We really don't want to get to a "forum X stinks" kind of place. They work for the people that hang there, or they wouldn't hang there, right?
I was at one forum recently that I thought was very cool, talkbass.com. It is absolutely gigantic. It may be the biggest forum I've ever seen for music. If you go away for a few hours and come back you'll see something like "1487 new posts since last visit". Crazy volume there and huge amount of members, but it's about an instrument not a brand. If any of you play the bass it's very good resource and worth checking out. I did a lot of research there and it was instrumental (pun intended) in pointing me to my
Ernie Ball Bongo bass.
jim