Stepping into the newly set-up shop at the 4th level of Bras Basah Complex, Ebenex Guitars looked like any other ordinary instrument-peddling store and the variety of guitars seemed pretty commonplace.

But we were wrong.

Rested at a corner, in its glory, stood the You Rock Guitar, a string-less, MIDI electric guitar.

Resembling the hypothetical love child of a Guitar Hero controller and a Chapman Stick, the You Rock Guitar establishes a strong connection between your inner gaming and guitar nerds.

The You Rock Guitar, with literally no strings attached.

Geared towards rehabilitating Guitar Hero enthusiasts into actual players, the You Rock Guitar functions as both a controller for the popular game and an actual digital instrument. The guitar itself has a sleek black body and a life-sized 22 fret neck with a slot allowing for interchangeable head stocks. The “strings” on the neck resemble rows of smeared greyish plastic while as the strings connected between the pick-ups function more like the ones found on a conventional guitar, allowing the user to increase or decrease their tension though, this does not affect the actual sound. The neck can also be detached for easy storage during travel, serving as a good companion during those long flights.

The Gameflex game cartriges for the You Rock Guitar, allowing direct connection to the Wii for games like Guitar Hero.

A cartridge slot is present on the bottom side of the body where users can insert different cartridges to allow the controller to interface with different gaming platforms.

Being a digital instrument, the guitar has a highly artificial sound but, that does not tarnish much of its value. With a control panel allowing the user to switch between 25 different guitar settings, allowing the instrument to sound like anything from a modern lead guitar to a smooth jazzy one, you can be sure to stumble upon something that suits your ear.

The instrument can also switch into synthesizer mode which presents even more presets and transforms the instrument into a sort of pseudo-keyboard. Both guitar and synthesizer settings can be toggled on at the same time, making it seem like the two instruments are playing in-sync.

Lightweight and easy to handle and dismantle, the You Rock Guitar may double up as a full band ensemble with its pre-set band modes.

Another sweet feature of the guitar is its ability to double up as an entire band. Several backing tracks are preloaded into the guitar allowing you to play along with them. The genres of these tracks ranging from easy rock to the raunchy blues, allowing you to play anything that your mood calls for.

The most thrilling part of the You Rock Guitar, for me, was the extra-long whammy bar. Due to strings inability to bend, the whammy bar can be adjusted to increase or decrease their pitch on the fly while serving as a really good tremolo control, causing the sound to meander like the Mekong Delta.

The only issues I found with the instrument were the slight delay between the strum and the output of the actual sound as well as having to ram the strings as if you were running a block of cheddar through a grater in order to make them function.

Overall, though a little pricey at around S$279, the guitar is a really nifty gimmick and would be sure to have your inner geek squeal in glee.

Additional reporting, pictures and videos by Tan DingXiang.

The You Rock Guitar™ is distributed exclusively by Ebenex and available both online (www.ebenex.com) and at Ebenex located at Bras Basah Complex, #04-49. For product enquiries, contact David at 6345-2053.