Double Range Freedom V
$69.99 at www.theguitarmania.com
The latest evolution of the Freedom V comes only in basic black (which goes with everything, right?). Although it's nearly identical to its forerunners in every way, it adds some stuff you really don't need, but will nonetheless decide you absolutely must have.
Of course, we're talking about the second set of fret buttons, located up where the guitar's neck meets the body. You could call them useless - they do the exact same thing as the larger, original buttons do and they're not as comfortable; they're round and dome-shaped, and despite the picture above, they're not five different colors - they're black and surrounded by circles of the appropriate hue.
However, the first time you slide your hand up the neck during the solo to shred around on those smaller, rounder, slightly more closely-spaced buttons, then move your hand back down the neck to themain buttons when the solo is over, well… you'll understand. There's an appeal there that we don't mind admitting. After all, if you're going to pretend to be a rock star, you might as well go all the way. Your dignity got flushed quite some time ago.
As for more typical improvements, at least in our unit, the buttons don't wiggle as much as they did in previous versions, which leads to a smoother, if slightly stiffer gameplay experience. Also, the motion switch isn't quite as sensitive, so we never once set it off by accident. The wireless performance may be improved and it may not be - to be honest, once you get a certain distance away, you can't see the notes clearly anyhow, so unless you've memorized the song and like to play from another room entirely, both this and the earlier model will suit you just fine.
