The OFFICIAL "One of my Instruments is Already Broken" Thread

[MidwestDrummer]

No, it's not me. I'm just giving all of you people who've already had something break down on you a place to vent. So, if you've:

1. Broken an instrument due to rocking out to hard

or

2. Had an instrument become defective within a short amount of time

...this is the place to release your frustration! LET 'ER RIP!

[TheDoctre]

My Guitar's downstrum is already gone (360). No sign of the "patch" that Harmonix was talking about (at least that I could see either on XBL or in-game). Hope it goes live sometime tomorrow and it fixes it. I was having a blast until the guitar stopped working :)

Edit to add more info per a later post in this thread:

Problem: Strum (downstrum)
Platform: X360
Store purchased from: Best Buy, Cary, NC
Time played w/o problem: Approx 3 hours
QC Validation date: (will add when I get home)
Any lot #s (if know):
Location: Holly Springs, NC, USA

[bounchfx]

yup, was about to come post too. my guitar is already dead. thank goodness I had a GH3 and GH 2 controller around.

this is ridiculous, how could something like this have happened and be so widespread?

I'm not sure if it's a downstroke problem.. it's just an 'automatic you fail' problem where it registers hits that arent being made or something, because the meter constantly falls.

please remedy this ASAP harmonix... argh.

awesome game, btw..

just fix our guitars :(

[mdub0814]

yup, was about to come post too. my guitar is already dead. thank goodness I had a GH3 and GH 2 controller around.

this is ridiculous, how could something like this have happened and be so widespread?

I'm not sure if it's a downstroke problem.. it's just an 'automatic you fail' problem where it registers hits that arent being made or something, because the meter constantly falls.

please remedy this ASAP harmonix... argh.

awesome game, btw..

just fix our guitars :(

I am having a similar problem with the PS3 guitar. I played for about two or three hours no problem. Now the guitar seems to pick up each strum as a double or triple strum, basically causing me to gradually fail out despite hitting 100% of the notes. The guitar doesn't feel like it is physically broken, so hopefully it is something that can be fixed via a patch. If not, I'm glad there is a warranty. All of the other equipment is functioning perfectly.

[SmokaCola]

Yeah, my strat broke already :( I finished the first song on easy and got too excited and began slamming it into the ground.


Nah not really, i'm not that stupid lol on serious note though. I really hope it is that whole "software" theory and it'll be easily fixed with an update. Just keep your faith in HMX you guys, they won't let us down.

[Angry_Pirate]

I doubt it:


Having guitar problems also however i opened up the back of mine. Upon doing that i discovered that the strum down mechanics inside are held there by hot glue, theres a prong that an ear off the strum bar touches when you strum down and makes it touch the other prong completing the signal. What seems to be happening is that ear isn't long enough or the piece thats hot glued is comming loose, i wont be surprised if there is a recall on the guitars. Further more the one on display at my local wal-mart had the same problem, the wal mart in the neighboring town, same problem, the one i bought same problem, strum bar going down dont work 1/2 the time. My suggestion, wait till bugs are worked out.

[Meancode]

I am having a similar problem with the PS3 guitar. I played for about two or three hours no problem. Now the guitar seems to pick up each strum as a double or triple strum, basically causing me to gradually fail out despite hitting 100% of the notes. The guitar doesn't feel like it is physically broken, so hopefully it is something that can be fixed via a patch. If not, I'm glad there is a warranty. All of the other equipment is functioning perfectly.

This is what happened to one of my Fender Strats, on 360. I wonder how wide spread this problem is.

[Ardrikk]

Played for maybe 5 and a half to 6 hours with the guitar working perfectly.....and then the down strum stopped working correctly. Switching to upstrumming seemed to work to get through the last song of our set to win roadies, but was awkward (for me) to play.

Let's hope the patch does indeed fix this when is (hopefully) goes live today as Harmonix said it should.

[Schultzy]

This is what happened to one of my Fender Strats, on 360. I wonder how wide spread this problem is.

Apparently, it's VERY widespread. :(
I was afraid of this...

[CantaloupeDog]

I've made a post on this problem in a different thread, they can software patch all they want, my downstrum didn't work out of the box, the local walmart downstrum didnt work, another walmart downstrum didn't work, its not software, i got adventurous and took the back off my guitar, the hardware that controls the downstrum in there is held there by hot glue, so that was loose, also, the underside of the strum bar has little ears on it that push on a prong that touches another prong that sends the signal, it would appear the ear on the downstrum side of the bar is too small, or the positioning of the prongs away from the ears on it are too far out, when you downstrum the 2 contacts never touch thus it dont read it as a strum, my suggestion go to the support page and request a replacement thats what i did. GL guys

[Elvisman2001]

What are you supposed to do if you don't have live/high speed internet connection and have this problem and can't get the stupid patch??

[chaopolis]

Maybe I just don't understand the gaming industry... BUT...

Why is it that after MONTHS of the tour, a MONTH of having the demo in stores, and after ALL these REVIEWS have come out... is the broken guitar thing JUST NOW coming to light?

I mean, it seems odd that it's only happening to people who actually buy the damn thing.

Not ONCE is a "broken guitar" mentioned in any reviews... Guitars HAVE had problems at the Best Buys, however, that's all apparently due to them being "prototypes"...

I don't know... I'm picking mine up from Gamestop later today, and I PRAY that there are no problems... however, SO MANY of you guys seem to be having this problem...

... and not just that, but HMX seems to have been absent from these boards over the past few days...

[DarkSide]

What are you supposed to do if you don't have live/high speed internet connection and have this problem and can't get the stupid patch??

If you have a friend with LIVE, take your hard drive over. If not take your 360 over to someone's house who has broadband.

It sucks that so many people are having problems, but after about 7 hours of play my strat's still goin strong. Hopefully the patch will fix most of these issues.

[FamousLastX]

Is there a launch day patch available or any mention of when a patch is coming? I'm not sure it will fix the guitar issues though, as right now, they sound hardware based and not software based :(

[SmokaCola]

It's really not confirmed of a patch, We can't really even say that guy "CptUnderpants" was a HMX official. You can only hope it really is something that can be done software side. I'm not going to doubt it can't be done software side, because well... I actually have just a bit of hope the HMX will be able to fix it today or tomorrow rather than me having to send my strat to EA to get it replaced. So again, nothing is official until someone from HMX here says it is. That's probably the only time I would trust it.

[sa_nick]

I'm gonna be fuked if its a hardeware problem. How am I gonna go about getting a replacement sent to australia? Or do i have to deal with it coz I'm importing the game?

If i was getting it on xbox it might not matter so much, but it would appear there is no other guitar compatible with RB on PS3 so i will be royally screwed.

[Elvisman2001]

If you have a friend with LIVE, take your hard drive over. If not take your 360 over to someone's house who has broadband.

It sucks that so many people are having problems, but after about 7 hours of play my strat's still goin strong. Hopefully the patch will fix most of these issues.

Let me be clear... I havent even had a chance to try my my bundle yet.

I was just wondering in case I do have an issue with it.


I had to return the Guitar Hero II guitar 2x before i got one with a whammy bar that worked properly.

[MartyMcFly]

Maybe I'm trying to make myself feel better about it, but maybe it's not a problem with the guitar.

How are you people (with problems of downstrumming) playing the guitar? Do you do GH style of pushing down with your thumb? Slamming your thumb down? etc. Because I noticed when I played, it was almost necessary to actually STRUM the bar instead of hitting it like a button.

Strumming the bar fluidly would be smoother, and perhaps when you just push down on it, it ends up registering twice.

I haven't got my bundle yet (2 more hrs) but try to switch up your playstyle and see if it makes a difference.

[Grayshadow]

Well, my guitar isn't broken yet. I play the strat with a medium guitar pick. As a guitar player, this feels more natural to me than trying to wiggle the strum bar up and down with fingers or thumb. Plus, it seems to be more gentle on the bar itself since you aren't slamming it down - the pick will glide off at a certain pressure during the downstroke. For those of you who haven't yet damaged your guitars, you might want to try it.

[skyehill]

What are you supposed to do if you don't have live/high speed internet connection and have this problem and can't get the stupid patch??

You're screwed. I've loved Harmonix's game since Freq, but this hardware situation is horrendous. Especially since you know they're reading these concerns and reports from the multiple Best Buys etc nd not responding. They know they have an issue, and they've done nothing to allay fears. Bad customer support, Harmonix. Really really bad.

[NotorietyH]

You're screwed. I've loved Harmonix's game since Freq, but this hardware situation is horrendous. Especially since you know they're reading these concerns and reports from the multiple Best Buys etc nd not responding. They know they have an issue, and they've done nothing to allay fears. Bad customer support, Harmonix. Really really bad.

So they're supposed to stay up all night reading the forums? It's not even 8am there yet, give them a chance.

[artyen]

I play-tested the game at Harmonix studios when it was in development, and didn't have an issue with the guitar whatsoever. I wonder if they skimped on the mass-production at all?

I noticed the guitar that was part of the demo at Best Buy was broken, as well, the downstrum was having issues. Everyone who played it was having a "WTF is going on?!" moment.

A shame if this tarnishes the release of the game.

[imagine]

In Response to the quoter above. Yes, IF I have a major release of code I'll stay up all night till it is working and then have someone else watch to make sure there are no major problems. This is a big big product launch so if something goes wrong it can wreak havoc on sales for weeks to come!


So they're supposed to stay up all night reading the forums? It's not even 8am there yet, give them a chance.

[FailedNinja]

Maybe I just don't understand the gaming industry... BUT...

Why is it that after MONTHS of the tour, a MONTH of having the demo in stores, and after ALL these REVIEWS have come out... is the broken guitar thing JUST NOW coming to light?

I mean, it seems odd that it's only happening to people who actually buy the damn thing.

Not ONCE is a "broken guitar" mentioned in any reviews... Guitars HAVE had problems at the Best Buys, however, that's all apparently due to them being "prototypes"...

I don't know... I'm picking mine up from Gamestop later today, and I PRAY that there are no problems... however, SO MANY of you guys seem to be having this problem...

... and not just that, but HMX seems to have been absent from these boards over the past few days...

I'm just speculating here, but they probably have multiple factories (for lack of a better term) making the instruments. It is conceivable that only some of these factories are making defective guitars and the others are making perfectly functional onces (including the tour and review models made at the start).

[graggor]

no problems here.

[HeXcoda]

I'm just speculating here, but they probably have multiple factories (for lack of a better term) making the instruments. It is conceivable that only some of these factories are making defective guitars and the others are making perfectly functional onces (including the tour and review models made at the start).

That was the case with GH2 360's defective whammy bar. Only certain runs of the guitar had that issue; others didn't. It was fixable by a software patch, and it's the reason why there's whammy calibration in GH3.

Hopefully, this is fixable as well... gotta love that a tiny nub of plastic and hot glue can wreck gameplay.

[admanimal]

My guitar's strum bar works fine, but most of the time my 360 won't recognize that it is attached, whether or not I use the USB hub, and regardless of which USB jack I plug it into. I am also unable to activate overdrive with it, and the effects switch will only let me select Wah Wah or None.

[sa_nick]

... and the effects switch will only let me select Wah Wah or None.

I always that that was what its supposed to do and you had to unlock/buy new effects from the store then put them off. So instead of being an actual 5 way switch its just an on/off toggle that activates whatever effects u've chosen in the game.

[deathinc]

PS3 guitar w/ patch - No downstrum after about 3 hours. arrgh

[admanimal]

I always that that was what its supposed to do and you had to unlock/buy new effects from the store then put them off. So instead of being an actual 5 way switch its just an on/off toggle that activates whatever effects u've chosen in the game.

I wondered about that...you could be right. But nevertheless my guitar has issues.

[Spear_of_Destiny]

I bought Rock Band
Hooked it up,
Started strummin',
Now my guitar gently weeps...

that was for you guys out there with issues. sorry its happening i wont know til i get mine later. ive always been real lucky about things like that so i hope it continues.

[jonfitzsimon]

i am leaving to pick up my copy in less than 30 minutes. And i already have the EA/HMX Warranty Page bookmarked...

[tombrady]

It's not a ****ing software issue...people don't understand **** if they are still crying saying HMX is going to save the day.

I agree with whoever said it was probably one of the factories making faulty guitars.

It's widespread enough to be that, but it's not all of them clearly.

