Rock Band 3

[[SS]Hobo]

[[SS]Hobo]

Keyboard

[[SS]Hobo]

The question I want to know is, Will you have to tune it?



Even though music games have been wildly popular for years now, there are still the party poopers who shake their heads, fold their arms, and say, "Why not just play a real guitar?" Well, now those naysayers don't have much of an argument, because Rock Band 3 does have a real guitar. The Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar controller is a fully-functioning six-string instrument that can be used both with the game and with an amplifier. Need a break at band practice? Just unplug from your amp, walk into the living room, and play some Rock Band 3. We got our hands on the controller today and received an extensive tutorial from Harmonix on how it works.

When using this real guitar controller Rock Band will look a little different than what you are used to. Gone are the colored buttons at the bottom of the screen. Now you see representations of the six guitar strings and numbers fall towards you, indicating the fret you should hold down on each string. At the very bottom of the screen the strings will light up and display a number indicating where your hand is on the neck.

For realsies.Chords are indicated by multiple numbers falling down the screen, silhouetted by a shape that should become recognizable to you over time. For instance, after spending some time with Rock Band 3 you should be able to recognize its shape for a power chord and adapt your fingers to match it. Harmonix described it like those game shows where players have to match their body shape to a silhouette cut in a moving wall or else they'll get knocked over.

Along the left of the screen you'll see chord indicators like A or Em. But that's not going to be much help to you unless you know your guitar chords. Luckily, Rock Band 3 should include a tutorial that teaches you both how to read the game's notation and the basics of guitar chords. The way we understand it, every song in the game will have its own tutorial.

When using the guitar on "easy" difficulty you'll only pluck one note at a time and skip many notes of a song entirely. I think most gamers will be able to use the Fender guitar on easy. But when you're using it on "expert" you're pretty much playing guitar at that point. The one thing you can't do with it is play harmonic notes, which are performed by very lightly touching a string on the neck of a guitar and plucking. The result is a very high note and the technique is used to reach notes that are either too far away from where your hand is at the moment or altogether impossible to play otherwise on the instrument. But since the Fender guitar controller requires you to hold down a fret in order for it to read your input, harmonic notes aren't possible.

Now let's all take a moment to ponder the irony that harmonic notes aren't possible in a game made by Harmonix.

The Fender guitar connects to your console through a midi out. Madcatz, the peripheral maker that is creating the other new guitar controller for Rock Band 3 (the one with a hundred buttons), is creating a midi interface that will act as the middle man between the Fender guitar and your console. The fact that it has a midi out means it can be used as a midi controller in other music software applications.

Next to the midi out you'll also find a quarter inch audio cable jack so you can connect it to an amplifier. During our demo Harmonix played Rock Band 3 with the Fender guitar while it was simultaneously hooked up to an amp, so sound was coming from the game and from the amplifier. This may not have many practical applications, but it did demonstrate that, on expert, using the Fender guitar in the game is just like playing the real song.

The real Fender guitar controller for Rock Band 3 is definitely impressive, but we have yet to see how it will ease guitar newcomers into the instrument. Without very clear, very helpful tutorials gamers may be very confused by it. But Harmonix, in general, tends to know what it's doing.

[[SS]Hobo]

Originally Posted by [SS]Hobo

The question I want to know is, Will you have to tune it?

You most definitely will. AND you'll have to buy replacement strings. They're pretty cheap though. About $30 (for a set) as opposed to the cost of my replacement strings which is about $210 (set).

here is the "real" guitar to be used with RB3, makes me wonder how you're going to use the guide button though, I dont see one there, no whammy bar either...

[[SS]Rator]

um yeah, i'm pretty good, but uh yeah, noooo...

Originally Posted by [SS]Bassani

here is the "real" guitar to be used with RB3, makes me wonder how you're going to use the guide button though, I dont see one there, no whammy bar either...

On a strat, the whammy bar screws into the bridge plate.

[[SS]Hobo]

Originally Posted by OVERDRIVE4825

On a strat, the whammy bar screws into the bridge plate.

It a fixed bridge (hardtail) Fender Squier Stratocaster, so it won't have a place for a tremolo arm.

"On the front of the controller, the tremolo arm (or “whammy bar”) sits near the “start” and “back” buttons, which are disguised as volume and tone controls."

I say the reason they didn't put a "Whammy Bar" on it is to reduce the need for tuning as much.

Originally Posted by [SS]Hobo

It a fixed bridge (hardtail) Fender Squier Stratocaster, so it won't have a place for a tremolo arm.

"On the front of the controller, the tremolo arm (or “whammy bar”) sits near the “start” and “back” buttons, which are disguised as volume and tone controls."

I say the reason they didn't put a "Whammy Bar" on it is to reduce the need for tuning as much.

ah.

There are other ways to also avoid tuning, such as lowering the tension of the bridge and installing a nut-lock

Originally Posted by [SS]Rator

um yeah, i'm pretty good, but uh yeah, noooo...

Haha, Rator is scared of Pro Mode... I'll give bass a try if I can get my hands on one of the guitars

Originally Posted by [SS]Hobo

It a fixed bridge (hardtail) Fender Squier Stratocaster, so it won't have a place for a tremolo arm.

"On the front of the controller, the tremolo arm (or “whammy bar”) sits near the “start” and “back” buttons, which are disguised as volume and tone controls."

I say the reason they didn't put a "Whammy Bar" on it is to reduce the need for tuning as much.

Great, so its going to be like the P Bass replica and most likely put in a bad place so that its not even worth using

[[SS]Sabotage]

ONLY thing I'm afraid of is they're gonna focus on songs that have everything, including the keyboard... there are only so many good songs with keyboard in it to be honest IMO.

[AEJustin1]

it has bohemian rhapsody so it's all good! Def a good keyboard song!

[[SS]Sabotage]

Meh.

Originally Posted by [SS]Bassani

Great, so its going to be like the P Bass replica and most likely put in a bad place so that its not even worth using

Somebody say P-Bass???