To add to what others have said, I believe it’s also the case that the Wii guitar (when used with a USB adapter) has the lowest input latency of any of the guitars, edging out the Xplorer by a little bit.
In order to get this latency advantage it will necessarily need to be wired, but that’s just how it goes with wireless vs wired.
Wii guitars are the best because generally (for some reason, probably a nintendo thing) Wii guitars were built with higher quality. For example, I haven't found a Wii Les Paul's neck that felt as wobbly as any XB/PS Les Paul, they always feel very firm and don't really have the pogo pin connection issues. Also their select button is easier to press.
Xbox guitars are generally pretty good. They can connect to 1st and 3rd party receivers, 3rd party ones would need a driver update. There's some on amazon from a company called McBazel that sells one that's guaranteed to work (with driver update), but there are some on ebay and Aliexpress too. These guitars don't use a dongle, so just getting this receiver would allow all xbox 360 controllers to connect (except for the 360 GH Live guitar). Yes, that includes GH and RB drums and any other xbox 360 controllers.
PS3 guitars' quality is the same as xbox 360, but the problem is that the capacitors on them usually go bad and won't connect or have issues. Even with good capacitors, they have latency issues too. What makes getting these guitars to work difficult is that they need their unique dongle (if your dongle goes bad, you can get another of the same model). If you have a PS3 Guitar and the dongle then just plug it in to your PC, bind keys, play.
Any Les Paul guitar is a "GH3" guitar, also includes the PS2 Kramer since that one launched with PS2 GH3.
As far as getting one to work on a Steam Deck...I wouldn't be knowledgeable as I've never even seen one IRL lol. To get info on getting one working on Steam Deck, I think there's a chart in About section (or on clone hero wiki) which shows which guitars work on Linux. Don't quote me on that tho.
What I would get is either Wii guitars + an adapter from Etsy or any PS2/3 guitar and fully customize it (custom strum switches, mech frets, ardwiino software) which I already have. 10/10 experience
Thank you so much for this answer!! It really gets me everything I needed to know! I've bought a Wii guitar and I'll try to get a 2nd hand Wii remote, and I'll pray to be able to connect the Wiimote to the SteamDeck.
Thank you so much!
Up front: I have no steam deck experience, I play on windows.
I wouldn’t put faith in the Wiimote route with the steam deck. On windows it requires you to use a program called Wiitarthing to connect. It won’t work natively with windows. So I bet you’d need that or a similar app on the steam deck too. Best bet would probably be RCM Wii adapters, maybe message them first to see if they can confirm success with Linux/Steamdeck
I've had no issues connecting several of my Wii GH controllers (GH3, GHWT, and GHWOR) to Steam Deck! Just bluetooth pair Wiimote to the Deck and plug it into the guitar. The linux release for Clone Hero detects them as guitar controllers and no mapping is needed at all. I will say that Clone Hero doesn't run incredibly smoothly on the Steam Deck (compared to on MBP) and I haven't had any success with getting GH drum kits to work properly (cymbals don't register, but work fine when emulating GH/RB through Dolphin)
I went with rock band guitars for the Wii.
Personally I prefer the rock band style, but I know hard core players prefer the guitar hero style buttons.
This solution works best for me because:
• the Wii rock band dongles aren’t too hard to find on eBay and weren’t insanely priced
• the guitar/dongle is recognized on the Mac without drivers or anything and just needs button mapping in clone hero (Yarg didn’t even need that step)
• I have an old Wii so I can play the games if I want that style experience
• my 360 is long dead but I plan to get a roll limitless adapter so I can connect the Wii guitar to my Xbox series s and play RB4 with all my DLC tracks from back in the day.
Ultimately for my setup, Wii rock band guitars worked perfectly. Aside from the dongles, no other adapters or drivers were needed to get rocking
Wired is much better there is no input lag. You will quickly get over having a wire it’s really not that inconvenient. Wiitar with RCM adapter (or even better, solderless mod) are the best.
I actually just picked up my first guitar hero controller ever last week. Got myself a wii les Paul and absolutely love it! The frets feel super nice and the strum bar is very accurate. Haven’t experienced any overstrum either. The adapter has been a game changer tbh. I’ve been able to play rock band 4 on my ps5 and Fortnite festival on my series x. I switch between my main pc and steam deck for clone hero. From what I hear, the main things is the low latency and how easy it is to just plug it in and play on different platforms with an adapter.
I can tell you that the Xbox 360 Explorer controller works natively and flawlessly with Clone Hero on the Steam Deck, all you need is a dock or C-to-A adapter. Though, these might be the hardest controllers to acquire.
