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Post subject: RB3 Squier Quicky Review
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:00 am
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I bought this for my kids so they can transition to real music play on guitar, but I love tech, so I've checked it out to see how good it is.

I played it early Wed. for a few hours and so far it's been great.

As far as the standard guitar stuff itself goes, it's a standard Squier in size, performance, mostly weight, and sound. So if you're familiar with one of them you don't need a repeat.

The only differences I've noticed are that the neck is very slightly thicker, but not enough to matter to play. And it's just a little lighter weight than a normal guitar, (maybe 1/2 pound +-). If the midi pro is hooked on to the body it's close to the same weight.

The finger board is plastic with a wood texture that feels pretty good when played. The frets are within reg. standards height and shape, but to keep the finger positions separate they've got a wrap on them. It's the kind of look you'd get if you took a black string and wound it up on a brown pencil, barber pole style. The wrap comes out to be directly between each string so the frets look like they're segmented. You can't feel the wrap when you slide your finger across them though. The frets also don't appear to be, or feel like metal on the surface.

The neck and body are wood, and the finish overall is better than the average low $ guitar. The paint on this one is a flawless piano black. I'm used to the look of good paint since we also have a pair of Mad Catz wooden Fenders. This will be a big perk though to anyone used to the plastic controllers.

There are several control buttons on the pickguard, but since they use it on my 360 they don't do anything.

The midi cord is much longer than I expected it to be. It's right at 9 feet long, but it is on the thin side. It should hold up pretty good though.

On to the important part if your a gamer, (How it plays in game)...

I've gotten to use both the Mustang and Squier now, so I have a frame of reference.

I'm amazed how well it works. It's as precise as the Mustangs' "string" buttons were, and I'd have to say even better in several ways. It's much easier to slide up and down on a real string, (duh) and this makes it much faster to get to the note you want. It's also just as precise as the MG was at telling where your fingers are. I haven't had a single misread from it yet. And I've watched both my teen aged boys play and they also don't report any errors. I spend a good 10 mins just looking for a spot on a sensor that didn't pick up right and there weren't any.

It's far better than the MG when it comes to strumming. The MG strings were so touchy, that I had to make extra sure to keep my hands and fingers totally away from them unless I was strumming at that second. Both my boys had the same issues. Even resting my hand, (or lightly brushing) a finger on strings I wasn't playing would register as strums. I returned it due to this, and several other issues. We've had not a problem one with the SQ. It's very responsive overall without being too sensitive, and a blast to play in game.

The tilt sensor is right on the money as well. It's neither too easy, or too hard to get it to trigger OD.

I don't know if every one of them that leaves the factory will end up the same as this one, but it's better than we hoped it would be. I was worried after watching them being demoed on YouTube, and other places, that it wouldn't be precise enough to register everything during speed sections, but it looks like any in-game mistakes on the videos were due to user error and not the guitars' fault. I also had a bad case of the "They won't deliver on their promises" jitters, but they've totally pulled it off. It does what Harmonix promised, and it does it very well.

Is it worth the $ it cost?

With what I've seen so far I'd say 100%. If problems start to crop up later that'll be another matter, but right now it's well worth the money.

I can't say anything about the midi since I can't hook it into any of my pc's. But there is a manual included in the box that gives info on it, (and other guitar related stuff). What it lists is as follows...

It has two modes, normal and synth. Normal is for note-on events, and synth generates note-on/ offs.
The red and green pickguard buttons send program change up and down messages. The default program is 27 for "clean electric guitar".
The yellow and blue buttons transpose notes up and down by one octave.
Midi pitchbend is also available, and can be turned on or off with the back and yellow buttons, and is controlled by the angle of the neck. (neck straight out cc value =0/ neck normal cc=64/ and neck up cc =127)
Midi expression is enabled by pressing the back and blue buttons, and is controlled by the angle of the guitar's body. (pickup pointed down cc= 0/ pickup parallel to player [normal playing position] cc=64/ pickup facing ceiling cc=127)
Finally, pressing the start and back buttons cancels all notes.

The positioning modifiers are simpler than they sound to use. What they show in the manual with the descriptions is...

Pitchbend is affected by holding the guitar normally, and raising the neck up to alter the sound.

Expression is altered by holding the neck as usual, and putting your right hand on the bottom of the guitar where the strap stud is. Then just rotate the body to alter the sound.

That's assuming of course that you're not a lefty.

With the excellent pro mode stuff in RB3 and this guitar there should be quite a few more real guitar players around. If you're not aware of the advances in Pro Mode check out a few videos on Youtube.
RockBand 3 has finally evolved into actual music playing on guitar and bass, (for those that want it) and it's about time.


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Post subject: Re: RB3 Squier Quicky Review
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:47 pm
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Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 6:41 pm
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The lack of a control panel app to adjust the midi output and sensitivities relating to hammer-on/off values compared to plectrum velocities in-guitar renders this thing useless for any kind of recording work. Fender dropped the ball bigtime here.


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Post subject: Re: RB3 Squier Quicky Review
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:08 pm
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Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:29 am
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Since Harmonix did most of the work on this it's not the least bit surprising that it doesn't do full on high feature midi. The midi is there as an easy way to interface with the midi pro and then on to the console. The fact that accessing midi is possible at all was more than likely an after thought. I'm sure they figured that since it's already using midi we might as well give people access to it.
The top priorities were to make it work in-game for pro mode, and then as an amp playable guitar. Midi is just there to play with if interested.
With that set of goals in mind it's a perfect fit. It controls in game perfectly, plays as a real guitar to give out of game service at low cost, and also midi introduction. They know anyone that continues on with guitar is going to step up from a Squier to something higher end.


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Post subject: Re: RB3 Squier Quicky Review
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:19 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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With zero tweakability I question its function as even a basic midi input device. Dropouts, glitches and ghost notes galore will only serve to frustrate, not educate or illuminate.


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