Call it a natural evolution, call it great minds thinking alike, or just call it coincidence — the music-game scene at this past E3 was all about real guitars…or reasonable facsimiles thereof. I was fortunate enough to be able to squeeze in meetings with all of the companies preparing to unleash these things on the market, and I’d like to share my experience with you. You know, if that’s OK.

And so I present to you, ranked roughly in order from least favorite to favorite: the real — and real-ish — guitars of E3.

Peavey HeroMaker
$TBA | Early 2011 | www.peavey.com/heromaker
Previously on Plastic Axe

As a guitar: Peavey has been making solid, if unremarkable, entry-level guitars for decades, and this seems like pretty much that: solid, but unremarkable. This is the one guitar I wasn’t able to get hands-on time with, but based on the specs — Strat-style body, one dual-coil pickup, and a fixed bridge — it seems like it will do the job fine as a training aid, but it’s nothing you’d want to take up on stage.

As a game controller: The HeroMaker takes an unusual approach to the whole real-guitar-as-game-controller thing: Only one string (the high E) has a sensor beneath it, so all of your in-game playing will be on that single string. The sensor covers 12 frets, but only recognizes the five traditional “colors,” which presumably repeat.

The technology here is optical, which appeared to offer very quick response. And since it’s optical, the guitar can detect the presence of a capo or finger when starting up, and will “zero out” at that fret — so you can move the actual in-game detection area as high as frets 8 through 12.

The guitar also includes standard guitar-controller features like a whammy bar (digital, so it works in-game only), effects switch, and d-pad.

The verdict: Looks fine enough as a guitar, but it’s almost comically limited as a game controller thanks to the single-string sensor. You can strum and fret a single string, but really — how much better is that than a regular plastic controller?

Now, the Peavey rep showed me a prototype neck being developed for a second edition, which featured optical sensors across the whole neck, allowing for play outside of the single string. That could be worth checking out. But in its current form, the guitar function and controller function are almost completely separate. It’s hard to think of a target audience for this one, given what else will be available by the time it releases.

SixString Guitar
$179.99 (with game) | October 2010 | www.powergig.com
Previously on Plastic Axe

As a guitar: Power Gig’s SixString is a slickly designed little axe. It has a shortened, 19-fret neck and a compact body, but manages to land just on the right side of “full-size” in feel. The controller elements and other electronics are sleek and smartly positioned. My only real gripe was that something about the neck felt a little plasticky — I suspect the company is saving money by using composite construction rather than wood. For entry-level players, I doubt this will be an issue, but those familiar with the heft and feel of a real guitar may find it a little disappointing.

As a game controller: In theory, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString (that is, the game that accompanies the guitar), ought to land square in the middle between traditional guitar games and Rock Band 3′s note-for-note Pro mode. It will feature complex chords, but only on the traditional five colors — the guitar has no touch sensors except those behind the two sets of colored frets. So the game should provide a significantly higher challenge than the traditional five-button play, but a significantly lower challenge than Rock Band 3′s full-neck, note-for-note Pro Expert.

However, I have to say “in theory,” because at E3 the company was only showing the game on its lowest difficulty, which featured no chords whatsoever. Within that limited context, the guitar seemed plenty accurate and responsive — but of course it could go completely off the rails when multiple notes are thrown at it.

The verdict: Though the guitar is smartly designed, it’s hard to recommend given the alternatives. I imagine if you want something that’s more challenging than the traditional music game, but have no interest in Rock Band 3′s note-accurate play, this could be for you. But that strikes me as a very narrow demographic.

And by the way, in case you were curious about Power Gig’s air drums, I got hands-on (er, hands-off?) time with those as well. And they work pretty much exactly as you’d expect — which is to say, with no precision at all. Without a firm surface to make contact with, it’s far too easy to drift between colors. It may be better than playing drums to Wii Music…but only barely.

Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar
$149.99 | Holiday 2010 | www.madcatz.com
Previously on Plastic Axe

As a guitar: This is the only guitar in this lineup that can’t be plugged directly into an amp to rock out. But the MIDI-out jack means this is a legitimate instrument, able to be played pretty much just like a guitar as long as you have something (a MIDI control module, or a computer) that can take that signal and turn it into sound.

That said, it feels the least like a real guitar of any of the models I’m talking about today, largely due to the multitude of buttons on the neck. Strumming does feel good, and it was easy enough to switch between notes and chords — if you have real guitar experience, it will be no real challenge to play on the Mustang. But it’s not the most realistic experience.

As a game controller: However, I suspect the Mustang is going to be the sweet spot for a lot of Rock Band 3 players when it comes to in-game play. It offers the same Pro functionality as the stringed Squier, and at $150 is sure to be considerably less expensive. The size is more in line with familiar Rock Band controllers, and yet it will give players the opportunity to learn enough that they can easily graduate to a real guitar. It’s a solid, user-friendly solution for stepping up to Pro mode.

