I have a soft spot in my heart for Peavey. My very first real bass was a Peavey, and to this day I still love the tone and action on that thing. Not flashy, no — not a marquee brand for instruments by any means, at least not at the time. But man did that thing do what I needed it to.

So when I learned this morning via Gamers Daily News that the company is apparently getting into the music-game, er, game, my initial reaction was a delighted surprise. Alas, right now the details of this particular deal appear to be slim to nonexistent. It would seem that Peavey is hooking up with a company called Zivix to distribute a music-creation game called JamParty (pictured), which looks pretty much like an expanded version of the Studio introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour.

But the real reason I’m guessing Peavey is involved is that the companies are jointly creating a controller called the HeroMaker. (Yes, really.) And it sounds like it’s basically the same deal as the PowerGig: a real guitar that can also double as a game controller, via “unique fingertip sensors.”

And that’s pretty much all the info I could find about the HeroMaker; not surprising since according to the GDN story it won’t be available until 2011. But in the process of hunting for info on Peavey’s site I discovered this:

Yes, that’s a guitar controller manufactured by Peavey. It’s for sale on their site. It’s available only for PlayStation 2 and PS3. And it costs four hundred dollars. (You can also get one with a bulls-eye pattern. Also four hundred dollars.)

Oh, but wait, you’ve not heard the best part. Peavey also appears to be offering this:

I couldn’t locate any details at all on the product page, but unless I’m imagining something I’m pretty sure this is a speaker cabinet topped with a fake guitar head with a cutout for a PS3. Or perhaps it’s a real guitar head and it includes the PS3, because the pricing on this one? Twelve hundred dollars.

So not kidding.

Now, both these items are so poorly detailed on Peavey’s site that I’m wondering if they’re essentially abandoned projects, and the partnership with Zivix is an attempt to revitalize and reboot their attempts at entering the music-game market. I sure hope so. Because both of these products…man, that’s just embarrassing.

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