Did anybody get a replacement that they're actually HAPPY with?

[mattitude]

This seems like history repeating.

All I see are threads about how the new replacements are faulty, in various ways.

So is anybody actually happy with their new replacements? Did it work out for anyone? Or are we just as screwed as we were two weeks ago?

If my THIRD guitar isn't flawless, or if my bass pedal breaks in the meantime (and from the sounds of it, that's inevitable), screw it, I'm done. I'm returning the game.

No video game is worth this much stress.

[AMartin56]

My replacement arrived today (ordered on the 21st) and so far I'm pleased. Much better feel to the strummer than the last one and so far everything works great.

I'm tempted to open it up to determine what strummer design is in use, but I'm going to leave well enough alone.

A couple of thing I noticed:

Sticker on the back of the new one is slightly different...same info/model numbers but arranged differently. Old guitar had 5 screws on the back of the head...new one only has 4. Black screws on old...new one appears to have silver screws.

Old guitar also had 'dimples' in the plastic between the screws on the neck that are missing on the replacement.

New one has a shallow 'cut out' for a label near the battery compartment that is not present on the old one.

[Xervai]

My new one is really nice. Works really well and is nice and sensitive.


PS3 Version

[LBueno]

Ordered on 11/22... received replacement this evening 12/3...

I started up solo campaign on expert and finished the first gig at 90% or higher on each song, which is pretty good for me... especially after not playing the game for 2 weeks...

So far so good, lets see how it holds up over time.

[innocuoussoul]

my replacement is ****ty-er than my guitar right now. The buttons feel cheap and any time you do more than 3 orange notes then switch to another color, it doesnt work. if i switch to any other color, it still registers as orange. its really lame.


Here goes replacement #3.


Chris

[pdawg17]

my replacement is ****ty-er than my guitar right now. The buttons feel cheap and any time you do more than 3 orange notes then switch to another color, it doesnt work. if i switch to any other color, it still registers as orange. its really lame.


Here goes replacement #3.


Chris

I haven't had buttons stick yet but I noticed that too...the buttons on the replacement guitar are wobbley and "click" more...they feel way cheaper...

[snoopj123]

I asked for a PS3 guitar replacement, I got a XBox 360 guitar replacement. How's that for being born under a bad sign?

--snoopj

[darkforcesjedi]

My replacement drum kit came today SANS PEDAL. The new pedal should be here in a week, which sucks, but on the plus side:

The new pads register drum rolls. The red pad is made out of a different material. It feels like some kind of polished resin, while the other pads feel like hard foam (or maybe the red pad is the same foam with some kind of coating?). The pads aren't quite as sensitive as the old ones (old ones went off on the slightest contact -- these you actually have to hit with a little bit of force). I was expecting to receive another piece of crap, but was pleasantly surprised with something that worked...

and unpleasantly surprised by a missing part.

[kungfool]

My new guitar is great. Beats the old guitar handily. Beat all the songs (sans the last song, ugh) on expert with all 4 and 5 star ratings.

My new drums are great also.

[BassGroover]

My replacement guitar works flawless so far but I've only used it for an hour, been playing the drums mainly since the guitar has been out of commission for so long.

I'll let you know after a jam session with the boys and some brew.

The thing I really don't like about my replacement guitar is the solo and fret buttons are very loud compared to my original guitar. That one was perfect for the first couple of hours then started the strum problems.

[Stevenam81]

My replacement drum kit came today SANS PEDAL. The new pedal should be here in a week, which sucks, but on the plus side:

The new pads register drum rolls. The red pad is made out of a different material. It feels like some kind of polished resin, while the other pads feel like hard foam (or maybe the red pad is the same foam with some kind of coating?). The pads aren't quite as sensitive as the old ones (old ones went off on the slightest contact -- these you actually have to hit with a little bit of force). I was expecting to receive another piece of crap, but was pleasantly surprised with something that worked...

and unpleasantly surprised by a missing part.

Very interesting! Maybe they finally created a new design. So they made the red pad a little different from the rest? So compared to your old set, the pads are made out of a completely different material? What do you mean by hard foam and are they more quiet because of this?

[boboette]

Got my replacement guitar tonight. It has two little round stickers in the back which I assume are from QA, which i didn't have on the old one.

The strum bar is more sensitive than the original one, but i'm not sure if it's just because it's newer or of a different model. I won't open it until it stops working though. I've been playing hard for 3 hours and the strum bar is still as good as new, which I'm very pleased.