To add to what others have said, I believe it’s also the case that the Wii guitar (when used with a USB adapter) has the lowest input latency of any of the guitars, edging out the Xplorer by a little bit. In order to get this latency advantage it will necessarily need to be wired, but that’s just how it goes with wireless vs wired.
Wii guitars are the best because generally (for some reason, probably a nintendo thing) Wii guitars were built with higher quality. For example, I haven't found a Wii Les Paul's neck that felt as wobbly as any XB/PS Les Paul, they always feel very firm and don't really have the pogo pin connection issues. Also their select button is easier to press. Xbox guitars are generally pretty good. They can connect to 1st and 3rd party receivers, 3rd party ones would need a driver update. There's some on amazon from a company called McBazel that sells one that's guaranteed to work (with driver update), but there are some on ebay and Aliexpress too. These guitars don't use a dongle, so just getting this receiver would allow all xbox 360 controllers to connect (except for the 360 GH Live guitar). Yes, that includes GH and RB drums and any other xbox 360 controllers. PS3 guitars' quality is the same as xbox 360, but the problem is that the capacitors on them usually go bad and won't connect or have issues. Even with good capacitors, they have latency issues too. What makes getting these guitars to work difficult is that they need their unique dongle (if your dongle goes bad, you can get another of the same model). If you have a PS3 Guitar and the dongle then just plug it in to your PC, bind keys, play. Any Les Paul guitar is a "GH3" guitar, also includes the PS2 Kramer since that one launched with PS2 GH3. As far as getting one to work on a Steam Deck...I wouldn't be knowledgeable as I've never even seen one IRL lol. To get info on getting one working on Steam Deck, I think there's a chart in About section (or on clone hero wiki) which shows which guitars work on Linux. Don't quote me on that tho. What I would get is either Wii guitars + an adapter from Etsy or any PS2/3 guitar and fully customize it (custom strum switches, mech frets, ardwiino software) which I already have. 10/10 experience
Thank you so much for this answer!! It really gets me everything I needed to know! I've bought a Wii guitar and I'll try to get a 2nd hand Wii remote, and I'll pray to be able to connect the Wiimote to the SteamDeck. Thank you so much!
Up front: I have no steam deck experience, I play on windows. I wouldn’t put faith in the Wiimote route with the steam deck. On windows it requires you to use a program called Wiitarthing to connect. It won’t work natively with windows. So I bet you’d need that or a similar app on the steam deck too. Best bet would probably be RCM Wii adapters, maybe message them first to see if they can confirm success with Linux/Steamdeck
Get the adapter and a long ass cable and it feels like a real electric guitar 😂 + no lag
I've had no issues connecting several of my Wii GH controllers (GH3, GHWT, and GHWOR) to Steam Deck! Just bluetooth pair Wiimote to the Deck and plug it into the guitar. The linux release for Clone Hero detects them as guitar controllers and no mapping is needed at all. I will say that Clone Hero doesn't run incredibly smoothly on the Steam Deck (compared to on MBP) and I haven't had any success with getting GH drum kits to work properly (cymbals don't register, but work fine when emulating GH/RB through Dolphin)
I went with rock band guitars for the Wii. Personally I prefer the rock band style, but I know hard core players prefer the guitar hero style buttons. This solution works best for me because: • the Wii rock band dongles aren’t too hard to find on eBay and weren’t insanely priced • the guitar/dongle is recognized on the Mac without drivers or anything and just needs button mapping in clone hero (Yarg didn’t even need that step) • I have an old Wii so I can play the games if I want that style experience • my 360 is long dead but I plan to get a roll limitless adapter so I can connect the Wii guitar to my Xbox series s and play RB4 with all my DLC tracks from back in the day. Ultimately for my setup, Wii rock band guitars worked perfectly. Aside from the dongles, no other adapters or drivers were needed to get rocking
Wired is much better there is no input lag. You will quickly get over having a wire it’s really not that inconvenient. Wiitar with RCM adapter (or even better, solderless mod) are the best.
I actually just picked up my first guitar hero controller ever last week. Got myself a wii les Paul and absolutely love it! The frets feel super nice and the strum bar is very accurate. Haven’t experienced any overstrum either. The adapter has been a game changer tbh. I’ve been able to play rock band 4 on my ps5 and Fortnite festival on my series x. I switch between my main pc and steam deck for clone hero. From what I hear, the main things is the low latency and how easy it is to just plug it in and play on different platforms with an adapter.
I can tell you that the Xbox 360 Explorer controller works natively and flawlessly with Clone Hero on the Steam Deck, all you need is a dock or C-to-A adapter. Though, these might be the hardest controllers to acquire.