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Suede·Social·Issue No. 20
The Fluff Index·2026 · JUL

The Fluff Index

Who inflates guitar gear reviews.

We take reviews from the glossies: Premier Guitar, Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar. We pull the receipts from people who paid full price, run both side by side, and score the gap. No ads. No affiliate links. No shills.

This is our read, post by post. Every verdict below links to the post that made it, and every post links the press review and the owner receipts it was scored against. The table grows every week we publish.

Open the column Read the doctrine essay

The offenders’ table.

16 posts checked across 5 publications: 1 fluffed, 8 split, 7 where the press called it right. Small sample, every receipt linked below.

MusicRadar

4 posts checked

Fluffed
1
Split
2
Press was right
1
Fluff rate
25%

Guitar Player

3 posts checked

Fluffed
0
Split
2
Press was right
1
Fluff rate
0%

Guitar World

3 posts checked

Fluffed
0
Split
2
Press was right
1
Fluff rate
0%

Premier Guitar

5 posts checked

Fluffed
0
Split
1
Press was right
4
Fluff rate
0%

Guitarist

1 post checked

Fluffed
0
Split
1
Press was right
0

Brand watch.

The same posts, grouped by the brand under review. Same rule: a brand only shows up here because one of its products got a press review we checked against owner receipts.

Our brand deep-dives

Methodology.

Fluffed:
the press score reads better than what the owners who paid full price actually report.
Split:
the press has a real point, the owners have a real complaint, and neither cancels the other out.
Press was right:
the owner receipts back up the review. We say so, in public, same as we call the fluff.
  • Every verdict on this page links to the post that made it.
  • Every post links the press source and the owner receipts we fetched.
  • No ad money changes a verdict, because none exists here.
  • No affiliate links. We make nothing when you buy the gear.
  • When the press is right, we say so, out loud, same as when it isn’t.
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