I couldn’t resist the lure of those less expensive, revised second generation Logitech Ultra Premium Guitars. I bought the Xbox 360 Orange Logitech Wireless Guitar for myself, and let me tell you — it is a beaut!

Be warned, though: this thing is truly a full size guitar. The body and neck are real, solid wood, which means it also has real guitar weight — a full 6 pounds, 6 ounces with strap.

The attention to detail is outstanding, and the whole guitar exudes an overwhelming sense of craftsmanship. Particularly if you’re used to the cheap plastic axes that ship with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Note that the black bridge to the left of the strum bar is star power activation (aka the back button), and the chrome-looking — plastic, unfortunately, but it looks sharp — item to the left of the whammy attachment area is your start button.

The headstock also has real metal pegs and tuning knobs.

Turning the guitar over, you can see the battery compartment on the back. The guitar takes two AA batteries (included). The console connect button is inside the battery compartment. A bit inconvenient, but as little as I use the connect button, probably OK. The headset jack and connector port are discreetly placed on the bottom edge, here.

The buttons are totally standard spacing — I held them up against a GH3 Les Paul for comparison and they’re identical. They are a bit quieter than a stock guitar, though I tend to lubricate the buttons on my guitars, so the difference is not huge for me. I do wish the brown plastic was slightly darker brown here so it blended in better with the rosewood.

The touchpad is here and accounted for, just like on a Guitar Hero World Tour guitar. I didn’t get a chance yet to tell if it’s the World Tour analog touchpad, of the Guitar Hero 5 digital style. Another nice detail: the colors of each touchpad area are embossed in the wood above and below, so you can see what color your fingers are on.

The fretboard also has some neat metal detailing as you can see here. The strum, the edge of which is visible above, is roughly the same size as a GHWT guitar strum. In fact, the spacing between buttons and strum is identical — I even measured it to be sure!

It’s definitely a beautiful guitar. I was thoroughly impressed. Well worth $199 just for looks, in my opinion. But how does it play?

The good news is that this guitar plays every bit as well as the GH3 Les Paul or the GH:WT Schechter-alike. I’m a decent (but nowhere near world-class) expert guitar player, and at no point did I feel the guitar hindered my playing. There is of course an initial period of acclimation as this guitar is much heavier and much larger than any plastic axe I’ve ever used. Also, this is (obviously) a Guitar Hero style embossed button layout, which I personally prefer, versus the Rock Band flat button style. Be aware of that, if you have a strong preference.

I was concerned about the optical strum mechanism, but I’m pleased to report that the strum works great! It was a little tight for me in the beginning, but I found it easy to adapt. By “tight”, I mean it is more akin to the short throw distance of the GH3 Les Paul strum than the wider throw GHWTar strum. It’s also less explicity clicky than either, though not quite the “whisper silent” that the PR claims.

I have it on good authority from a highly skilled expert player that he was able to full combo Beast and the Harlot from Guitar Hero: Smash Hits on his copy of this exact guitar (which he won in a fake plastic guitar contest … naturally). That proves the guitar is designed well enough not to hinder elite guitarists from their difficult full combo song runs.

I need to get some more play time under my belt with this beauty before drawing long term conclusions. But I can already tell it’s a totally workable expert class fake plastic axe, and it really does look and feel amazing when you’re strapped into it. I’d only caution people about the full size and weight, which are part and parcel of the authenticity, but can make it fatiguing — particularly for ladies or younger kids. This Logitech Wireless Guitar is a fair deal for $199, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to any Fake Plastic Rock addicts like myself (you know who you are). Heck, I like it so much, I’d consider buying a second one if it dropped to $149 or lower.

I reviewed the Xbox 360 model here, but it comes in a nifty looking all-black model for PS3 as well. See more pics and details on Amazon:

• Playstation 3 Black Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller (v2)
• Xbox 360 Orange Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller