Extreme Rock Band instrument problems

[X-Ninja]

Alright... Im in the mood to complain. I dunno why... Point is, im gonna do it.

So, I ordered Rock Band off ebay at launch. Payed $289.00 for it + i had to pay 50 bucks shipping. And of course 30 bucks at the door. I wasnt waiting weeks more for it to be released in Canada after launch, so yeah.

Anyway. It arrived. Everything worked PERFECT. Then, after about 3 weeks my guitar started to double strum. I took it apart and did the fix for it, but about a day later it just did it again.
Slightly annoyed, i went over to EAs website to see how to fix it. I noticed it was all done online, which is awsome.

So, i went on, filled out all my info, created an ea account, etc etc. Eventually i got to the step where you can pick the express shipping, or the standard shipping.
Express costs 125 dollars. They ship you a new instrument and then once you receive it you ship yours back in that box. I wanted to pick standard shipping... Then i get a message saying i need to go express since im in Canada. That sucks...
Anyway, I delt with it and did the express.
The next day... My freaking drum pedal snapped!

..........................off I go. Back to EAs website to get my drum pedal repaired. I did the whole thing all over again. Picked express shipping... same reason.
Then, i get a message saying me i need a 125 dollar down payment for a drum pedal.
A little cheap breakable plastic drum pedal that runs off magnets and a momentary magnet with a mono cable. Why on earth is this 125 dollars?
Anyway! I did it.

About 2 weeks later my drum pedal and guitar came in. I got all excited and hooked up my guitar getting ready to test her out.
A long overdrive note was coming up... I hit it. My whammy bar was broken. Oh how great. Oh well, what can you do, right? At least i got overdrive. Mine as well tilt this guitar...
My damn motion sensors are broken as well. After shaking the guitar - making me miss multiple notes - i finally came to the fact that this guitar is indeed broken as well.
I delt with it for about a month. I really wasnt in the mood to go through that return process yet again.
then... This is hilarious. honestly.
The next day, My new drum pedal snapped. Again! Oh joy!

I managed to build my own custom drum pedal out of a momentary push button, a drum pedal, some duct tape, and a mono audio cable. That was my pedal for a while. Until of course the next week.

In the middle of playing Tom Sawyer on expert, I heard a snap. I looked down expecting an issue with my custom pedal. Nope... nothing wrong there.
I unpaused the game and quickly noticed my yellow note being unresponsive.
Thats right. Theres a whole in my yellow note.
I wasnt even really hitting it that hard...

Yet again, i delt with it, just using Triangle as my yellow note. It took some co-ordination and some skill, but im awsome - so i can do anything.

The next month, my brother got Rock Band for 360 (yeah... we have 2 versions of Rock Band in the house). The day after he got it his drum pedal snapped as well. We resolved that by...
Going to EAs website and ordering a new one! Woo-hoo! Yet another 125 dollars spent.
Then, directly after ordering it i went over to ebay and ordered myself 2 "Pedal Metals" to put on his, and my (whenever i get around to ordering it) drum pedal so they dont snap as well.
I went and ordered my drum pedal about a week after but was hesitant about returning my drums... since its my fault.

Both our pedals arrived and we did the pedal metal mod thing to them. They've been good since then.

Now, I went upstairs to play Rock Band on the 360 with my brother and... whadda you know. I was playing Run to the Hills on expert, and the red note was INCREDIBLY unresponsive.
I laughed histerically at him since he always made fun of the ps3 instruments.
Its no big deal for him though since he couldnt play expert in a million years...

Anyway, Today i decided to play some Rock Band (on the ps3 ). MY GUITAR STARTED TO DOUBLE STRUM!
So now i have a guitar that double strums, has no whammy bar, and broken motion sensors.

Yet again. I went to EAs website about an hour ago to return my guitar... and i did. I also figured "what the hell" and returned my drums as well.

Hopefully when those come in, they will actually work.

(EDIT: One of my drum sticks broke as well)

So, thats been my experience with the almighty "Greatest music game ever made".
If they dont work again, im gonna scream.
As for now though, im gonna go remix some songs in Amplitude on the ps2.

By the way, has anyone else had THIS big of a problem with Rock Band before? I must just have bad luck. lol.

[Sylin]

Haven't really had any problems other than the drums seem to be slightly off, even with calibration. But we just got Rock Band this week, so, maybe we need to adjust some.

That said, how do you know your motion sensor in the guitar is broken? I always tilt the guitar when I play, but I don't see anything on the screen indicating that, and there's a rattle inside the guitar if you shake it. Could mine also be defective?

