With Guitar Hero 5 comes a new guitar peripheral. Red Octane and Activision have made some aesthetic changes while reworking the functionality. In the visual section, they've given the guitar a mahogany color for the body along with a white pick guard. They've added some more details by giving the tuning pegs a faux chrome finish.

However, the major change includes a more accurate and responsive touch pad for the guitar. The strum bar has been made more durable and responsive. They've also changed its material so it won't get as wet when your fingers have sweat on them.

There have been several constants in the gaming world over the past few years. Every fall, we get a new Guitar Hero game. And with that game, RedOctane and Activision put out a new and improved guitar controller. This year's update won't turn the heads of most casual Guitar Hero players, but anybody that looks a little closer will see a fine tuning of the guitar that came packaged with Guitar Hero World Tour.

There are few purely aesthetic changes that will catch your eye right away. First is the red faceplate and white pick guard, which together will make this controller stand out from those of the past. Look a little closer and you'll see some fake chrome finish on the tuning pegs. It's all in the details.

The main change to the functionality of the guitar comes in the touch pad which has been reworked internally for what we're told will be a more accurate and responsive feel. Brian Bright, Project Director at Neversoft, explained all of the changes to us:

The Guitar Hero World Tour guitar slider was sending analog values. The Guitar Hero 5 guitar controller's slider is digital, reducing the chance for error and latency. On the surface of the slider we added slight reliefs (like the one on the yellow fret button) to the middle slider fret and the top and bottom slider frets. This way you can feel exactly where your fingers are. There are also colored dots on the neck of the guitar controller near the slider that correspond to the colors of the frets. This allows you to quickly look down and see where your fingers should be (if the reliefs aren't enough for you). All of these changes to the slider allow you to hit the tapping sections with better precision – we also removed the purple rope in the tapping/slide sections of game play by the way :). For those who are musically inclined, GHStudio's all new expressive guitar controller capabilities is where the slider will really shine.

McClubbin via wii.ign.com »