Mad Catz Releases Fender Bass for Rock Band

Mad Catz has become the first peripheral manufacturer to bring a bass guitar to the Rock Band aftermarket with its Fender Precision Bass replica.

Nearly a year after Rock Band first launched, the aftermarket for controllers is finally picking up. From full-size replicas to more stylized axes, options have generally been expanding, but one instrument has been quite conspicuously lacking: a true bass guitar. Mad Catz remedied that issue on Monday with the release of its Fender Precision Bass replica, the first of its type for Rock Band.

Unlike the original Rock Band guitar controller, the Precision Bass model has a split strum bar for bass players to strum and pluck their way through uptempo songs faster. The design has also been tweaked to keep the traditional look of the Fender Precision Bass; Mad Catz built the whammy bar functionality into the volume dial, since the real deal doesn’t actually have one. There are also solo fret buttons, allowing the bass to function as a guitar in a pinch.

The Mad Catz Fender Precision Bass is on sale now for $70, and exclusively available for the Xbox 360.