C. Johnson says:

If you have played Guitar Hero, or even Rock Band for any amount of time or played these games on display retail stores, chances are you have experienced guitar malfunctions like double-strumming or simply the button presses not registering at all. This is VERY frustrating especially when you are trying to concentrate on the button patterns on the screen as well as having to compensate for the lack of quality in the controllers themselves. I have gone through 3 Guitar Hero 3 controllers just from normal use and the pogo pins that were used in designing that become very unreliable after some time. The Rock Band controller which is built much better than the Guitar Hero controller also may eventually suffer from episodes of double strumming and the strum bar itself seems a little too flimsy. I am on my third Rock Band controller as a result and even this one seems to be messing up again. My 4th Guitar Hero controller is also messing up again, with buttons not registering or just cutting off for no reason during a sustained note. It had gotten so bad with Guitar Hero, I haven’t even played the game in over a month and I contemplated being done with the series for good since I had a hard time finding a good reason to spend more money on another controller that would also break down the line (after the warranty period of course).

Well if you have the money and are sick of dealing with this plastic mess that comes with these games then I encourage you to take a look at this premium guitar controller made by Logitech. Like me, the first thing you will notice is the sheer weight of it. While its only slightly bigger than the Rock Band controller, its twice the thickness and it tips the scales at nearly 8 pounds. The guitar is made from the same materials as a real guitar so you a neck that is real wood neck, metal tuning pegs that actually turn and a rosewood finger board. Knock on it with you fist you won’t hear the cheap hollow plastic sound you would hear with the standard controllers. I haven’t held a real electric guitar so I don’t know how the weight compares to the real thing but I imagine if it uses real material, then its close to the real weight. For comparison purposes, it seems to be about the same weight as my cello was.

What is even better is that it is very responsive. There are no issues with double strumming or unregistered button presses and once you get over the weight of it you should become very comfortable with using it. In fact I was able to get even higher scores on songs that I thought I had already maxed out. I tried this controller on my two Guitar Hero tiles, that I currently own. Guitar Hero 2, and Guitar Hero 3. Of course this will work with the newer Guitar Hero games as well. For those that are wondering, it also works great for Rock Band, but for some reason, Activision (the parent company of the the maker’s of Guitar Hero) “Expressly prohibits” you from using this controller with Non-Guitar hero games. I have no idea what that is all about, but anyway.

The strum bar seems to be built to last and in addition to be quiet like the the Rock Band controller’s there is also a slight click feel whenever you move it up and down giving you the feedback you need during intense strumming sections. The Rock Band controller’s strum bar was virtually silent, but lacked the click feedback. On the other hand, the Guitar Hero 3 controller had the click feedback, but was very loud. This guitar combines the best of the two into one. Because this controller is made for Guitar Hero and not Rock Band, it lacks the solo buttons that are on Rock band controllers and IF you were to use this controller for Rock Band, you do not have the ability to tap the solo sections as you can do on the standard controller. Its really my only complaint and though it would have been a nice addition to have both the slider AND solo buttons, I realize this controller was made for Guitar Hero’s games so there was no need for them to add the “solo buttons” and I am sure Activision saw to it that Solo buttons were NOT added since using this controller with Rock Band is “EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED”.

I remember playing Guitar Hero in the arcade for the first time and I really liked the durability and feel of the controller and mentioned to my wife how they should make the same type of durable controller available for home use. Well Logitech did just that but it will cost you…I love the guitar. However, even though the money I spent replacing my controllers would have been able to get this one instead, I don’t think I could part with so much money to get this unless I just had a couple of hundred bucks laying around. However if you are VERY serious about your Guitar Hero games and sick of having the plastic controllers break constantly and feeling cheap and can part with a good chunk of change, then I recommend this controller. I will update my review accordingly if it starts giving me problems down the road, but from what it seems like now, this controller seems to be VERY durable and if you were to purchase it, it should be the last Guitar Hero controller you’ll ever need to buy and let’s hope so considering the steep price.
Rating: 5 / 5

J. Flood says:

In full disclosure, I have not played with this at all. That said, I presented it to two 15 year olds, one 12 yr year old, and one 8 year Saturday night and it was very enthusiastically received. We were all impressed by the heft and feel of the guitar. It feels more appropriate to call this a guitar rather than a controller. All 4 played at various levels over a few hours and were impressed. For the most part they’re used to playing with Wii Guitar Hero equipment on an old 27″ tv. For this they were playing on an xBox 360 with a 40″ HDTV. There definitely was some wow factor in seeing the better graphics in the 360 version over the Wii version. They also recalibrated the game to check for any possible hdtv timing issues. In the end they were all very impressed with this Logitech controller. The eight year had no problem with the additional weight. There was a general consensus that there was a small adjustment to the slightly different size, but all agreed it wasn’t a big deal. All four agreed that they would much rather play with this guitar controller even if it was mated with the Wii/old tv setup. If there’s someone who really enjoys playing guitar based games in your house they’ll definitely appreciate the quality of this device if you can swing the cost.
Rating: 5 / 5

M-Lo says:

Ever wanted to feel like you were (almost) really playing guitar, while playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band? Well this is the control for you. Let me first go into the aesthetics. This guitar is a beauty! It looks real and feels real. The materials are solid and the weight is on par with real electric guitars I have played with.

Pros:

*Responsive – better than my favorite Guitar (Aerosmith Guitar hero – see pics)

*Aesthetics – Did I mention this is a beauty? Its wood!

*Weight – Feels like a real guitar – It’s no lightweight plastic.

Cons:

*Price – A bit steep for a peripheral to cost as much as a console ($199)

*Weight – Yeah its realistic but do you really want to have that weight strapped on to you for an extended period of time?

Longevity will take some time to determine. Over time many of my other guitar peripherals have degraded causing inadvertent strums or none at all. The fret buttons responsiveness have also degraded. I’ll try to update this review to address longevity.

So far so AWESOME!

Would highly recommend if you are really passionate with GH/ RB and had the funds.

4/5 – primarily due to price.

Rating: 4 / 5