When the music rhythm game genre exploded there was a lot of cross-over into actual music and the Fretlight Guitar was something that piqued our interest here at GDN. It is both a standard electric guitar and an excellent, innovative teaching tool. Unfortunately, there is just not enough time in the day to play daily here.
The Fretlight Guitar has been here at the GDN office for several months and because of the hectic daily schedule, the fact that we just recently moved the main editorial office from Europe to the US (and still are not settled in) and a variety of factors, we just haven’t had enough time to do a full review of the item. Why? Because in order to do a full review it is my belief that one would need to sit down and play this every day for a month and with my 12-14 hour work days, that time doesn’t often materialize.
This does not reflect on the item at all, just a fact of life. If you really want to learn the guitar it is something you need to do every day. While I really do want to improve my guitar playing, it is a fairly low priority and so this item often sat idle while I longingly looked it between my daily workload.
What is the Fretlight?
Fretlight is an electric guitar and teaching system. It ties together your computer and a guitar to visually teach you how to play. Basically the guitar has LEDs in the frets that light up telling you where to put your fingers when the lessons are playing. Anytime a guitar is played in the video lessons, the LEDs light up. With the Guitar Pro 6 software that came with the review unit you can even add in standard tabulatures and learn to play the songs straight from that. If you are just starting out and don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry, they have got you covered with the most basic of basic lessons to get you accustomed to having the guitar in front of you and beginning to learn your way around the strings and frets.
The great thing about the Fretlight is that you can unplug it from the computer, plug it into a standard guitar amplifier, and rock out. It’s a real electric guitar in that sense. There are several models to choose from: Standard, Traditional, Vintage and Pro Electric. Prices range from $329.99 to $1199.99 so this is a serious investment meaning that you wouldn’t just want to buy it and idly learn how to play once a week or month. This is a piece of technology that shows you have the time and dedication to play daily.
standard electric guitar and an excellent, innovative teaching tool. Unfortunately, there is just not enough time in the day to play daily here.