Really not much they can do about it now, but I sure as hell hope people are reimbursed in some way for this...really a huge waste of money if the guitar doesn't even work correctly...not everyone has GH2 or 3 guitars (But I do, so what do I care ;) )

[palofex]

My guitar is broken already. If you down strum once it strums 2 or 3 times. I really like the guitar but breaking after 2.5 hrs of play is bull****.

[rushfan2007]

I don't have the game, waiting for things to get sorted out. I played it at Best Buy & the guitar there wouldn't strum right. If you watch any of the videos on the official Xbox magazine website notice they are all using Guitar Hero Guitars. What does that tell you?

[JesterOC]

If you watch any of the videos on the official Xbox magazine website notice they are all using Guitar Hero Guitars. What does that tell you?

It tells me they only had one bundle and they wanted to use two guitars. If the reviewers had their guitars break I am sure they would be mentioning it. At worste they would say, our guitars broke but Harmonix promised they would fix them. They would never just ignore the fact that all of their guitars broke.

[rushfan2007]

But they weren't using the rock band guitars at all! Doesn't that seem strange unless they felt better with the Hero ones.

[holyground]

But they weren't using the rock band guitars at all! Doesn't that seem strange unless they felt better with the Hero ones.

They reviews repeatedly state that not playing with the fender is a preference: they don't like the fender, not that it's broken. I love my fender (though my fingers are too big for the solo buttons.

And as for the effects switch: you should have all 5 available. there's no unlocking of effects. I can switch mid song the first time I played.

[JohnnyFAS]

I play-tested the game at Harmonix studios when it was in development, and didn't have an issue with the guitar whatsoever. I wonder if they skimped on the mass-production at all?



It could be Harmonix, or it could be the Chinese company they were using to manufacture them. Who knows, with all we've heard about the Chinese skimping on materials to produce goods faster, maybe they didn't listen to the changes they were supposed to make from pre-production to production. I honestly don't know how those companies work, though, it's just speculation.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if that was the same reason for all the 360's dying, since both the issues seems to stem from not enough glue being used. Somebody, somewhere skimped to save time or money.

[Meancode]

Maybe I just don't understand the gaming industry... BUT...

Why is it that after MONTHS of the tour, a MONTH of having the demo in stores, and after ALL these REVIEWS have come out... is the broken guitar thing JUST NOW coming to light?

I mean, it seems odd that it's only happening to people who actually buy the damn thing.

Not ONCE is a "broken guitar" mentioned in any reviews... Guitars HAVE had problems at the Best Buys, however, that's all apparently due to them being "prototypes"...

I don't know... I'm picking mine up from Gamestop later today, and I PRAY that there are no problems... however, SO MANY of you guys seem to be having this problem...

... and not just that, but HMX seems to have been absent from these boards over the past few days...

I haven't posted my review yet. I am waiting to hear back from PR.

[Meancode]

I always that that was what its supposed to do and you had to unlock/buy new effects from the store then put them off. So instead of being an actual 5 way switch its just an on/off toggle that activates whatever effects u've chosen in the game.

Nope. It is a 5 way switch at the start of the game. You can chance it on the fly as you play. You get a little on-screen display that shows all five options.

[xenopherus]

Wow, hot glue? Is that what was used with the 360 X-plorer? I'm leaving to pick up the bundle in half an hour.... I've had tons of luck when it's come to hardware and software (please, Fate! Don't choose now to make a fool out of me!). My X-plorer, launch PS2 and every other console/piece of hardware/peripherals I've bought have worked perfectly. This will be the first time if the guitar craps out on me like everyone else. It's really weird how this could happen with a company that perfected music games like the great Guitar Hero. Ugh... *crosses fingers* Here's to an non-defective Rock Band instrument experience! If it is a defective one, I'll post my complaints here!

[MrNazraq]

Just wondering, where is everyone that is having a problem with the guitars? If we could get geographical locations (city & state), it might help determine if there's a pattern to the distribution of the faulty guitars.

My Best Buy demo guitar never broke and always worked very well. I'm picking my bundle up in about 2 hours. Hopefully my guitar will do just as well as the Best Buy one.

(I'm in Mountain View, CA, near San Jose)

[Silentghost245]

Just wondering, where is everyone that is having a problem with the guitars? If we could get geographical locations (city & state), it might help determine if there's a pattern to the distribution of the faulty guitars.

My Best Buy demo guitar never broke and always worked very well. I'm picking my bundle up in about 2 hours. Hopefully my guitar will do just as well as the Best Buy one.

(I'm in Mountain View, CA, near San Jose)

I'm over here in Hollister and the Best Buy demo guitar in Gilroy works perfectly fine the three times i've been there. Picking my bundle up in about 30 minutes.

[Smidget]

Kinda glad I picked up more than one copy. Maybe I can mix/match a good set together if I have problems, haha :rolleyes:

[Oxyplox]

I've got two x-plorers, lucky me. :]

[MrNazraq]

I'm over here in Hollister and the Best Buy demo guitar in Gilroy works perfectly fine the three times i've been there. Picking my bundle up in about 30 minutes.

That's good to hear. Seems like the Bay Area is safe from faulty guitars (judging from our sample of 2 Best Buys)...

[ImaAsian]

what about the LA area? anyone bought theirs from the midnight launch in the west hollywood best buy? i havent even opened up mine yet, gonna do it when i come home from school :( now im very anxious to do it.

[nunyabiz]

Just got back from getting my bundle, it went like this:

Me: I am here for Rockband
GS Emp#1: You preorder?
Me: yes
GS Emp#1: Let me get it from the back(leaves)
GS Emp#1: (returns with my bundle)
GS Emp #2: How many are left in back?
GS Emp #1: 3 360, 1 PS3
GS Emp#2: Uh-oh, we still show 5 preorders left.
Me: Bye bye.

I am glad I snuck out of work for an hour to pick mine up, and as I was carrying it to the car, I noticed a white sticker on the top that said " QC 'd Sept 30, 07" The people with defective equip, what did your sticker say?

[Smidget]

are you sure it says "QC". I have the white sticker but it doesn't say "QC" on it, just a date, Oct 12 (Haven't opened mine yet to test it, at work...)

[Angel-Jin]

wow i'm a little hesistant to rush out and pick this up. maybe i'll play it safe and go buy uncharted or something. it's bad enough i'm waiting on my PS3 to get back, but i don't wanna have to make anymore Customer Service phone calls this year. I've had one too many gadgets crap out on me.

[jonfitzsimon]

my mic doesnt work. It is undetectable. anyone else have this prob? if so, is there a fix?

[nunyabiz]

are you sure it says "QC". I have the white sticker but it doesn't say "QC" on it, just a date, Oct 12 (Haven't opened mine yet to test it, at work...)

I am at work too.
It says QC and under that it says Validation and under that Sept 30, 07

Edit: its on the bottom of the box not the top

[Endofshift]

I am having a completely different problem with my guitar...

After about 4 songs the red button is 'stuck' down. Now when I say stuck I dont mean it doesn't move, I mean in game it is picking up a being pressed in even though I can freely press in and out the red button on the higher frets as well as the normal frets.

[Meancode]

My box says QC Validation Sept 19, 07.

But I don't know if my guitar that is having down-strum issues came from inside the Special Edition box, or if it was the guitar I got seperatly. :(

[Grayshadow]

How were you able to get a 2nd guitar seperately?

[Meancode]

How were you able to get a 2nd guitar seperately?

I write reviews for a web site. It came with the review copy. I just got another one today. It works great. Hope it lasts longer than the last one, which was all of three days and who knows how much use.

[cmp1976]

my mic doesnt work. It is undetectable. anyone else have this prob? if so, is there a fix?

You need to use a standard controller with the mic.

[Bullseye]

Just a thought here. Maybe we need a better system for this thread. There's a lot of people posting all manners of advice, critiques, and commentary, not all of w/ actual RB experiences. I haven't even opened my bundle yet, and I'm posting.

Anyways, I suggest that we have those w/ identified problems make a more tech support style post, w/ more info.

Problem: Strum, usb, connectivity, etc.
Platform: X360, PS3, PS2-(when it comes out, sorry Smidget)
Store purchased from:
Time played w/o problem:
QC Validation date:
Any lot #s (if know):
Location: City, State, Country

Just a suggestion from a normally disorganized person. We might spot a trend to pass on to HMX.

[Smidget]

I am at work too.
It says QC and under that it says Validation and under that Sept 30, 07

Edit: its on the bottom of the box not the top

I don't have that sticker though I assume mine means "QC." Mine is layed out like:

12-Oct-07
------------------
Date

just draw a circle around that and you have it. *shrug*

[BrutalBrian]

Mine straight out of the box, 360 version,

Mic works, fender guitar works, drum pads work, bass pedal broken. I have to pick it up off the floor and use my hand on the pedal to get it to register a bass kick and it works sparingly if then. I really hate the way they tied it in the box, and I was very careful pulling mine out.

Called Harmonix and they are shipping me a box so I can get a new one.

Still after dropping $160, this stuff should wortk right the first time.

[Smidget]

Just a thought here. Maybe we need a better system for this thread. There's a lot of people posting all manners of advice, critiques, and commentary, not all of w/ actual RB experiences. I haven't even opened my bundle yet, and I'm posting.

Anyways, I suggest that we have those w/ identified problems make a more tech support style post, w/ more info.

Problem: Strum, usb, connectivity, etc.
Platform: X360, PS3, PS2
Store purchased from:
Time played w/o problem:
QC Validation date:
Any lot #s (if know):
Location: City, State, Country

Just a suggestion from a normally disorganized person. We might spot a trend to pass on to HMX.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii like it. Though the PS2 version isn't out yet ^_^ As soon as I get home I'll add to this. Maybe this should be started in a new thread with instructions to ONLY post this information, not discussion. Thats what this thread is for. Also, maybe add "Short Description (if needed)" at the bottom.

[Smidget]

Mine straight out of the box, 360 version,

Mic works, fender guitar works, drum pads work, bass pedal broken. I have to pick it up off the floor and use my hand on the pedal to get it to register a bass kick and it works sparingly if then. I really hate the way they tied it in the box, and I was very careful pulling mine out.

Called Harmonix and they are shipping me a box so I can get a new one.



Called Harmonix or EA? and do you think the cause of the bass pedal problem was due to the packaging? This is the first I've seen a problem with the bass pedal posted.


(sorry for the double post)

[deepbluevibes]

Straight out of the box, brand new copy, my drumset's poles (extending it and lowering it) the tab broke off one of the poles when i barely even touched it.

Add into that that the drums are EXTREMELY hard to get rolls on because of horrible sensitivity (you basically get random hits). I've played drummania and a real drumset for years; if it were me missing, i'd know, honestly. I tried it out in practice mode and about one out of every 4 hits doesn't even come through on all four pads.

[Zoglog]

wow, i'm damn surprised they didn't fix this at all. This issue was happening all along the rockband tour demos, at e for all, and all the way to the demo units in stores. Then the Reviewers didnt mention anything about this. But 80% of the guitar demos i've seen have had the DOWN strum broken. And still they didn't fix it. Sum of my biggest fears for this game... wow..

[Detritus]

Like most others, my downstrums dies after about 3 hours of play (360 strat). They had better do something about this pretty quickly, or they're going to have a lot of people pissed. Thank god for GH3 controllers.

[ddarko]

I mentioned in a couple other threads that my red drum pad is broken and guitar's fx switch doesn't seem to work (audibly). The maddening thing is that ea.support.com/rockband won't allow me to finish the exchange process because I'm outside of the US and I just drove to Buffalo and back to get this. So just would like to add... AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
[End of vent]

Guess I'll try giving harmonix a call, sigh...

EDIT:
Sweeeeeet.... for whatever reason the red pad is now working again and has been for the last few hours! No clue what the reason is but I won't question it for now. Whew! Btw, anyone notice that the guitar's strum paddle has a lot of dead space around it's resting position? Seems you have to make sure to strum all the way down/up for it to register.

[sleepbox]

I've not even hooked mine up yet and I'm a bit worried...almost as though I have to baby my strat and not let any one else touch it...seriously, wtf happened? Every GH controller was tough as nails.

[tucsonovernite]

Straight out of the box, brand new copy, my drumset's poles (extending it and lowering it) the tab broke off one of the poles when i barely even touched it.

