Hello readers, a bit of my background before the review: I’ve played guitar extensively for well over a decade and picked up drums and bass along the way. Finding a reasonable metric to review DLC tracks has been a bit of a head scratcher, I will give recommendations, from this point forward, based on skill level of a song and fun factor (which is definitely subjective). I will also comment on chart and perhaps in some scenarios, provide alternate methods of playing select riffs if I feel the chart doesn’t click right. Now that we have that out of the way…
The Guns of Brixton is a very reggae influenced, and as such requires a different touch to sound proper when it’s played. Most of the strums in this song are played with up-strums, this is something Rocksmith won’t tell you. So if you get to playing it and it doesn’t quite sound right it’s likely because you aren’t muting and strumming properly.
The song offers three different charts, two combo arrangements, and a bass arrangement.
Combo 1 features the lead parts and chords where leads aren’t applicable. There aren’t a whole lot of leads in this track, there are a few little licks that will provide beginners with a bit of an ego boost. It’s a very quick song to pick up and learn, and is generally pretty fun to play.
Combo 2 is literally the same chart minus the leads, there isn’t anything to note besides that, I don’t expect anyone to play this one by comparison to the other arrangement.
Bass arrangement is wonderful, since the song is so heavily reggae influenced the bass line really stands out. It’s a ton of fun when you lock into that groove and start improvising. It’s a very easy line to learn that will no doubt help a lot of beginner bass players build their chops up.
Overall Fun Factor 3 out of 5
Difficulty: Beginner to moderate. I only say moderate because as mentioned above the strumming technique might be something that a lot of beginner players are not familiar with. That aside, the song is very easy.
Should I Stay Or I Should Go is probably the most recognizable track of this pack. It has three arrangements including two combo and a bass guitar arrangement.
Combo 1 as per usual contains the lead. There aren’t a whole lot of leads to speak of here but there are a few and they’re decent to play. The tone in this song is pretty great, it’s a very accurate reproduction, better than usual.
Combo 2 doesn’t have the leads present in the other chart, it does however feature differing chord progressions.
Bass again is great, the tone used is overdriven with some fuzz, as a result bass is very noticeable in this song. The verse is a ton of fun to play and the chorus is even better. A definite contender for best chart of the pack.
Overall Fun Factor 4 out of 5
Difficulty: Beginner to moderate overall.
London Calling is what I consider a punk rock classic, it has one of the most recognizable bass lines ever. The song contains two charts, one for guitar and one for bass.
The Combo chart is a ton of fun to play, and has plenty of variety in licks and chords. Again as in the Guns of Brixton, it requires the “ska up-strum” muting technique, plenty of inverted chords as well. It definitely gets my recommendation for guitar chart of the pack.
Bass: I’ve already mentioned how iconic the bass line is in this track, it’s a lot of fun to play too. I’ve known how to play this song for years and the way I am used to playing it feels more natural to me, the way it’s charted is serviceable though and sounds fine, this is purely preference.
Overall Fun Factor 5 out of 5
Difficulty: Moderate, in comparision to the other tracks in the pack.
Overall Pack grade (not an average)
I would recommend this pack to bassists before guitarists, this pack is an absolute must for bassists. For you guitarists I would recommend it based on your preference of the songs in the pack, IE if you like the songs you’ll probably enjoy playing them.
4/5
The Clash Pack for Rocksmith is available now on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC
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