Leave a Review Ultimate Guitar
12 Year Pro Member
I’ve been paying for pro for 12 years. It’s how I learned guitar, and the app is a staple item for every gig and every time I pick up my guitar. So many changes lately and the most recent one is a major flop for me. I edit tabs and save them as custom ones for myself frequently, and add them to a playlist. Inside that playlist, it used to let me edit the tab I have in that playlist (so long as it was a custom tab that I had already edited) and now that doesn’t work. I used to could add a tab to the playlist while I was looking at the list of songs in the playlist, now that doesn’t work. It shows the feature, lets me select the song, but the song isn’t added. It’s actually a hit or miss whether it is added at all. Biggest complaint is the transpositions do not stick. Every single time I open the same tab, it doesn’t save my transposition. Used to not be that way. I could put an edited custom tab in my playlist, transpose it to a chord set I wanted to play in, and go back to that tab in the playlist at a later date and all of my changes would still be there the way I had them set. Not anymore. I have to redo everything again. What’s the point of these features if they don’t function? My subscription just renewed at the beginning of September. If no fix by the end of the month, I’m out. I’ll figure something else out. Not paying this much per year for something that doesn’t work.Show lessThompyThomp10
Developer Response
Hello, ThompyThomp10! Sorry, it's a bug, we're already working on a solution, please keep the app updated.Necessary Evil
I’m a guitar teacher and subscribe to UG because the Official tabs are timesaving resources for my students. I’ve been using UG on and off throughout my 20-year guitar career to learn material for covers or teaching when necessary. Throughout that time and many iterations of the site and service, I’ve always been surprised by the hostility UG shows toward its users with its experience and interface design. From mobile web views that don’t function without a native app, to an unskippable, 20-question onboarding survey at first launch that is a glorified sales pitch, the experience of using UG almost always makes me feel outright hostility from the people behind it. I’m always relieved to quit the app or close the website as soon as I have the tab I need. I’m a web native and a highly technical user; it’s not like I’m confused by how to navigate apps and websites. I understand and respect the need for a subscription model and sales funnel, and I know paywalls play a role in that. But UG’s isn’t always clear to navigate, and sometimes the tab displays are close to unusable even when I’m logged in to my subscribed account. UG could be truly great if the company behind it tore it down to the essentials and did some research on their market and UX in general. You can be profitable without making your platform practically unusable.Show lessColin Morris
Developer Response
Hello, Colin Morris! We are sorry that the survey was annoying for you. Thank you for sharing - we value your suggestion and will try our best to improve ourselves!Mixed feelings
I was very excited at first when I downloaded the app. There were no ads and it was free to use to look up how to play a song on guitar. Due to the type of music I listen to that isn’t extremely famous, this app was the only way I could learn how to play songs. But now with the recent update forcing me to pay to learn some of the songs, I am unable to learn many of the songs I love and want to learn.
I do not mind ads, bc I understand they need to make a profit and afford all the amazing features this app offers, but I feel charging a monthly fee of $10 or annual fee of $40 is a bit too much. I fully agree with the idea that a business should be able to make money off of their product, but I think making the part of the app that has caused thousands of people to download the app is to be able to learn a song they want/need to learn quickly and easily, which this app has always provided until recently, when it now forces them to pay for this ability.
When I first started playing guitar, this was the first app I downloaded, and I have stuck with it for years. I am a self taught intermediate level guitar player, and this app is the main reason I am where I am today. I am really grateful for what the app has done in the past, but I am sad about where it is now, forcing me to pay to learn songs. I sincerely hope things improve, because there has never been a better app for beginner guitar players than this app.Show lessAllTheUsernamesWereTakenSMH
Developer Response
Hello! We know these can be extremely annoying, and we hate it as well. Unfortunately, we cannot make the app completely free. It takes a lot of people & their hard work to keep developing UG. Even without a purchase or a trial, you can use over 1.4+ million tabs and chords. You just need to look for CRD, TAB, BASS, UKE and DRUM tabs, they are free. To access interactive tabs and some of the tools you need a pro membership