Add into that that the drums are EXTREMELY hard to get rolls on because of horrible sensitivity (you basically get random hits). I've played drummania and a real drumset for years; if it were me missing, i'd know, honestly. I tried it out in practice mode and about one out of every 4 hits doesn't even come through on all four pads.

are you the guy getting in those annoying spats in the I played RB thread on scorehero? Man you guys really ruined that thread.

[Nekura20x6]

My downstrum is doing the multiple hit thing after about 4 hours of play. I am really, really ticked off. I'm going to try out the drums and mic to see if there are any issues there. Has there been any official statement about the hardware issues? As fun as this game is, I'm seriously considering returning it.

[Seiana]

Question for the ones who opened up their guitars. Can anyone post a picture of the inside at the strum bar?
I’m really curious if this can be remedied by just wiring a “clicky” microswitch into place. I have 2 arcade button switches that if possible I can just solder and glue into place and I’m SURE it would work.

… That is if it is just a matter of switches making contact.

Lets simultaneously get the mod community started who’s with me? =D

[HeartBreaker11]

So in other words, the PS3 version of this game is entirely worthless as of now?

[joshtbuff]

My box says 8 Oct 07 and my guitar seems to always be whammying and my red button is sticky.

My drums will not pull up the xbox screen. The center xbox button does nothing. When i unplugged it and plugged it back in i had to fiddle with it for about 3 minutes to get the xbox to read it.

[ElevenSword]

My higher blue fret button doesnt work. Yay

[deepbluevibes]

NOTE TO EVERYONE WITH BAD DRUMS; I HAVE A VERY EASY FIX

I thought the problem might be the same that it was on my Blueshark DDR pad, so I tried taping down the pads with medical tape.

Sure enough, it worked. What I did was roll the medical tape around the red drum twice (once vertical, once horizontal) and then put small pieces on the edges of the blue and green drums, and none on the yellow.

Try out your own experiments with it; if you put down too much on too many drums, the vibrations from them will make other drums go off, but if you mess around with it, you can get it just right and it works like a charm.

Songs I was 3 starring i'm 5 starring in my sleep now, as I can hit any and all rolls. :D

[AVC808]

i am honestly shocked by the large number of issues that has come up with this game. i expected to hear of a few bugs here and there, but nothing like this. i have a ps3 version sitting in my car that i picked up before work. and i have to pick up another copy after work.

the one i have i believe i saw an october date on the retail box. for the people with guitar issues, maybe we should start posting dates to see if the early versions or later versions tend to have the problems.

[furbzilla33]

Yay! I played about 33 minutes and my yellow drum head decided it wouldn't work anymore! Wheeeeeee!!

I haven't even tried the mic and guitar...170 bucks for 33 minutes. Wow. I know it's not the end of the world, but wow....was expecting a little more stability than this. What a mess.

[SirTony]

I have a strum bar problem with my Strat, it does not register all strums, it is really annoying. Everything else works great. I have contacted EA about the problem and I should be receiving a replacement.

[Cmo4Ever]

Sigh, less than 24 hours, and my Stratocaster's downstrum no longer works. The fact that we get no word on when / ever there will be a patch is awful. I paid $170 for a broken game. It sucks. I don't know what I was expecting with EA invloved, I suppose quality and good customer server aren't things I should have anticipated. So I've gone back to using my Les Paul for the game. Why does this one break in 1 day, but my GH 2 Guitar works dandy after 8 monthes of intense abuse? Absolute lack of quality.

Sean says go to EA Customer Service. Roughly the most useless thing in the world.

[joshtbuff]

My box says 8 Oct 07 and my guitar seems to always be whammying and my red button is sticky.

My drums will not pull up the xbox screen. The center xbox button does nothing. When i unplugged it and plugged it back in i had to fiddle with it for about 3 minutes to get the xbox to read it.

[lrntswm]

what the hell good will a patch do? if you can't tell by now, it's a hardware issue: the strummer on the guitar was designed poorly. mine won't register all the notes on fast parts. early october was the date, i'm in MI

Same here... any fast strumming I really can't do. It annoys me how "soft" it feels. Like there's something pushing against it, and preventing it from fully making contact.

It's annoying, and I'm wondering whether it's a design flaw (thus, on all models) or a defect (just on some).

To send it to EA or not... hmm. :confused:

[roots3003]

sorry for the double post...luckily the GH2 xplorer works sooo much better.

[k_luva]

Well...add me to the guitar strummer broken list. After about 3-4 hours of play the strummer now registers twice. Which in effect FAILS you in the song. It IS NOT a software issue either...I exited and navigated my XBox menu...push down on the strummer and it goes down twice....

Either an OFFICIAL response with a day or so....or it's going BACK. With the many people posting up they should say SOMETHING QUICK. I thought it was chocked to randomness at first, but too many people are having problems to say that now.....

[lrntswm]

Well I just sent in a request for a new guitar through the hardware warranty page (thanks pink sheet!)

I did the express shipping, since I don't feel like waiting long, and it'd be nice to have a new one within 3-5 days. They give you a healthy 28 days to send the old one back, so all should be well.

I guess I'll let everyone know how the new one fares, eh?

[k_luva]

The problem with getting a replacement from EA...your going to get a replacement with one of the ones that are out now..which means most likely you are going to have the SAME problem.

I am SURE the GHIII franchise is sitting back laughing their collective butts of right about now....I am a little angry to say the least at this point.

[Kyle10]

My Guitar did exactly what TheDoctre's did. I was playing fine for about 3 hours, then next thing you know, my downstrum is not working. I tried changing the batteries to see if it was a battery issue, but it is still not picking up a majority of my downstrums...

[roots3003]

what the hell good will a patch do? if you can't tell by now, it's a hardware issue: the strummer on the guitar was designed poorly. mine won't register all the notes on fast parts. early october was the date, i'm in MI

[CantaloupeDog]

i took mine apart, posted way back on what the hardware problems are i got pictures just gotta find a place that will host them, then i can give you guys a link to check it out

[Neon_Jebus]

Well right out of the box my drum pedal isn't working. I can't get it to register at all. If I wiggle the cord in and out of the plug in on the back of the drums it registers as a hit.

Pretty upsetting...since my mom was looking forward to playing drums on Thanksgiving.

I mean sure, I'm certain she'll still have fun with it, after all I doubt she could hit the drums and bass at the same time.

But for the money invested I shouldn't be waiting for a replacement within 24 hours of my purchase. I turned in my claim with the support site. I did the express option so we'll see what "express" means to them.

I looks like a UPS tracking number was generated so I hope it's next day service. That would be swell.

[k_luva]

most likely you are hitting the notes...if you watch the notes break...its that your strummer is double registering...go to your xbox main menu and navigate down and see if it goes down twice. my upstrum is working right now....

[Eastwood]

Mine is now double strumming when I hit down. Not every time, but enough to ruin my streak. Like when you play Maps on hard. It just started doing it within the last hour :(

[SoKGiX]

Well, my guitar isn't broken yet. I play the strat with a medium guitar pick. As a guitar player, this feels more natural to me than trying to wiggle the strum bar up and down with fingers or thumb. Plus, it seems to be more gentle on the bar itself since you aren't slamming it down - the pick will glide off at a certain pressure during the downstroke. For those of you who haven't yet damaged your guitars, you might want to try it.

nice idea, i will

[toefer]

Sorry that I don't have time to read through this entire thing (too busy playing) but I was wondering, what exactly do people mean by their guitar is broken?

With mine, after playing for a bit, I can no longer hit quick notes (think of the repetitive parts, where you just play red, red, red, red, red in fast succession). It misses just about every other one, and it ruins my streak. I'm struggling as it is trying to sing and play at the same time (my friends all left town for the holiday, and I won't be home for another two days).

Is this the same problem others are having?

I hope this can be fixed with the software update, but for now, I think it's back to solo drum career.

[Huskie]

i took mine apart, posted way back on what the hardware problems are i got pictures just gotta find a place that will host them, then i can give you guys a link to check it out

There is a gallery here if you can get to your "My Account" page. Link at the top.
It was reported to be broken for some.

[Angel-Jin]

bump to the front page. please use this thread for hardware issues. you're not the only one. heh

[k_luva]

Until they get this manufacturing issue fixed...which is what it seems to be...you are going to get a replacement that does the same thing....I am just going to upstrum until HMX gets off their butts and at LEAST says SOMETHING..

[snoopj123]

On my PS3, my guitar now acts as if the strum is stuck in the UP position. Unfortunately, I can't tell if this is software, because we were working fine for a test drive through a practice session on "In Bloom" before it blew up.

--snoopj

[Seiana]

Mine says 10/21... My guitar strum is already not nearly as responsive as it once was. I know it will go out here pretty quick. After about 2 hours or so of play.

Has anyone taken that picture yet of the inside? I want to know weather I want to call EA or try and mod it.

[xMasterJuicex]

Eh! This is making me have second thoughts about getting RB. I have been so pumped up and was ready to get it today.. but coming on to this forum and seeing have the posts being tech issues, I dont know if I am willing to risk it.

[zerogeo3]

Mine, is also jacked, and it is not a software issue but the guitar, it is double struming on the dashboard menus, so already sending it back for a replacement, hopefully they will fix this soon.....

[eeenvyyy]

add me to the list of people with the broken downstrum. it only lasted a few hours before dying.

[Earthstripe]

Within three hours the downstrum on my guitar was sticking. The game would not register the release of the strum, as if I was holding the bar down constantly. Usually pulling up on it would fix it briefly, but sometimes it would stop responding all together.

There better be some sort of recall. This is ridiculous.

[graggor]

I( have had absolutely NONE Of these issues.

I have to wonder if some of this stuff is just blatantly not true.

I am sure some of it is. But I have had an awesome experience playing rock band and have played now for about 10 hours with absolutely NO ISSUES whatsoever.

it has been fun. I have enjoyed learning to use the bass pedal and doing the different solo tours and with my friends playing the world tour.

[zj695000]

All the demos in my area including the store I work at all the guitars strum bars do not work at all.

My 360 guitar is already not hitting notes on time.

[vash56]

don't know if i should be posting here since it's not just "One" but two of my instuments, my blue drum pad only registers about every other note and my guitar doesn't want to activate my "energy" when i tilt it

some luck
hopefully they are pretty good with their warranty and getting replacements to me

[CableCarrier]

I've noticed that the downstrum on my guitar is acting a bit wonky as well; I think I might have it sent back after the Thanksgiving holidays. In the meantime, I'll pick up a used GH2 controller for rocking.

[Zero80Rocker]

I have a similar problem with the guitar. QC Sept 24, 2007. Xbox 360.

Slow notes are no problem for both up an down strums. But repeated sections/sequences there's no way I can hit. The hits don't register or are late. Still have not been able to hit more than 3 notes in a row. The strummer feels mushy as if it's sticking or as if the spring inside that returns it to dead center is not strong enough.

I substituted a GH2 guitar and I have no issues hitting runs of 20 or more. Switch back to the Fender and I can't hit more than 3. Definitely not me, definitely not calibration.

I've already filled out the replacement form online and received a tracking number on the replacement guitar. But as someone mentioned above, I'm worried that the replacement won't fix it. Definitely sounds like a hardware problem for some people (including me). Note that there seems to also have been a patch that was issued sometime today and for some folks, that software patch made it worse. There's another thread where someone gave a method to remove the patch. You folks who are saying it worked for 3-4 hours but stopped working should try the codes to remove the patch and see if that helps.

For me, I don't have the patch and my Xbox 360 is not currently online so I know it's not the patch causing me grief. Something is definitely wrong with this guitar. At least I have the GH2 guitar to keep me busy.

That said, for folks thinking about picking up a standalone x-plorer GH2 guitar to use for now (and as a secondary guitar for later), think twice. I picked one up a few weeks ago and the star power does not work at all (motion or button, both).

[King_Nuthin]

My strum is fine but my green button only works 80% of the time. When it stops registering twisting or gripping the neck really tight fixes it. Kind of difficult mid song. Occasionally the yellow fails. I will probably open it up at some point and make sure all the connections are solid or maybe wait to see if EA has an official response.

I really like the strat compared to the Xplorer so I hope I can fix it myself.

[k_luva]

get this game. dont have second thoughts about whether or not it will break. it seems some people are treating their strum like a guitar hero strum.