The only thing that really bugs me is the buttons. Now all buttons makes a loud clicking noise when pressed.

Anybody else has that problem?

[Angry_Games]

Ok, after much anger at how long my EXPRESS return has taken (filed on the 21st, took a week to get a tracking # to show up on UPS, then 5 minutes later it showed up once again as Billing Info Received and a couple days later I get an email saying EA going to give me a free game, so I check the tracking # and now it's on the way to Redford, MI...), today UPS showed up with my replacement guitar.

The guitar works perfectly so far (played about 2 hours with my gf). The strumbar is slightly more stiff, but you can tell just by playing it that it is much much sturdier. And I can still play with a pick!

I checked the stickers etc and they are the exact same stickers, model #'s, etc as my dead guitar.

But, I'm VERY happy that it arrived finally, and that it works even better than the first one (before it broke anyway).

The one thing I am very upset about is that the tracking # STILL shows Redford, MI, yet the package already arrived. I think this is going to make a lot of people (like it did myself) upset thinking they are still waiting and waiting and waiting when the guitar is probably on a truck coming to your house.

I appreciate the free game offer (even if you can't get Mass Effect lol...dang it!) from EA. I appreciate the forums here for us to vent (I'm sure we surprised the hell out of Harmonix/EA by how quickly things turned sour).

I appreciate that I finally got my guitar replaced and it works even better than I could have hoped (well, maybe, because I had really high hopes for it but the first one broke 5 songs into the game so I never had a chance to have any hopes beyond that except the hope that it would be replaced quickly, which didn't happen but <shrug> that's how it goes I guess).

I can't and won't speak for anyone else, but at this point, as long as I know I am not limited to that initial 60 day warranty on the hardware (as I'm worried about my drums/drum pedal when I start getting into Hard and Expert and put the pedal through a lot more abuse) and that EA will continue to replace defective items for I'd say at least 1 year, then I am thoroughly satisfied.

This is the part where I bow out of the Tech Support section and hopefully do not have to return. I've been waiting since the 21st when I brought the game home to be able to fully enjoy it. Sure I've enjoyed the drums and mic and using my Xbox360 Guitar Hero guitars, but it isn't the "complete experience" without the new Fender Strat.

After a couple of years of Guitar Hero guitars, I have to say I REALLY loved the Strat the first time I strapped it on and used it. Now that the replacement seems to work, I'm going to hopefully spend all of my time in the main Rock Band forum section and complain about not enough DLC lol.

I truly hope the rest of you end up with a good experience with this game. I do also hope that most of you realize that while Harmonix has been around a while making games, this was a big move for them and all of these peripherals were brand new. I'm sure they hate even coming to these forums right now because all of the joy and excitement a lot of us had here before the game arrived has turned to bitterness and sometimes downright hatred.

Most of it is directed at EA, but no doubt a lot of you feel some bitterness towards Harmonix as you can be sure they had a hand in this getting out of control as much as anyone since it's their game, their peripherals.

I'm a tiny bit bitter, but that bitterness has slowly seeped away in the 2 hours I got to spend playing the replacement guitar without any problems. Again, I hope the rest of you who are having issues with your peripherals end up as satisfied and happy as I am after getting everything resolved.

Smell ya later when you too make it out of this prison and into the promised land (the RB section so you too can complain about something besides your hardware lol)

[pdawg17]

Got my replacement guitar tonight. It has two little round stickers in the back which I assume are from QA, which i didn't have on the old one.

The strum bar is more sensitive than the original one, but i'm not sure if it's just because it's newer or of a different model. I won't open it until it stops working though. I've been playing hard for 3 hours and the strum bar is still as good as new, which I'm very pleased.

The only thing that really bugs me is the buttons. Now all buttons makes a loud clicking noise when pressed.

Anybody else has that problem?

Mine click too...original guitar didn't do that...

[King_Nuthin]

I've got about 3-4 hours on my replacement Strat and everything works. I never had problems with my old strum bar, it was the buttons that didn't work for me so I didn't really notice a difference in that department. My neck feels a tad sturdier, but I was squeezing/twisting my old one quite a bit once the buttons stopped working.

It took me a few songs to get used to the feel of the Strat again but once I got going I much prefer it to the Xplorer.

[turnthree]

I asked for a PS3 guitar replacement, I got a XBox 360 guitar replacement. How's that for being born under a bad sign?

