Turtle Beach has released an updated version of the PDP Riffmaster Wireless Guitar Controller that works with the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. For those not familiar, PDP released the same guitar for Xbox and PlayStation consoles previously – IGN gave a great review to the PlayStation version, in fact. Like those controllers, this one costs $149.99.
The new controller can hold a connection up to 30 feet from a Switch or Switch 2, and gets up to 36 hours of play time on a charge. (It’s rechargeable via USB-C.) Like the other iterations of this controller, it’s collapsible and ships with a shoulder strap. The Riffmaster has an analog stick, strum bar, whammy bar, and 10 fretboard buttons – five at the top of the neck and five more near the body for all those sick shreds you’ll be doing. On the pickguard – that’s the part that holds the strum and whammy bars – there’s also a Home button, plus and minus button, capture button, and d-pad. Alas, there is no GameChat button.
But wait, where are you going to do all that shredding? Yeah, so, if you weren’t aware of Fortnite Festival, it’s essentially a Rock Band mode inside Fortnite, created by the folks at the Epic-owned Harmonix, who were behind those classic rhythm games. As IGN’s review found, though, the game didn’t quite reach the heights of those hallowed titles at launch.
Turtle Beach isn’t the only one out there releasing guitar-shaped controllers lately. CRKD also put out a pair of officially-licensed Gibson Les Paul controllers, which IGN’s Jacqueline Thomas found were great, partially because they had advanced the formula a bit with features like haptics in the strum bar and mechanical buttons, at least in the Pro Edition. Plus, it’s a cheaper controller, starting at $114.99 for the multi-platform (read: Switch-compatible) Encore Edition.
The PDP Riffmaster Wireless Guitar Controller for the Switch and Switch 2 is available now at Turtle Beach’s website or on Amazon for $149.99.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom’s Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn’t be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