UHHhh...that's not true at all...I just was gently strumming mine...no hard strums at all...and it went kaput....like I said..upstrum works...for NOW..This IS NOT from abuse...Maybe they thought the hot glue would hold on just long enough to run out of warranty..then everyone would buy the wireless controller....

[Zero80Rocker]

get this game. dont have second thoughts about whether or not it will break. it seems some people are treating their strum like a guitar hero strum.

What does 'guitar hero strum' mean? You have folks who only strum down, you have folks who only strum up, and you have folks who alternate up/down strums. You have folks who when they strum hit the strum like a button. You have folks who hold the strum like a pick. Does it matter? In either case, the down direction is not working right for a lot of folks on here (including me) and it does not matter whether I hit, pick it, alternate it. Slow notes are fine, but fast repeated notes don't work. The GH2 guitar works fine. So if you have a problematic guitar like we have, unless you only strum up, you have a problem....

[AXaznAX]

get this game. dont have second thoughts about whether or not it will break. it seems some people are treating their strum like a guitar hero strum.

I dont't treat my fender guitar like guitar hero strum. I can't even pass the "quick tricks" tutorials in rockband because my strum is not registering. I have let 5 other people try it to see if its me and they still did not get it.

[Seiana]

Mine still works ultimately but I have noticed how it gradually has become less effecient as it gets broken in. I'm sure that eventually its not going to register at all. I started out with just barely having to touch it and gradulaly have had to push it all the way down. I shouldn't be able to actually notice that it took about an hour for this to happen. =P

[hxcmuziq]

I think 3 hours is the average lifespan of some of these guitars. it's obvious that the strat is a little too sensitive. and this CAN NOT ba a software issue, usless someone put a timebomb in the code that causes the down strum to quit working after 3 hours. I'm in the same boat.

PS3.
Downstrum. (multi notes at first, now sometimes multi notes, sometimes no notes at all)
White sticker 21 oct 07

[thekobun]

Mine is now double strumming when I hit down. Not every time, but enough to ruin my streak. Like when you play Maps on hard. It just started doing it within the last hour :(

I have the same problem after about 5 hours of playing. And I'm not one to break things, i play pretty gently. My guitar hero 1 original sg controller still works flawlessly to this day for over a couple years.


I'd also like to note that my drumset, one of the legs don't latch tight and it keeps slipping down. I think the upper pole is too small.

[johnnytightlips]

Eh! This is making me have second thoughts about getting RB. I have been so pumped up and was ready to get it today.. but coming on to this forum and seeing have the posts being tech issues, I dont know if I am willing to risk it.

get this game. dont have second thoughts about whether or not it will break. it seems some people are treating their strum like a guitar hero strum.

[Angry_Games]

My Guitar's downstrum is already gone (360). No sign of the "patch" that Harmonix was talking about (at least that I could see either on XBL or in-game). Hope it goes live sometime tomorrow and it fixes it. I was having a blast until the guitar stopped working :)

Edit to add more info per a later post in this thread:

Problem: Strum (downstrum)
Platform: X360


5 songs in, and my strummer broke. Before it broke, I was in heaven as it is so silky smooth, and none of that double-strum crap that caused me to modify my 360 Explorer guitar for Guitar Hero 3.

And, funny enough, after my Fender broke, I simply grabbed one of the Explorers, and it actually works BETTER in Rock Band than it does in GH3 (no double-strumming in RB!).

Here's the most important thing I've found out tonight after all this happened:

Harmonix/EA is MUCH BETTER PREPARED for any problems like this than the Guitar Hero devs/publishers ever could have dreamed about.

How can I say this?

I went to the support link (support.ea.com/rockband), answered a simple question or two, logged in with my EA account, gave the site my Credit Card # for Express replacement, and they gave me a tracking # for it already (of course they didn't ship it at 1AM, but they generated a UPS tracking # which means it will get shipped out I'm sure next business day which would be tomorrow and if not, Friday).

In the meantime, I still have a couple of Xbox360 Explorers to play with.

I know this doesn't alleviate the pain some of you feel that don't have any of the previous Guitar Hero controllers for 360 (or possibly the new GH3 controllers for 360/PS3). But I'm extremely happy so far with the way this has been setup to be handled by EA (a company I LOATHE TO EXTREME DEPTHS OF HATRED FOR btw, it's like me saying anything good about the Red Wings or the Yankees or the Cowboys).

I was really pissed for about 2 minutes then plugged in my 360 controller and it works like a freakin champ so I'm a bit disappointed that this has happened (it seems to by my luck with EVERY Guitar Hero version released that I've bought, GH1 I got a faulty guitar, GH2 I got a faulty wireless guitar, GH2 360 I had to have RO send me a replacement guitar, GH3 got me a faulty guitar for my PS2 so I traded the PS2 game and guitar for just the 360 game, etc).

But disappointments aside, I'm realistic and know this just happens sometimes. No screaming or yelling in the forums for me, I've already got a replacement coming from EA Support in 3-5 days or such and it will give me time to learn how to play the damn drums or maybe sing instead of screech like a harpy into that microphone lol. And if we want to play guitar/bass, we got our 360 guitars.

Again, those of you who don't own a previous Guitar Hero guitar controller, I'm very sorry for you. I know how it feels to get a hotly anticipated game and something goes wrong (like EVERY time for me haha). Just get EA to replace the guitar and fool with the drums and singing (singers are going to be the rarest I think as it's possibly the hardest position in the band, even harder than drumming!).


ps I should add that while I gave my CC# to EA for Express replacement, they won't charge it unless I don't send the old broken one back for 28 days. Most of you already probably know this, but this is for those that just roll to the back of the thread after reading the first page of it!

[Angry_Games]

Well, my guitar isn't broken yet. I play the strat with a medium guitar pick. As a guitar player, this feels more natural to me than trying to wiggle the strum bar up and down with fingers or thumb. Plus, it seems to be more gentle on the bar itself since you aren't slamming it down - the pick will glide off at a certain pressure during the downstroke. For those of you who haven't yet damaged your guitars, you might want to try it.

btw, this is how I have played the Guitar Hero guitars since I first bought GH1, with a medium pick. The RB guitar was no different except before it broke, it was a DREAM to play...smooth, proper note hit, proper strum (ie no double-strum like GH3!). So using a pick isn't going to stop this problem either I'm afraid =(

[CantaloupeDog]

Ok so for any of you who wanted a picture of whats wrong with the down strum, heres a pic i uploaded:

http://community.rockband.com/file/pic/gallery/1511.jpg

Image 1: Top left
Image 2: Top Right
Image 3: Lower Right

Image 1 shows the guitar opened in its entirety, the problem area (strum bar underside) is circled in red)

Image 2 is a little bit closer with the problem area circled in red

Image 3 is as close as i could zoom in without gettin too fuzzy to show exactly
The green circle is the ear on the downstrum side of the strum bar, when you strum down that ear contacts with the prong (purple arrow points to it, kinda hidden under green circle) and pushes that into the other prong (yellow arrow points to it), what happens is the prong with the yellow arrow sits too far back from the one with the purple arrow so when you strum and it pushes, the 2 prongs never contact, now an easy solution to this is simply put something behind the prong labeled with the yellow arrow, in my case it was a piece of tape (marked by blue arrow). at the back of the prongs (its not labeled sorry) is where they connect to the shell of the guitar and by connect i mean its hot glued there, on my the hot glue job was done horribly as in that whole housing is able to move around, thus making it even harder for the 2 prongs to touch, as long as your housing is glued in securely, all you have to do is put a little something behind the prong labeled with the yellow arrow to move it a little closer to the other one, so that when you strum down they make contact (note: you dont want them touching when the strum bar is in its resting position or it'll just read it as your constantly down strumming). Hope that shed some light on it for some of you, and if you cant wait for your replacement to come, thats a "do it yourself" fix at least for now. Good Luck

Edit: BTW i dont suggest doing this unless your perfectly comfortable playing with it where as it has a possibility to make it so that they wont take your guitar back should you decide to return it, just be careful and hopefully have a little mechanical aptitude hehe that said Good Luck again!

[nunyabiz]

Ok so for any of you who wanted a picture of whats wrong with the down strum, heres a pic i uploaded:

http://community.rockband.com/file/pic/gallery/1511.jpg

Image 1: Top left
Image 2: Top Right
Image 3: Lower Right

Image 1 shows the guitar opened in its entirety, the problem area (strum bar underside) is circled in red)

Image 2 is a little bit closer with the problem area circled in red

Image 3 is as close as i could zoom in without gettin too fuzzy to show exactly
The green circle is the ear on the downstrum side of the strum bar, when you strum down that ear contacts with the prong (purple arrow points to it, kinda hidden under green circle) and pushes that into the other prong (yellow arrow points to it), what happens is the prong with the yellow arrow sits too far back from the one with the purple arrow so when you strum and it pushes, the 2 prongs never contact, now an easy solution to this is simply put something behind the prong labeled with the yellow arrow, in my case it was a piece of tape (marked by blue arrow). at the back of the prongs (its not labeled sorry) is where they connect to the shell of the guitar and by connect i mean its hot glued there, on my the hot glue job was done horribly as in that whole housing is able to move around, thus making it even harder for the 2 prongs to touch, as long as your housing is glued in securely, all you have to do is put a little something behind the prong labeled with the yellow arrow to move it a little closer to the other one, so that when you strum down they make contact (note: you dont want them touching when the strum bar is in its resting position or it'll just read it as your constantly down strumming). Hope that shed some light on it for some of you, and if you cant wait for your replacement to come, thats a "do it yourself" fix at least for now. Good Luck

Edit: BTW i dont suggest doing this unless your perfectly comfortable playing with it where as it has a possibility to make it so that they wont take your guitar back should you decide to return it, just be careful and hopefully have a little mechanical aptitude hehe that said Good Luck again!

Good job! Thanks for that..

[HeXcoda]

Hard to plow through 12 pages, but I THINK I have a unique problem. If anybody else has this, speak up.

My UPstrum is busted. Not the downstrum registering multiple times -- in my case, the upstrum gets physically stuck in the up position and won't go back to neutral until a beat or half a beat have gone by. This wrecks my ability to play songs because I have to manually move it back to neutral or be doom'd, which is impossible on fast songs.

I could strum up-and-down but this thing should not be getting stuck after 3 hours of play... that's a manufacturing defect. I don't care how you strum or if you have to treat the RB guitar with care, upstrumming is a legit way to play and the bar is not working.

I've already buzzed EA and ordered a replacement... it better not have the same problem.

[Eastwood]

Here's the most important thing I've found out tonight after all this happened:

Harmonix/EA is MUCH BETTER PREPARED for any problems like this than the Guitar Hero devs/publishers ever could have dreamed about.

[/b]

QFT

I have a broken strum. Just did the customer service. 3 - 5 days and an explorer guitar that works almost as good as a healthy strat = me no longer being mad.

[SmokaCola]

So the patch didn't fix anyones guitar? :(

[admanimal]

Has anyone that requested a replacement from EA actually gotten a tracking/confirmation email from them?

[_epacs_]

Well I just thought I'd add to this thread telling everyone that my down strum was broken right out of the box. It only registers about 1/10 of the down strums, but will register all my upstrums. I'm fairly pissed.

[admanimal]

QFT

I have a broken strum. Just did the customer service. 3 - 5 days and an explorer guitar that works almost as good as a healthy strat = me no longer being mad.

Did you get a confirmation email or a tracking number from EA?

[zepplinmike]

Mine isn't unplayable like some of yours, but the Overdrive thing in my guitar doesn't really work properly. Sometimes the overdrive just activates on its own and when I try to activate it by lifting the guitar, nothing happens. So I'm pushing the Back button to activate it. It's not a big deal really, and I can live with this issue for now, but I was wondering if this was the case for anyone else.

[CantaloupeDog]

Hex that is related to the downstrum side as well, mine did that as well before trying to fix it, the glue that holds the houseing on the downstrum prongs is probably lose and its moved a little, when you strum up, it lifts the thing on the down side, and lets the prong get underneath that little ear on the strum bar and making it stuck, thats my guess when i was fixing mine up before i had it perfected i had that same problem.

[Dillius]

Same problem here. Downstrums registering often as 2-3 downstrums and on occasion not registering at all. Hopefully it won't be long before that replacement guitar arrives, as I was somewhat enjoying the strat.

[Eastwood]

I wonder what causes the double strum, then.