--snoopj

I'll take it. I'm sure you could get it to me quicker than EA (almost 2 weeks now)

[TacoTodd]

Ok, after much anger at how long my EXPRESS return has taken (filed on the 21st, took a week to get a tracking # to show up on UPS, then 5 minutes later it showed up once again as Billing Info Received and a couple days later I get an email saying EA going to give me a free game, so I check the tracking # and now it's on the way to Redford, MI...), today UPS showed up with my replacement guitar.



You are tracking the Return address tracking #. Read your email again, you get 2 tracking #'s. The return Center is in Redford Mi. lol

My Guitar i got yesterday works great so far

[guan69]

I ordered my replacement guitar on the morning of Nov 21 and it finally arrived yesterday evening. So far, it works fine. I played it for a few hours and didn't have any problems. I'm hoping that it doesn't break or **** up on me anytime soon.

[fujouri]

Finally got mine yesterday. Yes, I got the loud clicking buttons... but, Ironically, I also have an upstrum that works with questionable regularity. (It also clicks on the upstrum, which is weird).

I was glad to see that someone else thought their guitar looked like it had been refurbished. While mine wasn't scratched it certainly didn't look like it had been untouched either. But I didn't want to crack it open to find out. I wonder if those little green stickers on the back have anything to do with it. That's the only reason I can think of for someone going in and putting those on there: to point out that it has received the new... whatever.

The good news is they sent me 2. I hadn't opened the second one yet. But now that the one I opened is iffy, I'll open the second one and hope it works better.

[dimwitf]

Mine didn't look refurbed, but had 2 green stickers that had initials on them, so that suggests refurb. Looks like I got one of the annoyingly cheap rattly button guitar, too - plus, the Overdrive sensor decides when it feels like working. Sometimes it'll go off when I'm just playing normally, other times I can swing the guitar all over and nothing happens (except missing notes because I'm concentrating on turning my entire torso sideways, that is).
Second verse, same as the first. Here's hoping the second exchange is a little faster, as another $100 is now locked away indefinitely.

I've dug Harmonix since Frequency...and EA since the days of Archon and M.U.L.E., but like everyone else I just have to sadly ask "how did this happen?"

[Deeznutzs27]

Got mine yesterday. Love the new strummer. Hate the new clicky buttons. So I swapped out the neck with the clicky fret buttons and replaced it with the old style. Its really easy and gets you the best of both worlds.

[macafied]

My replacement is worse than the original. And my overdrive still doesn't work properly.

[Angry_Games]

You are tracking the Return address tracking #. Read your email again, you get 2 tracking #'s. The return Center is in Redford Mi. lol

My Guitar i got yesterday works great so far

As I have stated numerous times in other threads, the tracking # EA sent me is the tracking # I've been checking. EA has never sent me ANY tracking number except the tracking # I've been checking.

[Highlandlassie]

One long night of playing on the replacement....
So far so good, plays like a dream.
The QC stickers on it have been written over with black felt pen with a different number, wonder if that means it has been "fixed" or at least personally inspected.
I remain positive, but cautious.
To the poster who is threatening to return the game:
The only loser will be you, this has the potential to be the best game ever made to date, if they can get the bugs out of it.

[admanimal]

Got my replacement guitar yesterday...so far so good.

[scott1891]

Well i not only got one I got 2 and both work real well.. yeah the clicking issue is noticeable on the guitar but I consider it a trade off since the other way was screwed anyhow... I just turn the volume up and it doesn't bug me at all...:D

[AgainstOne]

got my new guitar and drums yesterday. so far much better than the old ones.

[AVC808]

im happy with my replacement strat. although i wish they never made changes to the buttons.

[darien87]

I got my PS 3 replacement guitar yesterday. It worked fine and I was able to finish the game last night, (only had 2 songs to go). So I'm happy with the replacement guitar, but I'll still be returning the bundle.

No way am I keeping this thing without being able to play with 2 guitars, and my bass pedal living on borrowed time.

[mobhit101]

I've had mine for several days now. Perfect :D

[torchedpunk]

So I just had to call the warranty support because my drum pedals plastic cracked, and now its clean in 2. so I risked a call to see what they can do and they are sending me another one free of charge, and he suggested i use my broken 1 as a door stop or paperweight. I'm pretty happy everything went so well, now I just gotta see how long its gonna take.. but atleast i dont need to buy a new kit on account that my overweight friend may or may not have stomped his way through the plastic.