The CRKD Pro Edition Guitar controller is almost perfect, and lets you rock out to all of the classics along with the most recent hits

Looking back recently, I realised that I have now been strumming away on guitar controllers for the best part of two decades, which explains why the genre holds such a special place in my heart. Back in the summer of 2006, I received the recently released (in Europe) Guitar Hero for my birthday, complete with miniature Gibson SG controller, and gaming has never been the same since. In the years that followed, I amassed enough guitar, drum, and other bespoke gaming controllers to form multiple bands, but gradually, as consoles and games moved on, most of these fell out of use.

Fast forward to 2026, where I'm still regularly playing Rock Band 4 and dabbling with Fortnite Festival using my trusty Mad Catz Fender Stratocaster from RB3, but what I really want to get into is Clone Hero on my Steam Deck. However, it seems that some strange alchemy is required to get the majority of old guitar peripherals working correctly on PC, and every one I try from my extensive collection (that hasn't already succumbed to the effects of aging) has at least one fret button that either doesn't register or counts as multiple inputs at once. I needed a fresh solution, and this is where the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar controller came in.

The CRKD Gibson Les Paul Pro Edition guitars come in a range of designs, are split into multi-platform and Xbox-specific compatibility, and generally retail around the $125-135 price point. This compares favorably to the PDP Riffmaster guitar controller with its $149 SRP, though recent sales have pushed all of these to around the $100 mark. For this review, I specifically looked at the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Cherry Sunburst Pro Edition Guitar Controller Collectors Bundle ($200 SRP), which includes both OG and Solo Les Paul Signature Pro Fret Necks, a premium guitar controller backpack, an exclusive shoulder strap, plus a sticker sheet and two collector pins.

Design

As soon as you pick up the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar, you can tell that it has a bit of heft to it – it's not overly heavy, but it does feel solid and well constructed. The neck is similarly sturdy and features mechanical fret buttons that are very responsive. There are two different Fret Necks available – the Solo that matches the Rock Band style with full-width fret buttons plus a second smaller set near the body, and the OG that replicates the Guitar Hero style with narrower inset buttons. The OG comes as standard with all Pro controllers and also features RGB lighting along the fretboard, which I'll get into later.

Necks can easily be removed with a release button at the base, which is great to reduce the size for transportation or storage, but the connection is strong enough to hold everything securely in place while being played.

The design of the body faithfully matches the actual Gibson Les Paul guitar, right down to the various knobs and switches of the controller, mirroring their real counterparts. These give you a Navigation Hub with all eight main controller inputs, two analogue sticks, a Mode Dial to change between different presets, and a large CTRL button that can be used to trigger Star Power alongside the Tilt Sensor. There's an additional D-Pad behind the headstock of each Fret Neck, plus View, Capture, and Menu buttons, along with a Sync button and Platform Slider to change compatibility modes on the bottom edge of the body, providing a huge array of inputs to control whichever game you connect to.

The body also features several clever storage solutions, with the pickup nearest the neck sliding upwards to reveal a storage compartment for the USB wireless dongle. However, I did struggle accessing this initially as the instructions don't make clear that you have to push inwards quite firmly on the bottom of the plastic cover to release it before sliding it upwards, to the point where I was concerned I would break it, but it was much easier once I figured it out.

Features

Likewise, the battery compartment is accessed by sliding the bridge towards the bottom of the body, revealing a removable, rechargeable battery pack that can be swapped out for a couple of AA batteries. The battery pack provides an impressively long period of wireless play, and it was many hours before I even had to think about charging it up.

The guitar also comes with a 2.5m (8.2ft) USB cable that connects to a USB-C socket on the base of the body, and while I had zero issues with wireless latency, you can use Play & Charge with the controller in wired mode for a direct connection that also recharges the battery pack.

Naturally, one of the most important features when it comes to guitar controllers is the strum bar, and the Pro Edition absolutely delivers here. While the slightly less expensive Encore Edition of CRKD's guitars uses a Mechanical Click Strum Bar, the Pro Edition features a Hall Effect Strum Bar that uses voltage difference rather than physical contacts to register movement, resulting in a much smoother action that won't wear out over time. Of course, that tactile 'click' is important when playing, so the Pro Edition Strum Bar delivers Haptic Feedback so you can feel every strum.

There's a huge amount of configuration available with the Pro Edition guitar by holding down various buttons for six seconds, including how far the strum bar has to travel to register, how powerful the strum bar haptic feedback is, and how the RGB lighting on the OG Fret Neck operates. You can set the brightness, whether they light up white, purple, or cycle fast or slow through full RGB, and if they react to what you're playing by matching the color of the current button you're holding.

Everything can be tuned individually to get the exact appearance you want, and I have to say I really do like the RGB fast color cycle combined with Reactive Lighting for a cool performance effect.

There are options to disable the d-pad, navigation hub, and even the tilt sensor – however, as someone who almost exclusively plays sitting down, what I really wanted to do was adjust the tilt angle to make Star Power easier to activate, but this was not mentioned anywhere in the instructions, so I assumed it was a frustrating omission.

