The Official "My Rock Band Hardware Works Fine" Thread.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Since:

A.) There seems to be an overwhelming amount of "Defective out of the box and/or I broke my Rock Band hardware within 1-3 hours of play-time" threads on the web at the current time.

and

B.) There seems to be an exceptional shortage of places for Rock Band users who have 100% functional hardware to post the "completely functional satus" of their $170 investment.

I figured that I'd create a haven for happy, satisfied game consumers who were fortunate enough to not have defective Fenders, Drum-Kits or USB Microphones.

Please - share your hands-on reports of how long your strum-bars have been registering up and down strokes perfectly, and how accurate your drum pads and pedal are.

:-D

[dylan0228]

No problems here & I`ve given it plenty of use since the release!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I just got verbal confirmation from my friend Chris - the manager of the Hackensack NJ GameStop that they sold out of all of their Rock Band release shipment on launch day (approximately 20+ copies - both PS3 and 360) and from those sales:

None of the buyers/regular customers have called in regarding defects, attempted to return defective hardware, or reported that they needed to utilize EA/Harmonix's warranty replacement service (with myself included in those statistics).

[Perkar]

mine works great. 360 version.

played completely through expert on guitar (including bonus songs... and a few tries on green grass and high tides), my girlfriend has played a bit of guitar. i've done just a couple songs on vocals, played first few tiers for drums on easy. on thanksigiving my cousins came over and we played 3 player (drums, guitar, vox) and rocked out for a couple hours. my little cousins are better than me at the drums.

all in all i'd say it's NOT DEFECTIVE \m/

[otaku]

mine works great but I am worried the guitar won't hold up over time (and it sucks to use) I use my GH3 guitar when I play guitar (usually on drums though) sweet game just needs a better guitar

[RevQuixo]

Has anyone noticed that the mushier nature of the strum bar means that it is much harder to hit tightly grouped note strings? With GH, I was able to just press-press-press the strum bar to hit them, but with RB I have to flick the strum bar...which I will admit feels more realistic but makes me feel like I am causing more wear and tear.

Not sure if my problem is just me playing GH wrong all these years or just Rock Band having a "better way" of simulating the guitar...or a defective guitar. Playing through "Paranoid" on medium almost made my arm fall off with the flick method. :O

Assuming its just me...everything out of the box is working fine.

[Princess-Isabela]

mine set works perfectly(Xbox 360).
beat half of the songs on drums(hard), and guitar.
I did not use microphone yet though.

[Carey85]

So far my 360 Rock Band is holding up fine. I don't think the strum bar on the Strat is going to last forever, though. The mic is fine, as I'm currently #56 in the world on Creep on hard, and the drums register just fine. Drumming is such a pain in the ass, though :(

[spoon]

Has anyone noticed that the mushier nature of the strum bar means that it is much harder to hit tightly grouped note strings?

Yeah, me. I am having the same problem with that guitar only.

I don't think the copies themselves are defective as much as people who have played previous guitars are used to the strum bar reading down strokes way earlier. I've noticed you have to push the strum bar down a bit farther to register. This makes it so damn hard to hit the quick notes for me. I'm not that good anyhow.

Anyhow, Just played the game for 5 hours straight. No problems at all. Everything has worked fine out of the box.

The colored rings around my drums are starting to rub away and run down though. I hope they built it well because I beat the hell out of it. I don't care for the drum sticks. I already have two blisters on my hand. Time to pick up a new pair. Wonder if a set with Plastic tips would be better?

Also, has anybody hit their drums so hard that they are bringing up the 360 profile sign in screen and pausing the game? I have done it quite a few times.

[TurboGenesis]

Also, has anybody hit their drums so hard that they are bringing up the 360 profile sign in screen and pausing the game? I have done it quite a few times.

Bad engineering. The "control pad" face is in bad position. Maybe it should have been place above drums instead. I have many guest over last night and everyone at least one time is hit the "Xbox button" and bring up the menu or even pause the game.

On topic, my equipment is hold up ok so far. I question the guitar strum bar over the duration though. I play the game through on medium and had friends over last night and Rock Band is played for about 7 hours straight between about 8 people. I am play solo career in drums right now on medium. Drums seem to be good and strong. I like to say I have about 20 hours now playing Rock Band between myself, my wife and friends. I will say that we are take a beating too -- cramp hands, sore ankles from bass drum and scracthy voice from singing!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Awesome responses and thoughts on the Fender strum bar.

Thanks for contributing to the thread and providing some hope for potential Rock Band buyers (and independent game retailers) that it's not a total junk-hardware bust!

Hopefully this thread tracks on some Rock Band hardware google searches.

