We don't know too much about the Fender Bender, but we do know that, like Lord Vader, machinery and electronics have replaced much of the original. In the Bender's case, inventor "Dan" has stripped out all the bits that made this a guitar, and then replaced them with sound board bits. The result is this "weird sound generator" that he can also play using a hand-made motherboard pick guard. Maybe he'll be in touch with a few solo videos so we can hear how this thing sounds. Easy bet: Guitar Hero at 11. [Flickr via CrunchGear]

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I never got the whole Guitar Hero, Rock Band and their fake guitars playing thingie, which require so much practice to master that you may as well use a real guitar to become as good as Satriani. That's why I love the idea of Guitar Rising, which can use any real electric guitar, from a Fender Telecaster to a Gibson Les Paul. The software teaches you how to play actual songs, tracking your accuracy much like Guitar Hero would do, as their demo video shows.

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Anyone who has played, or has been forced to play, Guitar Hero will be familiar with the idea of a guitar-shaped controller. If you enjoy said controller, chances are you've known for a while now that Harmonix's new game, Rock Band, is looking to up the ante by putting the player in control of a suite of instruments: guitars, bass, drums, and (perhaps unfortunately) even a microphone. Information has been released on the game's Fender Stratocasteresque guitar controller and it's looking, well, a little unusual.

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