So what's the general opinion on the Rock Band guitar?
I used to think it was terrible, mostly due to the spongey strum bar and always used the GH3 Gibson but when I started playing world tour with my brother he couldn't use the Fender at all so had to use the Gibson so I forced myself to get good with the Fender and now I can't go back to the Gibson.
This is due to the buttons being closer to each other on the Fender and the whammy bar being much easier to use.

My feelings on GH and RB instruments is the same as the setlist. Catering to the lowest denominator. Those of us with musical taste out of the mainstream who play real instruments that aren't Gibson or Fender either feel excluded or just don't give a shit. The latter in my case.

I'm actually with you, after forcing myself to use the Strat I can't go back to the Explorer or the Les Paul. I'm looking forward to trying out the new Strat for RB2, but am having a hard time justifying it since I have so many damn plastic instruments laying around already...

As for the setlist comment - I'm of the opinion that Harmonix has done a good job of trying to diversify the music in RB (I think Neversoft even did a pretty good job with this, to a lesser degree). Spending some time on the gamefaq/gamespot boards for RB has shown me that some people just plain don't want variety, but rather that the game should cater to their own personal taste. Good luck with that.

I keep hearing that the new Rock Band 2 Fender doesn't improve on much aside from the sound of the strum bar.

Hope it isn't too mushy.

The stum bar was terrible on the first fender statocaster. All I used it for was bass becuase I would stum up like a bass. I always played my les paul because it felt like I could play the notes faster.

Well, thedownstrum on mine just broke, so i think you can guess how I feel about it. Anyone try the RB2 model yet? I haven't decided to buy it yet for sure, is it better than the first one?

I'm very curious about the Rock Band 2 strat.

I hate the first one (buttons and strum bar), but maybe I'll grow onto the so called improved version.

I don't mind the first RB Strat... which is why I'm not buying the new one... the first one still works perfectly fine...

now, the new RB2 drums are another story... I've just gotta wait for that cymbal pack to come out and I'm set...

I also bought the P-Bass, and that's pretty cool... I'm enjoying that...

overall, I'm satisfied with all of Rock Band's instruments (once you get your hands on ones that aren't defective), and people who can't get used to them and still use GH instruments are just being lazy, or elitists.

"...and people who can't get used to them and still use GH instruments are just being lazy, or elitists."

Well I much prefered the GH3 guitar but the Rock Band guitar is more reliable and due to some faulty connector pins my GH3 guitar was rendered useless. Still the Rock Band guitar isn't so bad I suppose, if I could have the Gibson strum bar on the Fender then I'd be much happier.

I like the Rock Band 2 guitar, but that's largely because I've been having problems with my Les Paul for a long time. I fully intend to relegate it to bass as soon as I get the World tour guitar.

My main problem with the Strat was actually the fret buttons.  I didn't like the clicking noises that they made.