List Price: $69.99
Our Price: $59.99
Your Save: $ 10.00 ( 14% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: MadCatz
Average Customer Rating:
Batteries Included: 0 Binding: Accessory Brand: Mad Catz EAN: 0728658014612 Feature: Patent-pending Dual/Split Strum Bar for two-fingered Bass action. Game sold separately. Is Autographed: 0 Is Memorabilia: 0 Label: MadCatz Manufacturer: MadCatz Model: RBL098060/02/1 Platform: Xbox 360 Publisher: MadCatz Release Date: 2008-09-25 Studio: MadCatz
Features
Patent-pending Dual/Split Strum Bar for two-fingered Bass action. Game sold separately. Doubles as an in-game Guitar with Whammy Knob & solo Fret Buttons Premium-quality Strum Bar lasts over 2.5 million cycles Includes official Fender Bass Strap Exclusive officially licensed Bass for Rock Band
Rock out like never before with the Fender Precision Bass Replica. This is the Official Bass for Rock Band that can be played with either the left or right hand. The premium-quality Strum Bar lasts over 2.5 million cycles, so you can keep rocking all night long.
Includes official Fender Bass Strap The Whammy Bar is replaced with a Whammy Knob. This will be the lower knob closest to the neck of the Bass. Fender Precision Basses don't traditionally have a Whammy Bar. or the Whammy Effect, turn Whammy Knob back and forth quickly for ?tremolo style play. Turn slowly for ?dive bomb effect. Release knob and it will ?auto center back into position Tilting the Bass to a ninety (90) degree angle or by hitting the ?back button activates o0verdrive effect Works with Rock Band USB Hub (will not work with Guitar Hero) Xbox Guide button 10.8 Ft. (3.3m) USB cable
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The Bass ROCKS... Comment: I have had this since XMAS and I have to say it is AWESOME. Forget all these people who are negative. Granted there is bound to be a bad unit here and there. I have had not 1 single issue with this BASS. I do not mind the wire which by the way is very long.
I now prefer to play bass over the guitar though I still mix it up a bit between the two. For Adults the longer neck makes it easier to play. My son (10 years old) said it was uncomfortable for him to play. He's better on drums anyway! Customer Rating: Summary: These things are faulty! Comment: The Cons:
1) It doesn't work!!! I got this bass guitar controller for Rock Band 2 for Christmas, and the main buttons didn't work at all. None of them. It was returned the next day and replaced, and the blue and red buttons didn't work on that second one! This alone will make me advise anyone to skip on this controller and give it a one star rating. I've read several reviews on several sites that report the same problem--this seems pretty widespread. For a $70 peripheral, that's just not acceptable.
2) Not wireless. As several other reviews have mentioned, this isn't wireless. Why not? My band is tired of all the wires.
3) No wammy bar. The wammy knob looks really cool, but it is really difficult to access and play. Nice, authentic look, but not ergonomic or even well conceived for game play.
The Good:
1) It is a really nice size. I'm 6 foot 4 inches tall and many guitar controllers are too small to use and have really short straps. This is a good size.
2) The double pick up. The double strum bar is really cool, and the little notch above it makes it comfy to rest your hand. At least, I think it would be really comfy--I never got a chance to play this broken piece of junk before taking it back.
The Verdict:
Ultimately, skip this. Buy a wireless RB2 guitar and have fun instead of this piece of crap. We got the new drums with symbols, a new mic, and a new RB2 wireless controller for Xmas. Every one in my band rocked on on Xmas night with new instruments, but this think really ended up being a buzz kill.
Customer Rating: Summary: xbox 360 Rock Band Fender Bass Comment: The two strummers and the whammy dial were an interesting twist in the playing experience. It did, however, seem more realistic. Customer Rating: Summary: Defective right out of the box Comment: I don't have a lot of experience with MadCatz products, since I typically buy first-party accessories for all of my game consoles. My friends have had bad experiences with their controllers, so that is another reason I have avoided them. However, after some pretty good reviews, and an interesting concept with the "patented split strum bar," I decided to purchase the MadCatz Rock Band Bass Guitar. In the end, I came away extremely disappointed, and will return the guitar as soon as possible. I will detail some of the aspects of the product below, and rate them from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Build Quality - 1. The product itself is built well, feeling more solid in my hands due to the added weight and length. However, after hooking the controller up to play some Rock Band 2, I noticed that the lower yellow solo fret would not respond at all. This is simply unacceptable, and will cause the guitar to be returned for a refund.
Performance - 4. Assuming the product was not defective, I could see this being a really fun controller to use. It is comfortable to hold, and the included strap has a nice feel to it. The buttons have a nice feel, and the split strum bar is simply brilliant.
Value - 3. I paid $69.99 for this guitar controller, and I feel that is a little steep for a wired guitar. I don't mind the wire since it is 9.5 feet, but for the price, the controller really should be wireless. The guitar that came with Rock Band 2 is wireless, so I don't see why MadCatz couldn't incorporate the same technology into this product.
Final Verdict: Pass on this controller. The concept of a split strum bar for playing bass more realistically is awesome, but the build quality is completely unacceptable. I have heard nothing but bad things about MadCatz and their products, and I should have listened to these opinions, because it turns out that they are absolutely true. The fact that the product came defective out of the box is simply ridiculous. I gave MadCatz a fair chance, and they have permanently lost my business, and will continue to stick to first party accessories whenever possible.
If you are looking for another guitar to use for Rock Band, stick with the guitar controllers manufactured by Harmonix and EA. Customer Rating: Summary: Lowering the Quality Bar Comment: As someone who is a bit of a connoisseur of the video game and most notably I have a lot of Rock Band equipment, I was excited to pick this guitar up. After all, no one wanted to come over and play Bass on the regular Fender look-a-like that comes with Rock Band.
So because those in my house wanted to play bass on something that resembled a Bass guitar I went and got this rather than the Rock band 2 wireless guitar.
From the moment I removed it form the box I could tell it was not up to the quality given forth by other Rock Band instruments. The guitar neck was made of cheap plastic and felt like it would break if any pressure was to be put on it. The buttons on the neck clicked and clacked like you were pressing plastic buttons down and did not have the smooth feeling of the original guitars that came with the game.
What was nice was that it did have a double strum button which I felt lacked on the original guitar. This may be it's one saving grace.
Playing with it however made things come to light. The buttons were unresponsive and the strum, while feeling better than the original Rock Band brand guitar did not recognize every strum in time with the beats.
What the original Rock Band Guitar lacks is mainly in the strum bar where this, while feeling tight was unresponsive to a fault and made playing the game a chore.
The final straw that broke the camels back was that the price. This guitar is priced the same as the wireless Rock Band 2 guitar. After feeling a lot of buyers remorse, I packaged it back up and returned it for the wireless guitar. Needless to say I was much happier with my purchase after my return.
Going against my instinct, Madcatz has constantly proven to be a peripheral house that uses cheap materials and their products do not hold the quality of the original. I have only witnessed a few Madcatz products that I would buy again and sadly the console they were for no longer exists in retail sales. Beware of any product bearing the logo Madcatz.
