Madcatz Rock Band Wired Fender Precision Bass (Xbox 360)

This feels like the real Fender Bass, about 5" longer than the Rock Band 2 guitar. The split strum bar is fantastic...it took me a few minutes to get used to it and using two fingers works best for me. Real basses don't have a whammy bar and neither does this, but it does have a knob built-in if you want the whammy effect. It is not wireless but that's because Microsoft won't allow 3rd party wireless with the XBox 360. I saw someone playing this Fender Bass on YouTube and he is really, REALLY good! That's why I bought this and this thing rocks! My friends with the little rinky guitar are jealous because this looks so awesome and now they want one too.

The split strum bar is fantastic and takes playing bass in Rock Band to a whole new level. It allows you to pluck notes and makes you feel like a true bass player. The fret buttons are also very responsive and comfortable to play. I found the overdrive to be very responsive to launch with a quick tilt or lean. Overall I would highly recommend this bass guitar to anyone who is a fan of Rock Band.

This bass was alot of fun to play and has a great feel, but it could have been better.

First of all... The Good.
- Has a more realistic look and feel than most guitar controllers. Its larger than the Rock Band guitars by about six inches and feels like a really comfortable size. The huge tuning pegs on the headstock just add to the great bass look
- The fret buttons are good quality and accurate. They are better than the original Rock Band guitar but not quite as smooth as the Rock Band 2 guitar.
- The split strum bar is a really great feature. It allows for two fingered bass play and feels very natural for a bass. The strum bars also have a 'positive click' when pressed and they don't feel 'squishy'. You know when you've plucked the note.
- The extra fret buttons at the bottom of the neck are a nice addition, but really not necessary for the bass. They added them to allow it to be used as a lead guitar, but without a whammy bar (more on that next) it's not great as a guitar.

Now for The Bad...
- The whammy bar... or in this case whammy 'knob'. To add to the look of a real bass, there is no whammy bar. But to make this more functional as a guitar they added a knob directly below the base of the neck that you spin back and forth to add whammy. It's a small knob, making it difficult to find at first without looking down. Once you find it, the knob doesn't feel good at all when you spin it. It has a cheap 'grinding' feel to it. Overall, the whammy knob just isn't fun to use.
- Another knob... the five position selector. Takes the place of the toggle switch on the Rock Band guitars. Basically, the same comments from the whammy knob apply here again.
- ANOTHER knob... the Start/Back button. This one just seems strange. Instead of the good ol' push buttons for Start and Back, they used a knob. Turn it left for the Back button and right for the Start button. I don't know if mine wasn't working properly, but on the song selection screen, my back button did not work. You should press Back to change the sorting option for the track list, but mine did nothing. I could not change the sort and had to scroll through all the songs to find what I wanted.
I get the reasons behind using all the knobs to give the bass a more realistic look. But in the end I would still prefer ease of use and function with larger, better quality knobs.

And finally... The Ugly!
- NOT WIRELESS!!! WHY?? It took years for consoles to finally use wireless technology that actually works great and we still have good ideas like this bass that don't use it!
- Price! Why am I paying the same price for a wired guitar as a good quality wireless? Normally, a wired guitar controller runs about $10 cheaper than a wireless version (the original Rock Band guitars, for example). But this bass is the same price as the awesome Rock Band 2 guitar right now. That's probably because of the split strum bar, they charge a little more.
After all this, I am not keeping mine. I can overlook the minor shortcomings with the knobs because the size is nice and the fret buttons and strum bar are good quality. But I am done dragging cords around behind me when I play.

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