Rock Band guitar broken

Video game consoles, controllers, cameras, etc.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Rock Band guitar broken

Post by kevm14 »

For almost a year now my Rock Band guitar isn't been working. Specifically, one of the strumming switches broke, so it only strums in one direction. It just plain wore out and my bass strumming style (one way) was probably just too much for something with light duty build quality as the included guitar. But I have been promising Ian that with the new house, and now the new TV, that we'll get the old Xbox 360 hooked up and rocking again.

So I went online to look for new Xbox Rock Band guitar controllers. Good god, they are expensive. Waaaay too expensive. Turns out, someone makes this:
http://www.bytearts.com/products/strum_fix_plus

For $28, I ordered it. Awesome! Ian can help fix it, too. I'll update then.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Rock Band guitar broken

Post by kevm14 »

Forgot to take a before picture...

Remove screws from back. There are 3 different lengths, the 4 at the base of the neck being the longest. I also had to unplug one connector to move the back cover out of the way.
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Close-up of the broken strum switch.
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Retainer plate removed.
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New switch installed. I had to cut the old wires and strip them. Then I inserted them into the small wire clamps. 4 screws are unneeded the way the new switch was built.
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And it works again!

New switch installed.
WP_20151019_20_22_58_Pro.jpg
Old switch
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Turns out it actually broke.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Rock Band guitar broken

Post by kevm14 »

Calibrating with analog audio and HDMI video on the new TV.
WP_20151019_20_13_01_Pro.jpg
I did confirm that with HDMI into the TV, it does pass audio to my receiver via the TOSLINK optical. So that's good (receiver only has 2 optical inputs).

Xbox 360 also supports expanded RGB over HDMI so I set that up and it looks really good. You can see the good black levels in the shot above.

And here's Ian working his way through the guitar tutorial
WP_20151019_20_16_08_Pro.jpg
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