The verdict: All-around competence. In spite of its somewhat overwhelming-looking neck, it feels close enough to an actual guitar that there’s little mental adjustment needed for real players. My biggest concern will be the longevity of all those buttons.

You Rock Guitar
$199.99 | Available Now | www.yourockguitar.com
Previously on Plastic Axe

As a guitar: Picture the Mustang I just talked about, but replace all those buttons with touch-sensitive, rubberized ridges — and add a whole lot of functionality. It may not sound terribly different, but it’s a significant step above the Mustang in terms of feel and function. The You Rock not only outputs MIDI, but it has its own onboard sound generator, allowing you to plug directly into an amp for pretty decent-sounding (though obviously synthetic) sound.

It also comes with lots of extras like alternate tunings (accessible at the touch of a button) and onboard tracks suitable for freeform rocking. It feels right in terms of weight and size — surprising given its unorthodox shape — and the response of the stringed strum module feels nicely realistic.

There’s just one problem.

As a game controller: It’s not clear at this point whether the You Rock will be able to support Rock Band 3′s Pro mode. The rep I talked to hinted that they were working hard to make sure it happens, and as long as both the You Rock and the Rock Band 3 guitars use standard MIDI messages, it shouldn’t be a problem, provided you’re willing to shell out the extra $40 for the Mad Catz MIDI adapter.

But it might not happen — which means that the You Rock may be able to only generate the traditional five-colored-button signals. (I’m going to call this “GRYBO” from now on, because I like the way it sounds.)

Now, I got to check out exactly this functionality at the show, and it definitely added something to the experience to strum and fret across multiple strings. It was still quite fun. But it seemed a bit like overkill.

The verdict: As surprised as I am to say it, I loved playing this thing. The rubberized faux-strings on the fretboard felt natural and realistic, making it seem almost as if I was playing a real guitar with the action set impossibly low. The sound quality of the on-board generator wasn’t the most lifelike I’d ever heard, but I imagine you could run the faux-clean sound through a real distortion pedal or amp and it’d sound pretty solid. My biggest complaint is that the guitar seemed to drop notes occasionally — though this could have been due to my unfamiliarity with the sensitivity of the neck. In any event, it’s as realistic as I imagine you can get without moving to a fully stringed controller. I’m hoping to be able to check this one out at greater length sometime soon.

Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster
$TBA | Release TBA | www.rockband.com
Previously on Plastic Axe

As a guitar: The Squier is a full-size, fully stringed, fully functional guitar, made by Fender — who ought to know what they’re doing. One real difference between this and other Strats: The neck is a bit thicker than what you may be used to, I assume because of the electronics that allow it to pick up finger placement. It may not have a top-notch sound due to the single pickup — the neck-side “pickup” is actually a mute to suppress the strings for in-game play, which presses in and locks out of the way for out-of-game rocking. But it does come equipped with a MIDI out, which should make it a versatile tool for studio musicians and home recording enthusiasts. (Hello!)

As a game controller: It works exactly as you’d hope: It senses finger placement on every string at every fret, quickly and accurately. Harmonix is being cagey about the technology behind it, but my guess is that it recognizes finger placement via touch-sensitivity. Here’s why I say that: In my play time, I tried bending a string, and the game interpreted it as my finger moving to the next string over — rather than moving up the current string. The plus side of this: no tuning required.

It comes festooned with traditional controller buttons, including forward/back, d-pad, and four face buttons. Getting used to hitting buttons on the body of the guitar after years of tapping the GRYBO buttons to navigate in-game was a bit jarring, but nothing that won’t become second nature over time.

One important note: I was under the impression that the guitar included all the electronics necessary to interface with a console, but Harmonix has now confirmed that it will use Mad Catz’ MIDI interface box to talk to the game. They’re not saying at this point whether the box will be packed in with the guitar, but it seems like it’d generate some pretty nasty feelings from consumers if they had to shell out top dollar for this guitar and then spring for another $40 on top of that to make it work with the game. So I’m guessing it’ll be packed in. I’m also guessing we’ll see a price of $250 to $300 for the package.

The verdict: This is as real as it gets. Move up the ranks in Pro mode with this guitar and you’ll end up with pretty much all the skills you’d need to play guitar outside the game. It’s bound to have some limitations — the way it detects string bends, as I said above, is a little unexpected, but hopefully the game will compensate — but at the moment I can’t picture a better solution for bringing game skills into the real world. (Now if we could only get pricing and a release date — latest rumors say it may not make it to market in time for the launch of the game.)

Short version: I want one. Badly.

Your Turn
Got questions about any of these devices? Leave them in comments and I’ll do my best to answer. And if you’d like a second opinion about all five of these guitars, Tommy over at RockBandAide put up his own impressions while I was writing this up. He doesn’t play guitar, so you may find his thoughts to be a valuable alternate perspective. But you make sure to come back, you hear? I’ll miss you while you’re away.