So I know the question you’re asking: “Is the split strum bar reason enough for me to put $70 down on this bad boy?” Well, the answer is no. If you’re not a dedicated Bass player, this probably isn’t a piece of equipment you want to pick up. Personally, I play though the Tour mode on Bass, I always play Bass online, and Bass was my first foray into the expert guitar level. Does this make me odd? Probably, but I enjoy playing Bass. No, it’s not always as hard as the Lead Guitar chart, but it does trump it in some songs, and sometimes keeping the rhythm can be quite difficult and skill with the guitar alone won’t be enough to get you through the song.
If you’re looking to pick up a second guitar so someone can play with you in your living room, the Fender Precision Bass isn’t the worst option to go to. The people that don’t like playing Bass will probably enjoy having the chart matched with a different experience in the guitar they’re holding, and the people that do like playing Bass will like being able to keep rythym with more.. well.. precision.
So what are the downsides? There aren’t many. The size of the guitar and positioning of your hands will be very awkward at first. A larger guitar means a longer neck, and for example the Bass Guitar’s neck is almost a foot longer than the Rock Band 1 guitar’s neck. It doesn’t seem like much, but the transition can be a bit strange.
The second downside would be that the controller simply doesn’t work with Guitar Hero: World Tour. Why? I’m not sure, I couldn’t find that bit of information out there. It’s not that some of the buttons don’t work, or one of the strum bars, or the up-strum, it’s that Guitar Hero sees the guitar as a regular 360 controller and thinks you want to sing with it. This was a huge disappointment when I rented Guitar Hero: World Tour after buying the guitar.
Besides that, the complaints are pretty minor. There’s no whammy bar, you use one of the knobs for that instead. In fact, the knobs are used for the whammy bar, the distortion switch, and the start/back buttons. I’m still not completely used to using a knob to press Start, but I think I can deal with that. The price tag is a bit steep at $70, but you get some bang for your buck. The guitar feels very good in your hands, the strum bars feel tight and are very responsive, and the strap is probably one of the softest guitar controller straps I’ve ever used. I know you probably don’t care about that, but it’s soft enough for me to mention it here, so that should mean something.
I’ll wrap this up on page 3.
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Sweet, I guess it makes it easier for you when we play together
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Being a bass player for 3 years, this is getting a little to far…I love rockband, but boy if your going out and buying fake bass guiatar maybe you should try the real thing?
@ CharliWag(blarg_)
Is it really going out of the way if it costs the same amount as a regular rock band guitar and works better as a bass guitar?
@CharliWag: You have a point, but when you compare it to $99 or $130 guitars – or the $300 ION Drum Set, it’s really not that bad. It’s the same price as a regular Rock Band Guitar.
Plus, I have tried the real thing, and it’s fun, but I have no need to learn the real instrument and I’m never going to be in a band, so I’ll stick to the game.
My family has this guitar, and it is pretty cool with the size and whatnot, but I simply couldn’t get used to the double strum bar (I’m usually the one who plays expert bass in the house).
Granted, I didn’t try for too long, so maybe I’ll give it another go. I just can’t see how I could hit fast bass parts with the double-bar (like much of Panic Attack, for example, which is my favorite song to play on guitar or bass).
Wow! Mad Katz and very well made in a sentance that isn’t ‘Mad Katz never produces products that are not very well made’! Crikey! Well it’s good to see that they’ve finally decided to mend their ways and produce some quality stuff for a change.
You didn’t mention the fact that it’s NOT WIRELESS!!!
That’s what kept me from getting it.