Is the Rock Band guitar supposed to suck this bad???

[skyehill]

I played today at Best Buy for about 3 hours, switching between drums and guitar. The guitar looks really good. It's longer and looks real. That's where the goodness ends. The recessed buttons actually aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. I never lost my place. The weight and feel of the guitar however is complete junk. It lacks in weight. It doesn't feel like a quality piece of hardware at all. It feels like you could easily break it in your hands. I hate it. The Les Paul guitar for GH3 owns this guitar. But what's the ultimate killer is the strum bar. NO CLICKING. It's just mush. WTF HARMONIX?! What a disappointment this thing turned out to be. It appears that Red Octane was actually doing something positive, at least in regards to hardware. Harmonix needs to rethink it.

I am buying the full kit on day 1, but I'll be using the GH3 guitar on it. The drums are awesome. And the songs in the demo were a ton of fun to play, although the guitar parts on all difficulty settings lacked any difficulty whatsoever, and that's coming from someone that has problems on Expert on GH. I've always loved Harmonix, but they've failed on the guitar and on watering down the guitar parts. The game is a ton of fun to play when you have 2-3 other people, but playing it alone was kinda boring when playing the guitar part.

[vtjustinb]

I love the guitar. Took some getting used to but I'm totally happy with it.

No clicking on the strum bar is a welcome change for me (in both the realism and noise department), and as light as people on this forum were making the guitar out to be (I thought I was going to be picking up an empty box of tissues or something) it felt fine to me.

It's a pretty personal thing, but I wouldn't immediately start bashing HMX for something that most of the community has agreed is a nice piece of hardware once you get used to it. :P

[Chris_Gonzalez]

But what's the ultimate killer is the strum bar. NO CLICKING. It's just mush. WTF HARMONIX?! What a disappointment this thing turned out to be.

I'm quite sorry, but the prospect of a non-clicky-as-hell-to-where-you-can't-hear-the-song strum bar is fine by me. Double strumming with the Les Paul is still loud (though not as loud as the X-Plorer). The clicking gets pretty annoying, even when I'm playing.

[idiotec]

There seems to be a trend regarding the quality of the guitar, that sucks. However, I do not see how no clicking could be a bad thing, that sounds great to me. The clicking of the GH2 guitar bugs the hell out of me.

[Ardius]

Surely the lack of clicking is to make the game harder? So that its harder for you keep rythmn, rather than GH3 and its insanity driven note charts.
Weight....ive yet to use the RB guitar but Id guess that it weighs something like the GH1 and 2 guitars? Tbh, I dont really care how much it weighs, the lighter the better.

[Apples]

I am not really concerned by the (lack of) weight. If it's really a problem (which I doubt) it would not be difficult to add weight to the instrument.

Sorry to hear you're disappointed though. :(

[MartyMcFly]

Is this a joke thread? I understand the compaint about the weight, but really, it's no lighter than the Xplorer was.

No clicking? Get used to it, the clicking was annoying, I'm glad it's gone.

The only thing the Les Paul has over the Strat is the weight, that's it. I prefer the buttons on the Strat much more.
Have fun playing RB without the Strat, you miss out on the solo buttons and effects.

And as for difficulty, it's just a demo. They're not gonna put wicked hard songs on the demo when it's meant to attract people to DEMO the game.
They don't want the average guy to walk up and say "Hey Rock Band, lemme try this out. Wow, this is way too tough, it sux I'm not buying it".
The demo is meant for the general audience, they won't put hardcore songs on it.

[skyehill]

Even if the weight doesn't bother you, the flimsiness of it is jarring. It feels cheap. I disagree about the clicking. I like it. A lot of gamers like it, but I'd be ok with it if it simply didn't click. The real issue is that its mushy. So basically you get no feedback. I love the weight and feel of the new wireless GH3 guitar. It feels great. Combine that with the size of the RB guitar and we'd have a winner.

The biggest letdown however is the difficulty of the guitar parts, or the complete lack thereof.

[foolosophy]

Sometimes I use the clicking to pace myself, but now I see it will be harder. I want to try the guitar myself because I wouldn't mind a silent strum bar so I can actually hear the song over my own strumming. But if it comes at the sacrifice of hard pacing (especially for songs like Paranoid where theres a long string of heavy chord strumming) it won't be a welcome change. I'm really loving this Les Paul though so worst comes to worst I'll use this one.

[skyehill]

Is this a joke thread? I understand the compaint about the weight, but really, it's no lighter than the Xplorer was.

No clicking? Get used to it, the clicking was annoying, I'm glad it's gone.

The only thing the Les Paul has over the Strat is the weight, that's it. I prefer the buttons on the Strat much more.
Have fun playing RB without the Strat, you miss out on the solo buttons and effects.

And as for difficulty, it's just a demo. They're not gonna put wicked hard songs on the demo when it's meant to attract people to DEMO the game.
They don't want the average guy to walk up and say "Hey Rock Band, lemme try this out. Wow, this is way too tough, it sux I'm not buying it".
The demo is meant for the general audience, they won't put hardcore songs on it.

Then don't put difficulty settings in the demo if you want to appeal to everyone. Honestly, I think your excuse is BS. These are some pretty great songs in the demo, and if they're all this easy on EXPERT, I have little hope for the rest of the soundtrack.

Don't get me wrong, I am buying RB on day 1.

[MartyMcFly]

The biggest letdown however is the difficulty of the guitar parts, or the complete lack thereof.

Did you read what I said? You haven't even played the game yet. Over 2/3 of the setlist isn't even in the demo.

Save your judgement for when you actually play the game. Thanks :)

I can say the same crap about the GH3 demo. I played it on Expert first try and 97% on Evenflow and Lay Down, and practically FC'd Hit Me with Your Best Shot, so what's your conclusion? Oh I know! They're not the hardest songs......in other words, expect the actual GAME to be harder, don't judge it by the demo.

[skyehill]

Did you read what I said? You haven't even played the game yet. Over 2/3 of the setlist isn't even in the demo.

Save your judgement for when you actually play the game. Thanks :)

Why, you haven't saved your judgement for the final. Mmkaythanksbye.

Seriously though, if these songs are this easy on expert, I have little hope that the rest of the soundtrack will be any harder. The more I played it the more I began to understand that they didn't want to make it hard, because their target audience isn't hardcore gamers. It appears they're aiming at more of a mass market, which is cool for them, but not cool for those of us that are into the very difficult songs in the GH series.

[Xzyliac]

Weight can be added. Hell clicking can be added.

These *****y remarks? Very minor and not nearly enough to warrant the word 'awful'.

[acetabulum]

Even if the weight doesn't bother you, the flimsiness of it is jarring. It feels cheap. I disagree about the clicking. I like it. A lot of gamers like it, but I'd be ok with it if it simply didn't click. The real issue is that its mushy. So basically you get no feedback. I love the weight and feel of the new wireless GH3 guitar. It feels great. Combine that with the size of the RB guitar and we'd have a winner.

The biggest letdown however is the difficulty of the guitar parts, or the complete lack thereof.

Pretty much agree with you. I wish there was a way you could feel a click, without it being as loud as guitar hero guitars. Like breaking a cookie in half (forgive my poor analogy).

[Pandacon]

When I played the game at PAX I really didn't notice any of these complants, but I guess I didn't really spend much time inspecting the guitar, I was just excited about playing the game :p

[dragulaAC]

How is the weight of the guitar going to affect your playing ability at all? What does it matter? Yes, it's lighter than the Explorer.

Ok, the neck is a little on the flimsy side. But if you use the guitar the way it's supposed to be utilized, (i.e. playing the game), then I'm sure it will hold up just fine. If you prefer the LP, go for it.

The strum bar doesn't have clicking anymore? boo hoo. The strum bar works flawlessly. i didn't miss a single note due to the quality of the strum bar. I'm satisfied with HMX work.

As for the guitar difficulty. If you want a game where you have to sit in practice mode for 2 weeks playing bits and pieces of songs at 'Slowest' speed, then this game probably isn't going to be for you. It isn't just focusing on the guitar part anymore, they have to pick songs that will relate to the drummer/singer/bassist too. Perhaps in DLC they may start putting out groups of songs that favor the guitarist, whereas i'm sure they'll be difficult enough for the best of us.

[MdubMedia]

What if all you were ever use to since GH was realeased was the strum bar NOT clicking? Would you complain now that RB is out and the strum bar IS clicking?

I think it feels "different" because you aren't really used to it...I dunno, I may be wrong, but that's how I see it.

[Bakkster]

Then don't put difficulty settings in the demo if you want to appeal to everyone. Honestly, I think your excuse is BS. These are some pretty great songs in the demo, and if they're all this easy on EXPERT, I have little hope for the rest of the soundtrack.

I think the point is that you don't put Bark at the Moon in the demo. It just doesn't make sense. You put earlier tier songs so that people can play at their chosen difficulty and not get frustrated. I was actually quite pleased with the difficulty of the songs. They seemed neither dumbed down or artificially inflated. You just played the same notes that were in the song.

I also loved the guitar. It does seem light, but I didn't really get a flimsy feeling from it. I also think it played beautifully, which is what was important to me.

Sucks that you were disappointed.


It appears they're aiming at more of a mass market, which is cool for them, but not cool for those of us that are into the very difficult songs in the GH series.

I agree, I don't think the guitar parts in Mass Effect are going to be hard at all, which sucks for me.

That would be a good complaint, if this were Guitar Hero. It's not. This is Rock Band. If you're looking for impossible guitar lines, you should buy a guitar game.

[capitalfn9]

i just played at my best buy for 3 hours today and i think the guitar is awesome. i like how much bigger it is than the xplorer and i didnt have a problem at all with the weight. the buttons took about 3 songs to get used to but they are fine as well. and regarding the difficulty, i would rather play an easier song thats more fun than a stupid song where you have to go askjdfhaksjdhfaksjdfhkajsdhf. its hard to even enjoy songs like that because you are trying so hard to hit the notes.

