E3 First Looks: You Rock Guitar
Traditionally, the uh … lesser known vendors of the video game world: third party hardware manufacturers, independent game developers and other not-so-mainstream companies could be found in Kentia Hall during the E3 media blitz. This year’s expo was quite a bit smaller and Kentia Hall was an extension of the parking structure. So the independents took up shop around the outer edge of the main event, which is where I met Kevin Kent and his string-less guitar.
Dubbed the “You Rock Guitar”, Kevin’s instrument is certainly unique. Like a true electric guitar, his prototype has a bridge, a neck, a whammy bar and plugs into any standard amp, but that’s where the similarities end. The six strings are missing. On the neck of the guitar are touch sensitive raised ridges that allow the player to fret chords, slide up and down and finger pick like you’d expect. About the only thing you can’t do is sting bend.
The other side to this device is that with a quick button press. plug in your USB and boot up your console of choice for some Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Towards the top of the fret board are colors to match the buttons you’d find on a standard guitar controller.
But wait, there’s more! The You Rock Guitar gets its name from a mode that proves you can do no wrong. Built in chord progressions and jam tracks forgive every mistake. Truthfully, that doesn’t really grab my interest, since there’s a Hannah Montana toy that’ll do the same general thing, but USB output, MIDI control capabilities and a slew of other features do have me curious.
The prototype at the show wasn’t playable, but it had the heft of a real electric guitar and demo videos showed guitarist George Pajon Jr. from the BlackEyedPeas playing one as naturally as any other axe in his collection. I’m anxious to get my hands on one being a fledgling guitarist and a relative expert gamer of the rhythm genre. Here’s to never tuning a guitar again! The guitar itself is set for a $149.99 price point, with Gameflex modules (making the main unit compatible with the Xbox, Wii, etc…) will sell between $20 and $25. Pretty reasonable if you consider a low end Stratocaster will run in that same general cost range. No solid release date, but check out more by visiting http://www.yourockguitar.com or on Facebook .
