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Activision and RedOctane’s response to the juggernaut success of Rock Band last fall hardly came as a surprise to us when the first details of Guitar Hero World Tour’s multi-instrumental onslaught were first revealed earlier this year — however, new images of the peripherals passed over the Nukoda news desk today seem to be turning a few more heads.

While the drum set for World Tour has already been described in detail several times over, it’s the Guitar peripheral in particular that seems most interesting (it is *Guitar* Hero, after all).  A thorough analysis of the puzzlingly Stratocaster-shaped peripheral reveals that, while you can use your old controllers, there’s a number of added bonuses on the new axe that seem to verify Activision’s commitment to the promised music-making feature unveiled a few months ago.

If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll notice a few changes to the design.  First up: the controllers now have a bridge below the strum bar used for activating star power.  The real magic comes from it’s double-duty as a means of palm-muting your notes in the music editor — a technique essential to real guitar playing.

Perhaps in response to Rock Band‘s extra frets used for solos, World Tour‘s guitar will feature a touch pad, dubbed “The Slider,” which serves a similar purpose in the game, and an expanded use an — and if you’re familiar with guitar you’ll know we’re not making these words up — arpeggiator.  Finally, located around the Xbox 360 Dashboard button is an accelerometer knob, which is also useful in the music editor, serving the purpose of bending the pitch of notes.

Looking at these peripherals, it’s obvious that their integration with Guitar Hero World Tour’s music editor seems to be of chief concern with Activision.  Provided EA doesn’t retaliate with another iteration of Rock Band, Neversoft and the rest of the crew on World Tour may really be on to something very interesting.

Check out our full-blown gallery after the break!