[admanimal]

Sometimes I use the clicking to pace myself, but now I see it will be harder. I want to try the guitar myself because I wouldn't mind a silent strum bar so I can actually hear the song over my own strumming. But if it comes at the sacrifice of hard pacing (especially for songs like Paranoid where theres a long string of heavy chord strumming) it won't be a welcome change. I'm really loving this Les Paul though so worst comes to worst I'll use this one.

I use the click to pace myself too, but honestly there was little to no adjustment playing with the silent strummer (and this is in BB with crappy speakers and people playing GH3 next to me). My only complaint about the guitar is that it seems you do have to strum a little harder in order for it to register.

[Reaper0563]

at least the stratocaster isn't as god awful as the GH3 les paul, my friend bought GH3 and let me try the new les paul and I played one song and went back to the explorer. The button spacing for the frets is completely broken, i hated it. The stratocaster on the other hand was a dream, the only problem is figuring out how to use the solo buttons effectively. There are often notes as soon as the solo ends and its very difficult to move your hands back in time to hit the next notes. But I suppose with practice this can be mastered. :)

[MartyMcFly]

Bakkster, you explain things much better. You basically said what I was saying about how the most difficult songs were not in the demo.
And you're right, if someone wants a wicked hard guitar game, there's already a game out for that.

As Dragula was saying, Rock Band isn't about difficulty, it's about having fun. I DO NOT find it fun to have to practice fake notes on a fake guitar on a video game. That time can be better used to just learn the song on a real guitar. I like to just play the game and have fun, and now we have this game that gets 4 people together to do so! Who cares about difficulty.

[Jimmik]

I agree, I don't think the guitar parts in Mass Effect are going to be hard at all, which sucks for me.

I had to do a double take there....Skimming through your post, I was like wahhh :confused: ? :P

But yea. No clicking equals good, I'm really surprised everyone isn't on the same note about that. Oh well, different strokes. Honestly, if you need to hear the strumming, you should learn to keep time better. Okay. Flame suit on, lemme have it!

[admanimal]

As Dragula was saying, Rock Band isn't about difficulty, it's about having fun. I DO NOT find it fun to have to practice fake notes on a fake guitar on a video game. That time can be better used to just learn the song on a real guitar. I like to just play the game and have fun, and now we have this game that gets 4 people together to do so! Who cares about difficulty.

Exactly. I couldn't care less how difficult it is to beat a song- I just want to have fun playing it. I have played Surrender probably more than any other song in GH2 even though I 5 starred it with no problem the first time I played it. I just like the feeling of playing it.

And today I played Main Offender for the first time on medium drums and missed only 1 note (without the pedal, of course). But even if this was the hardest difficulty and there was no pedal, I would probably play it over and over again because it was a blast.

[Jack_Harvard]

"I agree, I don't think the guitar parts in Mass Effect are going to be hard at all, which sucks for me."

That has to be one of the funniest things I've heard all day!:D

[dlisapussy]

But what's the ultimate killer is the strum bar. NO CLICKING. It's just mush. WTF HARMONIX?!



Oh yea, i hate it when the strum bar doesn't click...






Are you serious dude??
Go cry about it.

[visualdeity]

I have mixed feelings about the guitar. It definitely feels flimsy, which I don't like at all. That I can live with, but what I can't live with is how shallow the neck is. I grab the guitar with my thumb up on top the neck, and the neck is so shallow (ie, narrow) that it digs into my thumb and is uncomfortable. This is going to be a problem in the long run, I think. The other big problem is the strum bar. No clicky = good, but the bar on the guitar I used was very stiff, there was noticeable resistance to my strumming. That's no good.

As far as difficulty goes, did you guys play the same demo I did? I can play any GH1 song, and most GH2/3/80s songs on expert (all but the hardest ones), but I definitely got my ass kicked by Dani California. Maybe I just need to get used to the weird rhythm, but I failed out of that song about halfway through. Two or three times.

[MartyMcFly]

Are you serious dude??
Go cry about it.

haha you win the thread!

[The_Vampire_Lestat]

I love how people who haven't used the guitar defend it.... like someone just insulted their mother.

And it's really not that it doesn't click... it's just not responsive as the other GH guitars. When you play the other games you hear when you strum, you strum with the rhythm of the game. Seeing as this is a music/rhythm game... I think it is important to have a strum bar that can keep with the rhythm of the game.


I found myself clicking more than once when I had hit a note... and then breaking my streak.

[dlisapussy]

Question:

Is there any space at all between the fret buttons on the stratocaster?

[dlisapussy]

haha you win the thread!

damn right haha

[admanimal]

And it's really not that it doesn't click... it's just not ressponsive as the other GH guitars. When you play the other games you hear when you strum, you strum with the rhythm of the game. Seeing as this is a music/rhythm game... I think it is important to have a strum bar that can keep with the rhythm of the game.
.

I did find that I had to strum harder than with other guitars in order for it to register. This morning when I went to BB to play, I actually thought the guitar was broken because it wasn't registering my strums, but then I realized that I wasn't strumming hard enough (and that was not my first time playing- I've played every day since Monday :D ). Anyway, once I figured that out I had no problem keeping a rhythm on any of the songs.

P.S. I strum with just down strokes with my thumb, unless its a very fast streak of notes and then I go up and down with thumb and index finger.

[Bakkster]

I love how people who haven't used the guitar defend it.... like someone just insulted their mother.

And it's really not that it doesn't click... it's just not ressponsive as the other GH guitars. When you play the other games you hear when you strum, you strum with the rhythm of the game. Seeing as this is a music/rhythm game... I think it is important to have a strum bar that can keep with the rhythm of the game.

I found myself clicking more than once when I had hit a note... and then breaking my streak.

I did play it.

I found it at least at responsive as the other guitars (SG, Flying V and Les Paul). I also didn't have any double strums. The only time I had an issue was finger picking like I do bass, and it seemed to be my technique that caused the problems. How do you strum? That might be the cause of your problems.


P.S. I strum with just down strokes with my thumb, unless its a very fast streak of notes and then I go up and down with thumb and index finger.

That would probably be your problem. You probably just need to adjust your playing style.

[admanimal]

That would probably be your problem. You probably just need to adjust your playing style.

How do you think I should play it? Strum up and down all the time? Or strumming like I am holding a pick?

[Bakkster]

How do you think I should play it? Strum up and down all the time? Or strumming like I am holding a pick?

One way would be to adjust how you hit with your thumb. Do you hit it and keep going? Try pushing it down, but keep your thumb on the bar so it doesn't bounce. I grip the bar like a pick, and that works great. I also tried stroking up with two fingers, and that seems to work with a little practice. Just experiment and you should be able to find a method that works and is comfortable for you.

[raregamer]

How does it compare to the guitar hero guitar. I used the new one and it was awesome so I was curious it was heavy and sturdy, but the only reason i want Rock Band is for drums and it really bothers me that the 360 version is not wireless.

[admanimal]

One way would be to adjust how you hit with your thumb. Do you hit it and keep going? Try pushing it down, but keep your thumb on the bar so it doesn't bounce. I grip the bar like a pick, and that works great. I also tried stroking up with two fingers, and that seems to work with a little practice. Just experiment and you should be able to find a method that works and is comfortable for you.

OK thanks. Like I said I didn't have much trouble playing after I realized I needed to hit it a bit harder, but I might experiment with new ways that could be easier.

[Plekto]

Much better, IMO.

Quiet strumming(can hear the music!). Better buttons(personally the raised old ones in GH bugged me to no end). Yeah, it's light, but you could always fill it with sand if you wanted it really heavy...

[WolfBrigade]

Well, for me, as long as it feels like you have actually hit the note it should be fine. I guess the only way I'm finding out about this is actually playing, which shouldn't be a problem for me at all. I have only one guitar hero controller and when people come over I or they need to play with the controller, it really sucks.

This should be a welcome change no matter what.
Well, except if on the way to the unconfirmed place I'm buying it demons sprout up from the earth and demand that I pay them for it instead. That would suck tremendously.

[ffd611]

You have to remember that harmonix had to start out from scratch on this guitar much like Neversoft had towith the GH3 software. Harmonix(or whoever built the controllers) had to use thier own design because Red Octane had the SG and Explorer. Neversoft didn't get it perfect and it would be no surprise to me if thwe strat isn't perfect. Remember Guitar hero started as a combination of harmonix's game and red octane's controller. The strat doesn't benefit from the feedback that the GH controllers have had to tweak the controller into the LP and it isn't even perfect.

[RkBndDrmr]

I am one that loves the Strat.

No click=a good thing...a very good thing. I had no problems with the strum bar. It was different but it felt good.

I didn't try to twist or bend the guitar while I played, I picked it up, played, and very much enjoyed it. Every guitar feels different, this one is no exception. I liked it.

[skyehill]

haha you win the thread!

Wow, this devolved into a fanboy circle jerk thread real quick. I'm sorry that your sense of self-worth rises and falls on someone else liking or hating the things you stupidly choose to champion. I love Harmonix. I loved playing Rock Band, I just didn't happen to love everything about it. The guitar is flimsy. Very flimsy, but I did love the length of the guitar, and the buttons didn't bother me one bit. A mushy strum bar sucks to me, but perhaps that's because I've played 3 other Harmonix guitar games where the strum bar made a sound which helped time really fast patches of notes...the same thing a lot of other GH gamers do. Thanks for the feedback from those that actually can read something negative without flipping out like a little whiney baby whose toy just got insulted.

[skyehill]

How does it compare to the guitar hero guitar. I used the new one and it was awesome so I was curious it was heavy and sturdy, but the only reason i want Rock Band is for drums and it really bothers me that the 360 version is not wireless.

The GH3 wireless guitar is so much better. It has great weight, feels sturdy, and the buttons are a good distance apart. The strum bar clicks, not loudly, but enough that you can still time long runs, and it has never double strummed on me like the Xplorer does.

There is absolutely no space between the buttons on the RB guitar, which I thought would bother me, but it didn't. I never found myself with my fingers out of place. I just wish the guitar didn't feel like a cheap little kids play toy. The RB guitars buttons and length combined with GH3's guitar weight and sturdiness would be one bad ass combination.