[Borman]

The thing thats different about the Strat is that you have to strum up and down. I dont really think thats a design flaw, rather its probably how they wanted it to be played. Granted, yeah, there are broken guitars, but the longer response time is more of a good feature in my eyes.

[jeffg]

I got mine and the drums and mic are fine. The guitar I sold on ebay for $70 plus shipping since I hated the feel of the guitar at the demo's and I like my Guitar Hero guitars better.

I can't complain game, drums, and mic for $100 and loving it.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

I'll add in that all of my stuff is working fine. I've played through solo on the guitar on hard and halfway through expert so far. i've also done a ton of multi player, probably 20 hours worth and no problems so far. at first i really couldn't play the guitar very fast compared to a guitar hero guitar, but i've sort of since gotten used to it. i've gotten through the really fast strumming part on creep when you play it on expert only missing a note or two.

[gepeto]

I was thinking of getting one but I have no bandmates:(

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I was thinking of getting one but I have no bandmates:(

Well, there's always online ... that's one of the main draws of the game conceptually speaking.

[kaedesdisciple]

Well, there's always online ... that's one of the main draws of the game conceptually speaking.

How is the online play? Is there much issue with lag?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

How is the online play? Is there much issue with lag?

I haven't noticed any lag on Rock Band or Guitar Hero ...

... though they seemed to have this type of game engine nailed for online multiplayer lag-free back in the days of Frequency and Amplitude on PS2 on dial-up connections ... so I would hope that's never an issue with current gen setups.

[skullsmasher]

upon seeing how many people had the same problem I am now having, I decided to register to put in my .02

My down strum stopped working the first day. Little by little it just got worse and worse til it no longer I worked.

I am a technician and am familiar with electronics blah blah blah so I was able to take it apart and see how it functioned and TEMPORARILY repair it but, it started all over the next day.

There are two pieces of metal that come into contact with eachother when the guitar is strummed one way or the other and the problem seems to be the pieces not making contact or making contact at a delayed rate which totally messes up your timing.

I am going to call em up and see if they will repair it or whatever, because this was also the second one I had, I returned the first one to kmart because the disc was scratched initially.

anyone with ideas or curious about repairing it theirselves, I can help ya a little bit probly.

Let me know if anyone gets feedback from ea or whoever.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

upon seeing how many people had the same problem I am now having, I decided to register to put in my .02

My down strum stopped working the first day. Little by little it just got worse and worse til it no longer I worked.

I am a technician and am familiar with electronics blah blah blah so I was able to take it apart and see how it functioned and TEMPORARILY repair it but, it started all over the next day.

There are two pieces of metal that come into contact with eachother when the guitar is strummed one way or the other and the problem seems to be the pieces not making contact or making contact at a delayed rate which totally messes up your timing.

I am going to call em up and see if they will repair it or whatever, because this was also the second one I had, I returned the first one to kmart because the disc was scratched initially.

anyone with ideas or curious about repairing it theirselves, I can help ya a little bit probly.

Let me know if anyone gets feedback from ea or whoever.
Thanks for the response ... but you're in the wrong thread! This thread is for functional Rock Band hardware.

J/K ... as long as this thread doesn't turn into a "broken/defective" Rock Band equipment thread (which I really don't want it to) your input is welcome.

When you're ready to get it replaced (it's still under warranty) just go to the Rock Band website and fill out the easy RA questionnaire and return form. I looked it over and they barely ask you anything beyond "does it not work?".

[Damaniel]

Also, has anybody hit their drums so hard that they are bringing up the 360 profile sign in screen and pausing the game? I have done it quite a few times.

Yes. Lots, actually. I've probably done it a dozen times, and it really messes up your rhythm when it happens.

So far, my instruments have held up fine, though I've only used the guitar once because I like the Guitar Hero ones more. I do seem to have an issue with the red pad on the drums, but it may just be my playing style. I'll hit the pad and it doesn't register occasionally even though I know I hit it -- I frequently break streaks because of it. I don't have any such issues with the other pads. It seems to work fine in menus, so I guess I might not be hitting it right while I play.

[Nirvana]

My stuff works fine.

The strum bar can have problems, HOWEVER, the fix is easy. All you have to do is upstrum on the guitar before playing, then it will work for the rest of the day.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Well, there you go.

All my hope, positivity, and delicate handling of my Rock Band hardware couldn't save me from faulty equipment.

The downstrum is now totally non-functional on my PS3 guitar. :(

I put in a replacement order from Harmonix/EA.

I guess all I can do is hope everything works out with that one until some type of 3rd party guitar with a nice "clicky" strum bar is released.

Wonder if this is some sort of karma for making this thread... ;)