The quest for ultimate realism in rhythm game controllers continues. First the state of the art of gaming drums was upped with the advent of the Ion Drum Rocker, a professional-class electronic drum kit with outputs for your Xbox. Now Logitech enters the fray for guitar freaks, with the highest-quality, most realistic guitar controller to hit the market to date.

The Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller immediately strikes the player as something new and different. For starters, it's heavy -- almost 6 pounds vs. about 2 1/2 pounds for the axes that come with the game.

Why so stout? For starters, the Wireless Guitar Controller is made out of real wood, which is then covered with a professional-quality glossy (and very orange) paint job. The neck is made of real wood, and the fingerboard is made of rosewood. And though they do nothing, the frets and tuning pegs are made of metal.

The controls themselves are of the highest quality. The buttons are responsive, the strum bar gigantic in length and extremely smooth to respond, and the whammy bar is perfectly placed, also plenty long, for easy access.

Players who hate "going up" for star power will appreciate the giant back button -- the black pickups you see are actually an oversized button you can hit with the side of your hand to activate the effect. No fumbling around for the button and taking your eyes of the screen. (Oh, and though it comes into play less often, the start button is also cleverly hidden as the chrome piece on the base where the strings would normally be anchored. Cute.)

Sadly this is a guitar built for Guitar Hero, not Rock Band, which means it includes the new touch-sensitive slider system which is pretty much useless for both games. Although I'd much rather have the second set of "solo" buttons that Rock Band guitars use, I know power players don't use them anyway, so they aren't terribly likely to be missed.

I really enjoyed playing games with this controller -- and it's compatible with the titles in both series -- though I did find that over time the weight started to tire out my shoulder a bit. I presume that's a problem with real guitars, too, of course. But on the whole, the responsiveness is so smooth and the look of the guitar is so upscale, you might just forget you're using the thing to play a video game.

And that kind of memory loss is really for the best. At an astounding $200 each, these guitars are going to be reserved only for the most dedicated of gamers.

A very similar version for the PS2 and PS3 also exists; it's black instead of orange.