[CENACHAINGANG54]

I'm quite sorry, but the prospect of a non-clicky-as-hell-to-where-you-can't-hear-the-song strum bar is fine by me. Double strumming with the Les Paul is still loud (though not as loud as the X-Plorer). The clicking gets pretty annoying, even when I'm playing.

I TOTALLY AGREE!! I have been waiting for a guitar that the strum bar does not click. It takes away from the song and I annoy myself so I can imagine how other people around me feel. GHIII's les paul is better but some of the click is still there. Good job Harmonix!

[Edgehopper]

It may very well be the demo guitar. At the Columbus Circle Best Buy, I picked up a Fender, turned on Wave of Mutilation on Expert...and failed out at about 11%. I had just beaten Lou on Expert, so it couldn't very well be that I suck :) The guitar wasn't registering strums right, it was just terrible. I asked a Best Buy employee if the guitar was defective..."Well, that guitar doesn't work like a Guitar Hero guitar--you have to strum up." Translated into smart-people speak, yes, the guitar was defective. I switched to bass, got the more expected 98%-100%, and figured the fault was with the broken demo guitar.

The average Best Buy employee seems to be an idiot. The Rock Band disc at Best Buy NoHo got scratched because some idiot was trying to set up the surround sound speakers with the XBox on and the game running, yanked the cord, knocked the XBox down, and the disc suddenly didn't play for the vast majority of the songs.

In short: RB hardware may be wonderful, but it's not idiotproof. If it's broken, it's more likely Best Buy's fault than Harmonix's. Because that's where idiots are inserted into the system.

[Reaper0563]

Wow, this devolved into a fanboy circle jerk thread real quick. I'm sorry that your sense of self-worth rises and falls on someone else liking or hating the things you stupidly choose to champion. I love Harmonix. I loved playing Rock Band, I just didn't happen to love everything about it. The guitar is flimsy. Very flimsy, but I did love the length of the guitar, and the buttons didn't bother me one bit. A mushy strum bar sucks to me, but perhaps that's because I've played 3 other Harmonix guitar games where the strum bar made a sound which helped time really fast patches of notes...the same thing a lot of other GH gamers do. Thanks for the feedback from those that actually can read something negative without flipping out like a little whiney baby whose toy just got insulted.

ehem, take the the les paul out of your ass before continuing in this pointless argument. Your comments are absolutely ridiculous.

PS if you want to use a crappier, clicky mcdicky buggy les paul then do so and stfu

take two and call me in the morning

[McHick]

Dude. If the stratocaster does weigh less than the LP then it just adds to its overall realism.

Anyone whose played a guitar or at least picked up a strat and a LP knows that the LP is a heavy piece and strat doesn't even compare to it's heaviness. Don't judge a guitar by its weight. I mean I would hate for you to pick up some acoustic guitars that are hollowed out. LOL. Anyways haven't used either guitar just going on my real knowledge of guitars.

I'm sure both RO and HMX have spent a lot of time into making two nice pieces of hardware that are able to withstand the time and abuse they will both take.

Oh btw, Hi! I'm new.

[HPLabonte]

Oh btw, Hi! I'm new.


Welcome! it looks like you know what you're talking about, too!

I've played the GHIII LP and it's cool, never touched the RB Strat, but I like the idea of no click!

[admanimal]

The guitar is flimsy. Very flimsy, but I did love the length of the guitar, and the buttons didn't bother me one bit.

You must be using some other definition of flimsy that I am not familiar with. I personally dropped (by accident) the demo model at BB and it still worked fine. Just because the neck is able to twist a bit doesn't mean the whole thing is flimsy. Who twists the neck while playing it anyway? Only time will tell how durable the Strat actually is, but there has been no indication that it is any more likely to fall apart than the LP or any other model.

[skyehill]

ehem, take the the les paul out of your ass before continuing in this pointless argument. Your comments are absolutely ridiculous.

PS if you want to use a crappier, clicky mcdicky buggy les paul then do so and stfu

take two and call me in the morning

Congrats on being a 12 year old moron.

[Axel32]

I have too solutions to fix these problems, Supa glue and weights. When RB comes out, crack open your guitar, add some weight to the body, and re-enforce/supa glue the neck to take out the "flimsy-ness"

Oh and I thought I saw you mention this. You use the click of the strum bar to time yourself one passages? That is going to change. HMX took the click out for two reasons, it's annoying and it ruins realistic-ness of the guitar. With RB, your gonna need to learn to count the rhythm in your head, or get confortable enough to not need to time yourself by using the on-screen time markers. (Bold and thin white horizontal lines)

[Rook_x51]

How is the weight of the guitar going to affect your playing ability at all? What does it matter? Yes, it's lighter than the Explorer.

Ok, the neck is a little on the flimsy side. But if you use the guitar the way it's supposed to be utilized, (i.e. playing the game), then I'm sure it will hold up just fine. If you prefer the LP, go for it.

The strum bar doesn't have clicking anymore? boo hoo. The strum bar works flawlessly. i didn't miss a single note due to the quality of the strum bar. I'm satisfied with HMX work.

As for the guitar difficulty. If you want a game where you have to sit in practice mode for 2 weeks playing bits and pieces of songs at 'Slowest' speed, then this game probably isn't going to be for you. It isn't just focusing on the guitar part anymore, they have to pick songs that will relate to the drummer/singer/bassist too. Perhaps in DLC they may start putting out groups of songs that favor the guitarist, whereas i'm sure they'll be difficult enough for the best of us.

I'm with this guy.

[Bakkster]

A mushy strum bar sucks to me, but perhaps that's because I've played 3 other Harmonix guitar games where the strum bar made a sound which helped time really fast patches of notes...the same thing a lot of other GH gamers do.

If you've learned to keep rhythm using the click, surely you can learn to keep rhythm without the click. Having no click is a good thing, it might just take a bit of getting used to.

[defmonkey]

Just another added difficulty for RB :-D

BRING IT!!

And the weight (I haven't held one yet) shouldn't be a problem. Not all Guitars weigh the same, some look heavier then others and are actually lighter. For example. I picked up a B.C. Rich Warlock at my local (well until they packed their crap up and left) Sam Goody store, it looked like it should be heavy and was actually light as hell. My silvertone is actually one heavy mofo for its size.

[Quastor]

A mushy strum bar sucks to me, but perhaps that's because I've played 3 other Harmonix guitar games where the strum bar made a sound which helped time really fast patches of notes...the same thing a lot of other GH gamers do.

But why should you need clicks? Now you have to depend on the drummer to keep a beat and time your strums to that.

Oh my, just like in a real band! It's amazing what Harmonix is doing to emulate the experiene.

[maddrummerdan86]

the lighter the better! i dont want it to feel to real or it will be annoying to play!
no clicking on strum bar is awesome! i just hope the notes arent easy on expert like u said they're cuz the drums looks hard as hell!

[stiper327b]

I love this guitar. At first I felt like the strum bar might be a little wonky as I couldn't really keep up with the faster passages. I only down strum with my thumb, and on the faster sections, especially in GHI and II, I never had a chance keeping up, but with RB I was falling behind. I was convinced it was the strum bar's fault. But then I realized, it's not that the strum bar wasn't as sensitive as the SGs/Explorers, it's that it was more sensitive. Once I figured this out, once I realized I had to exercise a little more control in the faster passages, I was sitting pretty.

To me, and realize that I have about 3 days combined experience with playing a real guitar, the Strat feels the most like a real guitar, especially when it comes to strumming. I like the absence of a click, I like the higher sensitivity on the bar, and I like the recessed buttons on the neck. It's a perfect controller, one that hopefully most people will realize is a perfect evolution of the GH controllers.

[OneEyeRed]

A light guitar is fine with me. I have been a guitarist for 33 years now and I tend to play my 61' SG Reissue more than my Paul or Strat. You spend enough time doing gigs with Les Paul hunkered to your shoulder and you can start to have shoulder, neck, and back problems. The SG is super light Mahogany but what a sweet ass tone I get out of it.

Now for gaming purposes, the lighter the better; in my case anyhow.

[hardyfoster]

people keep saying "when they strum" but in the videos I always see people "push" or "pull" the strum bar, they treat it as a button. they hold on to it.

the following may help, but i just flick it with my index and thumb finger and have no problems. try using a dime, a quarter, or a heavy guitar pick and you'll see what i mean by flicking it because you won't be able to "hold" the button.

you shouldn't "hold" the strum bar either. i've seen people do that.

not that it's a big deal. just trying to help.

[KangDo]

I absolutely LOVE the fact that the clicking's gone. With every sequel of GH, I was always wishing they would release a newer guitar that took out the clicking and prayed that this new one got rid of that. It completely killed the immersion of the gameplay and the songs. Often, I would crank the volume up high and refused to lower it in hopes that I could attempt to sound out the clicking that way. The clicking was terrible and should've never been a part of the old controller.

As for the flimsy-ness, lightweight and "cheap" feel, I'll have to make a decision for that when I play it. However, I felt the old GH controllers felt that way too so anything would seem like an improvement.

I could almost be entirely pumped about Rock Band simply for the improvements they've made on the guitar controller.

[tbradshaw]

I did find that I had to strum harder than with other guitars in order for it to register. This morning when I went to BB to play, I actually thought the guitar was broken because it wasn't registering my strums, but then I realized that I wasn't strumming hard enough [...]

Oh man, this is fantastic news. One of the real annoyances for me with the traditional "holding a pencil" style strumming was the inability to make an inactive strum. This is very apparent during fast triplets. Since the strum bar in GH always strums on movement, fast triplets have to be strummed like:

v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^

Where ^ is an upstroke, v is a downstroke, and _ is a rest. This is a ***** to do if the note chart starts getting complicated, due to the alternating nature of the pattern. If I were to do this on a real guitar, I would do:

v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*

Where v is a downstroke, ^ is an upstroke, and * is an upstroke that I don't hit the strings. This makes for a very regular up and down motion with the right arm and consistent fingering with the left.

