. Acoustic Guitar focuses, of course, on acoustic guitars.
Gotta go with Sam Stone on this. Guitar Player is very eclectic and has, I think, the most in-depth and thoughtful coverage of musicians and gear.
On the other hand, if your boyfriend is mostly interested in metallish music and/or classic rock, he might like Guitar One better. Plus, they have more complete transcriptions, and Steve Morse has a great regular column there that I find consistently inspiring.
Still, I prefer Guitar Player. Then again, I’m a keyboardist by profession, so what do I know? 
Guitar Player is a more serious magazine but it’s not much on tab. It tends to have a lot of exercise and gear head stuff but all of the guitar players I’ve ever jammed with (including me) prefer the more tab heavy stuff.
For a casual player I would suggest either Guitar One (if he plays electric) or Accoustic Guitar (if he plays accoustic. They both contain a lot of song transcriptions, bite sized interviews and easy lessons. The song tabs are what really sell these magazines, though.
Thanks for the responses everyone. I’m thinking I’m probably going to go with Guitar One for the tabs…
But is Guitar One only for electric? He plays both…
And also, he plays mostly classic rock with some contemporary stuff, but no metal or anything too heavy. Still a good choice?
I like Guitar One the best. There are alot more lessons and tabs in that mag than the others.
On a side note, I don’t think ANY of the guitar mags are worth a shit for gear reviews. They must all get paid off by the manufacturers or something because none of them EVER say ANYTHING negative about ANY gear. All the gear they review is somehow “great”.
Also, after a while, all the mags tend to repeat the same tired tabs over and over. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen One or Paradise City tabbed out in Guitar One.
Well, the Cadillac of Guitar Mags (imho) is Total Guitar out of the UK. It’s definitely on the pricier side ($165.73 for a year), but it’s a very complete magazine. It comes with a CD that helps with the transcriptions and lessons too.
I’ve just got done with a subscription to Acoustic Guitar and haven’t been too impressed. It’s fine if you want to know the details of luthiers but the artists covered for the most part haven’t held my interests. (although I just noticed that Amazon.com is offering a subscription for $7 cheaper than what they’ve been offering me to renew).
Guitar One is generally remedial but chock full o’ tabs. Nothing to sneeze at if that’s what he’s looking for.
Guitar One tends to mix it up with a blend of classic rock tabs as well as current chart hits, some old school punk, metal, and even the occasional classical or jazz tune. They generally have an accoustic song or two but mostly its electric. It’s probably the best bet for a casual player who just wants to learn songs.
There’s also a magazine called Guitar World which is similar to Gutar One but I dont think the tabs are quite as good.