Customer Reviews

PlayStation 3 Frontman Wireless Guitar - Black

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

For those who went from Guitar Hero then back to Rock Band you'll welcome back the click of the strum bar. But the benefits just begin there. You can now play either wireless or wired, and if you place rechargeable batteries in the guitar you can charge it while playing using the included wire.

Switching between Rock Band and Guitar Hero is pretty easy. Move the switch on the red box (the one pictured in the photo) to Guitar Hero, press and hold the Nyko button on the guitar until the box and the guitar sync up, and voila, you're good to go. Same with Rock Band.

The ONLY complaint I have is the buttons on the neck are very small (and no lower set of buttons). They are more akin to the Guitar Hero guitar, but I did appreciate the neck of the original Rock Band guitar. With everything else this guitar has going for it, it's a small adjustment that is easily made.

I have read so many comments about people having "defective" guitars that I had to write these instructions. First off, Nyko provided very poor instructions but the guitar does work. So before you return your guitar have a read of the instructions below.

Instructions Overview
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To get it to work with Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero you must first sync or link the guitar with the red Pedal. Then turn the select button to Guitar Hero on the Pedal. (Part of these instruction was borrowed from Jim C. from Chicago post. Thanks Jim.)

Detail Instructions to make the guitar work
============================================
1. turn off ps3
2. connect red pedal
3. turn on ps3
4. press Nyko button on guitar (goes into slow blinking mode)
5. press pedal button (pedal goes into fast blinking mode)
6. press Nyko button on guitar (goes into fast blinking mode)
7. make sure both are blinking fast, then press Nyko button one last time

Turn the button on the pedal to Guitar Hero and keep it there regardless of you playing Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero.

You see, Rock Band 2 recently provided an update to allow Guitar Hero World Tour instruments to work with the game. The updates cause problems with the Nyko guitar playing Rock Band 2. You get crazy button presses if you select "Rock Band" on the Nyko pedal. To fix the problem, just switch the button to "Guitar Hero" on the Nyko pedal and the guitar will work for both games. That it.

Overall Comments
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The guitar is offered at a very good price compare to OEM, especially if you just want to try out Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I just don't like the look so much but it does work well. At $[...] its a good deal for a new or spare instrument but Amazon did have it on sale for $[...]or cheaper during their Black Friday sale and Gold Box deal. At $[...] or less it's a great deal. Hope this helps.

I love this controller. I think it's better than the Les Paul, which I think is much better than Rock Band's Fender. It was a pleasant surprise. The strum bar click is predictable and accurate. The receiver has a very cool feature - it sports five colored diodes corresponding to the neck buttons that light up as you press them. The "PS" button on the guitar lights up in different colors depending on which number is assigned to the controller. I find the receiver's cable way too short, but that's easily solved with a USB extension cable. Yes, it has a cheap feel to it, but so do the others - I didn't expect much from a fake plastic guitar.

I have just bought this frontman guitar and could not get it to work. I did some research and it's not working because of the playstation 3.10 firware update. Do not buy this guitar because playstation has stopped the NYKO guitar from working on the PS3. This product should not even be for sale.

We started playing Rock Band at Christmas, and have been waiting anxiously for a stand-alone guitar to become available for it, so that we could have a four-player band, or play guitar/bass together.

We also play Guitar Hero 3, and this guitar (to me) is more like the GH3 guitar than the Rock Band guitar. I actually prefer this guitar when playing Rock Band, as I find it and the GH3 guitar easier to play. I have noticed that my scores are SO much better now on Rock Band, now that I am playing this guitar.

I read another review that mentioned the "clicking" sound, when you strum with this guitar - this is the same as the GH3 guitar - and if you can hear it, you don't have the music loud enough. :)

The guitar is wireless, and it's compatible with GH3 and RB. You are going to love playing RB with four players!