[Wojjie]

I think the double strumming happens when the glue gives, and the metal is no longer attached to the plastic housing, then when you strum quick enough, it pushes the one metal piece into the other, causing the other piece to fly back just enough to lose contact for a split second.

Took me a while to figure out what was going on, had the guitar open (took pictures, will post in a sec) and I was playing, and looking at the open guitar, hoping it would stop playing. Instead it played, but would double strum, and I couldnt figure out why at first, since it looked like it was making proper connection. Then I looked at how the up strum worked, and noticed the metal piece was not moving.

[Neon_Jebus]

I have to wonder if some of this stuff is just blatantly not true.

Well I can't speak for the others with issues but I'm telling the truth. I take my stuff out of the box and the bass pedal didn't work. I've located the issue and can hope it's a problem with the cord the connects to the drum kit and not the connection hole in the kit. Otherwise the new bass pedal will still not work.

Either way, defects are to be expected. It's how fast the fix the issues that will make or break the trust of the consumer.

I don't think people willing to talk about the issue and try to fix the issue are just causing trouble and not telling the truth. People WANT to enjoy the game, not troll message boards with lies of broken equipment.

Fine, sometimes people like to troll message boards with lies of broken equipment...but I don't think this is one of those times.

[Smidget]

downstrum started messing up right as we were finishing up playing for the night; recording multiple strums. We were playing as a group and before we got started I said "we need to spend at least 3 hours playing to make sure they work." Glad we did so. We weren't using my drumset the whole night so I'll be testing it out tonight but my friends drums we were using worked fine after hours of playing BWT (me on expert when I was playing them so they took some good hitting).

*sigh* oh well! :p Drum campaign here I come! *tarzan yell*

[zerogeo3]

I got a UPS tracking number, and it is set (after checking their tracking site UPS's that is) for 2 day express delivery. So it should be here by Friday, or maybe Saturday at the latest. Hopefully this corrects the problem, and I don't have to go through not being able to play what was up till it broke (down strum) my favorite guitar.

[Seiana]

I can assure you as well that I am not “trolling” either. I can say that after many hours of play that most of the equipment worked beautifully. The game itself is exceptional. Ultimately the controller issues are hardly harmonix’s fault. They make the game, not the hardware. Same with guitar hero, Red Octane made the hardware. With Red Octane you had a certain level of quality even at their worst. Mainly due to their background making third party equipment for other music games and often times premium alternatives. With Rock Band, goddess only knows who put these together. That decision was up to EA. And you can always trust EA to botch something up.

Let it be known that my guitar still actively works, just I have noticed that it is not responding nearly as tight as it once did. I have already ordered a replacement for mine but after that I’m definitely going to work on the new one to make sure it runs for a long time to come. I give big kudos to harmonix for making a very fun game and overall the game is well designed with only minor complaints. Its just these EA designed hardware issues that are marring an otherwise fantastic game.

[Yeknom]

I'm having an issue with the green button. When I'm in Rock Band, my wired guitar's green buttons don't work at all. When I'm in the 360 dashboard, it acts as if the green button is held down, so it keeps trying to sign in to accounts.

[Eastwood]

Oh no! You too Smidget? :eek:

I have the same exact problem. Already started the replacement process.

Maybe this is why there was a shortage? Found that somewhere in the production, the guitars started getting put together in shotty form and held a certain percentage equal to the projected number to handle the crisis. I hope whoever was on the line that was responsible for this aspect of production is no longer working at the plant. If it is all done by automation, then whoever was watching over the process should be chided.

[Smidget]

Oh no! You too Smidget? :eek:


yeah :( I actually purchased three sets and thought about opening up the others but I bought them because I knew I would have friends who couldn't get it (to "sell" to them later). If I open another and it is broken then do I open the last one? What if it is broken? Then I would knowingly be giving my friends broken stuff and that would suck haha "yeah, so I went through them all and mixmatched the working stuff so I could have a working set. You can call EA and they'll send replacements, I just didn't think I should have have to deal with it since I am the one who bought them" ... haha, thats just not me :p

[kingofthisnight]

Well I purchased the game on Tuesday at 12:00 A.M., went home and played it with my friends for about two hours and called it a night. Yesterday we got back together to play the game some more and about two songs in the blue drum pad just cut out and quit working. After a vast quantity of profanity we turned the game off and found something else to do. I tried the patch for the game that was released last night but got no luck in remedying my problem. EA is going to be shipping me my new drum pads in 3 to 5 days and the rock will continue.

Though slightly upset about the drums breaking so quickly I am overall impressed with this game. If you have all four people playing the game it is amazing. Guitar Hero is fun but man there is something about having the entire band playing that makes it so much better. Definitely will be a fun game to have out at parties.

[Wojjie]

Here is an image of the back of the strummer:

http://img266.imageshack.us/my.php?image=strummer1wa6.jpg

[blazedbishop]

I also picked this up yesterday and after only the first set of songs my strum up quit wokring as well as the up on the d-pad/ my question to all of you with the strum problem is are you also having trouble scrolling throguh the menus? For example I cant go back up after i have scrolled down, with the strum bar or the d-pad, so to me this does seem like a software issue because why would my d-pad's up also not work on the menus?? Doesnt make sense but either way it ruined the experience for me. However the drums were awesome and I am looking forward to playing those more!!!

[guan69]

My guitar won't sync with my 360 so I applied for a replacement. I choose the express shipping but I don't expect it to be here until next week due to the holiday. I really hope this new guitar works because I wanted to have drums & guitar for BWT.

[Akileese]

Well, I think mine may be on the way to be being defective as it seems like I keep missing notes I'm hitting and it occasionally adds double hits that I'm not hitting. It's really unfortunate situation because I love the guitar as a whole, but the strum bar being so worthless makes it nearly unusable.

[blazedbishop]

Are all of you have trouble navigating the menus with the guitar as well because of the strum bar issue?? Mine works strumming down but I cant strum up or navigate up in the menus at all!?!?

[admanimal]

IF these instruments all break just out of warranty because of manufacturing crap....this will be the DEATH of Harmonix!

Wellll...I'd say everything seems to be breaking within the first 60 minutes or hours, never mind the first 60 days.

[bluntywoowoo]

All my instruments are working perfectly.

[snoopj123]

As stated before, mine acts as if the strum is stuck on the Up position. I can't move at all because it immediately shoots anything to the top of a menu. I have to unplug the dongle/turn off the controller to get it to stop.

PS3 version, by the way.

[Huskie]

I just gotta say one thing...

The lefties must be having fun.
I might have found one below ...


Are all of you have trouble navigating the menus with the guitar as well because of the strum bar issue?? Mine works strumming down but I cant strum up or navigate up in the menus at all!?!?

Are you playing lefty by chance?

[StoneyW66]

My fender is just now starting to do the double click down strum thing too. is this a problem with the strummer or is it a software thing. if its just the strummer has anyone made a guide on how to crack this thing open and fix it???

[Huskie]

downstrum started messing up right as we were finishing up playing for the night; recording multiple strums. We were playing as a group and before we got started I said "we need to spend at least 3 hours playing to make sure they work." Glad we did so. We weren't using my drumset the whole night so I'll be testing it out tonight but my friends drums we were using worked fine after hours of playing BWT (me on expert when I was playing them so they took some good hitting).

*sigh* oh well! :p Drum campaign here I come! *tarzan yell*
Oh no! You too Smidget? :eek:

EDIT:

THIS post was made an hour before what it claims here. I do NOT speak from the future.

[_epacs_]

Are all of you have trouble navigating the menus with the guitar as well because of the strum bar issue?? Mine works strumming down but I cant strum up or navigate up in the menus at all!?!?

Not really any problems navigating menus because of the d-pad on the guitar. But yeah , I can't down strum in menus either.

[sqrllking]

When i pulled my drums out of the box, the green pad was disattached... My heart sunk. I was SO excited to play the drums. S, i slapped it in place, and began playing... and it seems to work fine. I'm wondering if anybody else had this issue, and if they've run into any issues down the line. i've only played for a couple hours so far.

I've also only played the guitar for 30 minutes or so, but i'm very afraid to play it at all now. I don't have an extra guitar, they're not selling indidual instruments, and a gh3 guitar won't work with my ps3 rock band.

On a + note, the mini strat looks adorable next to my life size version. Now i just need to find a mini stand for the rb strat.

[killi_]

just use the control pad at the end of the guitar to navigate the menu in the meantime

[HeXcoda]

I just gotta say one thing...

The lefties must be having fun.

Nope. I'm an upstrummer because I play with the guitar flat on a table due to disability, and I'm having the same problems... just in reverse. My upstrum gets stuck and doesn't return to neutral fast enough.

I bet if I was downstrumming it'd be the same thing, just on the downstrum. The strum bar is mushy trash.

[Neon_Jebus]

I got a UPS tracking number, and it is set (after checking their tracking site UPS's that is) for 2 day express delivery. So it should be here by Friday, or maybe Saturday at the latest. Hopefully this corrects the problem, and I don't have to go through not being able to play what was up till it broke (down strum) my favorite guitar.

Keep in mind the Holiday. Thursday will not count toward your 2 day service. Also keep in mind that unless they marked 'Saturday delivery' which I'm sure they didn't you will not get a Saturday delivery. That means that you should probably expect to see your shipment on Monday.

If you shipment was scanned in on Tuesday you might get it on Friday but again it could be Monday.

I just wanted to give you the heads up so you don't think something is lost in the mail. This all depends on the city they ship from and how far away you are from that location, but then again that distance would only help get it to you in 1 day which sometimes happens if they ship from like a state away from your location.

[raffleking]

i have NO idea how this could have happened but uh...my green and blue drum are switched....like if a "blue" note, which i believe is the third note, appears on screen, i actually have to hit the green pad, which is the fourth pad on the set. so basically on top of having to, you know, play the drums i also have to mentally switch blues, greens, lefts, and rights. i think i'm giving myself brain damage. anyone else have this extremely bizarre problem?

[_epacs_]

Bah , I've now started the replacement process like so many others here. Let's hope this all works out for everyone.

[sa_nick]

I just gotta say one thing...

The lefties must be having fun.

[_epacs_]

I just gotta say one thing...

The lefties must be having fun.


LOL I was actually thinking the same thing.

[k_luva]

IF these instruments all break just out of warranty because of manufacturing crap....this will be the DEATH of Harmonix!

[cwb420]

i was pretty excited about rock band and the whole band experience but i must say... this is kinda a huge let down... my guitar seems to be working fine so far.. but me and my friend switched off on medium on the drums and after like 4 hours the pedal just snapped in half... i was playing with the hold it down all the time style and wasnt THAT rough on the thing.. i dont understand why they would put out such weak pedals when they know people are gonna be stomping them... i hate to see someone play on expert. This pedal will be broke in minutes lol what can you do about that? where can i get info on where to get another one? sounds like i better wait till my guitar breaks to file a replacement order tho...wtf?!?!?! :mad:

[FrshChees]

Wow, thats disappointing/shocking. They really need to get this strumming crap fixed. Hope by the time I get it the problem will be fixed. Pffft, by the time I get it they'll have a second one out already :D:(

[blazedbishop]

Are all of you have trouble navigating the menus with the guitar as well because of the strum bar issue?? Mine works strumming down but I cant strum up or navigate up in the menus at all!?!?

[masher1969]

Same crap as my original Guitar Heros contoller for PS2 when I got it christmas before last.

Down strum not working. 4 hours of play and its over.

Plastic peice rattling around in guitar body. Pissed off user again.

Yeah yeah tell me about the feel and all that stuff..... but if you are going to acutate it a couple hundred thousand times over its life dont make it out of plastic. every 60 days this thing is probably going back if not sooner. Rock band better have research and development as well as quality controls behinds in the factories already. The Guitar I had felt like it was half way put together and about to fall apart to begin with. A redesign is comming hope a patent isnt in the way......:confused:

[thekobun]

I put in some brand new AA batteries in the guitar thinking wireless strength might be a factor, and turned off my inhouse wifi. Still no luck, it really is a physical issue for the downstrum.

[DrippingMadness]

Being left-handed, my down-strum is a right-handed person's upstrum. Should I be worrried too?

[blue_dragonzero]

Are all of you have trouble navigating the menus with the guitar as well because of the strum bar issue?? Mine works strumming down but I cant strum up or navigate up in the menus at all!?!?

use the d-pad

[mwifall]

For what its worth, during my launch party last night with friends, we had two of the rock band guitars (from two different bundles) start failing to register downstrums.

