Replacing a US PS3 Strat in the UK

[moosegrinder]

Sorry if this has been asked before but the search function wasn't being very helpful. I imported Rock Band in January (naughty, slap my wrists etc) and everything was fine for a while until the return spring on the whammy bar snapped. I hadn't even been pulling some mad rock shapes and wanging it around my head and trying to throw it through the TV, it happened just through standard use. It still works but is annoying the hell out of me. Now seeing as MS have an exclusive on this we have to wait until August (so I heard/read) until the Ps3 version comes out over here and, presumably, that's when we can replace the guitar. Is there anyway I can replace my guitar before then?
Cheers.

[miami91]

As an alternative, this is a very simple fix you can do yourself. The fix can either be a "ghetto fix", or a more unobtrusive one. Either involves a rubber band (or two). For the ghetto fix, mereley hook one end of the rubber band around the whammy bar and the other around your strap hook. Experiment with rubber band sizes and/or doubling it up till you find the proper tension.

For a better fix, open the back of the guitar, remove whatever remnants of the spring remain, and hook one end of the rubber band around the little hook on the whammy bar assembly (where one end of the spring connects), and then hook the other end around one of the myriad of plastic screw supports that protrude from the surface of the casing. This is what I've done, and it works brilliantly. Word of advice, though. Use a clean, new, fairly thick rubber band or you'll be opening the case back up again in a few weeks when you've broken the dodgy rubber band. Also consider two rubber bands --- again, adjust to whatever tension you prefer. There are also some who have replaced the spring, but after visiting two hardware stores in my city I couldn't find any that were properly small enough.

If you want to see video of the fix I describe, just search YouTube for "rockband whammy bar fix" and you'll find dozens of people demonstrating.

Cheers,

Jeff.

[Parodygm]

Or just replace the broken spring with one out of a ballpoint pen. Served me flawlessly for three months before my strum bar died and I replaced the whole thing.

[moosegrinder]

Cheers for the replies, but my situation has got worse. The tilt sensor now no longer works and the strum bar isn't responding to down strums very often at all. The batteries have been changed so it's not that. From what I've read the strum bar should be fixable as it probably means one or more of the switches has gone askew so that should be easy, but overall the guitar is on it's way out. From the lack of responses I'm assuming that I'm not going to be able to replace my guitar untill the PS3 version gets a UK release?