ButtonBandits received their imported PlayStation 3 Rock Band earlier in the week (review coming soon). Within a few hours the guitar began to experience a lack of response when pushing the strum-bar down. This soon turned into no response at all. Strumming upwards still worked perfectly but proved a lot more difficult than when using down-strum. Fully aware of not being able to make use of the products warranty due to lack of residence in the US, the decision was made to take the guitar apart and try and fix it.
Within a minute of opening the guitar casing it was clear what the problem was. When strumming up, 2 metal contacts would press against each other perfectly. When strumming down, the metal attached to the plastic strum piece would just push the other contact up a little rather than making proper contact. To solve this we simply ripped off the corner of a used rail ticket and slid it behind the problem static contact as pictured.
The 2 contacts then pushed against each other perfectly in the same way the fully working one did. After screwing the casing back together and giving the guitar a whirl it became clear this really had fixed the problem. We have been using the guitar for a further 2 days and haven’t noticed a single strum going unregistered in the game.
So readers, if you are having problems with the down-strum on your Rock Band guitar and have no official route to go down to get it fixed, it might be worth taking a look inside and see what you find. The same fix may work for you although try it out at your own risk of course!
watch out- the above suggestion worked, but I got greedy and tried to double up the paper, then the top contact broke cleanly off! I was not expecting that at all, I didn’t force anything! Now I have to send it in for warranty for sure….
Sorry to hear. It’s a shame a good game is ruined by very poor build quality on the instruments.