Rocksmith makes the bold statement that the game can be played with any real guitar. I have three acoustic guitars (steel string) and my kids have two classical guitars (nylon string). It is time to test their claim.

I own a Yamaha FG720S, a Yamaha F310P and a Cort Earth-Mini guitar. My kids’ guitars are half-size and three-quarter-size Jose Ferrer El Primo classical guitars.

Despite having a Roland Cube 15XL electric guitar amplifier, I do not currently own an electric guitar.

None of my guitars have electronic pick-ups on them, so I was well positioned to test Rocksmith’s statement that the game could be played with any guitar!

Fitting an electronic pick-up

Firstly, while Rocksmith says any real guitar, they do qualify that with the statement, “If your guitar has a standard ¼ inch jack for you to plug in a cable … your guitar will work.” You will need to fit an electronic pick-up with a ¼ inch jack if your guitar does not already have one. These can be purchased off eBay for a couple of dollars, but you can also spend several hundred dollars on an electronic pick-up if you want to.

I was purely using the electronic pick-up for Rocksmith, not performing or recording, so I went the cheap route. I ordered a couple of clip-on pick-ups off eBay for $2 each, as well as purchasing an Adeline AD-20 transducer piezo pick-up from Music Express for $28 (you can buy similar pick-ups on eBay for around $8, but I did not want to wait). I also have a sound hole magnetic pick-up on order from an eBay seller for $12.

Setting sound level

My tips on how to pass the Rocksmith soundcheck are here.

The first thing you need to do when you start playing Rocksmith is perform a soundcheck. The game checks the volume of your guitar and adjusts amplification to suit. You also need to tune your guitar. If you can not pass the soundcheck, Rocksmith will not let you continue into the game.

The first time I tried to do the soundcheck using my piezo pick-up fitted behind the saddle/bridge of my Yamaha F310P, I did not generate a high enough sound level for Rocksmith to let me pass. I then gave the Yamaha F310P a good thrash and passed the soundcheck.

Using my Cort Earth-Mini guitar with a clip-on pick-up fitted to the headstock, I again gave the guitar a good thrash to pass the soundcheck. Surprisingly, my kid’s three-quarter size Jose Ferrer El Primo classical guitar fitted with a $2 clip-on pick-up from eBay also managed to pass the soundcheck.

Playing Rocksmith on an acoustic guitar

The biggest issue with playing Rocksmith on an acoustic or classical guitar is that you hear the natural guitar sound over the output from the Rocksmith game. You really need to crank up the game sound output to hear it over the guitar. Depending on the pick-up fitted to your guitar and the sound system being used, you may need to be careful of feedback through the game. Using the Adeline AD-20 transducer piezo pick-up through my electric guitar amplifier, the game is prone to feedback (guide to playing Rocksmith through a guitar amp here). I have ordered the sound hole magnetic pick-up to see if it fixes the problem.

An alternative is to plug in a set of headphones so that the guitar’s natural sound is muted and the game’s output is the primary sound source.

It is also a little bit odd having Rocksmith generate an overdrive electric guitar sound from a classical guitar!

Otherwise, Rocksmith is playable with an acoustic guitar or classical guitar fitted with an electronic pick-up. The game mostly has no trouble recognising the notes being played, although the arcade game ducks struggled to detect which notes I was playing accurately, while the slide technique activity did not pick up some of my slides. Perhaps I am doing them wrong?

Limitations

Despite Rocksmith advertising that the game will work with any real guitar, if you have a poor quality guitar, whether it be electric or acoustic, then the game is going to be unforgiving.

Rocksmith forces you to tune the guitar at the start of every game. After all, if your guitar is not perfectly in tune, Rocksmith can not recognise the notes that you are playing.

If your guitar has poor quality tuners, then you are going to find it difficult to get past the tuning page. And if your guitar goes out of tune rapidly, then you will be constantly retuning your guitar, making Rocksmith a far from enjoyable experience.

Rocksmith probably need to qualify their game even further by saying any six-string guitar or four-string bass guitar. The game simply can not accommodate all possible guitar configurations, and these two are the most common. If you want to play 12-string guitar or a five string bass, you will need to learn it outside the game environment.

Finally, you do not get very far into the game before Rocksmith asks you to reach the top frets on your fretboard. If your acoustic or classical guitar does not have a cutaway, you are going to find it difficult to reach the top notes.

Summary

In short, I think that Rocksmith’s claim that you can use any real guitar with the game is true, up to a point. The game will only accommodate standard six-string guitars or four-string bass guitars. If your guitar is so lousy that it does not stay in tune, you are not going to learn very much with or without Rocksmith. If your acoustic or classical guitar does not have an electronic pick-up, you will need to make sure that you fit a pick-up that will generate an appropriate sound level for the game to recognise.

Now to play hard core rock on a half-size classical guitar … odd.

 

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