Gambridge Z line MIDI guitars compatible with Rock Band, sort of sound like guitars
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted January 11th 2010 2:29PM
posted January 11th 2010 2:29PM
There's always someone that will tell you that you can make the Rock Band experience more "realistic," as if there was something more realistic than pressing buttons on a piece of plastic that vaguely resembles a guitar. And believe us, there was no shortage of companies with Guitar Hero / Rock Band controllers at CES -- including Gambridge, whose Z line of dual game / MIDI guitars are full-sized instruments with built in sound modules that also function as game controllers, compatible with all major music video game titles. And, judging by what we saw at the company's booth, their industrial design assures that no one will ever dream of stealing one from you. Pricing and availability to be announced.
NOOOOOO! No more fake guitars.
@HardToBelieve I would say the exact opposite on a device like this. We need more "fake" guitars like this that might serve as a bridge from the game to real music.
@bjaardker
No. Better idea; We need a game that requires you to play guitar in a legit manner so that the people that are actually good at guitar don't have to learn backwards to play a dumb game.
@HardToBelieve
I played real guitar for years before playing guitar hero. It took me like 3 songs before I started getting decent. Don't say it's the game's fault because you're bad at it.
@Streetfights
Look, I hardly ever play any guitar games. But I've played them enough to realize that it's nothing like the real deal. And I don't know why they won't make a game that will really feel like you're playing an instrument. I'm not complaining about being bad at it, but it's just a dumb idea to ignore the fact that it's incredibly fake.
@HardToBelieve
Why the fuck can't we have real guitars. Fake plastic guitars. And MIDI guitars that bridge them together?
Replace the periods with commas and lowercase that "And", sorry about that.
meh...if it doesn't do native 3D, it's old news.
I have a cheap Power Tour model, and when a real guitarist friend of mine played it thru an amp, it sounded pretty darn good for $25.
Hey, a Steinberger guitar for Rock Band.
@sonicyoof
made me LOL
If this is a decent MIDI guitar it should be useful for tracking MIDI for guitar players. I might consider one since I would find this much easier than using a MIDI keyboard.
Steinberger Hero
Looks like a rehash of the old, cheap-o Casio DG-20 midi guitar:
http://www.maketunes.com/articles/casio-dg20-digital-midi-guitar
I think Joe will be much happier with our production models and both the sounds and form of the instrument. This is not a toy and will incorporate over 15 years of experience building professional MIDI guitars used by some top studio and stage guitarists. The picture above is our "
Baby Z"... you can get a peek at the Z-1 on our website at http://www.gambridge.com. I consider the flipper to be "training wheels!" The rest of the instrument is truly a real guitar.