Rock Band 3 Wireless Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller Review

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I was very excited about the Rock Band 3 Wireless Fender Mustang Pro-Guitar when it was first announced.

I received mine yesterday (11/29) and was eager to try it out of the box. Straight out of the box, I noted that the overall body was still plastic but its heft and build are quite solid. The guitar comes in 3 pieces and snap together quite easily. I plugged it in along with the USB dongle into the PS3...and the game crashed. Tried it again, same result. So, I thought that maybe I had too many USB dongles in at once so I tried just plugging in the Mustang dongle by itself. At that point, the game launched fine. So here are a couple of warnings up front for you:

1. This guitar is not like you other guitar controllers. It actually functions as an alternate PS3 controller, so be sure that you are actually synced up with the dongle.

2. This guitar is a little bit finicky straight off the bat. I would suggest that you sync this guitar up prior to syncing up with other instruments. I haven't found the right combination yet as to what WON'T make it crash, but plugging in 1 at a time appears to work so far.

So, with the unpleasantness out of the way, how does it play? Wonderfully!! All 6 strings are nylon coated steel (which disconcertingly sound like plastic, but they hold up) and all 102 buttons along the 17 frets respond accurately and with no visible delay. If you're a real guitar player, you'll marvel at the realistic response; however, you may complain (and justifiably) that the fret buttons are all the same width and you won't be able to tell which "string" is which. If you're hung up on this, wait until the Squier (which doubles as a real, fully-stringed guitar AND a controller) comes out in the Spring for a rumored value of $280 +/-. The only other complaint that purists may have is that the "notes" on the guitar highway are a combination of numbers placed over strings. No, they aren't notes they just tell you which fret/string you have to hit. If you're used to reading sheet music, you may not be familiar about the 16th fret on the 2nd string...you may know it only as a note and a place to put your finger without consciously thinking how many frets down it is. If you're looking for actual notes, you're out of luck there.

The video game tutorials on RB3 were also fairly helpful in getting a beginner guitar player up to speed, but don't expect these lessons alone to make you a bona fide guitar player on their own steam. Still, they WILL teach you about the numbering and string schematics and also instruct you which fingers are appropriate for which chords. It's not a bad primer.

Overall, it's a fun guitar and the gameplay is phenomenal. Why they can support over 102 different possible fret/string combinations and yet be unable to support drums/keyboard/guitar/bass/vocalists without entering you into All Instrument Mode (as I explain in my review of Rock Band 3) is quite beyond me. My only other complaint is that for a guitar which costs so much, it would have been nice if they had opted for something other than a plastic body; I do feel entitled to something better for that kind of cash. Beyond that, it does work as advertised.

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When I got my MadCatz Fender Mustang Guitar Controller, I felt kind of sorry for it because for some reason someone felt it was necessary to put this message on the front of its packaging: "Not A Real Guitar". No, I guess not. A "real guitar" is like my Fender Strat which sat in the closet unplayed for 20 years due to a disheartening lack of real guitar playing talent. To me, that's a real guitar.

I've had my MFMGC for only a week now and I'm sure I've played it more than I played my Strat in 20 years. The disheartening lack of real guitar playing talent is not a problem on an instrument that is not a real guitar! With some computer help, playing this thing is a ton of actual fun and I actually feel like I'm gaining some real guitar playing talent as a bonus.

I'm not a great judge of whether a guitar-like object is big or small, so I'll provide some useful dimensions for you to decide for yourself.

Neck length (nut to 17th fret): 405mm

Width head (E to E centers at nut): 34mm

Width tail (E to E centers at 17th fret): 45mm

Width strings (E to E centers on strings): 47mm

Some things about playing this are a lot easier than a "real guitar" and some things are harder. Obviously I don't have wires slicing into my finger tips. However, I think that if you play with this thing for hours a day (which is easy to do), you'll go far in preparing your fingertips for real guitar strings. The button action is definitely not real strings, but it's not a terrible substitute if you're not fussy. The button action seems pretty capable of doing what needs to be done. I have had a button get stuck pressed in, but it's very rare and the RockBand feedback points it out right away. Tapping that button cures the problem.

I'm no expert but playing RockBand3 with this seems to foster good habits. The weird one is that you never look at the thing. Never. Harmonix made a fuss about how cool their fret fingering feedback is and that's true, however, they intentionally kept quiet about string feedback because, of course, there is none. I find myself resting the pick on a string just so I can know where it or its neighbor is when I need it. On a "real guitar" that would mute that string.

Some RockBand specific features are good, some not so good. For example, this device can automatically calibrate your audio and video latency for optimal game play. The menu in RockBand to use this feature was kind of confusing, but eventually it seemed to work. I do not like the overdrive feature being tied to the "Select" button. It would have been better had they put it on the down pad or maybe the X. Overdrive still works fine if you tip the neck up to some steep angle, but with complex playing that can be tricky if you're sitting down.

