User Reviews (1 - 11 of 11)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Don't Buy Yet!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I owned an original wired Fender Rock Band Guitar. That one works awesome, and I consider it superior to the Gibson Guitar Hero III guitar. However, I just got my wireless guitar, and the tilt sensor does not work. I went to the support website and forums. Apparently many of the first batch of wireless guitars have this problem. Although this is covered under warranty, I will be without the guitar for approximately 21 days while they ship me a box, in which I will ship my broken guitar back to EA. They will then ship a replacement wireless guitar. I would urge caution when buying because of this. Hopefully, EA and Harmonix will rectify this problem and future production batches will have better quality.

My favorite Guitar

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me first off say that I bought this wireless Strat because I was hoping that it would work with Rock Band and Guitar Hero. It does not work with Guitar Hero. That being said the guitar seems to be a little more solid than the one that came with the game. A lot of people seem to like the Guitar Hero Les Paul better. However, I really play guitar, and I can honestly say that this one feels more like the real thing. The buttons allow sliding chords, the buttons feel more like frets than buttons, and overall it seems more second nature when playing.

Ultimately, this is a purchase for those who need freedom from the usb hub and 10 foot cable. As for Guitar Hero, well their taking sides has forced me as a consumer to choose sides. I am sticking with Rock Band.

Above average, but no Guitar Hero Controller

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 27
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

When Harmonix teamed up with RedOctane to create the Guitar Hero franchise, magic happened. They were a perfect marriage, bringing together Harmonix's musical sensibilities with RedOctane's expert designs for guitars. Since that first game, the guitars have become better and better. Then, Harmonix and RedOctane split and began working on two different franchises.

Why the history lesson? Because RedOctane was the instrument-creator of the two companies. Having played both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band and owning both guitars, my honest opinion is that while Rock Band wins in terms of fun and group play, RedOctane still creates the best guitars of the two.

There's some nice functionality with the Rock Band guitar; the layout of the fret buttons are very nice and once you get used to them feel more natural than the more button-feeling GH guitars. The spacing is also pretty nice. For the most part, the five fret buttons towards the base of the guitar are useless. The only time they'll come into play is at the end of certain songs, when you burst out into a final jam session before ending the song. Other than that, they just sit there. Untouched.

I also appreciate the longer and nicer whammy bar, not to mention the fact that the guitar is a bit bigger and feels more like a real guitar than a toy. The modulator switch is a nice addition, I suppose. However, I hardly ever touch it. Two areas are where the Rock Band guitar doesn't quite live up to the GH guitar.

The first is the strummer and is merely a matter of opinion. It is completely silent, which might sound like a good thing but when you're strumming up and down it's hard to tell if your screwups are due to the guitar or your playing. The fret buttons, instead, clack louder. So instead of clacking in time with the song, you sometimes clack prior to the beat. That might not make much sense, but for a rhythm game it tends to throw me off.

Compounding the first problem I have is the fact that I don't trust the guitar registering my strums. I had to return the first guitar I received because it was definitely registering double strums instead of single ones. However, even with the new guitar, I'm not 100% convinced it registers accurately.

I took it on a test drive, playing Rock Band songs on my GH3 guitar and the Rock Band guitar and found that on the same song/same difficulty I was consistently getting better scores with the GH3 guitar over the Rock Band guitar.

While most of the things I've discussed runs the gamut of personal opinions and preferences, the last issue is one that I'm still on the fence about. It'd be one thing to justify it's in my mind and quite another to test it and find that maybe it's not simply in my mind. It's still a very good guitar and Rock Band is my favorite game of the two; however, I do wish the guitar rocked just as well as the RedOctane-developed one.

One final note: as of this writing, the Guitar Hero series will not recognize the Rock Band guitar. The Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will recognize GH's guitar, obviously, but not vice versa.

Great...so far.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Rock Band wireless guitar is an excellent peripheral, and one that I can heartily recommend.

Is the Rock Band guitar different from the more familiar Guitar Hero III peripheral? Absolutely. But those differences, for the most part, are improvements rather than deficiencies.

On a purely aesthetic level, the Rock Band guitar looks far more realistic than the toy-like GH guitar. At a quick glance, you could easily mistake the RB guitar for a real electric guitar. While this doesn't add much to actual gameplay, it certainly adds a bit more authenticity to the "rock experience". Having said that, the GH guitar does feel quit a bit more sturdy -- but I haven't had any issues with either product.

