Mad Catz Fender Bass – Review
Mad Catz have been producing peripherals for videogame consoles for many years, so they certainly have a lot of experience. Some know them for making joypads with all manner of buttons and auto-fire switches, others for reliable and sturdy arcade sticks for the many 2D and 3D fighting games. More recently Mad Catz secured the rights to produce official instruments for the Rock Band series. With the first-party produced instruments being both very good and reliable is there any reason to be looking into buying third-party produced instruments? Well the simple answer is yes! To find out why then read on…
Mad Catz recently sent us their official Fender Precision Bass Guitar to put through its paces in both Rock Band one and two. Being a huge fan of the Rock Band series this certainly wasn’t going to be a chore, in fact I couldn’t wait to get rocking. Now I will be honest here, I have only played the role of bassist in Rock Band a few times and then it was only because I was kind of forced too. Being a bit of a rocker in my younger days I am much more into playing lead guitar and drums. Thanks to MadCats that attitude has been changed for good with the Fender Precision Bass.
The Fender Precision Bass is a direct replica of the real thing, so it’s obviously bigger than the standard official Rock Band Fender guitar. The head stock, the bit where the tuning pegs are at the top of the fretboard, unlike the official Rock Band Fender guitar has tuning pegs on. Although these do nothing and are only cosmetic they do add a much more professional touch to the overall feel of being an actual bass. As for the neck, or fretboard, it has pretty much the same setup as the standard Rock Band guitar, although as I have already mentioned it is slightly longer.
The coloured note buttons feel better than the official Rock Band Fender and are also a hell of a lot less clicky. One of the things I first noticed with the official Rock Band guitar is that it is slightly on the creaky side. The Mad Catz Bass has been built to such a high standard that there is little to no creaking and the quality is obvious as soon as the bass is in hand. The actual buttons on the body; back, start, d-pad, and so on, are actual nobs and again although more cosmetic than functional add to the professional build and overall look.
So, by now it’s pretty obvious that this is as near to the real instrument as you can get without it actually being made by Fender. It’s all well and good looking the part and having that realistic image but what about actually playing? Well firstly for anyone who has played a bass guitar will know there are various different ways of playing. The two fingered plucking technique is probably one of the most used techniques in bass playing. So when using the official Rock Band guitar the feeling of actually playing the bass is totally lost. It just ends up feeling like a dumbed down version of the guitar which was partly the problem I had with playing the bass as I highlighted above.
Mad Catz have remedied this with the simplest, most obvious, and yet so effective addition; the split strum bar! The strum bar has been split down the middle which allows for some two-fingered bass playing. It’s this addition that makes the Fender Precision Bass such a unique experience. The strum bar also has a very faint click to it, not as loud as the Guitar Hero click but much less spongy than the current Rock Band guitar feel. Meaning that Mad Catz have managed to strike a balance between the two and will please fans in either of the two camps. This is not just another guitar to add to the growing collection, it is the nearest thing to the real experience that you could get.
As with any bit of kit reliability is key, and I can assure you that the bass has certainly been put through its paces. When we get together to rock we put in a performance that even the hardest of rockers would be proud of. Even after a number of thrashing eight hour sessions the bass looks as good as it did now as when we first got our hands on it. In the passed few years I have managed to get through a number of guitars by simply overplaying. Sometimes the strum bar stopped, other times the fret buttons became unresponsive. So we decided to give the Fender Precision Bass a bit of a hard time and even after a pretty hardcore session the fret-buttons and strum bar were still as responsive as it was when we first played it.
Mad Catz have really put some thought into what is an outstanding piece of kit. It certainly helps define the overall band experience and makes the bass role feel much more unique. If you own any of the Rock Band games already, or if you’re waiting on Santa delivering the goods this Christmas then I would certainly urge you to add the Mad Catz Fender Precision Bass to the list. It doesn’t just add to the Rock Band experience, it completes it. If you want the full band experience then I wouldn’t recommend in purchasing the Mad Catz Fender Precision Bass, I would insist.
