Rocksmith Catch All

There are some videos on Youtube of their trackers. It seems like Ubisoft is backing this so far. I bought the 3 current releases and will get the next three as well. I'm hoping this has legs.

Two of the three from this week were the "preorder bonus" songs they gave to me at launch.

I'm all over next batch of songs though, most likely grab all 3.

Has anyone who bought this, bought it as a package? I'm curious about the quality of the package guitar. $200 seems really cheap for an actual guitar plus a game.

Wembley wrote:

Has anyone who bought this, bought it as a package? I'm curious about the quality of the package guitar. $200 seems really cheap for an actual guitar plus a game.

I'd rather buy my own guitar... It might not be bad, but at that price it can't be much better than those cheap "pack" guitars.

I started with one of those (around 200 dollars for guitar + amp) and it was pretty bad, only stuck with it because I liked playing.

I think that if you are going to buy a guitar, even if it's your first one, buy a good one so it doesn't lose resale value. Plus good guitars are easier and nicer to play, and should go out of tune less often, and usually have quality pickups for better sound. Plus you can pick a style that you personally like.

Around 200+ you can buy some real decent guitars, and there's some gems at 400, you don't even have to go for an expensive Gibson.

The difference between a cheap pack-in guitar and a decent 250 dollar guitar can be so great. Much more than the difference between say a 1,200 Gibson and a 400 dollar guitar...

As you spend more on guitars, you get "diminishing returns". Like say one of those 25,000 dollar jazz guitars, I mean they sound great and all, but the difference between that and a decent 400 guitar isn't that much in terms of just playing music.

I like guitars u_u

Another option is to watch places like GuitarTrader, etc, to see if you can get a good deal on a guitar with minor damage (blemishes or dents, that sort of thing). I picked up a $250 Strat several years ago for $150 due to a minor blemish/dent on the body from shipping damage. I wouldn't have even noticed the damage if I hadn't been looking for it. It's not a great guitar, but it's decent enough for me to learn on.

The pack in guitar is an Epiphone Les Paul Jr, according to one review I just read. That's a pretty decent entry level guitar and the price is fairly standard I think. (It retails with a small crappy amp and accessories for $230 so $120 for the guitar is in the right ballpark.) Unless the pack in one is of sub-standard quality, which I doubt, I have no reservations recommending that to guitar to a beginner.

Not knowing anything about guitars, I picked up the Guitar pack, and it definitely feels like a solid decent starter guitar.

I f*cking love this game.

I haven't been playing much really since I first got it. The last couple of weeks has been an alternating cycle of me getting sick from something the kids brought home to share or my wife traveling for work leaving me to Mr. Mom duty. Just about kicked this flu bug and felt up to playing. Tonight was Vaseline, Use Somebody, and I Got Mine. Which I now realize when typed out sounds like a much better night. But time to call it a night so I don't shred my finger tips again. Plus playing guitar, drinking whisky, and The Black Keys is only going to lead to the cops knocking on my door. The building buzz, getting into the music, and the increasing confidence while working up a song means bumping up the volume a couple of dB on every beginning.

gregrampage wrote:

The pack in guitar is an Epiphone Les Paul Jr, according to one review I just read. That's a pretty decent entry level guitar and the price is fairly standard I think. (It retails with a small crappy amp and accessories for $230 so $120 for the guitar is in the right ballpark.) Unless the pack in one is of sub-standard quality, which I doubt, I have no reservations recommending that to guitar to a beginner.

That's a good model + brand actually - Anyone seen any reviews for the actual guitar, not just the game?

Also I have to give props to whoever selected the music in this game, it's very "Guitar Hero-y". Rock Band was disappointing me a little with the whole Keyboard emphasis...

Mex wrote:

Also I have to give props to whoever selected the music in this game, it's very "Guitar Hero-y". Rock Band was disappointing me a little with the whole Keyboard emphasis...

Yeah, that's just the thing. Rock Band has to cater to the whole band, Rocksmith is all about guitar rock.