The catch is that in GH, if the rest (represented by _ and * respectively) is too short, there isn't time to release the strum bar and grab it again ready to stroke down. If it is true that the Rock Band guitar doesn't strum unless some threshold of pressure is reached, this means that you can do a * without a miss strum!

Great news!

[Coldplayer]

I played today at Best Buy for about 3 hours, switching between drums and guitar. The guitar looks really good. It's longer and looks real. That's where the goodness ends. The recessed buttons actually aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. I never lost my place. The weight and feel of the guitar however is complete junk. It lacks in weight. It doesn't feel like a quality piece of hardware at all. It feels like you could easily break it in your hands. I hate it. The Les Paul guitar for GH3 owns this guitar. But what's the ultimate killer is the strum bar. NO CLICKING. It's just mush. WTF HARMONIX?! What a disappointment this thing turned out to be. It appears that Red Octane was actually doing something positive, at least in regards to hardware. Harmonix needs to rethink it.

I am buying the full kit on day 1, but I'll be using the GH3 guitar on it. The drums are awesome. And the songs in the demo were a ton of fun to play, although the guitar parts on all difficulty settings lacked any difficulty whatsoever, and that's coming from someone that has problems on Expert on GH. I've always loved Harmonix, but they've failed on the guitar and on watering down the guitar parts. The game is a ton of fun to play when you have 2-3 other people, but playing it alone was kinda boring when playing the guitar part.

No clicking is a dissapointment?? No clicking sounds great for me!

Besides, the Fender guitar looks awesome, it looks just like my real guitar and the Les Paul looks like a toy.

[MartyMcFly]

I just wanted to summarize what happened in this thread. It seems like overall the large majority of people love the fact that the clicking is gone. It adds to realism. And also, the majority of people in this thread don't mind the lightness, besides, as stated, you can easily fix that by adding weight to it, it's not that hard.

And skyehill, all I did was disagree with you, and you picked me out and mocked me. If you're going to make a thread bashing something about the game. Expect a lot of criticism. And if you noticed, you never continued on with your topic, you just called out people instead.

So again, no clicky = good. Weight can be added. And you can't make overall concluding assumptions about a product when you've only used a demo that a hundred people have probably messed around with.

Let's wait until we take the guitar home to actually review it.

[Rook_x51]

Oh man, this is fantastic news. One of the real annoyances for me with the traditional "holding a pencil" style strumming was the inability to make an inactive strum. This is very apparent during fast triplets. Since the strum bar in GH always strums on movement, fast triplets have to be strummed like:

v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^

Where ^ is an upstroke, v is a downstroke, and _ is a rest. This is a ***** to do if the note chart starts getting complicated, due to the alternating nature of the pattern. If I were to do this on a real guitar, I would do:

v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*

Where v is a downstroke, ^ is an upstroke, and * is an upstroke that I don't hit the strings. This makes for a very regular up and down motion with the right arm and consistent fingering with the left.

The catch is that in GH, if the rest (represented by _ and * respectively) is too short, there isn't time to release the strum bar and grab it again ready to stroke down. If it is true that the Rock Band guitar doesn't strum unless some threshold of pressure is reached, this means that you can do a * without a miss strum!

Great news!

Needs to be a full quote because that explains my thoughts PERFECTLY. Well done.

[jordanbeard]

I loved the guitar... its lightness made it easier to use the guitar and mic at the same time...
and I didn't notice the lack of clicking... which in my opinion is a good thing...

[CLOUD9]

No Clicking means late night gaming sessions without getting caught. That's always a plus for me. Playing drums during the day and guitar at night. Sweet!!! The difficult songs are not in the demo because it's a DEMO. If you really want to play a hard music game, play the Japanese Beatmania on Hyper, hell even on Normal. Play the Japanese Beatmania because the American Beatmania was horrible but the American controller was better than the Japanese controller.

[Xzyliac]

No Clicking means late night gaming sessions without getting caught. That's always a plus for me. Playing drums during the day and guitar at night. Sweet!!! The difficult songs are not in the demo because it's a DEMO. If you really want to play a hard music game, play the Japanese Beatmania on Hyper, hell even on Normal. Play the Japanese Beatmania because the American Beatmania was horrible but the American controller was better than the Japanese controller
Beatmania kicks ass.

[LongDarkBlues]

Yeah - the hardest song on Expert in GH is child's play compared to the hardest stuff in Guitar Freaks - that stuff is insane. Jordan Schmordan.

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[CLOUD9]

Yeah I love Beatmania, the Japanese one's. I have 8th-13th on the PS2. The American one wasn't hard enough. I understand why they did it but come on. The American Hyper is the Japanese Normal in that game.

[CLOUD9]

Yeah Guitarfreaks is insane as well as DrumMania. Bemani games are amazing.

[Reaper0563]

regardless of your feelings about the guitar, at this point it is highly unlikely that there will be any changes.

Also has RB gone gold yet, if so i missed the announcement

[LavatoryLoveMachine]

Why is it being weightless a problem? Are you friggin serious?!! ITS A TOY NOT A REAL GUITAR!

Sorry to break it to you.

And I doubt you can use the GH3 guitar in RB. Isnt the RB guitar completely different? Doesnt it have new buttons and everything?

[Xzyliac]

Why is it being weightless a problem? Are you friggin serious?!! ITS A TOY NOT A REAL GUITAR!

Sorry to break it to you.

And I doubt you can use the GH3 guitar in RB. Isnt the RB guitar completely different? Doesnt it have new buttons and everything?

Les Paul works for Rock Band. Strat doesn't work with GH.

[PoncaHills]

I played today at Best Buy for about 3 hours, switching between drums and guitar.

Um... you spent 3 hours at best buy?!?!?!
WTF...
do you work there or are you just really lonely?

[Bakkster]

Les Paul works for Rock Band. Strat doesn't work with GH.

Just remember, if you use the Les Paul, or Xplorer, or SG, you can not use effects during solos.

[Xzyliac]

Just remember, if you use the Les Paul, or Xplorer, or SG, you can not use effects during solos.

Yupp-o.

Too bad effects can't just get mapped to the d-pad.

[Lateral]

Let me just throw my quick opinion in. As a left-handed player, the Strat is absolutely terrible. Everything is positioned very awkwardly, especially the whammy bar. I found it practically unplayable. Then I played the same songs with the GHIII guitar, and it was much better. So that is how I plan to play the game when it comes out (definitely getting the game, I just hate the guitar). And I do not care one little bit about the 'solo sound effects'.

[Xzyliac]

Let me just throw my quick opinion in. As a left-handed player, the Strat is absolutely terrible. Everything is positioned very awkwardly, especially the whammy bar. I found it practically unplayable. Then I played the same songs with the GHIII guitar, and it was much better. So that is how I plan to play the game when it comes out (definitely getting the game, I just hate the guitar). And I do not care one little bit about the 'solo sound effects'.

Never piss off a lefty.

[Bakkster]

Let me just throw my quick opinion in. As a left-handed player, the Strat is absolutely terrible. Everything is positioned very awkwardly, especially the whammy bar. I found it practically unplayable.

Now that's a good reason to be disappointed with the guitar. The strat body doesn't do well left handed. That was probably the best part of the SG, it could be flipped and at least sit well.

That sucks.

[Nedyah]

I loved this guitar when I played it. I had an easier time playing the songs than I do with the Xplorer.

I personally didn't notice about the construction of it. I think one of the cooler things, even though it's minor, is the strap button unscrews.

The only bad I think I could say was some of the demo guitars on the tour would not strum down only up.

[tbradshaw]

I thought I would take a moment the rave about Harmonix taking an open and encouraging stance on third party controllers. Most emphasized by Alex Rigopulos when he described the hope for an "ecosystem" of third party controllers in a podcast interview, this decision by Harmonix and the related support from MTV and EA means something very important for us, the consumers.

You may soon have a selection of guitar controllers to choose from that caters exactly to your preferences.

While GH3 and Red Octane/Activision have made it very clear that using third party controllers with the Guitar Hero franchise is unacceptable and illegal, Harmonix leaves the door wide open for alternative controllers.

It is an annoyance that if strat is undesirable for left handed players as Lateral describes, it's a bit of a peeve if a player wants to hear the well timed "clicks" of his strumming. But, most importantly, it is a temporary annoyance. Because soon you may be able to get a dedicated left handed strat or more Guitar Hero like third party controller (but with all of the Rock Band features) that makes you even happier with the game.

It's a big deal. Red Octane and Activision have shut the door on controller choice and actively code this choice into each revision of their Guitar Hero franchise, disabling as many third party controllers as possible.

However, Rock Band doesn't do that. Harmonix gives you the choice to use whatever controller makes you happy. If you think the strat sucks, right on. More power to you! And I'm sure that Harmonix hopes you enjoy the **** out of Rock Band using the controller of your choice. Hopefully you'll even have the opportunity to pick up a controller that supports all of the pimp new features and still makes you happy to play the game.

But don't forget, even if you hate the controllers, you still have a chance to play Rock Band in the future exactly the way that you want to. With Red Octane games, you do not.

[Bakkster]

However, Rock Band doesn't do that. Harmonix gives you the choice to use whatever controller makes you happy. If you think the strat sucks, right on. More power to you! And I'm sure that Harmonix hopes you enjoy the **** out of Rock Band using the controller of your choice. Hopefully you'll even have the opportunity to pick up a controller that supports all of the pimp new features and still makes you happy to play the game.

QFT. Well said.

[Unleavened_Dead]

Why does the clicking matter? You now have a drummer. It's no longer up to you to keep time. As for the lefty flip on the strat, well, alot of lefties are killed every year using products designed for a righty. I wonder how many rock band is gonna take out...

