The iAxe is an interesting kind of musical intstrument: it's a conventional electric guitar, manufactured by the audio specialist at Behringer.

As well as having a standard audio jack to connect it to an amplifier, the iAxe also has a USB interface tucked into the base of the unit.

This allows players to connect the iAxe straight to a USB port on the computer (either a PC or a Mac) and then use the software (supplied on CD) to play and record music onto the computer. There’s a headphone socket on the guitar too, so you can listen to yourself on a set of headphones to avoid disturbing the neighbours.

In all other respects the iAxe is a perfectly normal electric guitar – and a fairly good, if basic, one too, considering that it costs just under £100. It’s got three pickups, tremolo arm and separate volume and tone controls.

There’s also a good selection of software provided with the guitar, including two programs for recording – the basic (and free) Audacity, and a more sophisticated multi-track recorder called Kristal. You also get to choose one of three guitar 'combos', which need to be downloaded. These combos act like guitar effects pedals, and allow the player to alter the basic sound of the guitar to suit different playing styles. There is a variety of sounds, from twangy country guitar to a ‘70s rock sound and more.

We had some trouble setting up the various bits of software. The problem here is that the manuals provided with the iAxe are really poor – they explain how to install the software, but give very little idea of how to actually use it. As a result, we spent quite some time delving through the various online help files simply to get the iAxe set up so that we could start strumming.

Experienced musicians will already have their own instruments and software sorted out, so it's disappointing that Behringer haven't put more work into the iAxe’s manuals to make things simpler for people who are new to either computers or guitars.

Vista compatible: Yes