I've played this probably over 50 hours now and I'm still on the original 3 AA batteries. Could be worse for a wireless device. I should note that the battery compartment doesn't have a stupid retaining screw so you don't have to find a small screwdriver just to change the batteries like you did on other RockBand guitar controllers.

Now we come to the coolest part about this unreal guitar. I had thought that if I were going to design such a thing I wouldn't reinvent the wheel but instead I'd use a standard music instrument digital interface. And indeed, they did and they even put a standard MIDI output port on this. This feature makes the price suddenly pretty interesting just for a MIDI controller. After some fussing, I was finally able to hook the Mustang up to a MIDI to USB converter and get Ubuntu on my laptop to see the MIDI events. Then I used the awesome and free music editor Rosegarden to redirect the MIDI events back out to Fluidsynth, a free software synthesizer. This allowed me to play the guitar controller and have the sound come out my laptop. There's a bit of latency with such a setup, but it proves the controller is serious about standard MIDI output. It's not going to be the best guitar-like MIDI controller in the world, but for educational purposes and simple guitar track recording, I think it's great. One odd thing is that if you hit an open string, it tends not to ever decay depending on the patch. However, when you hit a fretted note, the note decays after you let up on the fret button. The way to cancel an open string note is to press a button on that string. It's workable. There's even a mode (press "Start") to send note events by pressing the fret buttons and ignoring strumming (think fretboard tapping). I also confirmed that the strings were velocity sensitive I don't think it's extremely fine, but there are at least two levels of intensity for hitting a string. I should also mention the mysterious headphone jack which disables the MIDI output. I don't know what it's for, but I didn't hear anything with headphones.

So there you have it. This is not a "real guitar". But it is a real musical instrument (technically a part of one) and a pretty fancy one at that. I'm having a great time with it and for me it's a better way to improve "real guitar" playing skills than playing a real guitar.

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Unable to find a Logitech G27 racing wheel last night I ended up buying the pro guitar for RB3. So far I have found it just as hard as learning to play a real guitar except my fingers don't hurt from holding down strings. I think this guitar is a good aid in helping one learn to play because it keeps your interest longer than say a real guitar and book or lesson. However if you are expecting to pick this up and be a pro playing medium or even hard in a months time than you might not have much fun. It will take time patience and dedication. I'm sure it will be months before I get past easy, even if I find the time to practice\play everyday. On a real guitar I know about 5 chords barely. On the normal guitar controllers I was able to complete all songs in Guitar Hero 1-3 on hard with all stars (except for one song on GH 3) but anyway... Right now I'm having trouble playing songs with the PRO Guitar for RB3 that use two strings and 3 buttons. I certainly don't feel like a rockstar when I'm struggling with only 2 strings and 3 fret buttons. I find RB3 overly challenging using this guitar(games are fun right?), but at the same time I feel like I'm going to be able to apply what I am trying to do with the RB3 pro guitar to my real acoustic guitar. And after all it would be pretty awesome if I'm ever able to play Free Bird on Pro Medium. I mean much much cooler and rockstar-esque than using that 5 button regular guitar controller.

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Please try this product before you buy, if you are a real guitar player, it at first, doesn't quite feel like a real guitar. Although, after about an hour of an adjustment period (and a pick is necessary), it starts feeling better and works quite well. I have also tried out the more expensive Squire Pro Guitar model, which has a much better feel, but is slightly less accurate than this one. If you don't already own an electric, the Squire one would be ideal, and if you have one, the Mustang Pro should be fine. The Pros on this guitar are the realistic strumming mechanism, close to the size and scale of a Mustang Guitar, wireless functionality and the amazing accuracy of hitting complex chords and strums. The only downside is getting used to the buttons vs real strings, but after the adjustment period, its not so frustrating.

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I just got my guitar controller today,

I have been a semi pro guitar player for 35 years (meaning I have been paid to play, but never made a living at it) I have turned my nose up at the guitar hero and rock band franchises because of the unrealistic guitars but I have been having a great time with the pro drumset and had the mustang guitar on pre order for more than a month before it arrived.

Well it arrived in the mail today and I rushed to put it together and start playing.

I am pleasantly surprised that there doesn't seem to be any notable latency at all. The fret buttons don't feel very much like guitar strings, but they do not take long to get used to at all. This could be a big plus for those who do not play guitar regularly and are not prepared to deal with the pain of getting your fingers accustomed to guitar strings.

I don't like that RB3 docks points for hitting extra notes, but I can't imagine how they would score otherwise. I am not used to reading music or playing songs "note for note" I usually do a great deal of improvisation when playing actual guitar, so this game is teaching me discipline I have never had before. Over all its a great accessory and I am enjoying it quite a bit. My biggest disappointment is the lack of pro guitar tracks in the DLC.