The strummer on the RB guitar is definitely its weak point, feeling a bit floaty and imprecise compared to the more rigid and clicky strummer on the GH guitar. Missing from the RB guitar is the physical feedback found on the GH guitar (the little clicks you can feel reverberate up through your fingers each time you strum). It's a small feature, but one that I definitely miss when using the RB peripheral. While actually playing though, I found that I could complete rapid sections just as accurately with either guitar. Some people have also claimed that they like the audible clicking noise that the GH guitar produces. I wouldn't know. These games deserve to be played loud. And I do just that. I certainly don't need to hear my device clicking in order to enjoy or excel at the game.

Now, where the RB guitar really differentiates itself is with the addition of the solo buttons. These buttons allow you to hit notes in any solo section of a song (denoted by a blue-background) without needing to use the strummer. This is great for "Hard" and "Expert" level songs where solos can get extremely challenging. Plus: when you move your hands up to the solo buttons, you'll feel more like a lead guitarist (and less like a backup musician strumming away unnoticed in the shadows).

The FX-switch is also a nice addition to the RB peripheral. It lets you alter the sound of your guitar by adding signal-processing (wah-wah, chorus, etc). I have to be honest though, after one or two tries with each different effect, I put the switch back to "No Effect" and haven't touched it since.

At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with either peripheral.

Highly recommended.

No more wires - I'm a free man!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The wireless Fender is a must-buy for anyone who is really into Rock Band - especially if you play with a quartet and like to jam out with them. Personally when I'm playing I don't like to be close to the TV; I prefer to stand back about 10 feet. If you're playing with a group you don't want to be all jammed in close together. With wires involved, "spreading out" is not really an option. I don't know how many times I yanked the cord out of the USB hub when I flung the guitar up to go into "Overdrive."

Sure, the wireless guitar is overpriced, but you will no doubt get your money's worth if you play a lot and have downloaded more awesome songs from the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's also nice to have a spare guitar so your buddy doesn't have to bring his over whenever you want to get together and play.

I suppose the only downside is that you don't plug the guitar in anywhere to charge it. It comes with three AA batteries which go into the back of the Fender, in a compartment that you need a little screwdriver to open whenever you replace the batteries. Since I've only had the guitar 2 days I don't really know the extent of the battery life, but I'm sure that since I've been playing nonstop they're not really going to get a lot of mileage.

Even so, I don't care as long as I can jam out without a short wire connecting me to the Xbox. I literally felt so unleashed with my new Fender that I leaped onto the couch and hammered on while Boston's "More Than A Feeling" played at full bore. Of course, at about that time my wife (a.k.a. drummer) came into the room and began laughing hysterically at my stupor. What can I say? I had to let loose - with no wires holding me back, I'm a free man!

I must have gotten one of the first batch...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been reading some of the reviews and realized I am one of the unlucky few. I cannot even get mine to synch with my 360. I will be contacting EA for a new one.

BTW - The game itself is great. I am also a guitar player and my son is a drummer. We have a fantastic time playing each other's instruments.

73 BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: April 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ok, Amazon usally has stuff cheaper, but to charge 73 bucks for this guitar is insane. wal mart, game stop and best buy around my house all had them for 60 bucks, which is the mrsp.

as for the guitar, its just like the wired one, except its now wireless. this is why a bought it and sold my other one. i prefer this strum bar of the guitar hero one, but its a matter of preference. I also like the 2 sets of frets. and I prefer these buttons, because they are embedded into the fretboard, opposed to sticking out. I recommend you go to a real store and pay the real porce for these.

whoops

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Love Rock Band, Love Wireless Guitar
BUT my brand new one does not work, green will NOT strum. Works for moving around the game, but not for playing songs. Sooo disappointed...

A great guitar overall...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Although still not perfect, this wireless guitar is a great improvement over the original wired model. I never would have thought that being "untethered" would make this much of a difference, but the lack of wires makes "rockin' out" a lot easier. Though my guitar was demonstrating poor tilt detection out of the box, it's improved dramatically over the last few days. The Guitar Hero faithful may still find this guitar's strum bar a bit too "muddy," but the increased size and overall beefiness of Rock Band's guitars have made them my personal choice.

The only real complaint I have is with the guitar's power source -- it's a little bit obnoxious to have to find a phillips-head screwdriver just to change out the 3 AA batteries. Still, if you're a Rock Band player looking to add another guitarist/bassist to your ensemble, this is the axe to buy.

Don't Buy Yet! They're Broken!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

EA has done it again...I had to return my original wired controller (along with thousands of others) because of a defective strum bar. Now I get my shiny new _wireless_ guitar and guess what? THE TILT SENSOR DOESN'T WORK!! I would recommend you not buy this until EA sorts out the problem and Amazon either returns all of the ones they have to EA or sells them to some other poor sucker.

Read more about the manufacturing defect by Googling "Broken Rock Band Wireless Guitar"

>sigh<

Harmonix, I love you. EA...YOU SUCK!!!!!

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions