I Broke My Riffmaster (A Review)

RIP...DP? idk
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:50 - Riffmaster vs Stratocaster
03:48 - New Features
05:40 - The Dongle Situation
07:20 - Rock Band 4 with the Riffmaster
08:06 - Fortnite Festival with the Riffmaster
08:52 - Does it work with anything else?
09:35 - Oh... it broke
10:05 - My Biggest Complaint
12:37 - Is it Worth it?
13:36 - Alternatives to the Riffmaster
15:05 - Conclusion

[@SpectacularSpiderFan]

The Dongle not being a type C makes sense considering it was made for Consoles and Windows, which will more likley than not use a traditional USB port

[@elijahownsall]

So youre telling me for 10 to 15 yrs i can play fine on my pc? Sounds like a not bad deal for 120$

[@s.d.g.global4582]

Your riffmaster issues are the drivers, consoles require controllers to have a "security" chip to work right. Its just so they can force a fat license fee to third party manufacturers

[@DanRockProductions]

Yup, I was able to roll back my drivers with device manager by overwriting the corrupted ones

[@justinvzu01]

@@DanRockProductions To make it register in Clone Hero you need to manually install xbox controller drivers on it. Same with the GH Live controllers on clone hero.

[@hunner4265]

@@DanRockProductions How did you rollback your drivers? I'm running into the same issue

[@DanRockProductions]

@@hunner4265 I reinstalled them using Device Manager. Basically clearing them out and hitting "automatically search for drivers" took care of it

[@JackHolleworth]

Still excited to get my hands on one for Xbox, but yeah, the fact that it can only be used wirelessly is a pretty big concern for people like me who are probably gonna using it 10 or so years from now.

[@carlosespinoza6182]

So buy 2

[@JackHolleworth]

@@carlosespinoza6182 I think you’re kinda missing the point. Who’s to say that PDP will still be selling Riffmasters after the lithium-ion battery in mine either can’t hold a charge as long as it used to or outright dies? The USB-C port only being used for charging the controller is a pretty big design flaw in what looks like an otherwise good product.

[@punkloser1465]

Im giving this controller a chance casually. I've bought a lot of strats and raged over them. However when i had the Jaguar, it died after a year. It powers on but doesn't respond very well. Jitters and just plain unresponsive. So I'll enjoy the Riffmaster and get another Jaguar in the future.

[@rodgerklotz6810]

Just started playing with the riffmaster on pc, should I leave the dongle in and have it flashing all day? Or take it out each time im done for the day? Any harm on leaving it on? or will swapping it in and out cause ore wear and tear?

[@roneythehedgehog]

the dongle problem i was mostly the only who was against it, because it is a piece of plastic that can be easily be losted, and wiring a controller always must be a option

[@Pandora1034]

store it in the guitar

[@sereto111]

You have to go to the devices section of Windows and uninstall the driver that the mapper put, then restart the PC and I you can use again the dongle.

[@DanRockProductions]

Yup, did that shortly after I broke the dongle. That resets it, but I can't map the instrument using the software at all anymore. Unfortunate!

[@goatkittie]

My biggest issue with this thing is activating star power on rock band, it’s very difficult to press select unless you find the button first and wait to activate which is kind of annoying when they could’ve just made a big select button like the 360 Les Paul. Also have you tried activating by lifting it up? I had to lift it up like 90 degrees in the air for it to activate, just wish it was more sensitive. Anyways it’s a decent guitar overall

[@DanRockProductions]

Tilt does work for me, but like you said, it's not sensitive at all

[@dziztit4495]

I hate trying to activate on fortnite festival. You have to use the D pad and I'm always overstrumming because they set the D pad to strum also.

[@JGFTChannel]

I have a question, since you managed to fix the Riffmaster judging by the comments.. have you tried doing the RB4IMapper program again? And if so, did it work? And how was the experience?

[@DanRockProductions]

I tried again, the program crashes on startup sadly

[@DiamondDawn9]

@@DanRockProductions Does that mean no Guitar hero 3 support?

[@DanRockProductions]

@@DiamondDawn9 nope, sadly not

[@Abeto555]

I have the issue described in the video....Is there any way I can fix this or did I just throw money to the trash?

[@DanRockProductions]

With the software crashing and the drivers corrupting themselves? Open Device Manager and overwrite the broken drivers with Xbox One controller drivers, that reverts it

[@CapnReign]

would you recommend this for xbox or should i get a guitar hero guitar(idk if they work with fort or not)

[@SoyBeanLive]

Did you try remapping the buttons on clone hero?

[@DanRockProductions]

The guitar doesn't show up at all in Clone Hero

[@DanRockProductions]

The guitar does not show up at all in Clone Hero

[@archNagel]

Won't it work if, 10 years from now, the battery dies as you said, but you plug it to the wall with an usb-c charger while playing wirelessly to the PS5/xbox?

