Customer Reviews

Xbox 360 Rock Band Wireless Guitar

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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

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

I owned an original wired Fender Rock Band Guitar. That one works awesome, and I consider it superior to the Gibson Guitar Hero III guitar. However, I just got my wireless guitar, and the tilt sensor does not work. I went to the support website and forums. Apparently many of the first batch of wireless guitars have this problem. Although this is covered under warranty, I will be without the guitar for approximately 21 days while they ship me a box, in which I will ship my broken guitar back to EA. They will then ship a replacement wireless guitar. I would urge caution when buying because of this. Hopefully, EA and Harmonix will rectify this problem and future production batches will have better quality.
**Update**
30 days after sending my guitar in for replacement: EA says all replacements are back-ordered and could take an additional 9 days more from their orginal 3 to 4 week replacement estimate. Buy at your own risk! Other wireless guitar controller issues have been reported on the Rock Band forums as well. I would recommend buying this guitar at a brick and mortar store where you can return it immediately if you have problems. The warranty replacement takes way too long. Some people on the forums even report that their replacement has issues as well. It's a shame because Rock Band is an awesome game.
**Update 2**
After 35 days EA sent me a wired guitar controller to tide me over until my wireless guitar controller is repaired or replaced. The cool thing is I get to keep the wired guitar even after my wireless one is ready. I didn't call them and complain either. EA did this without my provoking them.
**Update 3**
After 45 days EA sent me a replacement/refurbished/repaired wireless guitar. The guitar performs as advertised. The tilt sensor works great, as well as all the buttons, etc... I definitely consider it superior to the Red Octane Gibson Les Paul Controller for GHIII, which also works on Rock Band. Downside for this controller is that it does not work on any of the Guitar Hero series of games. One minor complaint for EA: When they shipped my guitar they packed an inordinate amount of silica gel packs with it. Some of these packs leaked small pieces of silica which fell inside the guitar and now make a rattling noise when I move the guitar controller. I'm hoping the wireless controllers out now are of the same quality I received in my replacement controller.

I should have known better. Many other people have already commented on how poor the tilt sensor works in these things. Mine is a perfect example of this - I have never been able to trigger "star power" by tilting my wireless controller. Aside from that, the controller works well. Very frustrating for this aging wannabe rocker.

There are two ways that an item can be poorly designed: too simple to perform the task, or so complex that when something breaks you may as well chuck it in the trash. I always prefer the former problem to the latter.

This controller has been the target of a great deal of criticism over a few things that commonly go wrong with it. Since buying it in April, with consistently heavy use, I have had two problems with it. First the strum bar was sticking in the down position instead of re-centering. The guitar is extremely easy to open up, and inside you can see that a couple of small sponges are being relied upon to bounce the bar back into position. Simple, but ineffective in the long run. It was amazingly easy to put two small rubber bands in place that had it working again. Second, I had a problem with the whammy bar not springing back into position. Once again, rubber bands to the rescue! A rubber band stretched from the strap-anchor at the bottom of the guitar around the base of the whammy bar, and voila! Good as new.

So despite the problems with the design, kudos to the manufacturer for at least making the mechanical aspect of the design so incredibly simple that any idiot can fix it.

I have never played a guitar game on anything other than this controller, so I cannot compare this to the wireless Les Paul replica, for example, used in Guitar Hero. I understand that it, too, has problems. The bottom line is that these are not just pieces of electronics -- they're mechanical devices. Mechanical devices should be expected to require some repair if they are being put to heavy use. I'd rather have a problem that can be fixed with rubber bands than one that requires a soldering iron or a re-wiring job, that's for sure.

The range on the wireless guitar is great (I could play the game from another room away if I wanted to), the controls are responsive, so no complaints other than the mechanical problems, which were easily surmounted. At present (September '08), this guitar works not only with with the XBox360 version of Rock Band, but also with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (I have tested it to confirm that.) It is being reported that it will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour, due out later this year. I would therefore expect this controller to function with all music games to be released over the next few years, and so it should be considered a viable -- though flawed -- controller option if you play games in this genre.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highly recommended.

Mine got here today. Guess what?? Star power doesn't work. I called EA customer service. EA never fails to disappoint. They said it would take several weeks to get a replacement. The option to give them money, have them ship a replacement, return mine in a box, and them refund the money isn't even available for the wireless guitar. That means that so many of these things are defective they don't have enough stock to replace them, or they don't want to replace them with more defective guitars.

DO NOT BUY.

Just like everyone else, we had trouble with the tilt switches on our wireless guitars. My brother-in-law bought two, one for him and one for me. The one he bought for himself wouldn't boost no matter how he shook, tweaked, tilted, or swung his guitar. He could only get it to boost by hitting the good old fashioned start button.

The one he bought for me was the exact opposite. Every time you breathed, it boosted on you! You didn't have to tilt at all, and wham--power boost! You could ever get more than half a bar stored up because as soon as you did, the guitar would boost on you whether you wanted it to or not. In a way, this was worse than no boosting because you could hit "start" to make it boost when it wasn't responding; you couldn't hit a "stop" button to make it not boost...

We returned both of them and stick with the wired controllers--which is a pain.

The real drag was that we waited several months to try and buy these. A lot of reviews said the "first batch" had the problem and newer ones were fixed. I just don't buy this. Ours were a newer batch that we bought from a local store (and had just come on the truck in that day).

I didn't give the product one star because the wireless feature seemed to work well with no snags. Also, they redesigned the wammy bar on this model, so it doesn't accidentally hit the start button or trip up your effects switch quite as easily, so well done there. Those upsides just don't outweigh the negative here, however. Like others say, buy at your own risk. I'm tempted to wait for Nyco or Madcatz to release an off brand one and see if it works any better...

I struggled between giving this a two or three star review. I decided on the three star, because this guitar functions as a Rock Band guitar much better than the wired version that came with the bundle did. It's flaw is that the tilt function does not work. I am on a mission to find the perfect Rock Band/Guitar Hero controller. I own both games, and I actually only bought Guitar Hero to have an extra controller for playing Rock Band with friends and family. Like previous reviewers stated, all of the guitars have their problems, but I was hoping that this wireless version had been tested enough to work correctly. I still prefer the Guitar Hero Les Paul, but at least the Rock Band wireless will not impede your playing. You just have to get used to going for that select button to get into overdrive.

I ordered the controller for Rock Band game because wired controller broke after 5 months (only a 3 month warranty). This controller would not work, go into overdrive, by lifting the neck of the guitar. Manufacturer said well the button works doesn't it? Everyone who plays knows you don't have time to press the button on "expert" so I was really irritated that they were trying to pass off faulty controllers with a material feature missing. Anyway, I returned it and asked for another one, and it was just the same, a dud. I am returning that too. I also alerted Amazon. Amazon, by the way, was terrific and just took both back and paid all postage. Anyway, be careful! There must be a back stock of a lot of these old faulty controllers. Be sure you get a newer model if you buy one.