[Quastor]

Oh man, this is fantastic news. One of the real annoyances for me with the traditional "holding a pencil" style strumming was the inability to make an inactive strum. This is very apparent during fast triplets. Since the strum bar in GH always strums on movement, fast triplets have to be strummed like:

v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^_v^v_^v^

Where ^ is an upstroke, v is a downstroke, and _ is a rest. This is a ***** to do if the note chart starts getting complicated, due to the alternating nature of the pattern. If I were to do this on a real guitar, I would do:

v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*v^v*

Where v is a downstroke, ^ is an upstroke, and * is an upstroke that I don't hit the strings. This makes for a very regular up and down motion with the right arm and consistent fingering with the left.

The catch is that in GH, if the rest (represented by _ and * respectively) is too short, there isn't time to release the strum bar and grab it again ready to stroke down. If it is true that the Rock Band guitar doesn't strum unless some threshold of pressure is reached, this means that you can do a * without a miss strum!

Great news!

Not to bring you down, but I think the strum bar on his guitar was just a bit beaten up. On the guitar I was using at BB (which I believe was the day it was set up or the day after), I barely had to push down on the strum bar in order for it to register. Personally, I found no real difference between the SG/X-Plorer strum bar and the Strat, except the clicking.

[skyehill]

No clicking is a dissapointment?? No clicking sounds great for me!

Besides, the Fender guitar looks awesome, it looks just like my real guitar and the Les Paul looks like a toy.

Yep, one LOOKS better than the other. Unfortunately the one that looks the best also feels like a hollow piece of junk.

[skyehill]

I just wanted to summarize what happened in this thread. It seems like overall the large majority of people love the fact that the clicking is gone. It adds to realism. And also, the majority of people in this thread don't mind the lightness, besides, as stated, you can easily fix that by adding weight to it, it's not that hard.

And skyehill, all I did was disagree with you, and you picked me out and mocked me. If you're going to make a thread bashing something about the game. Expect a lot of criticism. And if you noticed, you never continued on with your topic, you just called out people instead.

So again, no clicky = good. Weight can be added. And you can't make overall concluding assumptions about a product when you've only used a demo that a hundred people have probably messed around with.

Let's wait until we take the guitar home to actually review it.

Adding weight to it doesn't make it feel sturdy. It will make it feel like a heavy piece of crap. A thicker plastic would have helped with that, and hopefully going forward they'll create a better guitar or a third party will. The game itself, however, is outstanding. I love the UI, and the new note gems are much cooler than the older round ones.

[tbradshaw]

Not to bring you down, but I think the strum bar on his guitar was just a bit beaten up. On the guitar I was using at BB (which I believe was the day it was set up or the day after), I barely had to push down on the strum bar in order for it to register. Personally, I found no real difference between the SG/X-Plorer strum bar and the Strat, except the clicking.

Awe shucks. Well, thanks for sharing, anyway. I appreciate that I won't have my hopes up for 20 days only to have them dashed on the jagged rocks below.

[skyehill]

No Clicking means late night gaming sessions without getting caught. That's always a plus for me. Playing drums during the day and guitar at night. Sweet!!! The difficult songs are not in the demo because it's a DEMO. If you really want to play a hard music game, play the Japanese Beatmania on Hyper, hell even on Normal. Play the Japanese Beatmania because the American Beatmania was horrible but the American controller was better than the Japanese controller.


That is definitely true. The GH guitars drive my wife nuts. The drums in RB are LOUD. Like extremely loud. When I walked into Best Buy, I could hear them, and the damn thing was bear the back of the store! My wife's gonna hate me...moreso. Fortunately she's looking forward to singing.

[skyehill]

Yeah - the hardest song on Expert in GH is child's play compared to the hardest stuff in Guitar Freaks - that stuff is insane. Jordan Schmordan.

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Only 3 notes? What's wrong, they can't handle 5?

[skyehill]

Um... you spent 3 hours at best buy?!?!?!
WTF...
do you work there or are you just really lonely?

No, moron, I was having fun.

[skyehill]

I loved this guitar when I played it. I had an easier time playing the songs than I do with the Xplorer.

I personally didn't notice about the construction of it. I think one of the cooler things, even though it's minor, is the strap button unscrews.

The only bad I think I could say was some of the demo guitars on the tour would not strum down only up.

The guitar at a Best Buy near me is exactly like that. Scary if they break that easily. Strumming up for everything was not fun.

[tbradshaw]

Yep, one LOOKS better than the other. Unfortunately the one that looks the best also feels like a hollow piece of junk.

I think it's interesting how the perception of weight and quality are connected, even when there is no direct connection between weight and quality. This is particularly apparent if one considers things like laptops, were lighter weight is indicative of higher quality.

At our house, we've taken apart and modified the entire range of available guitar controllers, and I don't know how to break it to you... but they are all "hollow piece[s] of junk." Due to the increased size, what you're perceiving is a decrease in density from the larger size, and perhaps also a small reduction in weight.

But it begs the question, what role does weight play in the quality of a guitar controller? Will an increase in weight provide better button action? Will an increase in weight provide more predictable electron travel? Will an increase in weight provide an increase in longevity? Reliability? Economy?

Of course, none of these are the case. The actual controller is a very small (proportionally) control board and a few ribbon cables to simple control surfaces. The guitar controller hardly needs a body at all. Indeed, the body of the controller exists solely for appearance.

The weight of a controller is insignificant in all counts, except perhaps for comfort. It is certainly plausible that the weight of the controller makes a difference in personal comfort. That makes it a subjective measure, for sure, but at least a real concern. Thankfully, the hollow nature of the guitar guarantees that you can add as much or as little weight as you want.

I'd encourage you to think over your bias of the guitar based on weight. Quality does not depend on being heavy like concrete. A strong material can indeed be very light weight. Just pretend you're holding a pimped out carbon fiber guitar, and add some weight to the body and neck if you'd like.

[logicalnoise]

The guitar at a Best Buy near me is exactly like that. Scary if they break that easily. Strumming up for everything was not fun.

the tour guitars were getting played 10 hours per day. with all those stops I'd be shocked if they weren't borken in some way.

[Mushroom]

I hate to sound arrogant at all, but I'm pretty sure I've had longer with Rock Band than most other people on these forums, through a competition I did where I represented IGN (topic about it is here (http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=6229)). These are my thoughts on the guitar.

Yes, the no clicking was odd at first. The first time I picked it up I even mentioned this to the other guitarist. But, after a little while of playing, you really get used to it, especially with the new shape of the strum bar. In fact, when I went home after the first day with it, I tried playing bits of the Bass parts I could remember on my Guitar Hero SG and thinking "Bloody hell, that is a loud click!" If you want an annoying rhythmical sound to play along to outside the game, play with a drummer.

The fret board is so much nicer than the Guitar Hero one. Yes, again, it takes some getting used to, but once you are into it it feels so much more realistic. It feels much less like pressing buttons, especially if you try sliding up and down the fret board to do HOPOs, rather than the traditional method. I used to try this on the SG and the gaps between the buttons bothered me, the Strat seems like you have more freedom on how to play. One little gripe I had was that at one point I found my thumb accidentaly pressing the green button because I'd hooked it over the top edge of the neck, but a problem thats easily avoided.

Those complaining about the weight, yes, it feels lighter, but is another thing you get used to. But consider this: In real life, Les Pauls and SGs weigh a whole lot more than Strats, so in theory, the weight difference is to scale >.<

[CLOUD9]

Only 3 notes? What's wrong, they can't handle 5?


The Speed and the density of the notes is hard enough on 3 buttons. Have you played Guitarfreaks on the harder difficulties? In Guitarfreaks you hit the same amount of notes in about one minute and fifty seconds to two minutes and ten seconds. That's what makes it hard. Bemani doesn't mess around when it come to difficulty.

[MysteryMan]

The only bad I think I could say was some of the demo guitars on the tour would not strum down only up.

I keep hearing this from multiple sources, and it's really beginning to worry me. Brings back flashbacks of my two broken Xplorers :(

[Bakkster]

I hate to sound arrogant at all, but I'm pretty sure I've had longer with Rock Band than most other people on these forums, through a competition I did where I represented IGN (topic about it is here (http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=6229)). These are my thoughts on the guitar.

That's not arrogance, just a matter of fact. You've got the experience, so lay it on us. :cool:

[sushi111]

If it sucks that bad Ill just use my Xplorer or my hopefully fixed les paul by then

[PoncaHills]

Let me just throw my quick opinion in. As a left-handed player, the Strat is absolutely terrible. Everything is positioned very awkwardly, especially the whammy bar. I found it practically unplayable. Then I played the same songs with the GHIII guitar, and it was much better. So that is how I plan to play the game when it comes out (definitely getting the game, I just hate the guitar). And I do not care one little bit about the 'solo sound effects'.

Wow!!!!
I just played the demo at best buy for a quick minute and yes as a lefty player, the guitar is very uncomfortable.
They should either redesign the strat or create a lefty periphrial.

even Jimi couldn't rock on this...

[Xzyliac]

Wow!!!!
I just played the demo at best buy for a quick minute and yes as a lefty player, the guitar is very uncomfortable.
They should either redesign the strat or create a lefty periphrial.

even Jimi couldn't rock on this...

And ironically Jimi played a Strat.

[dragulaAC]

Wow!!!!
I just played the demo at best buy for a quick minute and yes as a lefty player, the guitar is very uncomfortable.
They should either redesign the strat or create a lefty periphrial.

even Jimi couldn't rock on this...

Hmm, haven't thought too much about this, well ever really, since i don't play lefty. (even though I'm left-handed). Back in the day, I never gave it much thought to even bother making an actual lefty guitar, but with as popular as the 'guitar' games are getting, i think it would be worth while to maybe start producing even just 1 guitar type as a lefty. They obviously wouldn't need to produce near the quantity of normal ones, but I think it would make quite a few people happy as their fan base is growing exponentially it seems. Everything's there, I guess they would have to mirror the mold they use for the guitar casing, but other than that it's the exact same parts wired in.

[sporkBrigade]

Wow!!!!
I just played the demo at best buy for a quick minute and yes as a lefty player, the guitar is very uncomfortable.
They should either redesign the strat or create a lefty periphrial.

even Jimi couldn't rock on this...

