GH2 Xbox360 - defective guitars

[Smidget]

So the GH and GH-related forums are blowing up with complaints about the Xbox360 GH2 guitar. It seems that a large number of gleefull customers came home after purchasing the new game only to be dissapointed with faulty hardware. The complaints?:
- bad whammy bar (this is the main one)
- the motion sensor not working properly for star power (second most common)
- buttons sticking or seeming "weak" (button problems being the least common)
Customers report returning/swapping their product 1,2,3, and even 4 times, each time being met with faulty hardware - most commonly a bad whammy bar. One of my friends unfortunately got all 3 defects in his first purchase: bad whammy, two buttons with problems, and a craptastic motion sensor. He returned it for another one and has since been met with a failing whammy bar.
As far as I know, there has been no word from RedOctane yet on any kind of official recognition of the problem or a recall (after all, it is IS just a couple days old with most of these complaints having started early yesterday).
Since the other forums are pretty cluttered with multiple threads about this, I thought I'd bring the topic here. When an official announcement is made, do you HMX folks think you can post here about it? (So much easier to come here than sift through the other forums). And I guess also, is there any information you can give about this unfortunate occurence? As soon as the re-release is available I plan to get it.

[Dustjavo]

I can post how to fix the whammy bars if they get broken. All you really need are some rubberbands and a screw driver<br>

[Smidget]

<P>A sloution from&nbsp;ndriver182 on the GH forums (solution actually posted on the IGN forums):</P>
<P>*******************</P>
<P><SPAN id=_ctl0_cphMain_rptMessages__ctl0_MessageView_bcM essageBody>Alright, so after owning this for about an hour and discovering I had one of the "defective" guitars I decided to at least make an attempt to fix the whammy bar problem. I had noticed that if you gently pull the whammy bar back towards the rear of the guitar before actually performing the whammy function it would work fine. If you don't, it rarely seemed to work. I ripped apart the guitar and pulled out the spring loaded mechanism. *NOTE* If you do this, be careful as you could be like me with all of the pieces scattered across the floor and having to figure out how to reattach the spring and misc. components. Also beware that the three wires attached the the POT are VERY thin and all of them broke off on me and I had to re-solder them in place. Lucky for me I know how to solder and have an iron on hand. In any case after about 45 minutes of wishing I'd never ripped it apart I got it back together and realized that there are two set screws that hold the POT to a piece of plastic... and they are adjustable. After a couple of trial and error tweaks I figured out which way the POT needed to be rotated and BINGO! Fully functional whammy bar now. I took a couple of pics with my camera phone and will post them shortly. I wish I had my normal digital camera, but left it at work. I may update with higher res pics if there's enough demand. Just figured I'd post this in case any of you are interested to fix it yourself. That being said, I'm not responsible if you jack your guitar!</SPAN> </P>
<P><SPAN id=_ctl0_cphMain_rptMessages__ctl9_MessageView_bcM essageBody>The first pic just shows the inside of the guitar with the whammy device in the bottom right. I had a piece of masking tape over the top after piecing it back together to make sure it didn't come apart on me again by accident (removed when finished install) <BR><IMG style="WIDTH: 640px; HEIGHT: 480px" height=480 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Nickeleye/0404072114.jpg" width=640></SPAN></P>
<P>This picture shows the adjustment screws for the POT device. Sorry for the bad pic, but it's the best my cell could do with limited lighting. You basically just loosen the screws just slightly and turn the unit clockwise a hair. You may need to do a little fine tuning to get it how you want, but moving it about 1/16" probably should do the job. If you have a thin tipped marker or pencil to mark around the screw heads in their original position to mark as a reference it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do that... I did. <BR><IMG style="WIDTH: 640px; HEIGHT: 480px" height=480 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Nickeleye/0404072115_copy.jpg" width=640></P>
<P>Also, as if we didn't know a pedal hookup would be possible here's more fuel for the fire: </P>
<P><IMG style="WIDTH: 640px; HEIGHT: 480px" height=480 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Nickeleye/0404072010.jpg" width=640></P>
<P>********************</P>
<P>EDIT: Read through the thread. It looks like all the people who have used this solution have gotten great results. If you happen to read this ndriver, many thanks!</P>

[hmxsean]

<P>I think you'll have to wait for something from Red Octane/Activision -&nbsp;we actually have nothing to do with the design or&nbsp;manufacture of the GH 360&nbsp;guitars.&nbsp; I imagine they are well on top of the situation and figuring out what's going on so they can handle&nbsp;it.&nbsp; Hopefully it isn't too widespread.&nbsp;</P>

[JohnBeauchemin]

<P>Yeah, I got a busted-ass whammy bar, too....though, I can't say it interferes with gameplay enough to warrant ripping open the guitar.</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>

[Rainer7]

I'm sure Harmonix will do a better job with Rock Band's hardware.&nbsp; Looks like Red Octane got sloppy with this port.<br>

[Smidget]

<P>I think you'll have to wait for something from Red Octane/Activision -&nbsp;we actually have nothing to do with the design or&nbsp;manufacture of the GH 360&nbsp;guitars.&nbsp; I imagine they are well on top of the situation and figuring out what's going on so they can handle&nbsp;it.&nbsp; Hopefully it isn't too widespread.&nbsp;</P>
<P>

</P>
<P>ah, okie doke, thnx </P>