Review: PDP Riffmaster Guitar (Xbox) – A Fun Option For Rock Band, Fortnite Festival & Beyond
We see a clamouring every now and again for games like Guitar Hero and even Rock Band to get a resurgence, and although I’m absolutely in favour of that (the more, the merrier quite frankly!), let’s not forget what we already have – the brilliant and DLC-rich Rock Band 4, as well as the newly-released Fortnite Festival.
The problem hasn’t really been a lack of games to play, but rather a lack of new instruments on the market. Used guitars have rocketed to ridiculous prices over the past few years, and it wasn’t until 2024 that PDP finally unveiled something new for us to enjoy in the form of the Riffmaster Wireless Guitar for both Xbox and PlayStation.
So, as someone who has continued playing Rock Band 4 on a regular basis for the past decade, I’ve been knocking on the door (not literally!) of PDP ever since the Riffmaster was unveiled, trying to get my hands on a review unit in order to test it out for the Pure Xbox community. And now, finally, I’m happy to report I’ve had a blast with it!
Right off the bat, you’ll notice some quality-of-life improvements with the Riffmaster. It comes packaged in a surprisingly small box due to its ability to bend in half – the neck of the guitar has a little toggle that allows you to snap it into (or out of) place when necessary which is great for storage purposes. You’ll also notice the Xbox-style buttons for the guide, ‘Menu’, ‘View’ and ‘Capture’, as well as a d-pad and even a thumbstick on the neck.
The connection process works a little differently to the original Rock Band 4 guitar too. This time around, there’s a little wireless dongle that has to be inserted into your console to pair with the Riffmaster. The two devices easily recognise each other within a couple of seconds, and the dongle also can be used on PC which opens up many more possibilities. PDP even went the extra mile and made the faceplate removable on the guitar, which reveals a hidden compartment where you can store the wireless dongle for safe keeping. Very cool!
In terms of how it handles, the Riffmaster feels largely reminiscent of the original Rock Band 4 guitar, notably opting a for a non-clicky strum bar and buttons. Everyone’s got their own preferences with stuff like this, but personally I think the muted sound is great (although apparently there are third-party attachments that introduce a ‘clicky’ sound if you wish). Beyond that, everything is pretty much as you’d expect – the Riffmaster has an impressively premium feel to it, and it looks the part as well.
The fret buttons, in particular, have a really nice texture to them, and you definitely notice the difference when going back to the cheaper-feeling Rock Band 4 Stratocaster. The shape of the guitar feels perfectly comfortable as it nestles into your body too – I play standing up and sitting down, and it suits both circumstances to a tee. One potential gripe is that the tilt functionality on the Riffmaster isn’t that sensitive, which means it’s slightly harder to activate “Overdrive” than it was in the past and the button alternative is pretty awkward to reach. The hardcore players may find irritation with this, but personally I can’t say it’s bothered me much.
There are also more cool features to highlight when getting into the actual games. In Rock Band 4, the Riffmaster inevitably does a very similar job to the original Rock Band 4 guitar, but with two key improvements. The first of these is an integrated battery that’s said to deliver up to 36 hours of playtime before requiring a charge (via USB-C), and I’ll just say that after about 20 hours of testing, I haven’t had to charge it as of yet.
Taking away the need for AA batteries is a huge relief, as is the ability to plug headphones directly into the Riffmaster’s headphone socket. This allows you so much more freedom than having to plug headphones into a second controller, and in general it works really well. I say “in general” because a pair of my Razer headphones introduces occasional audio break-up when using them with the Riffmaster (it seems to dislike the cable specifically), but all the others I’ve tested it with have worked perfectly. It’s so nice to be able to move around freely when using headphones now!
Beyond Rock Band 4, there’s also Fortnite Festival that’s well worth checking out. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s made by the same team behind Rock Band (Harmonix) and very much plays in a similar fashion. If you select either the “Pro Lead” or “Pro Bass” options when setting up a song, you’ll be given the proper Rock Band-style charts for your Riffmaster so you can enjoy it in the same way. I still prefer Rock Band 4 because of its vast library of DLC, but Fortnite Festival is a more casual, online-focused game featuring some exclusive songs and a very active playerbase.
This is also where the Riffmaster’s thumbstick comes in, as you’re thrown into a pre-game lobby area in Fortnite Festival where you can navigate the room and pick songs by running around and pressing buttons. It comes in useful for this (and actually, the thumbstick only works in Fortnite Festival on Xbox), but you’ll still probably want to use a traditional controller for some things in the game, as certain actions strangely aren’t mapped to anything on the guitar. You can’t switch emotes properly via the guitar, for example, and sometimes the tilt feature doesn’t activate Overdrive… an issue that never occurs when playing Rock Band 4. Hopefully Harmonix and Epic Games can find a way to remedy these quirks and get the most out of the Riffmaster’s capabilities in the future.
Overall, what you’re getting with the Riffmaster is a great wireless guitar — for Rock Band 4 in particular — adding multiple bells and whistles on top of the already decent original RB4 controller.
Even if you just play Rock Band 4 and Fortnite Festival for the next however many years, there’s plenty to enjoy – it feels good, looks good and the new features are very welcome. There’s always the option of delving into the PC scene as well though, particularly in the form of the mega-popular Clone Hero, as thousands of custom songs have been created for that game and they all work with the Xbox Riffmaster once you’ve set it up. Seriously, it’s 100% worth trying out if you have the ability to!
Based on the experience I’ve had with the Riffmaster, I think there’s really no question over whether it’s a worthy guitar for Xbox fans – aside from one or two potential gripes, it absolutely is. The question is over the standard price tag of £129.99 / $129.99, as well as how it’ll compete against the impressive-sounding Gibson Les Paul controller from CRKD. The latter can’t be tested until we go ‘hands on’ later this year though, so let’s focus on the Riffmaster for now – if games like these are (or will be) part of your regular rotation in the future, it’s worth considering for your Xbox wishlist at the very least… especially if a good discount shows up!
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Have you bought a Riffmaster guitar? What do you think of it? Tell us in the comments down below.
