Guitar Overdrive Problems - Normal?

[Purist]

Sometimes it goes into overdrive by itself. On more rare occasions I tilt, and nothing happens, even after going almost vertical on the guitar. Is this normal? I don't want to send for another guitar if most people get this, on occasion. It doesn't happen most of the time, but it's enough for me to notice. Don't know if it's worth the bother.

[Arakkus]

happens for me most of the time, I have just resigned myself to pressing the select button to activate overdrive. I think it is a common problem

[HeadHunter67]

I have the same situation - and I don't mind needing to use Select to activate Overdrive. It's when it goes off on its own that bothers me.

"Premature Activation" can cost the lives of your bandmates. If you are suffering from premature activation, see a specialist. :eek:

[blockbstone]

My guitar doesn't go into overdrive but itself but I have a real hard time activating my overdrive with it. I have to tilt it almost vertically and it doesn't work all the time. Even if I do it very rapidly, it doesn't react almost all the time. Does that ever happened to you? What should I do?

[dwillms]

Overdrive worked great on my original, but the strum was junk. Nearly impossible to activate on my replacement, though. I usually also use the Select button, but most of the time it throws me off the song.

I decided to try another RMA, we'll see what the next one is like...

[Phane7]

On my original guitar, Overdrive would some times go off on it's own when I was sitting slouched on my couch. I'd hold the neck horizontally but the guitar was pitched back in my lap a bit and was probably tripping the sensor that way. When I sat up straight or stood up, I had no issues with Overdrive.

On my replacement, I practically have to turn the thing upside down and shake it to get it to go into overdrive. My friend is a lefty and even flipped the other way around it had the same problem. So, it's basically hit the select button and miss a note or two or miss a whole section trying to shake the darn guitar while holding it upside down.

[Purist]

Seems like a lot of us have the same problem. I actually am sitting on the couch, and it might be increasing the chance of a trigger because of the angle. Like I said, it's not a problem most of the time, only on occassion. Thanks for the select button tip! I didn't get the initial launch batch, so I was hopeful that I wouldn't need to replace it, thanks!

[dada limbo]

It isn't the happiest solution for me, but I've figured out how Overdrive works on my Strat.

Basically, I need to be holding my guitar practically horizontally during gameplay. Yeah. Yeah, I've played guitar for almost 20 years and I'm having to un-learn the natural, slight upward slant that keeps my wrists at a comfortable angle, and I don't have to do this trick when I play with either PS2 Guitar-Hero model that I have, and it's a hell of a poor solution.

But it's a design flaw. It's not going to get fixed by RMAs.

Either a complete recall is necessary (not gonna happen), a homebrewer is going to figure out how to mod the damn tilt sensor to work properly at a customer-expected angle (starting to come down the pipeline), or I can play this guitar horizontally (current frontrunner).

[malklavious]

a homebrewer is going to figure out how to mod the damn tilt sensor to work properly at a customer-expected angle (starting to come down the pipeline)

It's a fairly easy fix:
http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3739

[HeadHunter67]

I had wondered if that rattling inside the guitar was part of the tilt sensor, and had worried that it was broken or loose in some way. Nice to know it's not, but I'm not sure I'm ready to monkey around inside it just yet.

[ywontmycontrollerwork!]

Even if I turn my guitar on a 90 degree angle it still won't activate overdrive. I don't like using the select button because it is a lot harder and always ruins a good streak I had on a song.

[HeadHunter67]

There are threads on how to adjust the angle of the sensor, depending on which generation your guitar is. I did this and my Strat works much better now - not perfectly but good enough.

[kingd7]

Alright here's what I did to fix this problem. And I don't really know why this works but I have 2 guitars, and both would go off randomly or not at all, and I did this "fix" and both are much more consistent now. This "fix" is for the ball-in-a-can version of the tilt sensor. Also, let me say that I tried changing the angles of the cans as noted in some other posts but that didn't seem to work as well as this.

All I did was turn the tilt sensor circuit board over. On both my guitars, the wire from the tilt sensor board was at the bottom of the board. I took the board out and put it back in so that the wire was on top and going OVER the tilt sensor board. If you had an Ace of Spades in the same orientation as the tilt board with the spade starting out on the left hand side, rotate the card so that the spade is facing the right.

Overdrive now goes off when I want it too and it is much more consistent, not perfect, but close. I still have times when it won't go off when I want it to, but it is because I didn't return the guitar to a level position after I engaged the overdrive so the tilt could reset. Once I take it down to a position parallel to the florr, it resets and then is fine.

Like I said I don't know why this made a big difference, but it did. I have tested this for a bout a month now and like the results. It is also much less sensitive, and doesn't just go off by itself like they used to.

I would be curious if this works for others, so please post back if it does.

Thanks

[HeadHunter67]

Interesting. I had adjusted the angle and taped it down, but next time I open up the guitar I'll try that way!

[halfaworldaway]

I had just fixed one guitar today with the broken sring problem, i'm looking to fix he 2nd one that goes off too early.

Do these fixes actually work?

[coldion10]

im not ready to void my warranty trying to do it myself but i had the same promblem... my fix was going to a slightly below flat angle straight to an 90 vertical angle... it works almost every time

[dweezilly]

i play standing up with the guitar against my stomach, but after lying on the sofa one day and getting up suddenly to answer the phone, i find my guitar now goes into overdrive every time it reaches half way on the energy meter. i even tried laying the guitar flat on the floor and playing "Jeff Healey style" to see if that fixed the problem, but again, as soon as the energy meter hit 50%--overdrive activated automatically.

any suggestions to overcome this problem? thanks!

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the answer was simple--change the batteries--duh!