Man, it looks like Activision is pretty serious about returning Guitar Hero to its rock and metal roots. This morning, Gizmodo posted exclusive images of the new guitar controller, along with details of the new design.
Apparently, all the electronics and such are all based in the neck of the guitar, which runs through the body; this will allow players to swap out both “wings” of the body, which attach to the central area holding the strum bar, whammy bar, and electronics. The image you see above, Giz says, is a Gamestop pre-order exclusive, and Activision intends to offer all kinds of different designs.
From the article:
Activision wouldn’t reveal pricing for any of the components, nor would they share future design partnerships we should expect. But when I brought up the possibility of, say, an acoustic-styled set of wings or something straight out of the 80s, Activision reps said this level of customization was entirely the point. So no, not every design to come would necessarily be so metal-influenced, but they are expected to take stylistic cues from the game itself rather than historic rock traditions.
Here’s the interesting thing, to me: Last week I speculated that the new design may do away with mechanical buttons altogether. Instead, they appear to have gone in the opposite direction: The touch-sensitive higher frets that have been around since World Tour appear to be gone altogether. (I suppose they could be integrated into the neck without a separate area, but I can’t see how that would be very user-friendly.)
Gizmodo has more details, more images, and a video render of the body-swapping procedure, so hit the Read link for more.
[Read | image: Gizmodo]
Usually, I’m against more superfluous gaming peripherals. However, I will say, if the Guitar Hero franchise actually sticks with this plan for many games to come (they wouldn’t commit to how long they’d retain this specific design, though hinted it could be for a while), it could offer consumers a way to buy a fresh guitar without actually buying all the plastic and e-waste of a whole extra controller. And from that standpoint, I hope it works out. But as a guy who already has like 100 music peripherals to trip over on the way to the living room, I can make do with the game itself.
Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at [email protected].
Jun 7, 2010 08:00 AM 
They had a pic of the guitar at Gamestop but it was a holograph and nobody could really see what it was. One of the guys working there thought the pic was of an in game guitar. But oh my god this looks amazing, I’m really glad I preordered this.
It’s good to see they’ve done away with the touch pad gimmick. It was useless anyway since you could just use the normal buttons for it for the same added no-strum benefit.
Hmm. More guitars… I do like the option on getting one guitar and being able to swap bodies once they release one I like. I always loved the Gibson Explorer, and wish there was one for Rock Band. Bigger than the original GH one and wireless. How big is the new guitar? I hope Activision realized we arent 8 year olds playing this game. I need a guitar with some size!