[@DanRockProductions]

Maybe that'd work? But how many people would honestly want to be tethered to a wall outlet to play a Rock Band game lol

[@robbyjvc]

Thank you for the honest review.

[@erikcartsreviews6967]

When will these be in stock again at game stop 😢

[@AngeloT2001]

tbh that's why I'm waiting for a PS riffmaster because that version gets picked up by windows and you can use it in clone hero, yarg, rbdx3, etc. and you just have to use the festival instrument mapper to make it work there, but I'm getting a ps5 too so I was already thinking to play pro guitar/bass there and the normal mode on pc

[@louis0nfire]

Worried about stick drift on a guitar controller, that’s a new one.

[@corelivestreams4621]

thought id let you know apparently you can manually remap the controls in clone hero and itll work with the guitar im sorry to hear you bricked your dongle i have one currently shipping to me

[@DanRockProductions]

It wouldn't show up in CH at all, so I couldn't map it in the first place :(

[@The_cheif-beef]

The xbkx series has usb A on the console , the only usb c associated on xbox series is on the controllers

[@deathviper420]

Spent 180 usd on a jaguar not knowing that there was a festival instrument mapper but hey, I’m not waiting months for them to come into stock again. I just hate how stiff the frets are, doesn’t work well on Festival drums with the new compatibility added.

[@DanRockProductions]

Hey, the Jaguar is certainly an investment if nothing else. It's one of the rarer GH/RB guitars in existence, I've only seen two in person myself. As a guitar, it's nothing special, but as an investment, it'll probably be worth more in the coming years if previous trends are anything to go by

[@swerk3433]

USB A Adapter is an issue Me: Heheh, PC no problemo

[@DanRockProductions]

My ROG Ally is a gaming PC without a type-a slot!

[@JWRandall24]

Xbox Series X|S has no USB C so not sure what the issue is with a USB A dongle

[@DanRockProductions]

Like I said in the video, USB-A is appearing on less and less nowadays. Hell, my brand new laptop doesn't even HAVE a USB-A port, which means if I wanted to play Festival on my laptop, I'd have to buy an adapter. Same with if you wanted to play it on an ROG Ally, Steam Deck, Legion Go, MSI Claw, Ayaneo Air... literally everything aside from the Xbox Series consoles. It makes no sense to me that PDP doesn't have any type C options Hell, they could even get Switch compatibility if they had a type C option🤷

[@JWRandall24]

@@DanRockProductions the transition to usb c has been pretty messy but more people will have A to C adapters so maybe that's better off

[@DanRockProductions]

More and more people in the coming years will, for sure. I only have the one that came with my last smartphone, but it's constantly being used for my laptop. It'd have been nice if PDP included an adapter in the box. They probably don't cost much in bulk. I probably wouldn't have even mentioned it in the video

[@s.d.g.global4582]

There is no standard amongst the manufacturers in regards to USB-C. This has caused usb c to be so vastly different in terms of functionality, compatibility, and features. Which is a problem. Also, just get a usb 3.0 hub. I use one on my console to have my external storage drive, mouse, keyboard, cable for charging controller, wireless dongle for the other mouse keyboard on the sim rig and of the course another for the wheel itself.

[@DanRockProductions]

@@s.d.g.global4582 a hub wouldn't necessarily fix my problems unfortunately. I shouldn't need to purchase extra parts to adapt my new $130 controller to a new standard. My laptop and handheld gaming PC don't feature type A ports at all. They should have included an A to C adapter in the box, if not given us the option to choose a different dongle at checkout

[@coshuloser]

you look like frank iero lol and that's kinda sick ngl

[@DanRockProductions]

holy shit that's a great compliment, thank you

[@MetalSonic420]

A good review and a good video.

[@ThePizza3d]

8:37 That'd be very interesting to hear about. I've seen on quite a few ocassions the argument of the people at Harmonix not knowing how to code the game or something like that, and that was talking about Rock Band 4

[@justinvzu01]

The rock band guitars have always been garbage. The buttons feel bad, the strum bar isn't tactile and the necks are way too thin. They will always be inferior to GH controllers. Literally no one has ever used the upper frets, beside GH5.

[@DanRockProductions]

I've always felt the same way. The Riffmaster is a wee bit better, but an Arduino modded GH5 guitar feels lightyears better

[@SpectacularSpiderFan]

Dude any guitar hero controller not made for the wii is kinda trash in the first place. Even then the strum bar isnt "tactile" the clicking just triggers the monkey part of the brain. There's a reason for why strum fixes exist for both RB and GH controllers

[@DanRockProductions]

@@SpectacularSpiderFan disagree. SGs and Kramer's have a good form factor, good strum bar and perfect weight. Both of my Wii LPs overstrum and all genericasters break easily, no matter what console

[@dxjjw]

The strum bar is a huge no for me

[@spawnofinsanity2964]

Man he complains about almost everything even the dongle being type a instead of c lol

[@jose-qt8pc]

Literally bro I play on a Series S 💀 Series S doesn’t even have a USB-C port on it lmao