Guitar Hero (GH) and Rock Band (RB) Controllers: Their History and Where They Are Now

So, here we are, talking about Guitar Hero controllers. Guitar Hero was released in November of 2005 by RedOctane, introducing a new genre of rhythm games to the Western scene. Alongside the new genre introduced to us, it also brought forth a new style of controller. Today, we shall talk about this new controller, how it came to be, and the iterations it went through over the years.

Conception

The game was conceptualized by a couple of Japanese men who recognized the popularity of the (at the time) hit Guitar Freaks. And not too long after, they would create a cheaper, home-made version of the controllers.

Guitar Hero 1

Platforms: (Playstation 2)

The first Guitar Hero game’s controller was originally intended to have pressure-sensitive frets to imitate the feel of a real guitar, however – it was scrapped in favor of making the gameplay less complex and perhaps also avoiding annoyances such as the fret not detecting your inputs at random times. The guitar itself was based on the Gibson SG, and it had a considerably simple layout; 5 frets, a start button, a select button, a whammy bar, and a strum bar. 

Guitar Hero 2

Platforms: (Playstation 2 & Xbox 360)

Guitar Hero 2’s controller(s) were similar to Guitar Hero 1’s, but the Gibson got repainted red and we got a new guitar! This one was based on a Gibson X-plorer and featured a new D-pad, an Xbox 360 Guide button, and a back button. Other than that, the layout was the same.

Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock 

Platforms: (PlayStation 2, 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Windows, & macOS)

GH3’s guitars were unique from its predecessors. Here stood 3 different guitars. One of the three had a 3 color design, introducing a uniqueness to the palette of the guitars. Moving on, the first guitar was for the PlayStation 2 and was based on the Gibson Kramer with the same layout as before.

The one that came with Windows and macOS was the same one bundled up with the Xbox 360 version of GH2, the good old trusty X-plorer. 

On every other platform though, the guitars that came with them were all the same. This one was a replica of the Gibson Les Paul. The Wii was white for the body and black for the neck, the Xbox 360 was entirely black, and the PlayStation was the same – however, a slightly lighter black. Now, all of the layouts for these were identical – but the Wii would use its Wiimote for most of the controls. Now, you might be wondering; “How do you control it with the controller when you have a plastic guitar on your lap?” Well, there’s a small conveniently shaped cutout for the Wiimote which you can just slide it into. 

Guitar Hero: On Tour

Platforms: (Nintendo DS)

This handheld was a pretty unique case since you had nowhere to put a guitar… Right? Well, That’s where you’d be wrong. There was an attachment for the DS which went into the backwards compatible GameBoy slot, which attached four frets to the DS; green, red, yellow, and blue. Now, the way you’d play the game is by hitting the fret as usual. But, instead of having a physical strum bar, you’d use your stylus to pick the strings on the bottom DS screen to strum. It got pretty annoying at times, as proved by Acai’s playthrough of the game.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Platforms: (PlayStation 2, 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Windows, & macOS)

This guitar was a brand new design, being the same across all consoles (except the Wii, which had its Wiimote cutout.)n The design of this guitar was an original one; but the developers took inspiration from the Fender Stratocaster. Now, this guitar was exponentially bigger – apparently 25% bigger than the others, closer mimicking the actual size of a guitar. The layout of the guitar was practically the same as the rest, the only difference being a new touchpad behind the frets, introducing a way to just tap the notes. This new section of the neck was named the “Solo Section.” Then, a new Star Power button and a longer Whammy Bar. Connectivity issues were also solved. Now, going back to that new Star Power button, it would sit behind the strum bar in the form of a black bar. It was never really utilized then, since players found it too difficult to reposition their hand to hit it. However, nowadays it makes it a lot easier to activate Star Power while strumming. All you need to do to hit it is bang your wrist down on it.

Guitar Hero 5

Platforms: (PlayStation 2, 3, Wii, & Xbox 360)

All this guitar was for GH5 was an adaptation of World Tour’s guitar, but small differences were made; such as a rubberized strum bar, chrome tuning nuts on the neck, and the recently added Solo Section got a new mold.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Platforms: (PlayStation 3, Wii, & Xbox 360)

Warriors of Rock’s guitar was… Interesting. This one looked way more like an Ax than your typical electric guitar. The only differences in the layout were the Solo Section being removed (R.I.P.) The D-pad and Xbox Guide buttons are merged into one button.

Guitar Hero: Live

Platforms: (PlayStation 3, 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, & iOS)

This guitar was terrible. Terrible guitar for a terrible game. This one had essentially the same layout as all the others; Star Power button behind the strum bar, back and start buttons, whammy bar, and instead of 5 frets we got 6 frets. 2 rows of 3 frets, not being colored this time but instead being the same color as the neck, bague. The way these notes were presented in GH:L was by one row of frets on the strikelike, and the notes would either be white or black to represent which row it was, or it could also be a square of white AND black to present a power chord. 

