Faulty Guitar Hero 3 Guitar?, Find the permanent and proper fix here! Options

[sicknasty413]

Howdy!

Well, as the story goes, I purchased Guitar Hero 3 for the Xbox 360 on Wednesday. Being impressed by the guitar's sheer sexiness, I was ready to rock it out. But, to my dismay, my yellow button was unresponsive!

After some troubleshooting, I came to the realization that the fret board (the long black shaft with the green, red, yellow, blue, and orange buttons) was a little loose. So, as any xbox-scene member would do, I took it apart! Some of my findings will come later in this tutorial, as I believe them to not be the direct cause of unresponsive buttons; I don't want to confuse anyone.

Without further ado, my Guitar Hero 3 Guitar Fix

* Please ignore my lack of proper guitar vocabulary *

-Supplies-
Guitar Hero 3 Guitar
Torx driver
T8 bit (I think that's the size)


-Step 1-
Removing the fret board from the guitar:
This step is very simple. Simply flip the guitar over and push the lever from one side to the other (left to right.. up to down.. depends how you're looking at it). This will unlock the fret board, allowing you to pull the fret board away from the guitar.



-Step 2-
Unscrewing 2 screws:
In this step, you remove 2 screws using your T8/torx driver. They're located here-


-Step 3-
How the fret board/guitar works:
Basically, there's a green PCB (Printed Circuit Board) on the end of the fret board with 8 "golden" points. In the receiving end of the guitar, there are 8 metal pins. When the fret board is inserted into the guitar, the 8 metal pins in the guitar make contact with the 8 "golden" points on the fret board. We'll be working with the green PCB.



-Step 4-
Finding the "tabs":
Basically, the green PCB is secured by 4 tabs. There are tabs in the bottom left corner, bottom right corner, upper left corner, and upper right corner. What were gonna do is move the PCB IN FRONT of the tabs. By "in front," I mean in the direction of the guitar (if it were being inserted into the guitar) The tabs are indicated by the red arrows-
"Bottom" tabs:

Different angle:

"Upper" tabs:




-Step 5-
Moving the PCB:
So here comes the actual fix. Since you already removed the screws in step 2, all you have to do is carefully pry the 2 halves the fret board open. As in, grab the "top" of the fret board and pull it upwards; Grab the "bottom" of the fret board and pull it downwards (This may be easier to do with just 1 hand, seeing as how you'll need the other). With your free hand, grab/finagle/move the green PCB in front of the tabs. I found it easier to do the "bottom" of the green PCB first, then do the "top." It should look like this-


*Notice- the tabs are no longer present because they're located behind the green PCB*

-Step 6-
Putting the fret board back together:
Now that the green PCB is in its new position, make sure the fret board is securely and properly closed. Now take the 2 screws from earlier that you removed and screw them back in. Now slide the fret board into the guitar, kick on your 360, and test it out!

IF this doesn't work, you may want to completely take apart the fret board and take a look at the wiring inside. I found this-




Although it looks as if the "pins" are strategically placed, I'd double check.. perhaps even remove the wiring from them to get this-


Well, that's all I got. I surely hope I've been of help!

Enjoy rocking it out with your fixed guitar!

Cheers!

[yaazz]

Wow those guitars are cheaply made pieces of crap... I can't believe they cost an extra 40 Cdn bucks.

[josh256]

It's odd, they didn't make the neck detachable to reduce the shelf real estate of the packaging.. Having gone through 4 GH2 explorers I was thinking they were going to exchange/sell spares on the neck; in my case food/sweat/grim/beer led to fret trigger wear and reduced performance. They put all the active circuitry in the body which would make repairs or replacements to the neck relatively inexpensive.. but using pogo pins is nothing short of retarded.. the mean time between failure on a shifting contact can't be good.

[Wireless Geek]

Awesome job! I've been holding off getting GH III until I found a good fix and actual photos of the innards. I'm surprised more people haven't replied considering the Engadget post.

I thought from day 1 that the detachable neck was a bad idea. What exactly were they thinking? My intention was to possible just hard wire the sucker. I think I'll start first here.

Well done!

[mike8519]

Only a matter of time before someone just says screw it and makes a serial cable tether mod or something of the sort.

[BoNg420]

Maybe they will make addon necks in the future? Something to make the guitar look different

[commandersafi]

Maybe they will make addon necks in the future? Something to make the guitar look different

That would be awesome

[sicknasty413]

Thanks for the replies fellas.

And holy crap to the amount of views this thread has gotten! Almost 8000 in just a few days!

I agree with commandersafi.. new/custom necks would be friggin' sweet!

Cheers!

[edgekrusher187]

Sorry for jacking the thread like this. But I'm having issues not with the buttons or the connection of the neck, but the tilt sensor. I have to hold the guitar virtical for a couple of seconds before the SP kicks off. I was wondering if anyone else has had an issue like mine. I've been reading that alot have had the same issue on the guitar hero forumns, but most of those people have the PS3 version of the game. I am tempted to take my guitar apart and see if it's a hardware issue, but I don't know what the tilt sensor looks like or even where it is. Any help is appreciated, and again I'm sorry for jacking the thread.

[fred333]

I never saw the guts of this guitar before. I would have to agree that they are very cheaply made.

[thedutch]

So, having lost my receipt and Walmart not having the les paul bundles available, and my own retail store not having yet sold a copy to fake a defective exchange, plus redoctane not covering the warranty thanks to no receipt, I took it upon myself to give it a try.

And I am very pleased with the results

Just two things I'd add, for novices like myself who want to do this:

Use a T10 torx screwdriver bit, not T8. A full set cost me $12 at Lowe's, you can prolly find one cheaper!

Take out the first four screws instead of just the first two, it'll give you a little more room to do it.

Now the neck fits tightly with the body, doesn't budge, and plays perfectly! I'm so happy! Thanks for posting this!

[sicknasty413]

^ glad to be have help! Honestly, I didn't know if it was a T8 or T10.. I simply grabbed a few and tried them until one fit.

Removing more screws is fine.. I just did the minimal amount.

I'm glad it worked out for you! Have fun being a rock star!

Cheers!

[Birdy2k2]

I'm having the problem where if I try to down strum a Green+Red chord, Yellow gets added to it and the note doesn't play. Has anyone with this problem tried this? I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow, but would be nice to have some input to see what sort of weird issues this resolved. I should mention that up strumming G+R does work, it's just the down strum and only on that combination.

This post has been edited by Birdy2k2: Nov 9 2007, 04:23 AM

[dattack]

It seems to work just fine, and the guitar neck locks in place pretty tight. The only thing is there is a slight gap where the neck meets the base of the guitar. Normally the neck would slide back and fourth to the base of the guitar.

Does anyone see this as an issue?

Im curious if to much stress is being put on the pins, since the guitar neck is very tight. I had to press pretty hard to lock it in.

[PvtPepper]

Yeah I'm wondering about what that last guy put, would the pins be damaging the PCB board because they're pressed so tightly against them?