Batteries for Rock Band Wired Guitar?

[UEG XxWaffleSxX]

So me and my friend were just messin around wit our Guitars, and noticed on the wired guitar, theirs a place for 3 AA batteries..

Why in the world would a wired guitar need 3 AA batteries? So we opened it up, and put 3 AA batteries in, and nothing.. so, what the heck, can anyone help answer this puzzling mystery?

[Redempshin]

The shell casing of the wired and wireless controllers are the same (same thing between PS3 and XBox 360) with only minor easily changed items. It's cheaper to create one shell for the guitar and just input (or don't) the wireless transmitter for the appropriate console, rather than have two separate shells.

[coffinrock94]

As I posted in another thread, I believe they were cutting corners to get the game out before Thanksgiving, so they could make a killing on Black Friday. They knew the peripherals weren't ready for mass distribution, which is why you can't buy them separately. Just like how a lot of the guitars were faulty, they made the models the same to save time and money. These of course are my opinions, and aren't based off of any knowledge. If anyone disagrees with me, I'm willing to hear other viewpoints.

[TommyGunn54]

If you happen to open up your guitar, you will find that while the battery box has the appropriate metal contacts for wires to be connected, there aren't any there, or any place for them to go. I was curious about this too, and then I realized that it was just another of the many ways Harmonix cheaped out on the guitars.

[UEG XxWaffleSxX]

Yeah, thats the conclusion we came too.. I hope that the new ones they come out with in February are better.. and I hope they make a patch for the Online BWT..

[Bakkster]

I've got some experience in manufacturing, and fewer processes is always better. It's actually cheaper to make one set of bodies with a full battery pack and do nothing with it half of the time than to make two separate bodies, which would need two separate processes.

There was a picture from the FCC filing that showed the PS3 buttons labeled on the circuit board as A, B, X, Y, RB. Again, print one version instead of two. It's a pretty common practice.