GH Summary

Well, here we are – at the end of Guitar Hero’s guitar history. It’s been a bumpy ride, and it may have ended in a sad crash in quality – however, the rest of the guitars were very good guitars that we still use today to play Guitar Hero. I pay major respect to the builders of these guitars for making such amazing controllers. Now, shall we move on to Rock Band?

Rock Band 1

Platforms: (PlayStation 2, 3, Wii, & Xbox 360)

The guitar utilized in Rock Band 1 is the same guitar you use between bass and guitar in the game, and it is similar to the Guitar Hero guitars in a few ways. Such as; the frets on the neck, the strum bar, and the whammy bar on the body. Unlike Rock Band’s rival’s controllers, Rock Band’s guitar had frets on the bottom of the neck for tapping. Pretty neat if you’re using this guitar for competitive gameplay on a hard song that has a ton of hard-tapping patterns.

Rock Band 2

Platforms: (PlayStation 2, 3, Wii, & Xbox 360)

This guitar is practically identical to the Rock Band guitar, other than it having a new sunburst paint, improved frets, and a more durable strum bar. It’s backward compatible with Rock Band 1, which is pretty neat.

The Beatles: Rock Band

Platforms: (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)

This game would have 3 different guitars for each console, all having the same layout as Rock Band 2. 

Rock Band 3

Platforms: (PlayStation 3, Wii, & Xbox 360)

Rock Band 3 was the start of the real instrument plastic instrument hybrid game style that would be introduced to the world, and the guitars this time around would be very different from their predecessors.

A mimic of a real guitar that ditched the game-esque controller layout would surface, featuring 102 buttons, a string box, and stainless steel strings within. This guitar would continue to be named the “Pro Guitar,” introducing a much more complex style of gameplay to Rock Band for the pros out there who wanted a challenge and wanted the feeling of playing a real guitar. Then, on top of that, we got Limited Edition 5-fret guitars, a new bass guitar, and an improved version of the classic Stratocaster.

Now, the Pro Guitar would come in a couple colors, them being; black and red. This guitar would be based on the Fender Mustang, it looks very pretty.

The bass guitar would be based on a real bass guitar, however; this one had the strum bar split into two separate strum bars, with a little gap separating them. This would mimic what most bass guitar players did when they strummed; utilizing two fingers to strum up. This guitar would pertain to all the normal features of the plastic guitars, apart from the whammy bar – since bass players don’t use whammy. These bass guitars would come in a few colors too, them being; seafoam green, candy apple red, and white.

The new Limited Edition versions of the 5 fret guitars were based on the Fender Stratocaster, but wouldn’t be scaled identically. These would also come in wood designs and the original designs, and these guitars got durability improvements to the frets and strum bar as well.

Rock Band 4

Platforms: (PlayStation 4, & Xbox 360)

Harmonix was not planning to make something extraordinarily new for this game, and this was proven by the fact the guitar was no different than the previous game’s guitar, it being the same Fender Stratocaster; but with improved frets and strum bar (again.)

As of 2016, Harmonix had switched hardware developers and since they were going to release a new DLC for Rock Band 4, they had created a new guitar that was based on the Fender Jaguar. This new Jaguar guitar would feature a rechargeable battery pack and a charging stand.

RB Summary

From Rock Band 1 to now, it’s been great guitars, especially the later ones like the Pro Guitar. Much more consistent and progressive than GH, the main guitars mainly stayed the same – but small improvements were made every game. Amazing.

Current Status of the Guitars

These guitars are not being produced anymore, which is quite disappointing. If these guitars were still produced and the games were still being made, boy – we’d have so much to do. 

How The Controllers Are Preserved and Used Today

Well, with the controller’s death in suit, how was the community supposed to play these old games? With preservation, of course! The players of the community would stock up on these guitars and resell them on Ebay, Aliexpress, etc etc. The most popular guitars would be the Guitar Hero 2 (360,) 3 (Wii & 360,) Warriors of Rock, 5, Rock Band 1, 2, and 3 guitars. These guitars would get modded heavily to increase competitive gameplay with them. Examples are; spraying WD-40 in the strum bar to increase its lifespan, replacing the switches in the strum bar entirely, adding mechanical switches into the frets, and placing tape on the inside of the strum bar to further enhance competitive gameplay and play even harder things on the game. Now, at the point of modding these guitar’s hardware, the community has moved on to a fan-made game released in 2017 to replicate Guitar Hero, but for PC! This game would be titled “Clone Hero,” and would allow you to reach FPS (frames per second) as high as 1,000, 2,000, or even higher. The community would exploit the hardware flaws of the guitars heavily to play extremely hard things, such as the strum bar. A very heavy flaw in the strum bar is if you flick it, it will bounce back and register another input. This motion is called “rake strumming” and can be modified by placing a piece of tape on the guitar.