[Grisle]

I had a problem with the double strumming too, but your story just really sucks. I hope it works for you.

[NovaBomb]

$125 shipping???? the complete package with game and all cost 159.99CA brand new

[akadkins]

The only 'extreme' problem I see here is the amount of money you've shelled out for a game that I bought for $130 on Ebay.

[Cordre69]

I had a guitar that wouldn't read batteries that took them over 2 months to get replaced. Seriously though, are you a huge, hulking beast of a man? I can't imagine breaking a foot pedal! I can freaking riverdance on mine and have it turn out just fine!

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by ikcizokm

Haven't really had any problems other than the drums seem to be slightly off, even with calibration. But we just got Rock Band this week, so, maybe we need to adjust some.

That said, how do you know your motion sensor in the guitar is broken? I always tilt the guitar when I play, but I don't see anything on the screen indicating that, and there's a rattle inside the guitar if you shake it. Could mine also be defective?

Theres a bar at the bottom of the screen.

Originally Posted by NovaBomb

$125 shipping???? the complete package with game and all cost 159.99CA brand new

keep in mind that you get your 125 dollar repair fee back after you ship your instrument(s) back after EA receives it/them.

Originally Posted by akadkins

The only 'extreme' problem I see here is the amount of money you've shelled out for a game that I bought for $130 on Ebay.

Yeah... see, It wasnt supposed to come out to what it did. Shipping was originally supposed to be 20 dollars, and the guy kept raising the price little by little before he shipped it. and, as an idiot - i kept paying him. Oh well though. I was excited about getting the thing.

Originally Posted by Cordre69

I had a guitar that wouldn't read batteries that took them over 2 months to get replaced. Seriously though, are you a huge, hulking beast of a man? I can't imagine breaking a foot pedal! I can freaking riverdance on mine and have it turn out just fine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EUlSsyOgDc Is he?

[eli1277]

I have this for the 360 and the only problem I have had is my drum stcks broke, and the cord to the guitar was junk, sent it in and getting the new one on Monday. Sorry about your luck.

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by eli1277

I have this for the 360 and the only problem I have had is my drum stcks broke, and the cord to the guitar was junk, sent it in and getting the new one on Monday. Sorry about your luck.

Oh. add that to my list of issues. One of my rock band drum sticks snapped at the top. I just bought 2 awsome looking shiny red ones.

[broganreynik]

Originally Posted by Cordre69

I had a guitar that wouldn't read batteries that took them over 2 months to get replaced. Seriously though, are you a huge, hulking beast of a man? I can't imagine breaking a foot pedal! I can freaking riverdance on mine and have it turn out just fine!

my brother snapped mine...granted he was slamming his foot down because for some reason he thought it would hold up just as well as the pedal on his drum set

[WickyWoo]

if you're snapping drum sticks and pedals

Do not play with your shoes on

stop stomping the drum pedal

stop slamming the drums.

They're not designed to take that kind of abuse. If you want to beat that hard, get real drums


Look in that guy in the video. Before the song even starts I can tell he's a real drummer and he's drumming like it's a a real set. look at him mashing that pedal

You also don't have to deposit any money at all. Theyll send you an empty box, you stuff your guitar in and send it off. only takes a few days more

[eli1277]

the drumset isn't that far off from electric drums, they can take a beating. As for the drum sticks I don't care I bought another set for 7bucks.

[BorrowedTime]

Originally Posted by ikcizokm

Haven't really had any problems other than the drums seem to be slightly off, even with calibration. But we just got Rock Band this week, so, maybe we need to adjust some.

That said, how do you know your motion sensor in the guitar is broken? I always tilt the guitar when I play, but I don't see anything on the screen indicating that, and there's a rattle inside the guitar if you shake it. Could mine also be defective?

With regards to your drums being "off", in the audio options, do you have Dolby 5.1 turned on? If so, try turning it off and see if that helps. It helped me out. Now I merely suck at drums, instead of being completely rhythmically challenged.

[Sylin]

Originally Posted by BorrowedTime

With regards to your drums being "off", in the audio options, do you have Dolby 5.1 turned on? If so, try turning it off and see if that helps. It helped me out. Now I merely suck at drums, instead of being completely rhythmically challenged.

Yes, it's on. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think the audio codec being used would in any way impact the timing of the drums. The problem isn't a sync between what I hit and what I hear, but rather between what I see and what I hit. I can hit the pads at exactly the same time as the bars cross the screen, and sometimes it registers the strike, and sometimes it doesn't. It almost seems like you have to hit them decently hard--a gentle tap (like on an electric drum set) doesn't always register.