[pokerdonk]

So right off the bat the down strum not working at all. Now i have to figure out how to return just the guitar to target. Not like they have any bundles left to return the whole thing and give me a new one. Ugg was so looking forward to this game and now not so much.:mad:

[Neon_Jebus]

So right off the bat the down strum not working at all. Now i have to figure out how to return just the guitar to target. Not like they have any bundles left to return the whole thing and give me a new one. Ugg was so looking forward to this game and now not so much.:mad:


Well I bet you aren't going to get Target to take it back. That pink sheet of paper in my box provided a website to turn in defect claims. I would look into that if I were you. It looks like they will send the stuff via UPS so there is a certain amount of hope that it will be a fast turn around.

A word of warning though. If you do use the website make sure to write down that UPS tracking number they issue. Because I figured when it said it would email the details that it would do so within say, 12 hours. As it stands I've yet to see an email confirming my request.

[Wojjie]

It doesn't matter which way you strum, the mechanism for up strum and down strum are the same, just mounted on the opposite side, so you still have to worry about it breaking.

Also, I just bought a GH3 bundle (game + wireless guitar), and I noticed it seems more solid. Also, they use some sort of button switch inside by the sounds of it (since you hear a 'click' each time you strum), which is probably more durable in such games.

I'm also worried that if I get the guitar replaced, the same thing will happen, they really need to redesign the mechanism.

[pooter]

Last night, everything worked out of the box. Played drums for an hour or two. Took a break, came back and played guitar a bit, then went to play drums again...the pedal didn't work. It only registered when i unplugged or plugged it back in. I called EA support whilst stomping the damned thing as hard as I could (hey, it was already broke...) All of a sudden, it started registering again and I was able to play for a bit before I had to go to bed. I'm wondering if I'll have the same issue again when I go home today after work, or if it was just a one time thing.

[Meancode]

Mine isn't unplayable like some of yours, but the Overdrive thing in my guitar doesn't really work properly. Sometimes the overdrive just activates on its own and when I try to activate it by lifting the guitar, nothing happens. So I'm pushing the Back button to activate it. It's not a big deal really, and I can live with this issue for now, but I was wondering if this was the case for anyone else.

Are you standing up? I found the Strat to be responsive to Overdrive only if you are standing up.

[Meancode]

So the patch didn't fix anyones guitar? :(

Nope. I tried last night after updating. My broken strum bar is still broken. I don't really know what the Title Update did.

[haxmya]

I'll add my name to list of folks with a down strum problem already. But I also posted it in the tech support forum.

Actually I wasn't having this problem yesterday or this morning after the patch was applied. It didn't happen immediately after the patch though.

Bought it from Target yesterday.

[ultimatenubs]

I called customer supportthey told me to use an air can to blow out dust (its brand new!?!?!) and if it continues to not respond, to send it in for a replacement.

Platform: X360
Instrument: Guitar
Problem: Up and down strum bar, up doesnt work, and down is starting to phase out.:confused::mad:
im a little frustrated....

[Graven55]

Ditto, too ad too, this guitar is so much nicer than the GH controllers. Love not having the "click" on every strum.

Now just make it work! It's obviously not dust, already requested the new one.

Pity for the Rock Band players who don't have a GH controller, so I won't whine too much, at least I can play.

[ultimatenubs]

i know its rock band and all, but was it ready?
its kind of disapointing, and now i wish i had a GH controller for 360. Ah-Spit!:mad:

[Quintus]

Another one bites the dust... After about 2 hours of playing last night, the strum switches on my guitar decided to eat themselves. It now only registers *occasional* strums (both up and down are borked). I plugged the controller into my computer and watched the POVhat response to verify... The switches just seemed to stop working.

A new guitar is supposedly en route... Mercifully I have my Xbox GH2 controllers.

If I didn't have to box this thing up and send it back, I would be seriously considering gutting it and building a sturdier one with some higher quality parts.

[Dillius]

Add me to the list as well. Broken downstrum, multi-strums about 33% of the time, another 20% of the time or so it doesn't downstrum at all.

Sent in a request for a new one this morning.

[violetsiren77]

For the person that wondered "if these problems were actually true and not just blatant lies", let me say this: It's a great game, and if it didn't have any problems, trust me, we'd all be playing right now instead of slamming the forum. After paying about $180 tax included, after about 3 hours gameplay (rockin, but not damaging controllers), the guitar downstrum just doesn't register. Don't know what to do! I'm not going to pay MORE money to have a re-issue for their faulty merch. Off to Best Buy (again) to exchange. Strangely, their customer service said there weren't many returns yet. Weird. Ours is unplayable. Boo! If you have a bundle that plays perfectly, awesome, rock on for those of us stuck with broken controllers.

[trogdor0071]

Add another person down.

I don't want to sound like an a** for saying I'm glad it's not just me, because it sucks for everyone. But this kind of sh** always seems to happen.

Me and my brother were playing the guitar for maybe 6-7 hours, turned it off and went to sleep. When I woke up, the thing doesn't strum down properly. Cleaned it all out with compressed air, didn't help (I know the reason why now).

The smaller fret buttons used during solos was also a good idea, but wth? One of my fingers takes up two buttons? How am I supposed to use it?

The gamestop I bought mine at just got some new guitars in stock and the manager said I could exchange mine for another one. Hopefully this will last me long enough for Harmonix to fix this horrible mistake.

I was really looking forward to playing Coheed this morning. :[

[thekobun]

How are you guys exchanging them? Are you bringing the whole package back to the store, and how do they exchange it? do they give you a whole replacement bundle?
I really want to play, but I don't know if Best Buy is too good with customer service. I've been screwed by them before. It's Best Buy after all.

[trogdor0071]

They told me to just bring my defective guitar and they'd replace it. Dunno if they have a seprate guitar or if they are using a bundle pack as spare parts now.

[violetsiren77]

Exchanged the entire bundle xbox for a new one @ Best Buy w. no problems exchanging. Crossing my fingers and setting up to rock now. I hope I won't have to come back here w/bad news.

[powdrdmilkman]

X360 Guitar strummer isn't working too well here either.

Any word on them being fixed by Harmonix yet?

[artyen]

Another one down, just hit London on expert guitar, and the downstrum failed on me. Really good job with the quality of your guitars. :rolleyes:

(xbox 360 version)

[spyguy]

I discovered after a few hours of playing that my guitar started to "miss" notes. In a 10 note streak I would possibly miss 1 - 2 notes and sometimes miss them every 2 or 3notes. I thought it was me so I borrowed an exploder and proceeded to make 100% on songs that I made 94-95% using the fender. Reading this thread I decided to take it apart and see what I could find. :D

http://img266.imageshack.us/my.php?image=strummer1wa6.jpg (borrowed from earlier post.... thx ;) )

Anywho. I watched it while I strumed and noticed that if you jammed hard or fast on the strum bar the upper most contact moved past its stationary point into this rubber pad thingy (real techinical I know). It bends backwards a degree or two so when you try to strum fast or hard the contacts haven't come back past to that stationary point to break contract for the next note. I think this extra give in the upper contact causes the split second misses that some peeps are experiencing.

I took a little square of card stock and wraped scotch tape around it until I got the desired thickness (1 or 2 times). I jammed it between the upper contact and the rubber pad/screw post. It moved the upper contact a 'lil closer to the bottom contact and kept it from going any farther "north" and kind of allows the bottom contact to break contact with the upper a little sooner.

After about an hour of playing it I am missing very few notes. I barely have to strum down to get it to register so I can quickly "thumb beat" the hell out of it and get most of the notes in the streak. I am not a professional so I miss a few here and there but not
nearly as much.

So before you request a new one from EA you may want to try this to keep you playing until the new one arrives.

Hopefully ya'll can understand my ramblings and maybe it'll work for you too.

*ghetto engineering at its finest* ;);)

[HighVoltage]

XBOX 360
Duration: ~3 Hours
Problem: Intermittently the game will not recognize me strumming down, I'll need to use the up strums instead. If I let it sit for an hour it works fine again for about a song and a half and then it goes out again.

Also I've been having issues with the Drum, but I need to do more testing, I was trying to play all the instruments and I had work early in the morning so I didn't get much time to play.

[mxmarks]

XBOX 360
Duration: Roughly 10 hours
Problem: Downstrums after about 6-7 hours started to get hit and miss. Went to bed, woke up, and after 2 songs the downstrum does not work at all.

[ascully]

I purchased the xbox 360 version yesterday and the guitar was broken right out of the box, the effects slider was snapped and rattling around inside the box and the strum wouldn't work at all.

Credit to EA though after a quick call to the customer support they have sent a new one out with 2 days shipping and a box and label to return the old one.

[kahuna]

yea...have fun EA...you're gonna have a whole lotta guitars, drums, bass pedals, maybe even mics coming to you're hq...my strum bar down strum died, and my guitar hero 3 guitar has button sensitivity issues too, so i'm outta guitars!!!!! Well, now you know EA, make you're parts right, not cheap, and that will save money, not skimping out on the manufacturing

[Bigrhyno]

I thought I was safe. Played this game with some friends all day/night yesterday, and today I decided to play the solo career just to unlock the songs, and in the middle of playing some Boston my strum bar stops responding most of the time during downstrokes :(. I have a GH guitar so I am fine right now, but I would like a new strat. Not sure if I should send in a request for a new one yet though because I figure the ones they send will just do the same thing.

[trogdor0071]

It'd be nice to know what they are planning to do for this problem. Even acknowledging it would be nice. I know they aren't ignoring it, but an update would be really helpful.

[Rustheman]

My mic doesn't work right out of the box. Plug it in and nothing happens. Ugh.

[JoECoRE]

I own a 360 and my bass pedal doesn't pick up. I've read that some people with this issue can get it to register by plugging/unplugging it from the back of the drum kit, but no luck in my case. EA is already processing a new one for me, so let's hope this one works...

My strat hasn't had an issue as of yet, but after reading everything in this post, I wouldn't be surprised if it exploded into a cloud of deadly mustard gas the next time I touch it. I have my Xplorer ready to back me up (assuming I survive the inevitable attack).

I would like to know if anyone out there purchased a bundle that came WITHOUT any defects...

[Calicoo]

My mic doesn't work right out of the box. Plug it in and nothing happens. Ugh.

For the mic to work, you have to use the ps3 controller. Hit the PS button and navigate the menus with it. Once you're in the song the mic will work.

[Jonesey]

And my down strum has finally gone out.

[jgardz]

downstum issues here too.....anybody (EA!!!!!) find a cure yet????

[alarose20]

Well, my strum I believe is fine... however it's my yellow button at the top of the neck that is stuck.

I've played maybe 10 songs with it.. that's about it... I had a bad feeling about it from the fact that my local Best Buy demo guitar went bad within 5 days. I chalked it up to stupid people banging on stuff... but I did get to try the guitar the first day it was there, and it felt odd. Almost didn't buy it at all b/c of what I saw at Best Buy, but I sucked it up and got it.

Thankfully (as many have said before) I also have GH3 and I"m using that controller.

Drum works great... noticed some lag or oddities during the fill-ins with it not really being on temp or recognizing what you play on the drums and it feels like on the last cymbal note that you must hit to release your energy, there's a slight off-beat pause that throws me off more often than not.

Already filled out the online request to replace my guitar. I feel bad for Harmonix with all these problems, but seriously, if the Best Buy demos were any indication, something was fishy from the start.

[Cvette54]

Well I got to play my Strat for a whole 3 songs after opening the package. On the 4th song the strum bar would only register a few down strums and on the 5th song the down strum quit altogether. Luckily I have my Xplorer to back me up while I wait it out for another and hope the same thing does not happen again.

[roxperch]

Wow is this going to cost them a lot of money. My guitar went out, as well (the down strum and what sounds like a small piece rattling around inside the guitar).

EDIT: I take back the stuff about a small piece rattling around inside. The sound is too "controlled." I'm guessing the rattling is the sound of the part that allows the guitar to register when you lift it for overdrive. But the downstrum is still broken.

[toefer]

Yesterday I figured I'd hold off on complaining about the guitar, and give HMX a chance to say something about it. I was kind of hoping that the much talked about patch would somehow find its way to PS3, but as far as I know, I've never seen it, and from what I hear, it doesn't fix the downstrum problem anyway.

