Since Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2 was originally released in late 2005, it was inevitable that someone would go about converting a real guitar into something you could use in the game. The first one I ever saw was toolmonger’s How-To: Build Your Own Custom Full-Sized Wireless Guitar Hero Controller.

Of course, gutting a real guitar to turn it into a fake plastic version of itself takes serious chutzpah. I’m also not sure you would end up with a very practical guitar controller for all that work, either. I wouldn’t expect a real guitar, designed for use with strings, to map all that well to buttons and a plastic strum.

But why build what you can buy?

I remember reading about Art Guitars real fake guitar controller last year; $399 for a guitar with plastic heart but the body of the real thing. The first reviews were mixed, which is sort of disturbing for a controller this expensive and high end.

But you could never really buy it. It looks like they’ve finally made these real products under the Peavey AG Riffmaster series, and you can buy them now at $399, with a 6-8 week build time.

You aren’t stuck with the default graphics; you can customize the Riffmaster and put your own graphics on there.

Unfortunately, this is only available for the PS2 at the moment. Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the AG Riffmaster are coming “fall 2008″.