Now, on the PS3 version, what's all this I'm reading about an indicator at the bottom of the screen to let me know the guitar is tilted? All I see is the energy bar and the score multiplier?

[WeApOn]

I'm on my 5th pedal and 3rd guitar.

[SouthernBluBelle]

Originally Posted by Cordre69

I had a guitar that wouldn't read batteries that took them over 2 months to get replaced. Seriously though, are you a huge, hulking beast of a man? I can't imagine breaking a foot pedal! I can freaking riverdance on mine and have it turn out just fine!

My pedal just snapped in half recently. I got RB at the beginning of December, and we play it a lot. A couple of nights ago, I noticed that the pedal 'felt' a little different while playing. After the song, I looked down to notice that it had fractured just above the spring (I just kept playing gently until it snapped completely in half).
I'm a girl btw, not a huge hulking beast of a man. haha! I am not rough with the pedal at all...in fact, I even miss notes because I don't lift my foot and press it back down enough to make the sensor detect it. I had read about people snapping the pedal in half, so I play with bare feet and make sure that my foot is completely on it (I don't apply the force to the middle of the pedal where the spring is). I have a replacement on the way, so all is well for now!

So what's the trick with the 'pedal metal' that I've heard about? Is there some kind of metal plate made for it? My husband and I are both engineers, so I'm sure we could come up with something. If there's already a 'fix' for it though, we'll use it.

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by SouthernBluBelle

My pedal just snapped in half recently. I got RB at the beginning of December, and we play it a lot. A couple of nights ago, I noticed that the pedal 'felt' a little different while playing. After the song, I looked down to notice that it had fractured just above the spring (I just kept playing gently until it snapped completely in half).
I'm a girl btw, not a huge hulking beast of a man. haha! I am not rough with the pedal at all...in fact, I even miss notes because I don't lift my foot and press it back down enough to make the sensor detect it. I had read about people snapping the pedal in half, so I play with bare feet and make sure that my foot is completely on it (I don't apply the force to the middle of the pedal where the spring is). I have a replacement on the way, so all is well for now!

So what's the trick with the 'pedal metal' that I've heard about? Is there some kind of metal plate made for it? My husband and I are both engineers, so I'm sure we could come up with something. If there's already a 'fix' for it though, we'll use it.

Yeah. Theres a guy on ebay that makes them. Apparently all the money is going toward his education fund or somthing. You can buy them in different types + colors of metal as well. They all sit at about 10 bucks. Just screw it into your pedal.

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by ikcizokm

Yes, it's on. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think the audio codec being used would in any way impact the timing of the drums. The problem isn't a sync between what I hit and what I hear, but rather between what I see and what I hit. I can hit the pads at exactly the same time as the bars cross the screen, and sometimes it registers the strike, and sometimes it doesn't. It almost seems like you have to hit them decently hard--a gentle tap (like on an electric drum set) doesn't always register.

Now, on the PS3 version, what's all this I'm reading about an indicator at the bottom of the screen to let me know the guitar is tilted? All I see is the energy bar and the score multiplier?

Well, if your overdrive (the bar at the bottom) is full and you tilt your guitar... it'll go down. If it doesnt, then... your motion sensors dont work.

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

if you're snapping drum sticks and pedals

Do not play with your shoes on

stop stomping the drum pedal

stop slamming the drums.

They're not designed to take that kind of abuse. If you want to beat that hard, get real drums


Look in that guy in the video. Before the song even starts I can tell he's a real drummer and he's drumming like it's a a real set. look at him mashing that pedal

You also don't have to deposit any money at all. Theyll send you an empty box, you stuff your guitar in and send it off. only takes a few days more

Yeah. ...If your in the US.
In Canada your forced to do the express option.

By the way, sorry for not sticking these 3 quotes in a single message. I cant copy + paste since im on the ps3. :/ Sorry.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by X-Ninja

Yeah. ...If your in the US.
In Canada your forced to do the express option.

By the way, sorry for not sticking these 3 quotes in a single message. I cant copy + paste since im on the ps3. :/ Sorry.

What he was trying to say is that you aren't CHARGED ANYTHING for the shipping! The $125 is only a retainer in case you don't ship the damaged item back. They do this so that people don't request a new instrument and keep both. So, essentially, if you don't send the broken item back to them then, AND ONLY THEN, will they charge your credit card the $125.