Mex wrote:
gregrampage wrote:

The pack in guitar is an Epiphone Les Paul Jr, according to one review I just read. That's a pretty decent entry level guitar and the price is fairly standard I think. (It retails with a small crappy amp and accessories for $230 so $120 for the guitar is in the right ballpark.) Unless the pack in one is of sub-standard quality, which I doubt, I have no reservations recommending that to guitar to a beginner.

That's a good model + brand actually - Anyone seen any reviews for the actual guitar, not just the game?

Also I have to give props to whoever selected the music in this game, it's very "Guitar Hero-y". Rock Band was disappointing me a little with the whole Keyboard emphasis...

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/revie...

User reviews, so take them with a grain of salt. Looks like Guitar Center is (or at least was) selling them for $100.

It's truly a $100 guitar. It will do FINE in the game of course, and they do some serious magic with the compression and limiters built in to make you sound good. I'm using the (sh*tty, sh*tty) Rock Band 3 guitar with it (the fender) and it sounds awesome and I quite literally haven't had to tune it in the 5 days I've been playing (but for dropping the E string for some songs obviously).

It does make me want a "real" guitar again though. Once upon a time I had a basic strat that was so much better. Someday, eh?

As for the DLC: Jessica? Every serious Rock Band guitar nerd just creamed their pants. Very wise choices on DLC.

So, looking at all this, should I be considering selling/returning my unopened RB3 strat and going this route?

edit - for guitar awesomeness, that is. I still love RB3 for the drums.

I went out and bought Rocksmith for the 360. I got the bundle, and everyone here is right. It's an Epiphone Junior, it's the most basic full sized guitar of that brand (they make smaller ones for kids.) and it works just fine. If you take away the price of the game, the price you pay for the guitar in the bundle is what you can expect to pay for the guitar at a music store, unless you find them on sale. Even than you may only save yourselves 10-20 bucks.

As for the game itself. I have tried over the years to learn how to play guitar and it was always a struggle. I could never stick with it. Today I played Rocksmith for 4 hours straight, and I actually felt like I was slowly improving. I can't wait to play some more tomorrow. Got to build up those calluses, man do my fingers hurt!

Mex wrote:

The difference between a cheap pack-in guitar and a decent 250 dollar guitar can be so great. Much more than the difference between say a 1,200 Gibson and a 400 dollar guitar...

As you spend more on guitars, you get "diminishing returns". Like say one of those 25,000 dollar jazz guitars, I mean they sound great and all, but the difference between that and a decent 400 guitar isn't that much in terms of just playing music.

Couldn't agree more with this.

AnimeJ wrote:

So, looking at all this, should I be considering selling/returning my unopened RB3 strat and going this route?

For solo guitar playing? Yes. Obviously RB3 is built on three generations of songs and DLC so the jukebox is much larger, but Rocksmith is focused on guitar-driven songs and there's no "as made famous by" tracks either. At least so far it's all performing artists. In addition, as I've mentioned before, you're really playing the guitar track, not just using a guitar-shaped, damped-string game controller. So if this is just about you playing and learning guitar, stop reading here and go exchange the guitar.

Now where it gets a bit cloudy is group play. Supposedly someone can sing on Rocksmith but I don't know that it's much of a gaming experience for them. There's also an achievement on having two local guitars, although you'd need a second $30 cable. Of course with Rocksmith there's no drums, keyboard, or bass. So it depends on if this is a consideration and how much you want to mix the two worlds.

So for the cost of the RB3 guitar and a month's worth of all that money you save by not buying beer you could get a nicer dedicated guitar with a "real" neck. But if you have any interest in RB3 then the Strat will do a great job of bridging those two worlds. One mild concern is that the RB3 Strat sucks for string bending. As part of its detection mechanism the frets are segmented and this makes for notchy, distracting bends.

ESP Guitars are nice, and can be had for <$200 new.

One thing we talked about on the podcast which is incredibly important.

Rocksmith does not penalize you for fills. That is, if you're playing a riff, and your brain says "wait I know there's this other note here" you can go ahead and play it (and hear it). This actually encourages learning the scales of any given riff and that's just huge in terms of actually being able to play.