Are you trying to be funny? You know Jimi played a strat, right? So you're saying that they need to redesign the guitar to be less like a strat, so that Jimi Hendrix could play it? Even though he in fact played a right handed strat flipped over?

I'm so confused right now. I mean, you're hillarious if you're not serious.

The other ironic thing is that Harmonix is the only company to show interest in making a left handed guitar. RedOctane has never even mentioned it.

[capitalfn9]

i tried my best not to be worried but i've been to 3 different best buys where the guitar wouldnt strum down... this can't just be a coincidence.

[LongDarkBlues]

The guitar at my Best Buy strums down just fine - I haven't been in 5 days though, I'll check it out again tonight and see how it's holding up.

[Cvette54]

I just played the guitar on RB at the Best Buy on 280 in Birmingham. My fears were confirmed, strumming down would hardly work at all on this guitar. They just put it on display a couple of days ago. I had to play every song strumming up, thats fine for playing bass parts, but I need to be able to strum both up and down to do guitar parts. I have seen so many of these complaints from people Im worried that when I pick up my RB bundle my guitar will be just as bad and I will resort to playing guitar on my Xplorer. Please HMX, tell me these are just isolated issues with the demos and will not be in my final bundle.

[capitalfn9]

i wish someone would comment on it from hmx, if only to say "these problems are due to misuse of the guitar" or "its being called by x reason."

[AVC808]

has ign, gamespot, etc. written about any issues? i would think that those guys have gone to town on the instruments.

unless maybe they refrained from writing any issues since they were given early production models.

[Xzyliac]

has ign, gamespot, etc. written about any issues? i would think that those guys have gone to town on the instruments.

unless maybe they refrained from writing any issues since they were given early production models.
Sounds right.

[skyehill]

The only comments on the guitar I've seen from the guys at IGN/1up etc are that the guitar looks great, but feels extremely cheap. No comment on the strum bar's durability, which doesn't sound good considering how many bad guitars there are at Best Buys around the country. Heavy play for 1 day or 2 shouldnt be breaking strum bars.

[Supergeek]

Played at my Best Buy in Aurora, Colorado (Tower Road and I70) and I had no problems using the guitar effectively, but the strum bar did feel "mushy." It was like it had padding inside it, which felt weird. Also, the whammy bar is HUGE.

I play with the whammy bar under my hand, and my thumb and forefinger holding the strum bar. I hold it like I'm holding a pick, except the pick can't move.

I'm definitely on the "no clicks" bandwagon; on faster songs, the click is really annoying. In a lot of the YouTube videos all you can hear is a constant click-click-click.

Aside from the mushiness, and the enormous John-Holmesian whammy bar, I enjoyed using the Strat.

However, the Les Paul is aslo a very solid controller. I played one song (Even Flow) and I was very comfortable using the Les Paul. But, I only played it for one song, so I dunno if anything would have annoyed me about it if I had kept playing.

So, there you have it, from an unbiased perspective. Both guitars are good, and the Strat's differences may take some getting used to.

[xenopherus]

I feel bad for all the people who are having crappy guitar experiences. I'm glad the guitar worked fine for me. I am planning on going back to BB to play it again, but worry the guitar will be in the same condition as everyone is saying by that time. Well, at least I got to play it while it was still in working order and even moreso, I'll be able to play (reletavely) unfettered when Rock Band comes out IN JUST A FEW WEEKS!!

[sporkBrigade]

Played at my Best Buy in Aurora, Colorado (Tower Road and I70)


Colorado represent!

[skyehill]

The bad part about all the broken guitars is that we, Rock Band fans, know that it's broken when we use it. The majority of people trying out the demo will have no clue that it's broken, and just assume that's the way it plays. And they'll be turned off. And sitting right next to RB will be a GH3 demo and a GH2 demo (at least its like this at the Best Buys near me), and if those controllers are still working flawlessly like at the Best Buys near me, someone would be nuts to choose RB over it. Harmonix needs to address this major issue or risk turning off potential buyers.

[LongDarkBlues]

The guitar at my Best Buy strums down just fine - I haven't been in 5 days though, I'll check it out again tonight and see how it's holding up.
I just got back from Best Buy - the guitar is still working just fine the strat is responsive and working great - I was getting 97-99% on things with no trouble strumming both up and down. It's been there a week now and there was a decent wait to get to it there were so many people using it tonight, so it's certainly taking it's share of abuse.

The drums, and it was like this the day after they set it up too, are not as responsive as some have said here - they play fine, but you have to give them a pretty solid hit, and sometimes it wasn't responding to a tap when I was trying to navigate the menus - again, though, that doesn't seem to be from use, as it was that way since the day after installation - I'm guessing that either buggy calibration with the demo more than the instruments themselves - obviously the way it reads inputs from the instruments is altered (the bass drum playing automatically), so perhaps it's something more like that, because both the guitar and the drum kit feel rock solid to me - I don't get where the 'cheap' thing is coming from at all - I think it all looks and feels great.

Also, since I was last there they hooked up the mic, but I didn't try it out - I'm going to save that for getting back to the privacy of my home.

EDIT: Also, I noticed that the GHIII demo set up next to it had already had it's Les Paul replaced with an Xplorer since Sunday - I can only assume because it's broken already. For whatever that's worth...

[McDeezy]

The drums, and it was like this the day after they set it up too, are not as responsive as some have said here - they play fine, but you have to give them a pretty solid hit, and sometimes it wasn't responding to a tap when I was trying to navigate the menus - again, though, that doesn't seem to be from use, as it was that way since the day after installation - I'm guessing that either buggy calibration with the demo more than the instruments themselves - obviously the way it reads inputs from the instruments is altered (the bass drum playing automatically), so perhaps it's something more like that, because both the guitar and the drum kit feel rock solid to me - I don't get where the 'cheap' thing is coming from at all - I think it all looks and feels great.


It might have a input read loop or something for the drum pedal. And maybe it causes input lag becuase its doing the bass auto.

[Supergeek]

People using demo gear abuse it. I've seen people do strange and horrible things to stuff just because it wasn't theirs. I would guess that the majority of hardware problems are just people pushing the switches too hard because it makes them feel powerful, like they're getting it over on "the man", or from honest-to-goodness inconsistent production issues.

Not a lot of use arguing about it... We'll see when we get the actual bundles in our homes.

[MdubMedia]

I played the demo y-day, and to be honest I loved the guitar. It was very comfortable and I like it not clicking. I need to spend more time with it so I'll be going back today, but from what I played, it felt fine. It wasn't "too light," "flimsy," "cheap" or crappy feeling.

It felt solid, the buttons feel cool ( didn't try the lower set ) and strum bar was the best part. My friend who has never played GH picked the guitar right up and played relatively easy.

I will say that Medium in RB felt like easy on GH...maybe it's because I play so much GH, but it felt a lot easier....I am yet to try hard or expert

[MaineDrummer]

I am not worried at all. All the GH demos around here (3 that see a lot) are broken.

The guitar will be covered and if it is broken, I'll just have to get by with another controller until my fixed strat comes back.

[Alexsutton]

Really sorry if this has been answered before, a search came up with nothing!

Will the PS3 Guitar Hero 3 guitar work on Rock Band?

I've heard some people saying no and I just wanted a confirmed answer. Many thanks in advance!

[iNiGhTmAr3]

yes that has been confirmed in this thread

[Keebler]

I will say this. I just returned from the Best Buy here in NJ and we failed most songs on most instruments because there was at least a 1/2 second lag. You could hit a drum pad and not see it hit in-game for A LONG TIME. And the lag calibration is not adjustable on the demo.

Take it for what it's worth, if you're complaining about having problems with the instruments.

[Reaper0563]

I will say this. I just returned from the Best Buy here in NJ and we failed most songs on most instruments because there was at least a 1/2 second lag. You could hit a drum pad and not see it hit in-game for A LONG TIME. And the lag calibration is not adjustable on the demo.

Take it for what it's worth, if you're complaining about having problems with the instruments.

lag calibration is somewhat available in the demo, you can calibrate the game to your setup LCD TV, HDTV, etc. from the main menu --> options/setup. But you can not manually calibrate lag in the demo :)

[xenopherus]

I just got back from playing the Best Buy demo again... The buttons on the guitar are a huge problem for me. The first time I played, I think I was too excited to really notice. But I tried playing Tom Sawyer on hard, and failed out twice. Maybe it was just an off night for me, because I played it alright on hard before the first time. It seemed like either the buttons didn't register when I pressed them, or I wasn't finding the right buttons. When I play GH, I'm constantly sliding my fingers all over the place and need those buttons to orient myself. With the fret board totally flat and no spaces between the buttons, it made it so difficult.

The drums when I played them again (I tried medium this time) were a lot more fun than the first time. I tried not to be so rough with my drumming and so the loud noise I remembered from before was considerably less.

[acetabulum]

I'm not too concerned about the "reliability" of the guitar--I'm upset about the natural "feel" of it.

I've played on perfectly working ones, but the buttons and strum bar feel too mushy. Not very fun to play at all compared to the new GH Les Pauls. But, to each his own I suppose.

[Schultzy]

Alright, time for my review of the guitar.

So I went to Best Buy yesterday here in Chicago with a friend of mine. Of course, the GH3 and RB demos were side-by-side. There were some kids already playing RB, so I played a lil bit of GH3 and just overall disliked it. Then we finally got a chance to play RB. I played guitar and a lil bit of drums and my friend played drums and a lil bit of guitar. The guitar in Rock Band is certainly a step up from the GH3 controller. It looks beautiful, feels great, and is very easy to use. However, the buttons were a little big for my liking, but this may be because I've been cursed to live my life as a dude with small chick-hands, but after a while I got a feel for it. I didn't even bother using the solo buttons, because by the time a solo section is coming up, it's just too hard to slide down and play some solos. When I was playing the demo, I never noticed the weight, so that wasn't a problem for me. I messed around with the effect switch, but after a bit I decided it was just some catchy feature that didn't appeal that much to me. I did notice the non-clicking strum bar, but I decided that I like it; it adds a more realistic feel to it and overall the strumming in turn is easier once you conform to the new guitar. The thing that I liked the most was how easy the game was to pick up and rock out. Now, I don't own any Guitar Hero games or anything, but I was still able to take the guitar and play most of the songs on hard and have quite a challenge. I failed at a few songs, two I think, but I think that was only because I had my fingers in the wrong spots and didn't adjust fast enough.

