Power Gig: Rise of the SixString Guitar Bundle -Xbox 360

The game itself is better than the reviews would lead you to believe. I am more interested than function than form, and the game gets that job done just fine. I have not spent a ton of time yet with the Rise of the SixString game, but I didn't find it all that different from the competition or objectionable. I would say the graphics aren't "bad" but more in a different artistic style that is being interpreted as primitive.Really, my primary interest was the guitar controller and I have mainly been playing the Power Gig guitar with Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Band Hero. I was intending to purchase the Rock Band 3 Fender Squier for the RB3 Pro mode, but the super low discounted price on the Power Gig made it worth a try first. Initially I thought I was settling - now I believe this was a great choice!The guitar is suprisingly heavy! It is plastic, but it looks extremely cool and doesn't feel cheap. The frets have individual string pick-ups for all 6 strings in the positions for the normal 5 color controller buttons, plus a space (detected as a non-color button), then repeats again (unmarked) further up the neck. The controller appears to be detected as having the touch sensitive slide buttons as found on some of the Guitar Hero guitars, although I haven't fully explored this capability yet. You can play normally from either button position regardless. This is a nice feature that I'm not sure is documented.The guitar as a musical instrument is pretty much a novelty. It does work, and it doesn't go out of tune instantly as I have seen in the other reviews; but it is inherently out of tune with itself. An open string tuning will leave you with a relative tuning that is off, and visa versa. i.e. the pitch change when you hold down a string is off; one string is off by almost a half tone. You kind of have to play a game with splitting the difference and detune some strings to minimize the overall error in pitch. I'm not sure if this could be corrected with some bridge adjustment.As a game controller, it works very well; albeit a humbling experience. That hard/expert setting that you may have been playing on is not happening right away. If you are looking to develop some real guitar techniques, this guitar will certainly do that! You *must* develop real, useful guitar techniques or you will not be able to play this guitar successfully. There is a learning curve. Just repeatedly strumming a single string is a humbling experience for me. I can play some casual guitar... but strumming a string at the rates required for these games has been a real learning experience and is a real (tough) skill that will be developed. In fact, I am finding this more challenging than fingering!One limitation I hadn't thought about before receiving the guitar is that with a stringed controller, it can't distinguish between an up and down strum. All strumming is detected as down. This is unavoidable, but will affect some challenges in the other games that expect you to alternate.A complaint that I have read is that this guitar will develop bad habits like fingering more than one note on the same string. This is actually very inaccurate. Although it is possible to do this, it is not going to get you very far. The guitar detects a string press by electrical contact of the string against the two frets adjacent to the note desired. Each fret is split into 6 electrical contacts so that different strings can be detected. Playing two adjacent frets on the same string will work fine; albeit bad technique. But if you attempt to play two notes on the same string intending to skip the fret in-between, it will necessarily make contact across all 3 frets. This forces you to play the two (or more) notes on different strings, developing good technique. The manual explains this, along with chord suggestions that will work best. This physical mechanism could theoretically allow for full finger/chord detection not unlike the Rock Band 3 Pro controllers - and it can detect some chords in-game. Despite that, it cannot be used as a Pro controller.Granted, you are not playing the actual notes of the songs - although you can if that note happens to be available on the fret(s) required for play. Quite frankly, I quickly realized that I am not even close to ready to play the actual notes. Just picking any string on the required frets and strumming is challenging enough. I am developing accurate finger placement and picking techniques that apply directly to playing guitar for real. The guitar does give a fair assessment of when you are on and when you are off. It is not very forgiving on finger placement, which IMHO is not a bad thing since you will also develop accuracy.Overall, I am extremely happy with this guitar and am very glad that I bought it. The fact that it is usable with all the guitar games is a definite plus over the RB3 Pro controllers. In fact, I am re-considering a Pro controller purchase at all.

this is the absolute top in gaming when it comes to any of the music games. the game itself has loads of great tunes you'll spend hours and hours enjoying but the guitar controller is a little difficult. its great because its a great Xbox controller and you can use this with Rock Band 3. as for looks, its all serious ROCK N' ROLL. i have as of yet not plugged this controller/guitar into and amp so i can not comment on the tone quality or anything on that end. now don't think you're going to be able to play this without strings if you have those sensitive delicate fingertips, because it will not work without the strings on it. you will learn how to play guitar playing this game, but keep in mind you will also be shredding your finger tips till you build guitar player callouses on your fingers. this controller is not to be used only once in a while, as the callouses will go away after a little time and make it hard or painful to play after a long break away from it.

Well to start off, I only bought this for the guitar. I have rock band 3 and i didnt want to spend 150$ on a pro guitar, and this is a 35$ alternitive. I must admit i didnt have high expectations, but, it works great! and the tracks on the game are really fun to play, its no rock band or guitar hero, i must admit that, but its a interesting take on those games, and has a rather interesting story mode. overall if your a guitar game fan and really dont want to spend the money, its great, it comes with 3 picks, set of strings, and the guitar, stringed and ready, you can even plug it up to an amp and play it!!! the learning curve is a bit steep, but once you get the fingering down its alot easier to play. Being this was the first game to use a real guitar, its a great piece of history as well as a fun time with friends

This is an amazing game. You actually have a real guitar. I have to disagree with other reviewers. They say that they have played guitar for years and this one is garbage. When you review you have to be as partial as possible. I have played the guitar as a hobby for a wile and I find this guitar pretty descent. This is a plastic guitar and is a 3/4 scale, and it is pretty obvious that down scale guitar have some disadvantages compared to a full size guitar regarding the brand and the materials. There are some people making statements that the guitar doesn't stay in tune very well. If you really know about guitars you would know that even $1000 plus guitars when they have new strings they go out of tune very fast until they get loose after a couple of days of playing several hours. Most of the important musicians in the world have 2 or more guitars for a concert and they change the guitar every couple of songs so a musical technician tune the guitar for them. As simple as that.For me the guitar works well, and it has a pretty decent sound. You have to remember that this is a $120 dollar guitar. What are they expecting a $1300 Gibson Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar. Dont make me laugh.The game graphics are mediocre but the game play is good and gives you a good basic for cords playing and good finger agility.Get ready to burn the tip of your fingers if you are a beginner with string instruments. That's a natural process.I hope you enjoy the game and the guitar as much as me.

Perfect thank you.