As I'm levelling up phrases, they often include the notes I've been filling automatically anyway. And, wonderfully, they also start filling in with full chord shapes. So you might start out just playing a baseline to a stones song, and pretty soon you're actually playing all of the full chord transitions. The initial rush of "holy crap it wants me to play where?" can be a bit much, but I find that by the end of the first run throuhg almost any song, I'm getting the basic idea. Two or three times through I'm usually scoring halfway up the difficulty bar.

Incredibly satisfying.

If someone wants to send me a Fender American Standard Strat, I'd take it. But for now, the RB3 Squier is doing fine.

I made my first attempt at Master Mode last night with The Black Keys' Next Girl, and Rocksmith ceased to be any sort of game experience and became simply me playing guitar. There's no fretboard or note track, just the stage and the crowd. Leveling up enough songs to unlock Master Mode and then playing a Master Event puts you in the position of essentially playing a full set, for real. The only things missing are the smoky bar and crappy pay.

I continue to be impressed. Rocksmith as a game has some issues, but as a guitar training and performing experience it's brilliant.

LiquidMantis wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

So, looking at all this, should I be considering selling/returning my unopened RB3 strat and going this route?

For solo guitar playing? Yes. Obviously RB3 is built on three generations of songs and DLC so the jukebox is much larger, but Rocksmith is focused on guitar-driven songs and there's no "as made famous by" tracks either. At least so far it's all performing artists. In addition, as I've mentioned before, you're really playing the guitar track, not just using a guitar-shaped, damped-string game controller. So if this is just about you playing and learning guitar, stop reading here and go exchange the guitar.

Now where it gets a bit cloudy is group play. Supposedly someone can sing on Rocksmith but I don't know that it's much of a gaming experience for them. There's also an achievement on having two local guitars, although you'd need a second $30 cable. Of course with Rocksmith there's no drums, keyboard, or bass. So it depends on if this is a consideration and how much you want to mix the two worlds.

So for the cost of the RB3 guitar and a month's worth of all that money you save by not buying beer you could get a nicer dedicated guitar with a "real" neck. But if you have any interest in RB3 then the Strat will do a great job of bridging those two worlds. One mild concern is that the RB3 Strat sucks for string bending. As part of its detection mechanism the frets are segmented and this makes for notchy, distracting bends.

Well, to clarify a bit, here's where I'm sitting at: I have RB3, and I have the RB3 strat, sitting at home, unopened. Before this came on the scene, I'd looked at RB3 Pro Mode as a way to learn guitar, sans an actual lesson(I am aware that nothing can really replace that). However, from reading what folks are saying here and other places, Rocksmith appears to be doing a much better job of it for what you're saying.

So my question really boils down to this; which do you guys feel is the better pair with web based resources for someone wanting to learn guitar?

Any lefties out there that have been able to take a crack at this? Lack of lefty support is a deal breaker in my book.

AnimeJ wrote:

So my question really boils down to this; which do you guys feel is the better pair with web based resources for someone wanting to learn guitar?

Rocksmith.

mr_n00b wrote:

Any lefties out there that have been able to take a crack at this? Lack of lefty support is a deal breaker in my book.

I'm a lefty, but I don't count as I long ago made the decision to play right-handed guitar. If you're not already a guitar player then I'd recommend you seriously consider going that route. But Rocksmith prompts you to choose right- or left-handed when you begin.

LiquidMantis wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

So my question really boils down to this; which do you guys feel is the better pair with web based resources for someone wanting to learn guitar?

Rocksmith.

Ok, sounds good. So, is it worth keeping the RB3 squier strat, or should I sell it/return it and pick up a(more) for real guitar?

LiquidMantis wrote:

I'm a lefty, but I don't count as I long ago made the decision to play right-handed guitar. If you're not already a guitar player then I'd recommend you seriously consider going that route. But Rocksmith prompts you to choose right- or left-handed when you begin.

That's good to hear! I've been playing guitar casually as a lefty for at least 10 years, so a bit too late to relearn the "right" way.

Just the fact that it uses "classic" guitar tab is a huge advantage that Rocksmith has over RB3, never mind the other neat stuff.

