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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 Ă— 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)