That being said, after a full day off of school, and a full day of playing Rock Band, I'm just annoyed at the guitar. This game would be the greatest thing ever, if only the guitar worked well. I imagine it being much more fun, not knowing I have to struggle to keep my meter going on any of the hard or expert songs that involve fast strumming, as I know I'm going to miss half the notes, due to them not registering.

Time to request a new one from EA, but I kind of doubt that the new one will be any different than the ones we are all having problems with now. I feel bad for HMX if they are the ones footing the bill for all these broken guitars. If it's EA, then whatever, I don't care. In either case, I don't really feel like it's their fault, since they're not the ones manufacturing the guitars...although who did all the testing, and gave this controller the thumbs up?

[cromartie90000]

WOW i was REALLY worried. I'm having the strum bar problem too. I just spent $180.00 on the game, I played it for 4 hours and the strum bar went out! I couldn't strum down, and when I COULD strum down it strummed multiple times. I can strum up but my style of play is ONLY strumming down, I can't do it strumming up or both ways, only down.

I went to that support website and gave my information and now I'm waiting for my new controller to get heer, I'm gonna be REAL disappointed and unhappy if the new one breaks.
I REALLY liked the strat controller and $180.00 is WAY too much money to put down on something thats gonna crap out on me.

[Pdj7969]

Wow, I've read the majority of the 21 pages thus far and while everyone is crying about their guitars (which I could add to....my guitar does not register me trying to go into Overdrive...I have to press the Select button), I have a seemingly unique drum issue. My kick pedal doesn't work. At first it did...for like a minute. Then I noticed midway through Say it Ain't So that it wasn't registering my hits. I fiddled with it for a bit, unplugging it, plugging it back in, etc when I noticed that the jack itself seems to be messed up. Its like the contacts inside the jack don't touch the plug itself unless some outside pressure is made. Simply put...if I want to use the pedal, I'll have to have someone push down on the jack head so that it will connect. And its not the jack itself...its the plug. My friend's pedal connected just fine. Already got my RMA from EA...waiting for the box.

[rworne]

I've got a PS3, about 45 songs into Medium, quite a few hours of play (all on the guitar), one hour on the drums, and zero time on the Mic. Add in one hour or two of on-line play. I'd guess about 8 hours total on the game.

My guitar plays flawless.
My drums play excellent. The bass pedal seems to work fine, I'm rather uncoordinated with it.
Too embarrassed to try the mic. It's hard to sing when the wife and kid is laughing at you.

I have a date sticker of Oct 23rd 2007 on the bottom of my box.

EDIT:

I've had two instances of "weird" behavior though:

The guitar is very sensitive to tilt - and once tilting stopped working. After hitting select to get into overdrive, it corrected itself. This is the only time it messed up in all this time. I wish my Les Paul would work this well.

Once when playing the drums, the song opening hiccuped and glitches causing me to miss the first three notes.

[stanley825bloom]

So in less then 24hrs my roommate and i have already ran into 2 problems. one the red pad on the drums doesnt register a hit everytime. since we opened the box this has happened. two after some playing the guitar does double strums for EVERY note. now tomorrow is turkey day and what is turkey day without rock band. thanks to the local wal mart for breaking the rules and exchanging it. but anyone else have problems with multiple peices of equipment? i'd love to know if this is a common problem and the eqiupment can get added to a scrap pile or maybe i just got a bad box.

[Ganjasmugglin]

Ok listen it is a hardware defect that is causeing the multiple downstrum of your guitar. The way they made it was so that it was more like an actual string with no click. This new design is horrible and thus guitars are breaking including mine. Iam very upset that i paid 170$ for a crappy broken guitar as iam sure you all are. Harmonix needs to redesign the guitar or make better contacts inside the guitar. If you open it up there should be two metal strands on each side for upstroke and downstroke. I heard that if you file away at these contacts it will sort off resolve your issue. I have some pics with the connections. You must file down in between the contacts a little bit to make this work and BE CAREFUL YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

[FamousLastX]

Yeah, seriously, we payed $170 for this kit, and Harmonix isn't even coming forward admitting there's a problem. Now we have to lose out on the guitar by sending it back and waiting weeks, when the new guitar very well might end up having the same problem.

I was happy, as I thought my guitar was working fine earlier tonight. However, I have now started getting the multiple strumming problem and unregistered strums from time to time as well. I'm quite disappointed now :(

[spacecowboy]

add me to the ranks of broken guitars

went and picked up the bundle this afternoon, brought it to my house, played with no problem for about 3 hours, and then the downstrokes started to register less. packaged everything up (even put the guitar in a padded guitar case i had extra) and took it to my gf's place, hooked it up there, and after 5 minutes of ok play, downstrokes fail to register, and upstrokes register some of the time.

drums are ok

360 version, btw

[mrxplowx]

I been having the down strumming problem with my guitar after 2 hours of playing it. Does any one know a number i can call to have my guitar replaced?

[k_luva]

YOU WILL NOT see a response to this...UNTIL after Black Friday...they are not going to admit a problem like this on the BUSIEST weekend of the YEAR.....deny deny deny and then come out on Monday with the admission of an issue....UNLESS someone /.'s this....it's going to stay in these forums anyway.

[FamousLastX]

That's why we all need to do our part and submit this thread to tech news sites and things like that. This will add pressure on them to come clean and admit it. i've always had respect for Harmonix, but for them to deny this just because Black Friday is near and they want to profit, instead of caring about the people who provide them with their damn income, it's messed up.

[seriesx]

mic was broken out of the box, and the guitar stum bar was as well. Fun on solo mode with the drums though :D

[trogdor0071]

lmao, after my first guitar broke (down strumming) I got it replaced. Came home and played about 10 songs, and it starts messing up during Welcome Home.

This is pathetic.

Rock Band is by far, the biggest dissapointment to me these past months.

I don't have a GH guitar, so I can't use that. But I don't want to buy a GH controller because I just spent 180 dollars on Rock Band. The only way I can play the guitar is if I keep on trading the guitar in every couple songs? Are you kidding me?

[Diachron]

Well, I'm having the same down-strum-working-intermittently problem. Mine last several hours before giving out, but now down-strums work maybe 50% of the time. I'm going to contact customer support for a replacement, but thought I'd add my voice to this thread. Grrr.

(In NYC, btw).

[prezhulio]

yellow drum pad broke after maybe 6 hours of play. did the online warranty, hoping the replacement pads will come sooner than later!

[myx001]

I work at Best Buy. For the last few weeks after my shift I've spent about 15 minutes rocking out at the display we had in our store. After a few days I noticed the downstrum on the Rock Band Fender was defective so I took it upon myself to take it apart and see what the trouble was. The contacts that compose the strum were making a solid connection so I put the unit back together and it continued to work poorly...I was worried that my guitar would do the same when I finally got the game...

...so no surprised that Tuesday after rocking out since midnight I noticed the down strum wasn't working. Took my guitar apart and low and behold the contacts were making a connection.

Can't tell if this is a hardware or software issue. I don't think an "update" will work over XBL simply because the upstrum on my guitar works fine. The contacts go to the same place and get sent to the console the same way...if it's hardware, it's in the board in the body of the guitar. This is lame...

I'll probably get another XBOX controller but I'm gonna miss the distortion switch...didn't think I'd use it as much as I do.

EDIT: Our drums are holding up against my Roommate and one noise ordinance complaint and a visit from the police. Those drums have taken a serious beating over the last 48 hours.

[Ganjasmugglin]

I JUST POSTED PICS ON PAGE 21 ABOUT THE STRUM BAR THAT IS BROKEN ON MY 360 GUITAR. i READ ON THIS SITE THAT YOU COULD OPEN THE GUITAR BY UNSCREWING ALL THE SCREWS AND TAKING A NILE FILE OR IN MY CASE A ROUGH END OF A MATCHBOOK AND FILE DOWN THE CONTACTS ON THE DOWNSTRUM MECHANISM INSIDE THE GUITAR. IF YOU FILE BETWEEN THE 2 METAL PIECES ABOUT 5-10 TIMES AND BLOW THE DEBRIS OUT IT WILL WORK PERFECTLY. I DID THIS 3 HOURS AGO AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY. ALSO I MIGHT ADD IT IS NOT AS SENSITIVE AS IT WAS SO YOU KILL 2 BIRDS WITH ONE STONE. I ORIGINALLY WAS NOT GOING TO REPLY BACK BUT WITH ALL THE COMPLAINTS THIS IS THE BEST FIX FOR THE PROBLEM. ITS 100% GUARANTEED TO WORK. AND IT WONT VOID ANY WARRANTY. DO THIS CAREFULLY AND IAM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE MESSING UP ANYTHING ELSE BECAUSE OF IT. YOUR WELCOME.

[MR.COATES]

This doesn't sound like anything to do with software, more like a MAJOR hardware production issue.

Problem is that if this is as widespread as it sounds, the chance of everyone getting a replacement guitar quickly is going to be slim...

[paulk11087]

My PS3 downstrum seems very very hard to push down and very stiff and doesn't seem to register all of my strums unless I use a hell of a lot of force. How long before I can see a replacement and how long until the GH3 controller works for RB on PS3?!!??!?!?!

[MR.COATES]

My PS3 downstrum seems very very hard to push down and very stiff and doesn't seem to register all of my strums unless I use a hell of a lot of force. How long before I can see a replacement and how long until the GH3 controller works for RB on PS3?!!??!?!?!


23.4 days.

Next.

[BeckRokk]

Well, my Strat was part of the first reported defective, but I have an interesting sidebar to add to it. I play lefty(though read notes regular/righty) so my downstrum is actually considered upstrum to everyone else. MY downstrum and upstrum both register fine at times, but often MY upstrum double-registers. So it seems that whatever the problem is is strictly with that part of the strumbar.

Also, I've come to discover that with personal adjustment mentally and physically to a more strict sense of timing, the problem seems mute. So I suggest trying to be more strict with your strums and see if you can't get similar results.

[Tatsuha]

My guitar won't strum down anymore.

Lord help me if I have to pick up. Back to my Les Paul I go... Such a damn shame too; was just getting used to the thing.

[PhilR8]

Down strum is gone after playing less than two hours. There were four of us playing, so I had to use the Fender Strat like an upright bass and strum up. Worked pretty well, but I would rather that the guitar work like it normally should.

[trogdor0071]

I JUST POSTED PICS ON PAGE 21 ABOUT THE STRUM BAR THAT IS BROKEN ON MY 360 GUITAR. i READ ON THIS SITE THAT YOU COULD OPEN THE GUITAR BY UNSCREWING ALL THE SCREWS AND TAKING A NILE FILE OR IN MY CASE A ROUGH END OF A MATCHBOOK AND FILE DOWN THE CONTACTS ON THE DOWNSTRUM MECHANISM INSIDE THE GUITAR. IF YOU FILE BETWEEN THE 2 METAL PIECES ABOUT 5-10 TIMES AND BLOW THE DEBRIS OUT IT WILL WORK PERFECTLY. I DID THIS 3 HOURS AGO AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY. ALSO I MIGHT ADD IT IS NOT AS SENSITIVE AS IT WAS SO YOU KILL 2 BIRDS WITH ONE STONE. I ORIGINALLY WAS NOT GOING TO REPLY BACK BUT WITH ALL THE COMPLAINTS THIS IS THE BEST FIX FOR THE PROBLEM. ITS 100% GUARANTEED TO WORK. AND IT WONT VOID ANY WARRANTY. DO THIS CAREFULLY AND IAM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE MESSING UP ANYTHING ELSE BECAUSE OF IT. YOUR WELCOME.

I thought my guitar was beyond repair so I said "Why not?"

I tried a nail filer on it, my guitar works perfectly now. And when I say perfect I mean perfect.

If your down strum is messing up, you need to do this.

[mkygod]

Let me post up my fix. The problem I had was that i had to strum all the way down for the downstroke to register.

I opened up the back of the guitar and saw the sensor for it. All it is are these 2 tweezer-like metal prongs that contact each other. THere are two of these, one for downstrum and one for upstrum. On this picture, the downstrum prongs are at the TOP:

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97&d=1195681274

Just by strumming, i can see that the downstrum required more travel between these prongs in order for them close together which is why I had to strum extra hard for it to register.