I don't like how you're limited in your retries to 5 "lives" in the riff repeater, is there any way to avoid that? Sometimes I want to practice a riff for a while and it's a hassle that it throws you back all the way to the song selection screen (specially on Freebird where it's going to take a long time to practice those riffs).

mr_n00b wrote:

That's good to hear! I've been playing guitar casually as a lefty for at least 10 years, so a bit too late to relearn the "right" way.

I first started "serious" guitar with a friend's left-handed guitar but didn't get far before he wanted it back. Then I realized how hard it was to find left-handed models and pretty much kills the possibility of pawn shop or classified ads deals, and especially the ability to just be able to pick up a guitar when at someone's house to noodle around on. Now it looks really weird when I try to watch a lefty play.

LiquidMantis wrote:
mr_n00b wrote:

That's good to hear! I've been playing guitar casually as a lefty for at least 10 years, so a bit too late to relearn the "right" way.

I first started "serious" guitar with a friend's left-handed guitar but didn't get far before he wanted it back. Then I realized how hard it was to find left-handed models and pretty much kills the possibility of pawn shop or classified ads deals, and especially the ability to just be able to pick up a guitar when at someone's house to noodle around on. Now it looks really weird when I try to watch a lefty play. :D

Exactly. If you're going to be serious about guitar and play left handed you have to go all the way and learn how to turn a guitar into a left handed guitar. I can't imagine how much I would hate being limited to already existing left handed guitars.

AnimeJ wrote:

Ok, sounds good. So, is it worth keeping the RB3 squier strat, or should I sell it/return it and pick up a(more) for real guitar?

Like I said before, if you don't have any interest in playing RB3 then I'd absolutely recommend getting a real guitar, assuming it's still easy for you to return the Strat. If you can't return it, then no problem. It works with Rocksmith and you'll have the option to play RB3 as well.

One thing you might like about RB3 is that you can session particular sections of a song and really focus on a particular part, slow it down, etc. Rocksmith is unfortunately lacking that ability, you have to play songs all the way through. Rocksmith's dynamic difficulty is really magical though. That helps compensate for not being able to slow down a piece. Scratch all that (see edit chain). Rocksmith amazes again.

[Edit] From Mex's post, maybe I'm wrong and Rocksmith does have something similar to work particular song parts. I guess I'll fire it up and check out this Riff Repeater.

[Edit2] I don't know if I'm getting stumped by Rocksmith's lackluster UI or what, but I can't figure out how to get to Riff Repeater. On songs I just have the option to play Single Note or Combo arrangements.

* [Edit3] Ah-ha, it was more of me being dense than any fault of the UI. Once you choose the arrangement one of the options is to go to the Riff Repeater. Then there are multiple modes of how to focus on a section. Awesome stuff!

For a dad with small hands and his almost 9 year old son, what would be a good guitar? I've got an acoustic Ovation I'll probably never be able to play well, and I wonder if hand size may be some of my difficulty.

So if I got this, I'd want me and somewhat my kiddo to be able to actually play.

Ideas?

gregrampage wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:
mr_n00b wrote:

That's good to hear! I've been playing guitar casually as a lefty for at least 10 years, so a bit too late to relearn the "right" way.

I first started "serious" guitar with a friend's left-handed guitar but didn't get far before he wanted it back. Then I realized how hard it was to find left-handed models and pretty much kills the possibility of pawn shop or classified ads deals, and especially the ability to just be able to pick up a guitar when at someone's house to noodle around on. Now it looks really weird when I try to watch a lefty play. :D

Exactly. If you're going to be serious about guitar and play left handed you have to go all the way and learn how to turn a guitar into a left handed guitar. I can't imagine how much I would hate being limited to already existing left handed guitars.

I guess I've been pretty lucky when it comes to buying left handed guitars. I first poached a crappy Telecaster from a friend in college. My second guitar was an Ibanez that I got off of zZsounds for $250.00, that treated me well for many many years. Unfortunately the body is beat to hell and the arm has warped due to misuse. It's time I look for a new one.

There's certainly not as much variety on the market for left handed guitars as there is for right handed, but it's not impossible or terribly expensive to pick up a lefty these days. So, all you borderline lefties out there can come out of the closet, it's not nearly as bad finding a proper left handed guitar as it used to be