Both of these pieces are stunning in person and each plays very differently. The MadCatz is truly a full-size Fender, and weighs nearly 7 pounds. The logitech is heavy as well, but not as heavy or as long as the MadCatz. Strum bars are very differnent on each model: the logitech is silent and long; the Madcatz has a firm, quiet “click”. Same goes for the fret buttons. The Madcatz buttons are smooth, easily engage at any place on the button, and always register, even with slight pressure.

The logitech buttons aren’t as easy to engage, and from side angles, I found myself pressing the button (with the side of my finger during slides from the “upper” position for example) and occasionaly the button didn’t register. This got a bit annoying actually. On this basis, I found myself preferring the MadCatz unit.

The real test is how do these models play? For background, I’m a good but not great RB guitarist. I can finish all songs on hard, and about 80% of them on expert at present. I’ve gold-starred a few easy songs, and some passages are just tough. As an experiment, I took a passage that’s always been hard for me – the solo section in Molly Hatchet’s Flirting with Disaster. I’ve never completed this before without overdrive.

On my stock GH3 controller, I just struggled with this section. On the logitech, I found I could make it through the solo, but just barely with use of overdrive. I felt like either my strums or button hit just weren’t all registering during the fast, rolling hammerons in this section.

Finally, I’ve tried this on the Madcatz. The difference is night and day. I easily cleared the solo and the song without overdrive. 5 stars on expert, a new record for me. I found the fast fretwork was just so much easier, I could get the rhythm in my hammerons very easily on these buttons. Further, the “click” strum bar seemed more precise in the many fast sections from this and other songs.

All-in-all, my preference is pretty strongly for the Madcatz Wooden Strat. It feels great, is heavy, and long. My scores have noticeably improved with this over the Logitech unit I had been using. Prior to the Madcatz, the Logitech was my favorite, but having played the Madcatz, the few shortcoming in the Logitech (slightly imprecise strum bar; mushy buttons which lack hard engagement at some funny angles) become more apparent.

I found the Madcatz online for $200, and the Logitech at buy.com for $99 including free shipping! This later price is a killer deal, well worth the investment. Either of these are dramatic improvements over the plastic units, IMHO.

YMMV,

J

http://geekcentralstation.blogspot.com/2009/02/scarf-hero.html

A guitar hero scarf!

The guide button is a little annoying to use, as is the directional pad, but these are very minor things. Beyond that, these two things:

1) This guitar performs like a RB2 guitar, straight up, so that should determine most of whether you like it or not.

2) It is hard to understate just how large and heavy this guitar is. It’s not for the weak of constitution or those with short hands and small fingers!

It is a beautiful device, but on the whole I think I prefer the Logitech guitar because it’s Guitar Hero button style, and it is a bit more reasonably sized while still feeling authentic.

Jumpman

http://docsrockbandmods.netforums.us/guitar-mods-guitar-gear-discussion-vf3.html