Overall, I love the guitar, and now I'm even more impatient for Rock Band to come out. :D

[Paakaa10]

While being courteous at Best Buy the other night, two little girls got on the Strat and drum set (with no idea how to even start up the game and play a song) and just hammered the hell out of the drum pads and the strum bar. That is how perfectly passable hardware ends up in a sorry state after a matter of days.

I had a first-generation SG controller with Guitar Hero on PS2 (early adopter for the win), and it still works like a dream--wish it still worked on my PS3, in fact. The only thing that is "broken" is the whammy bar, and it still works--I've just used it so much and other people have used it so much between Guitar Hero 1 and 2 that it is very loose. All of the buttons still register fine and the only wear on the strum bar is some paint chipping from when I (perhaps drunkenly) decided to use a quarter as a guitar pick one night.

One good thing that has been pointed out in this thread is that sometimes people don't realize that concessions have to be made when dealing with new equipment. The first-generation SG has a poor tilt-sensor. Thus, second-generation SGs require adjustment because the tilt works. The X-plorer has different button shapes, so that requires adjustment. The Les Paul has new spacing on the buttons and a super-sensitive tilt-sensor--this requires adjustment. Given that all of these named controllers were made by a single company, and yet there is all this adjustment necessary from one controller to the next, it is only sensible to expect adjustments when using a new company's Strat controller.

Did I find the Strat very different from the LP when I first picked it up? Oh yes. Did I adjust to it so that I could hit 95+% consistently on expert on the demo (conceding the fact that yes, some of the songs aren't exactly top-tier material)? Yes.

In the end, here is the nice thing about the situation. Harmonix has created an open area where Rock Band will work with your LP or your X-plorer and not just your new Strat controller. So, if you're really hardcore against the Strat, you can just buy the game for now and pick up the mic and drums later if you're so inclined. Red Octane/Activision/Neversoft, conversely, don't have this sort of olive branch approach--half of the back of the box for Guitar Hero 3 is dedicated to the specific language that the game will not function properly unless you are using the proper (read as: Red Octane brand--further, if you're on the PS3 like I am, the only controller you could possibly use with full functionality is the LP anyway) controller. This same language appears on-screen while the very game itself is loading.

Even if I liked the LP more than I liked the Strat, I would be angered at this inexplicable decision to be selective with the guitar controller for one game while another company is expanding the list of what can be used with their own game, at the risk of a profit loss.

As it is, as a real musician, the neck of the Strat with the buttons flush to the controller feel more like a real neck. Instead of feeling like I am pushing buttons in an approximation of playing guitar, I feel like I'm actually sliding my fingers up and down the neck. The solo buttons will take some getting used to because of having to find placement fast as the solo starts up, but this will come in time that I don't have to dedicate to playing the game at Best Buy. I'll be holding on to my LP and GH3, but I haven't actually sat down and used either since I tried out the demo for Rock Band. The LP will be a temporary bass until the individual peripherals come out, and then I'll be grabbing a second Strat and paying for it with my trade-in.

[JBabin3xb]

I love the new guitar, it makes you actually strum rather than tap. It is definitely different and I'm glad i pre-ordered. I'm a guitarist ( as is almost everyone here, hints the passion ) and i appreciate what harmonix is doing.

[skyehill]

I love the new guitar, it makes you actually strum rather than tap. It is definitely more realistic feeling and I'm glad i pre-ordered. I'm a guitarist ( as is almost everyone here, hints the passion ) and i appreciate what harmonix is doing.


I laugh whenever I see someone calling the mushy strum bar realistic. If strings on a real guitar gave you little to no resistance (were mush) you'd not be able to play. What we're seeing in the RB guitar isn't realism. It's just different.

[Paakaa10]

I laugh whenever I see someone calling the mushy strum bar realistic. If strings on a real guitar gave you little to no resistance (were mush) you'd not be able to play. What we're seeing in the RB guitar isn't realism. It's just different.

To be honest, anybody who singles out the strum bar of any of these guitar peripherals for the means of calling them "realistic" is fundamentally prone to hyperbole--no offense meant to anyone, just a little truth here. The idea of replicating the strumming motion is a first step towards realism, but the reality of both the LP and the Strat and all the guitars that came before is that you cannot hyper-realistically replicate the notion of playing a stringed instrument on a controller that lacks the necessary analogous strings.

Whether you complain that the strum bar clicks (LP) or that the strum bar is "mushy" (Strat), neither one is going to give a realistic account of how one would strum a six-string.

That said, you can compare the necks and the fret buttons because the essential motions (though lacking strings to be pushed down and specific chord fingerings) are similar. As far as that is concerned, I would call the Strat a more realistic translation of actual guitar because the fret buttons are flush with the rest of the neck versus having buttons that jut out from the neck. While some people like to use the raised buttons to gauge their finger spacing, with time people will learn to note the spaces between frets on the Strat to keep themselves on the right buttons, just as people use the raised metal of actual guitar frets to remember where they're playing. In the long run, I should think that the reduced travel distance might result in more comfortable playing on the Strat versus the LP as well.

It all comes down to a matter of preference, in the end. I just much prefer the Strat based on the time I've spent with each guitar thus far. I'll be incorporating both it and the LP into my Rock Band play sessions until individual Strats are available for purchase anyway.

[admanimal]

While being courteous at Best Buy the other night, two little girls got on the Strat and drum set (with no idea how to even start up the game and play a song) and just hammered the hell out of the drum pads and the strum bar. That is how perfectly passable hardware ends up in a sorry state after a matter of days.



I saw the same thing today at BB. One kid was playing the guitar while some other little girl was playing Singstar with her friend right next to it, but she was also hammering away at the green drum pad with her hand for no apparent reason.

[jq71586]

I saw the same thing today at BB. One kid was playing the guitar while some other little girl was playing Singstar with her friend right next to it, but she was also hammering away at the green drum pad with her hand for no apparent reason.

Thats how you play cymbals?

[JesterOC]

Ok I went to BB and it appears they setup all the peripherals and put them in front of a video screen.. But they seemed to have neglected to hook it up to anything! But on the bright side, I was able to pick up the guitar and get a feel for it.

Yes you can flex the neck, but it is not flimsy, and if I would not have been told that the next could flex, I would not have even tried. But button action seemed nice, not as tough to push down as my new Guitar Hero III guitar. The drumset felt nice and while the drum hits where by no means silent, I don't think that it will be bothersome if you have the sound up to "rockin" levels.

[LongDarkBlues]

That's been the most frustrating thing for me at my Best Buy - the TV and speakers are soooo pathetic that it's hard to play - half the drums sounds are out of it's bass range - I am psyched to get this baby home on a real TV/Stereo system and crank the hell out of it.

[zj695000]

I work in retail, and we received the demo set, and within about 2 hours the guitar was no longer recognizing any of the notes on the screen. We opened up a brand new set and set those up, and the guitar was immediately not hitting notes correctly.

Now I bought the 360 version, and after an hour or so, my friends are saying its not hitting the notes. Why is this guitar so terrible? Is there a trick to it or is it just horrible?

GH2 Xplorer guitar works SOOO MUCH BETTER. Why did I just spend $170 for terrible quality?

[LS1_DemoN]

I am seeing all these "new" people join and have to wonder whats going on.

I have been playing now for 10 straight hours and have had absolutely NO issues.

played about 4 hours...all is good here too.

[evilzom]

i love the RB guitar... love it.

[k_luva]

Just wait...I thought I was outside of the problems as well...I got BIT with the downstrum virus...

[natesac]

I am having bad downstrum aswell. even after the auto update. But when the strat was working good I was in love. I really like it. untill it randomly stops picking up my downstrums. and I for sure did not break it. I was getting used to the quick light touch you can use with the strat.

[natesac]

I am having bad downstrum aswell. even after the auto update.

[Ventura]

I am seeing all these "new" people join and have to wonder whats going on.


You don't think it might be because the game was just released? Or is that purely coincidence? :rolleyes:

[AdamBomb629]

DId you calibrate it based on your TV set? That could have an effect.

[graggor]

I am seeing all these "new" people join and have to wonder whats going on.

I have been playing now for 10 straight hours and have had absolutely NO issues.

[toefer]

I still fail to understand what some people are complaining about.

Yeah the guitar's not perfect, but it's so much better than anything else out there it's almost laughable. No 'clicky' strum bar, it's larger, lighter and the fret buttons are nothing short of awesome.

Besides the obviously 'I own an X360 ver and wish it was wireless', I can find nothing wrong to complain about (if I just had to pick something, I wish the yellow fret's guide 'bumps' were a little more 'pronounced').

Other than that it's as close to perfect as can be (imho) and I hope they don't change anything going foward.

tril

Just be lucky your's seems to be working fine. When working as it should, I'd agree that it's the best around. But unfortunately, I, like many others, have problems where its impossible to play notes in quick succession. HOPOs can take care of some of the problem (even though I'm not a big fan of them), but there are times when you can't use a HOPO (like when you have to hit red, red, red, red, red, red, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue really fast). This problem makes some songs frustrating, and almost unplayable.

At the same time, I hope people just stay patient for a bit, and give HMX a chance to figure this out, or address the issue, before bombarding EA with new controller claims, just so they can mail you another one that will most likely have the same problem.

Note: What's up with the forums randomly mixing the order of the posts up? I posted this after mohkilla's post, but it's getting thrown in at #10.

[trilidar]

I still fail to understand what some people are complaining about.

Yeah the guitar's not perfect, but it's so much better than anything else out there it's almost laughable. No 'clicky' strum bar, it's larger, lighter and the fret buttons are nothing short of awesome.

Besides the obviously 'I own an X360 ver and wish it was wireless', I can find nothing wrong to complain about (if I just had to pick something, I wish the yellow fret's guide 'bumps' were a little more 'pronounced').

Other than that it's as close to perfect as can be (imho) and I hope they don't change anything going foward.

tril

[mohkilla]

I agree, I can do all the solos on my X-plorer on Expert that i cant do on Expert with the Fender Strat....

[zj695000]

Well that is the main reason I'm so upset. I hated the click of the guitar hero guitars, but I have never seen a guitar hero guitar go down. We never get GH returned at work, but we already have kids bringing back RB after 12 hours.

[Qizarek]

Upon putting the guitar together, I noticed the strum key was very loose (jiggly). The fret buttons also seemed quite loud and "cheap' compared to the demo in the store.

I went through one song before the guitar simpy gave out and stuck in the down position.

[Angry-Andy]

Oh, it doesn't seem that bad. It certainly doesn't feel flimsy to me anyway.
I like almost everything about this new controller. There are just two problems I have with it, and unfortunately, one of them is a very very big problem for me. Like you, I really despise the mushiness of the strum bar. I'm getting through every song just fine on expert...but I still miss a few notes that I normally shouldn't be missing due to the mush-mush strum bar. I don't mind the lack of a click, but if removing the click meant mushy strum bar mushiness, give me the click over mushiness any day.

Another problem I've noticed with the controller is the effects switch seems to be easy to hit accidentally. This isn't as big a problem. It doesn't cause any missed notes or anything. It just seems like an odd problem that they didn't catch. Maybe its' just me because I don't think i've seen anyone else mention hittin the effects switch a lot accidentally.

Oh yeah, the game does seem a lot easier too. I pretty much blew through solo career mode on expert without failing a song once until I got to the last tier of songs.

[Sentouki]

Played for 8 hrs guitar was fine for me the whole time

[mckrakalaka]

I dont think I have ever been so excited for a game and so dissapointed. When the tatoo maker is the most fun aspect of a music game - you are in trouble.

The guitar is just terrible - the only way to get it to sense your movement is to barely strum at all - any hard down strokes dont register for me. So I am supposed to play really softly? Yeah - genlte and soft ROCKS \m/ Any difficult solo is cake with a GH guitar and frustrating as hell with the strat. I hit the effects switch all the time by accident, - its stupid anyway but man is it in the wrong place. After about 8 hours of play, my guitar barely registers a downstroke anymore :(

Happy Holidays from Rock Band! No online WT, and a craptastic guitar!

If I have to listen to people tell me the drums are "the best part" of the game again I am going to vomit - of course they are - the guitar part is broken! The easy level is no longer easy like in GH - my 3 year old (almost 4) can play easy pretty well and make it through a few songs on GH - he cant play Rock Band at all. The difference between easy and expert is also not enough - Expert is boring - why not make it challenging on this higher level of difficulty?

Why ship wooden drumsticks with a plastic drum kit - give me rubber tips - I have my system CRANKED - and the game sounds BEAUTIFUL in DD, but all I hear when I play drums are Clickity Clack, Clickity Clack *****es! Its like some sad Dave Chapelle joke.

I am happy for the people who are loving the party experience - but honestly, I think they are all drunk. This game has EA written all over it - Like Def Jam before it - EA knows how to ruin a franchise.

Credit to Rock Band for trying something different - but It doesnt work for me. The store no longer has the joy of unlocking characters or songs - my money is wasted on clothes I could care less about. The small touches are gone - the neat facts about the Boston bands that you unlocked in previous GHs are gone - the fun one liners are gone in place of load screens that are uninspired. The Venues are limited to the style of your character - and they arent fun or joyful or creative - they are BORING to look at.

Im done whining - sorry about that - but its just been a dissapointing few days - wait till you see what you get for beating the solo career - its really really lame.

Playing with my wife and son was kind of fun - but not what it should have been - after hearing my incesant whining for 2 days my wife finally shut me up by putting the Rock Band away and loading up Mass Effect - The sheer joy of that game has been a nice anesthetic after the painful botched surgery that is Rock Band.

[Sentouki]

Return it?

[Granteezy]

My downstroke registers 1/6 of the notes I play. Harmonix, please adress this issue ASAP. I don't care how or when, just give me some faith by acknowledging the issue with the strum bar not registering downstrokes on some guitars, and tell me you're working on some kind of fix.





I drove all the way to Buffalo from Toronto, Canada for this game, after the Canadian street date got pushed back to Dec. 17th, and my guitar lasted 6 hrs!

[JackBNimble]

My downstroke registers 1/6 of the notes I play. Harmonix, please adress this issue ASAP. I don't care how or when, just give me some faith by acknowledging the issue with the strum bar not registering downstrokes on some guitars, and tell me you're working on some kind of fix.





I drove all the way to Buffalo from Toronto, Canada for this game, after the Canadian street date got pushed back to Dec. 17th, and my guitar lasted 6 hrs!

Look through the tech forums, there are quick fixes out there.You probably can't return the guitar untill the Canadian release,and it probably wouldn't matter anyways since this seems to be happening to all the guitars.

Hopefully EA/HMX will redesign the controllers so the dont all fall apart.

[Childs Play]

I played today at Best Buy for about 3 hours, switching between drums and guitar. The guitar looks really good. It's longer and looks real. That's where the goodness ends. The recessed buttons actually aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. I never lost my place. The weight and feel of the guitar however is complete junk. It lacks in weight. It doesn't feel like a quality piece of hardware at all. It feels like you could easily break it in your hands. I hate it. The Les Paul guitar for GH3 owns this guitar. But what's the ultimate killer is the strum bar. NO CLICKING. It's just mush. WTF HARMONIX?! What a disappointment this thing turned out to be. It appears that Red Octane was actually doing something positive, at least in regards to hardware. Harmonix needs to rethink it.

I am buying the full kit on day 1, but I'll be using the GH3 guitar on it. The drums are awesome. And the songs in the demo were a ton of fun to play, although the guitar parts on all difficulty settings lacked any difficulty whatsoever, and that's coming from someone that has problems on Expert on GH. I've always loved Harmonix, but they've failed on the guitar and on watering down the guitar parts. The game is a ton of fun to play when you have 2-3 other people, but playing it alone was kinda boring when playing the guitar part.

the fact that the strum bar doesnt click and its easier to push on it is in fact much better and its actually better for your hands and fingers... I think harmonix did a good job improving the controller

[thejuice66]

this guitar does look sweet...but oh my god does it have problems. Down strumming seems to be the issue with every thread that i have checked. this ****ing blows nuts. i payed for a game that worked...an overpriced game at that. It is certainly a must buy...but the guitar has to be sent back in? you might as well buy the game and just send the guitar back right otb. I didnt pay this much just to send back a "controller" just because some hack engineers didnt do their job. testing is key guys. oh, and to all of you naysayers...just wait till yours fails too. i guarantee it will.

[methodz76]

I agree about the clicking. The lack of a click in the guitar is completely throwing my chi off. I've played all the guitar heros up until this point and have gotten to be pretty good at it (I can get pretty deep into all the games on expert, though i've only beaten gh1 on that mode). But, I can barely play RB on medium with it's crappy guitar. Why'd they have to mess with a good thing? I also get lost easily because the raised divots are so small. Now i have to buy a new guitar for this game just so i can play the guitar portions. Lame, Harmonix. So lame.

[dlisapussy]

The weight and feel of the guitar however is complete junk.

You lost me right there. You mean to tell me that the guitar hero guitars don't feel like complete junk? These feel heavier if I can recall the guitar hero guitars correctly. And I can.

[mind_in_rewind]

I have two X-Plorers, a Les Paul, and used to have two SGs. I greatly prefer the Strat.

Too bad mine broke.

[Everman]

The only thing that has broken on my Fender so far has been the whammy bar. Strumming is still working as far as I can tell.

I also agree that the strum bar design is seriously flawed. I always strummed past the bar, up and down. This bar is sooo tall I feel like I am smacking into a wall with each strum. The thing is huge!

Les Paul Gibson is much nicer. Small, responsive strum bar that you can just go to town on!

(All for the PS3 btw, so I am stuck not being able to use it)

[Emowii]

I would like to agree with everyone who thinks the Rock Band guitar is utter garbage.


I don't consider this debate a matter of opinion, and more a matter of fact. My only major problem with the guitar is the strum bar. It simply is not as functional as the Guitar Hero guitars, and the strum bar actually impedes on ones ability to play the game as well as you would be able to with the Guitar Hero guitar.


The lack of instantaneous reflex when the strum bar is pressed is just not good for a game that requires immediate return so you can hit the next note. People who play this game on easy, or even normal may not feel this is a big problem. But anyone who truly is good at these games will find this guitar to be complete crap.


I hope to GOD Harmonix eats some pride and fixes this guitar when they officially release the guitar to buy seperately. It's the ONLY way I'd ever buy another guitar for this game.

[espher]

That's a shame, because it's a matter of opinion. I find I have much more control (at least where alt-strumming is concerned) than I did with my SG, and I loved the SG more than the Xplorer.

[visualdeity]

I would like to agree with everyone who thinks the Rock Band guitar is utter garbage.


I don't consider this debate a matter of opinion, and more a matter of fact. My only major problem with the guitar is the strum bar. It simply is not as functional as the Guitar Hero guitars, and the strum bar actually impedes on ones ability to play the game as well as you would be able to with the Guitar Hero guitar.


The lack of instantaneous reflex when the strum bar is pressed is just not good for a game that requires immediate return so you can hit the next note. People who play this game on easy, or even normal may not feel this is a big problem. But anyone who truly is good at these games will find this guitar to be complete crap.


I hope to GOD Harmonix eats some pride and fixes this guitar when they officially release the guitar to buy seperately. It's the ONLY way I'd ever buy another guitar for this game.

That is pure, unadulterated BS. Just because you have a hard time with the strum bar does not mean it isn't usable, I play on expert and had no trouble with it whatsoever, except, as I mentioned previously, that it broke.

The Strat may not work great for everyone, but this is still a debate firmly within the realm of opinion, not fact.