I peaked at 16 years old. I was part way through an expert run of ‘Through the Fire and the Flames’ by Dragonforce on Guitar Hero 3 at a friend’s house for their birthday, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever top this’. As the song came to an end and I revelled in my passing grade, I got at least one nod of approval from the group before they slunk off to do what actually cool 16-year-olds do when presented with a free house and no adults around: smoke a big joint.
I’ve given it my all, on that same 20-year-old X-Plorer, with one of my favourite songs from that time.
Scroll down for my cool video.
Not me, though. I got high on sweet riffs, adeptly played out across five colourful buttons, slapped in near-perfect rhythm alongside a singular strum bar. Learn a real guitar? No, thanks. I’d rather sink 100s of hours into a rough approximation of the real thing—a karaoke version wrought of thin plastic from scaled-down body to hollow head unit. Plugged not into an amp, but an Xbox 360, with a whammy bar modulating not the strings, but the signal.
I played that momentous day on a legendary piece of kit: the RedOctane X-Plorer Controller for Guitar Hero.
The X-Plorer is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It came bundled with Guitar Hero 2, and I was 16 when it first came out here in the UK. That was in 2007. I’m 34 now. And that exact same X-Plorer controller from my proudest moment all those years ago?
It still bloody works. I use it all the time.
It’s still in good shape. Its once white hue has yellowed over the years, and there’s a little grime between the frets and the gaps in the plastic shell. But it’s good. More than that, it’s great. It even has the same Gibson sticker beneath the fretboard that I stuck on there as a teenager. There was another one, a bird of some sort? But it fell off. I’d forgotten where the stickers came from, but after searching eBay listings for the X-Plorer for this article, I realised they came in the box with it.
(Image credit: Jacob Ridley)
I have a bit of a collection of guitar controllers on the go: two X-Plorers, two for Guitar Hero Live, and one CRKD Gibson Les Paul Blueberry Burst Pro Edition. That last one only came out last year, and yes, it’s pretty sweet. I also have a Rock Band kit in an attic somewhere.
Yet the original X-Plorer from my childhood is still my favourite guitar controller of the lot. They all work on PC, with some small tweaks, but no other guitar has the smooth fret button actuation this one does. My fingers glide across those buttons, man. It just feels right.
The controllers I’ve had to tinker with the most are actually the Guitar Hero Live guitars. They’re much newer than the X-Plorer, coming out in 2015, but that has seen the X-Plorer’s ancient simplicity and stoicism replaced by modern proprietary-ness. Special remapping software is required to get the Xbox One wireless dongle working and to emulate the guitar in Windows (RB4InstrumentMapper with VJoy). The 20-year-old X-Plorer is simply plug and play.
(Image credit: Jacob Ridley)
I also had to solder the battery cables back into place on one of the two GHLive guitars. That was my own fault. I left a set of AA batteries in one of them for maybe a decade. The batteries had, of course, exploded into a pool of corrosive battery acid, which subsequently chewed through the solder on the wires connecting the battery bay to the mainboard. That was a simple solder job, to be fair, it only took a couple of screws to pry the back off and expose the surprisingly empty innards, solder the cable, and put it back together. It works great now.
And, yeah, I actually kinda like the 6-fret layout from GHLive. It’s a different challenge. It was like learning from scratch all over again when it first came out, and even 10 years on, I still basically suck at it.
Jacob Ridley
Jacob Ridley
The X-Plorer has only ever had one issue in twenty years: the whammy bar broke many years ago. It sort of just hangs limp from the guitar, modulating songs to a horrible pitch decided at random. I took it apart a few years ago and found the cause to be just a small piece of plastic that had broken off. This tiny plastic lip is what allowed the whammy to reset to its centre. It’s an easy replacement for someone with a 3D printer. I don’t have one right now (ex-housemate stole it—long story) so I’ve done something everyone recommends that’s nearly just as good.
(Image credit: Jacob Ridley)
I’ve wrapped the whammy bar in an elastic band, attaching on the other end to the guitar strap thingymabob. Now the whammy bar works perfectly. Simple things require simple fixes.
The other X-Plorer I own comes from when my partner used to work at a UK games retailer unimaginatively called GAME. Our local brand had just received a bunch of trade-in kit from someone clearing out their attic of old tat, and they’d dropped in a full Rock Band kit and X-Plorer controller, among other things. I happened to pop around that day as I worked in a shop nearby, saw the guitar behind the counter, and snapped it up pronto. I vaguely remember it cost just £2, but I can’t say for sure. Whatever the price, it was a steal. They cost upwards of £50 nowadays.
I’m not opposed to newer guitars. The CRKD Gibson Les Paul Blueberry Burst Pro Edition is my go-to when I play YARG or Clone Hero. The Hall effect haptic strum bar is something else and it has an incredible number of programmable buttons. Moreover, it’s wireless. I can lounge on the sofa while playing my sweet tunes.
(Image credit: Jacob Ridley)
You can bet that I pre-ordered the new CRKD 8K Gibson Explorer Guitar Controller when that was announced back at Gamescom. I’ve never preordered anything faster in my entire life. I’m not normally one to pre-order anything, to be honest, but it’s a brand new explorer. A brand new explorer. I’ve never been more the target audience for a thing.
Stage Tour looks sweet, too; although, I’m more than happy with YARG and Clone Hero. It was our frequent contributor and drumming apprentice Hope Corrigan that got me onto YARG. They use it for learning to play the actual drums. I’ve been playing throwback hits on guitar controllers ever since. Shout out to the people that make that game and Clone Hero. Both available for free and totally open to all. You are the true Legends of Rock.
(Image credit: Jacob Ridley)
Look, I can go on and on about my many years of slapping colour-coded buttons in rhythmic order. Truth is, though, it’s not just about the controller, or even the games. I’ve got so many good memories with these things. I started playing as basically a child, in my room, with my mate, Bob, who insisted on only ever playing with a controller. Bob is still a complete lunatic to this day. Or going to my first massive gig in Earl’s Court in London and watching people play Guitar Hero on stage (I could’ve totally beat them). Or the many nights tapping along to My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine with my friend James as we drank too many Relentless energy drinks, shredding the solo in Free Bird into the night.
So, in honour of the X-plorer’s upcoming 20th anniversary, I wanted to do something special. I’ve given it my all, on that same 20-year-old X-Plorer, with one of my favourite songs from that time.
Please enjoy.