I just used a very small piece of 3M stick-it paper (the part w/ the adhesive), folded over once (w/ the adhesive parts facing the outside), and jammed it behind top most prong on that picture. It should be posititioned between the screwhole column and the top prong. This makes the prong closer together for the downstrum making it more sensitive so that it takes much less travel for it to sense it. This fix brought it back to its original sensitivity. If you even want more sensitivity, you can use 4 layers (fold the paper twice) to make the prongs super close to each other. If you want to, you can use thin tape to secure the paper, but i found that just 3M stickit paper works fine. You can test the guitar while the back part of it is still open to see if it fixes it for you. Just don't play too hard and be careful not to touch the electronics when you are playing.

I would only recommend this kind of fix for people that have to downstrum extra hard in order to get the strum to register. If your downstrum doesnt work AT ALL, then the problem could be something else. Let me know if this helps any.

As for the filing method, it is actually accomplishing the opposite which is making the contacts farther apart, whereas mine makes it closer together. When you open up your guitar and look at the contacts and how the strumming affects it, you should use common sense on whether you need the contacts closer or farther in order for them to register based on your preference for sensitivty

[neewom69]

Ok, it came out 2 days ago and same thing down strum (360) is flaky or just wont work, and my Overdrive will automatically fire off when ever it wants to. I can hear the overdrive trigger rattling around like it's loose. So I just the express warranty replacement thought EA, and we will see how it goes. If the new guitar breaks as well, I will try the Nail File/ 3m sticky tape trick and report back.

[Zeus974]

yeah, i don't know if anyone else has this EXACT problem. When I opened up my RB copy for the 360 I noticed that the strum bar on the fender was VERY loose. I was kind of weary about playing it but I tried it anyways, and to no avail. the downstrown felt weak. like no contact was being made and therefore no "satisfying" click sound was made. IT doesn't register on the game either so I'm sending out for a new one. everything else works perfectly

[windbar@mac.com]

My problems occurred straight out the box; Im a 360 guy.

During songs, or when I simply connect the controller, Ill get the notification to reconnect your controller; like when you run out of batteries with a traditional hand controller.

Also, the typical downstrumming issues. Mine doesnt double register, its just SUPER difficult to do notes in a row, downpicking. My thumb and forearms are going to end up like a strange combination of Popeye and Barry Bonds head, if I have to keep playing that way.

Also, take it easy on the Harmonix guys (and I DO NOT work there). As much as it sucks to have issues right out the box, the worlds economic model now dictates that things like the controllers are going to have to be made in another country, to take advantage of cheaper labor, and quality is bound to suffer; it sucks, but thats just the way it is now. If you had lead in your controller, THAT would be cause for outrage as it can harm someone's health; but just because you cant geek out for hours on end, is more of a frustration and not something to be freaking out about. Again, it sucks, but thats the way it is now and its going to get worse in the years to come.

Be thankful that EA/Harmonix customer support is trying to immediately rectify the problem, compared to how the MS guys, pretty much ignored theirs. Instead of sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the problem would just go away, they are stepping up in a pro-active manner.

[moore91098]

Wow! What a disappointment. Neither my drum kit nor my guitar works properly. The yellow pad on the drum kit does not work. I can nut move up using the strum bar or control pad on the guitar. I thought it was my PS3 but then I realized the up button on the control pad on the drum kit works. After spending a good chunk of change on this game and not being able to play it, I have to admit that I have a very poor taste in my mouth.

[GenericFoster]

My downstrum on the guitar doesnt work either... right out of the box.

[RazorFyre]

Everything worked out of the box! (PS3) Played about.. 5 hours last night.. guitar definitely seems weird compared to all the GH controllers I've played with in the past. Its very sensitive and no clicking, but its do-able, however on fast notes its not accurate so its bothering me. I'm expecting it to break sometime today based on everyone elses experiences.. Drums so far are okay though. Mic fine too. Will test more.

[kidwei]

chalk me up to the endless list of users with the broken strum issue.. getting a fairly frequent double strum and unregistered strums.. this is really disappointing.. and i really wonder what difference a replacement will make.. in any case, i've requested a new guitar.. hopefully this will be the end of this nonsense for all of us

[thunderstruck107]

yep same with me, my strats downstrum is messed up as well. I really love the game overall and I love the feel of the strat. It was just disappointed when after 6 hrs of play it went out. Requested another guitar. I'm doing fine with gh2's guitar.

[negoksa]

Add me to the sorry list of gamers with a broken strum bar. After about 4 hrs of playing I failed out of song and I had no idea what was going on. We traded around the guitar and no one could keep a streak going as the downstrum was not always responsive. When is the path supposed to go live? I hope that this fixes the problem but i doubt a patch can fix a guitar problem.

[sambao21]

Everything worked out of the box! (PS3) Played about.. 5 hours last night.. guitar definitely seems weird compared to all the GH controllers I've played with in the past. Its very sensitive and no clicking, but its do-able, however on fast notes its not accurate so its bothering me. I'm expecting it to break sometime today based on everyone elses experiences.. Drums so far are okay though. Mic fine too. Will test more.

This is exactly the same issue I've been having. Although weird, it seems to work. However on the a long set of fast notes, I can't hit everything, I think it was on Foo Fighters Learn To Fly. I got 91%, but I never had a good streak going.

Another problem that I've been facing is that for the Bass parts, I decided to play using the upstrum for fun. Anyways, after a song doing that, the down strum started crapping out. I kept playing anyways, and failed a couple songs, but after the 3rd song, the down strum is working again. Really frustrating. It's as if the upstrum screwed up the down strum connection.

If problems persist in the future, I'm going to have to request a replacement too. I think this is huge problem for HMX/EA. Instead of engineering a reliable sturdy product at the beginning, now they have to fix it and reproduce a new engineering sample, and also send replacements out to the first adopters. I say they 'have to' because knowing some people, this situation has class action lawsuit written all over it. I liken this to MS's RROD. This is definitely going to take a chunk out of HMX/EA's profit margin.

[Krion]

Wow, great customer service. Within 5 minutes of talking to them they already gave me a tracking number. The problem with my guitar is that when I down strum, it doesn't recognize the strum until after i release the strum bar. So its like a delayed strum.

[NinjaFK]

I was having the double strumming issue. Took the Strat apart and found that the contact for the down strum had come loose. As a result it would have a "springing effect" causing the double strumming. I'm going to hot glue it, I'll let you guys know how it works. But it should be a simple fix.

[thekobun]

Let me post up my fix. The problem I had was that i had to strum all the way down for the downstroke to register.

I opened up the back of the guitar and saw the sensor for it. All it is are these 2 tweezer-like metal prongs that contact each other. THere are two of these, one for downstrum and one for upstrum. On this picture, the downstrum prongs are at the TOP:

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97&d=1195681274

Just by strumming, i can see that the downstrum required more travel between these prongs in order for them close together which is why I had to strum extra hard for it to register.

I just used a very small piece of 3M stick-it paper (the part w/ the adhesive), folded over once (w/ the adhesive parts facing the outside), and jammed it behind top most prong on that picture. It should be posititioned between the screwhole column and the top prong. This makes the prong closer together for the downstrum making it more sensitive so that it takes much less travel for it to sense it. This fix brought it back to its original sensitivity. If you even want more sensitivity, you can use 4 layers (fold the paper twice) to make the prongs super close to each other. If you want to, you can use thin tape to secure the paper, but i found that just 3M stickit paper works fine. You can test the guitar while the back part of it is still open to see if it fixes it for you. Just don't play too hard and be careful not to touch the electronics when you are playing.

I would only recommend this kind of fix for people that have to downstrum extra hard in order to get the strum to register. If your downstrum doesnt work AT ALL, then the problem could be something else. Let me know if this helps any.

As for the filing method, it is actually accomplishing the opposite which is making the contacts farther apart, whereas mine makes it closer together. When you open up your guitar and look at the contacts and how the strumming affects it, you should use common sense on whether you need the contacts closer or farther in order for them to register based on your preference for sensitivty


Does doing this void waranty because you have to open it?
I ordered the normal replacement plan, but now I think im torn between upgrading to express replacement or doing this fix. With the replacement plan, does harmonix send the same guitar, or an updated FIXed version? I don't want to break it again and wait.

[masas]

haven't played the guitar much yet

but drums do not connect at all through the usb hub...
the lights light up, then die out...xbox keeps asking to connect controller

when plugged directly into the usb, worked for about 2 hours, then same thing as usb hub

I know its the not the hub because the guitar and the mic works fine through that

requested replacement drums....

[Krion]

Ok. Since SOOO many people have messed up guitars I think this needs to be asked. Does ANYONE have a 100% working guitar that they've played for a long period of time and have had no problems?

[lowlyspartan789]

I got my game last night (thanks for taking so long Amazon), and I played for about 8 hours with some friends. The strum bar works fine, but the issue I'm having is tilting the guitar doesn't release Overdrive. Anyone else having this issue?

*edit* Alright. It just got worse. I realized the whammy bar isn't working either. Seriously? I was really excited for this game and then EA (or HMX, whoever it is), ships all these guitars with these problems? I mean, this is a serious issue.

*edit2* Just filled out info for EA to send me a new guitar. this is really frustrating.

[Bjorn]

I got mine at 12:01am on Tuesday morning and raced home to play it only to find the guitar controller doesn't work. This is a serious let down and really pissed me off. I'd return the game, but my girlfriend lost the damn reciept. Now I'm waiting for EA to mail me a new guitar. Who knows how long that'll take. I'm not happy with this at all, and I'm never buying anything with the EA or Harmonix brand on it ever again. Their incompetience has cost them a customer.

[dweekie]

I opened the box on Thanksgiving morning. The guitar was horrible from the start. It was creaking in my hands, and there was something loose inside that was rattling around as I was moving the guitar around. The buttons felt sticky and the strum bar was really loose. About 5 songs later, the downstrum needed to be pressed harder and harder to register. Now it works only intermittenly. I know EA has a history of rushing buggy software, but this hardware issue is rediculous.

[bounchfx]

the guitar I got crapped out, then started working, then died for good..

my roomates on the other hand has been going strong.

but now there's a problem with a couple drum pads.. but only about 10% of the time. It's enough to kill my streak though, which is game breaking.

[omghi2u]

The guitar for this game is horrid. I thought that maybe I was doing something wrong when I played the guitar portion of this game, then I plugged in my xplorer (thank you hmx for doing something right) and it worked like a charm. I'm debating on either taking the entire pack back to walmart and getting a refund or just throwing the new guitar away and staying with the old, RELIABLE, guitar.

Do you not have a QA section HMX? The problem I think was that they wanted to be so flashy and so "new" that they gave up reliability and dependability for looks and nothing more.

[Jansen]

My friends instruments are already going to hell.

The guitar strum is really messed up
The drums are getting worse and worse
Mic works fine, but I don't know how on earth that could break anyway.

I'm not buying the game until these issues are addressed. I really like the feel of the RB guitar but its durability is so low that I can't see buying it at this point.

[jq715861]

Ok. Since SOOO many people have messed up guitars I think this needs to be asked. Does ANYONE have a 100% working guitar that they've played for a long period of time and have had no problems?

Well I've had mine (PS3) for 2 days and it is completely functional. I sucked at first but I think that was more me getting used to it. I have no problems with the guitar. The strum works perfectly, it's easier to trem pick. I love it.

But I know I'm at least on these boards in the minority that has fully functional guitars.

[mkygod]

Does doing this void waranty because you have to open it?
I ordered the normal replacement plan, but now I think im torn between upgrading to express replacement or doing this fix. With the replacement plan, does harmonix send the same guitar, or an updated FIXed version? I don't want to break it again and wait.


Yes, it will void your warranty, but they won't know if you are careful while taking it apart. The main thing you should worry about is not strip the screws and remember the screw lengths when you take out the screws .

There are 3 different lengths screws. The longest ones go on the neck joint, the medium ones goes around the thick parts of the body, and the shorter ones go where the body curves in at the thinnest points. You wont need to unscrew the battey compartment. If you happen to screw the wrong length screws in the wrong hole when you put it back together, you could screw right through the front of the guitar and it will leave a nasty hole or dimple, like in my case (stupid me). This means ill likely not be able to return it for warranty, but i did fix my problem 100%.

[Zeus974]

can you point me in the direction of this fix? and.... my strum was effed from the start. the down part of the strum felt loose like a dublin horrrse and has NEVER registered as a strum in the game. thank god I have the wireless gh3 controller.