That was until I downloaded the CRKD CTRL App on my phone and paired it using the RFID touchpoint on the back of the guitar body, which allowed me to update the controller's firmware, control the RGB lighting settings much more easily, and adjust the tilt settings to match my playstyle. This was a really useful discovery, but could easily have been completely overlooked due to the lack of coverage in the instructions.

When it comes to connectivity, there are two versions of the CRKD Pro Edition – the officially licensed Xbox guitar that works with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Android, or the Multi-platform guitar that supports PC, PS5, PS4, PS3, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch 1, and Android. The Multi-platform guitar also has a KEYJAM mode that converts the inputs to keyboard keys, extending compatibility further and meaning it can actually be used to play Fortnite Festival on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One as well, which is an unexpected bonus.

Through my extensive testing of the Pro Edition Multi-platform guitar, I was easily able to get it working seamlessly with Clone Hero running on my Steam Deck, Rock Band 4 on my PS5, and even the PS4 immediately recognised it as a guitar. Taking things even further, I then fired up some legacy titles on my old PS3, which was a breeze with the Platform Slider switched to the correct setting.

However, getting the guitar to work with Fortnite Festival on PS5 was considerably more difficult, as the instructions offered little help in this regard. According to the CRKD website, compatibility with Fortnite Festival is achieved through KEYJAM mode, though in practice, when you launch the game, all you get are the regular game modes – and while those can be played by tapping the frets in time to the track, that's not actually playing the guitar.

After much scouring of Reddit and TikTok for help, I discovered you actually have to dig deep into the Fortnite Festival settings and turn on the option to "Always Display Pro Parts", after which you can select Pro Guitar or Pro Bass, and the controller works flawlessly as a guitar. Much like the tilt settings, this is another example of great functionality being hidden behind lacklustre instructions.

Performance

Despite some of the issues I had configuring and setting up the CRKD Pro Edition guitar, once I got everything up and running, it absolutely played like a dream. The Hall Effect Strum Bar and Mechanical Frets are really responsive, and the familiar 'clacks' of the buttons as you rattle through an intricate solo just sound right for a guitar controller. I play on Expert difficulty, and never once felt like a missed note or overstrum was due to anything other than my own playing, which is more than I can say for the aging peripherals I was using before this.

Having two different Fret Necks available is a great move for appealing to a wider audience, and having received both with the Collectors Edition, I was able to test the OG (Guitar Hero) and Solo (Rock Band) versions. Each works flawlessly and accurately recreates their respective controllers of yesteryear, but personally, I've always preferred the feel of the OG Guitar Hero buttons, so I'm glad that this is the standard option that comes with all Pro Edition guitars – plus you get the RGB lighting with that one too!

It's worth noting that if you opt for the Turtle Beach Riffmaster competition, you'll only get Rock Band-style fret options, so it's a real bonus that CRKD offers both.

Alongside the customization options for how the Pro Guitar performs, there are plenty of ways to change how it looks as well. The Collector's Edition that I tested comes with the classic Cherry Sunburst body, though a Blueberry Burst version is also available, and an Alpine White finish is about to be released. It is possible to alter the body's appearance with the Faceplate Skins sold by CRKD, though these are high-grade stickers rather than actual swappable faceplates, which won't appeal to everyone.

As mentioned previously, there are both OG and Solo Fret Necks available, which you can get with standard or mechanical buttons in either black or brown to match the style of your setup. In addition to that, CRKD is launching its EZ Glide OG Fret Button Packs in May, which means you can swap out the standard edge-colored fret buttons for full color 'Classic', a muted color 'Candy', or a monochrome set in black, blue, hot pink, or coffee for a more stylish (or extreme) appearance.

Should you buy the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar?

Putting the few minor complaints I have to one side, the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar controller is almost perfect for reliving the glory days of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while also providing the best way to experience more recent releases such as Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival. The price compares favorably with its main competitor (the PDP Riffmaster) while offering a superior product, and while there is a cheaper option available with the CRKD Encore Edition, I would highly recommend budgeting the slightly higher amount to secure the Pro Edition for its improved features.

Playing the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar instantly transported me back and made me fall in love with rhythm gaming all over again – so much so that during the early stages of testing, I had to start forcing myself to take breaks as I was developing RSI from many hours of non-stop playing without even realizing. This was a difficult review to write, as every time I picked up the controller "just to check something," I'd be sucked back in to endless setlists of my favorite songs and lose track of time! That's exactly what you want from this kind of gaming peripheral, and it speaks to the care and attention to detail CRKD has put into crafting it.

With the market for these controllers as it currently is, I firmly believe that you can't do better than the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar. If you have any love for the genre, then this is a worthwhile investment, both to take a nostalgic trip to the past and futureproof yourself with a build quality that will last for years to come.

How I tested the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar Controller

I've been using the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar for all of my rhythm gaming over the last few months, sinking many hours into working my way through an extensive back-catalogue of tracks. Over the last two decades I've used pretty much every official guitar controller available, so I have a solid idea of what worked (and what didn't) in the past.

For this review I mainly tested the controller using Clone Hero on PC, but I have also tested the CRKD Pro Edition Guitar using Rock Band 4 on PS5 and PS4, Fortnite Festival on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S, and several legacy titles on PS3.

For more on how we test controllers, have a read of the GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

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