Awesome, easy P-Bass mod: no-miss strum bars!

[kiggidykev]

Hey crew, this is going out to all you P-Bass owners out there (and potential future ones).

The twin strum bars are cool, right? I thought so too, but the functionality isn't there. If you upstrum with both fingers, the guitar tends to drop a LOT of notes due to hardware limitations. The guitar just can't keep up with rapid upstrums because the switches take too long to reset between hits.

So my good friend Doc and myself brainstormed and came up with this mod that basically switches the Up- and Down-strum on the right strum bar. It takes some basic soldering/desoldering skill, but it's WELL worth the effort. Keep in mind that opening up the Bass with void your warranty, but this mod will make it work the way it's SUPPOSED to

• Unscrew the back on your P-Bass and open up that sucker. Be careful with that wire for the RB1/RB2 switch that connects the back plate to the front.
  
• Find your strum bars.
  
• Unscrew the boards on the top and bottom of the strum bars (also, take out the hot glue holding them in place from the bottom. A blade along the bottom works just fine)
  
• Find the wires that connect the switches for the Right Strum Bar's Upstrum and Downstrum to the main board.
  
• Desolder the plastic wire casings from the end of the board and remove them from their respective boards.
  
• Swap the wire casings and attach them each to the opposite boards, as shown in this diagram:
  
  strumbarre-wiring with notes.jpg
  
• Solder the wires back into place on their new boards, screw the boards back into the strum housing, and you're done! Just make sure the wires you just switched are not touching the actual strum bar or spring before you close up the Bass, otherwise you may have some contact problem inside and have to re-open it again to put it out of the way.

With this fix, the Left Strum Bar will work as normal, but the Right Strum Bar will be reversed. You'll be able to strum MUCH faster, though, without missing notes, because you'll essentially be alt-strumming between the two strum bars, instead of only trying to hit Up-strums.

There is ONE downside: since the up-strums on the right strum bar will count as downstrums, you won't get the Authentic Strummer award at the end of songs, even if you up-strum only. If it really bugs you and you're trying for the Flawless Groove achievement, play an easy song (such as "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You") and only use the left strum bar for up-strums.

If you're unhappy with the performance of your P-Bass, but still love the guitar like hell and want to maximize its potential, please consider doing this mod

[Lily_Mu]

I hate mods, and there isn't even a P-Bass for Wii yet.

[karmajack]

I'm all for this and will be opening up mine this again this weekend. Good job.

[beaker3]

I have my bass open here and am confused as to what wires you are talking about that need to be resoldered.

Are you talking about the ones on the blades under and above the strum bars or the ones on the board that they plug into?

I can't discern which wire controls the right strum bar. Are there pictures of this anywhere?

Thanks for this info.

[jrinck]

Isn't the whole point of the p-bass so that you can quickly upstrum? If you can't do that right out of the box, then it's a pointless product.

[Bobman32x]

i think because the game only allows you to strum in one direction so fast, this gets around the problem y making it seem like your alt strumming when your not

[jrinck]

i think because the game only allows you to strum in one direction so fast, this gets around the problem y making it seem like your alt strumming when your not

I always thought the limitation on strum speed was hardware. You're saying it's software limited? I'd have a hard time believing that.

Having two side-by-side strum bars that work independently, yet wired in parallel, should be the way to go with a guitar designed specifically for bass.

[Aoxomoxoa]

Photos would rock!

I can't believe Mad-Catz didn't get this right themselves. They probalby spent more time sitting in meetings about whether or not to include a whammy bar than they actually spent play testing the instrument. Either that or their engineers are lame... or both.

I'll definitely try this mod.

[kiggidykev]

I'm glad to see there's some interest in this. I'd be happy to take and post some photos tomorrow, but I'm currently in no state to operate a camera.

[kiggidykev]

Okay, the original post has been updated with a picture of which two wiresets to switch.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask 'em.