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the idea of buying a “Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang Pro-Guitar Controller”, keeps spinning in my head
a plastic guitar controller with 102 fret buttons (6 strings × 17 frets), 6 short strummable metal strings, and a MIDI out port
it's not a guitar, but it's supposed to teach it
the logic of getting one goes like this:
- i love weird products like this
- rock band is fun and playing the pro mode with this would maybe force me to learn more guitar chords and improve my sense of rhythm
- this would let me combine guitar muscle memory with my midi devices
the logic of not getting one goes like this:
- wouldn't i prefer to have the other rock band 3 pro guitar controller, which is an actual guitar
- anything that's an excuse to not play actual guitar is probably bad???
- won't i regret having another burdensome physical thing
also there's this thing called “rocksmith” which is not obsolete software relying on obsolete hardware or emulation and which achieves the same guitar practice ends without having to obtain a weird physical controller
oh no there is actually someone selling one of the rock band 3 squiers (a very different thing: it's a ACTUAL ELECTRIC GUITAR but with an integrated midi system) in sweden. this is really going to test my restraint i really want to obtain that rare and bizarre organism hhhhhhh
(they're very compromised i will surely regret obtaining one so i probably won't but, god)
okay this is very funny. somehow i have followers on the fediverse, and not on the other two websites, that have both species of weird rockband 3 guitar controllers, and i never found out about it until right now. amazing
@hikari Rocksmith is pretty much how I learned! Not Rocksmith+, though - the tab quality isn't very good (I think it may have been crowdsourced?), and it requires a subscription. Rocksmith 2014 needs a Real Tone cable you'll need to get second-hand, but it's got a good song selection, and there's custom song mods people have made for it once you outgrow the built-in tracks!
@hikari for what it’s worth, I own the actual guitar one, and my review is…eh. you’re probably better off with the buttons.
As a controller, it’s kinda janky and not 100% reliable. As a guitar, it has a hollow neck that makes it feel kinda terrible, and the frets are a weird texture too as part of the sensors. It doesn’t *fail* at anything, but it feels compromised.
@modulusshift oh my god someone who actually owns one…
what you say lines up with what i've read/heard elsewhere tragically. i'm still fascinated by it through
@modulusshift do you mean the surface of the metal frets feels weird to the touch compared to on a normal guitar?
@hikari yeah they’re each six separate pieces of metal separated by plastic. the signal comes down the string and into one section of the fret. And it’s kind of a weird metal too.
@modulusshift oh my god they segmented each fret for each string i seeee
that must make for an interesting playing experience, especially if you try to bend? (i know that's not supported for the midi/controller use of course)