Not everything was bad, though. The whammy bar feels and works great, with just the right amount of springiness. In a clever design move TAC recessed the start button, preventing accidental pauses. It’s even more clever for another reason, something which I’m guessing TAC didn’t anticipate. You see, the Shredder doesn’t have a tilt sensor.



Well, at least according to the official website it doesn’t. According to me, it has a tilt sensor that works about 5% of the time, and even then only if you shake the neck vigorously. An “easier” alternative is to use the base of your palm to hit the Select button and activate Star Power. Way to go, TAC. Sure, you designed and manufactured a shockingly poor quality guitar controller, but your one positive design feature managed to have not just one, but two benefits. I hope somebody got a raise for that one.

Oh, and last and pretty much least, the decals. According to TAC, “Players also love to customize the controller with a variety of hot decals, which ship with the unit.” You know what? I would love to customize my controller with a variety of hot decals. Why didn’t I? Because my box didn’t contain any hot decals. This, however, is one issue which I don’t think TAC deserves the heat for. You see, my guitar went through Canadian customs, and I’m positive they opened the box up and had a look. One of the decals is a fanged skull-and-crossbones, so they must have confiscated it for, I dunno, looking scary. Maybe it was a terrorist decal. Either that, or there’s a border guard who loves to customize his booth with a variety of hot decals. I like to imagine it’s the latter.

Review by David Pettitt.