Before the latest PS3 Update, this guitar was fantastic, I even got it from amazon over a year ago and it was only 15 bucks a guitar, so I was extremely happy. The guitars are solid, the strum bar won't break like the Guitar Hero 4 guitar's.
The only design flaw with the guitar is the neck. I've grown used to it and have big enough hands where it doesn't bother me but if you have small hands the neck size of this guitar may be an issue for extended play. The neck is more rectangular-ish with curved edges than the guitar hero guitars which tend to incorporate a more crescent moon back side to the necks making it easy for people with small hands to hold. Still, this is a minor downfall to the guitar, been using it for a year and haven't had anyone complain about it.
Unfortunately the PS3 is Blue tooth, so any guitar you buy should require a usb dongle, not just these 3rd party guitars, (my guitar hero 3 guitar still required a connection through usb).

I mean, again, this thing is reliable, full functioning, and very easy to get used to. dont let the picture fool you, although it looks extremely cheap. this guitar really isn't, it's rock solid.

Finally, as of the last PS3 update, this guitar is useless. Sony updated their firmware and made the frontman guitars not work, they say there is a goofy temporary fix you can attempt by plugging/unplugging the usb dongle, but I haven't bothered to try that. When a new update is released I can only hope that it makes my two Frontman guitars work. Until then.... Don't buy this guitar yet, since we don't ever know if it will work again.

-Jack

If you're looking for a second guitar to play with Rock Band or Guitar Hero 3, this one is two for the price of one. Its actually more durable than the guitar that came with Rock Band and it switches easily between the two games. The only downside is that it doesn't have the lower buttons like the Rock Band guitar, but since I never used them anyway that wasn't a big deal. The other nice thing is that you don't have to get used to the differences in sensitivity between the original Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 guitars - and if you're playing on expert mode, or even hard mode, that can make a big difference. Highly recommended.

I have been anxiously awaiting the Nyko Frontman PS3 guitar ever since I purchased both Guitar Hero III and Rockband for the PS3. So far, I have only used this guitar with GH III.

Positives:
Good price (cheaper than the official guitar controllers)
Dual game compatibility (use with both GH III and RB)
Excellent whammy bar. Easier to use than the other controllers' whammy bars
Clicky strum bar (similar to the GH Les Paul controller)

Negatives:
Note keys (buttons) do not reach towards the edge of the neck. You have to reach around the (somewhat thicker) neck to hit the note keys.
A bit off-balance, neck of the guitar hangs down.
Synchronization issues at first hookup. I had to disconnect my GH dongle before the Nyko Frontman would synch with its' dongle.

Overall impressions: So far, I like this controller very much and the positives far outweigh the negatives for me. I am a satisfied customer at this point.

I paid $7 for this, and as my first guitar, it was worth the $7 for me to cheaply try Rock Band and find out whether I liked it or not (I do!).

But I agree with the other reviewers regarding weaknesses of this model:
* Thick neck not good for small hands
* Buttons don't register as well as they could with non-direct presses

I also think the frets are spaced a little too far apart. I'd like to comfortably be able to place my 4 fingers on the 1st four buttons and stretch to reach the 5th, but my 4 fingers were too widely spaced to make this comfortable. This, with the thick neck, makes the guitar uncomfortable to use.

The sync as described in the directions isn't write, as written previously. You need to click the NYKO button on guitar 3x in a row quickly to get it to sync to red "dongle"

I could live with the non-direct presses issue (at least for now, with my newbie status), but the fret spacing and thick neck are issues for me even now.

First off, I didn't get this on Amazon but it's such a great item i had to write a review for others to see. This is THE BEST guitar I've used/found hands down!! After trying a few other products that shouldn't even be sold I decided to go and buy the PS3 NYKO Frontman. This is the one I first wanted to get and I kick myself for not getting it sooner!! The fret buttons are very comfortable and super responsive, no dropped notes like other guitars. The strum bar is so smooth and its awesome for fast notes! And the whammy bar is the BEST I've ever seen! Whoever says this guitar feels cheap must have been using another one because this exceeds even the Gibson LP in every way. I will admit though, I was nervous at first because it had some trouble linking but once it did it worked perfect. It's so nice to finialy be able to play Guitar Hero III and actually enjoy it! Trust me, I'm an Expert GH player and now that I'm able to 100% songs I would recommend this to anyone. It took me a LONG time to finialy find the perfect guitar as I was skeptical about every one I looked at after trying so many junk ones. Let me save you all a lot of time, buy the NYKO Frontman and you will not be dissapointed! I'm gonna go back to GameStop and buy another as soon as I can.