feauturing article

Guitar Hero 360 Whammy Bar Problems

by S Holmes| Published: Tuesday, April 03 @ 17:34:16 EDT
Not 24 hours after the official release of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360 (although more than a few lucky rockers have had it for a few days), message boards are lighting up with reports of un-responsive whammy bars.

Some are reporting that there are two different guitars currently being used for the game and that the problems are associated with just one of them. The rumor suggests that the guitars with the pedal jack next to the power cord have the whammy problem (pictured at bottom in above link), whereas the guitars with the pedal jack on the bottom of the guitar (when stood on its end) are problem free (pictured on top in above link).

Keep in mind that there is disagreement over whether there even is a problem, as many are reporting that their whammy is totally sweet. But one thing is for sure, there is lots of smoke - and where there's smoke there's usually fire. We'll just have to wait to see if the smoke is from a whammy problem or 360 owners finally thrashing to Guitar Hero.


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Reader Comments

Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By biggdogg40509 on Tuesday, April 03 @ 17:49:54 EDT
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i have the one with the rumored issues, i dunno if there is a problem or not per se, but the whammy bar spins 360 degrees, and it is like you have to have it facing the neck of the guitar for it to know that it should be whammy-ing. i guess.


That's how it works (Score: 1)
Posted By BalekFekete on Tuesday, April 03 @ 17:57:32 EDT
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You should be able to spin the bar around without any issues. The actual "whammy" action isn't until you are holding it pointing up the neck of the guitar and press it down to the body (or, hold it away from the neck, and lift it).

When I was playing the game for the very first time in the Best Buys, I didn't know how it worked and thought I had to swivel it. Could be that these are some of the concerns, having not read the posts on the message boards? *shrugs*

B.





Two guitars here... (Score: 1)
Posted By BalekFekete on Tuesday, April 03 @ 17:54:46 EDT
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One from the game + guitar pack, and another from the solo guitar box. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the purposes of any pseudo-conclusive testing) both have the jack adjacent to the headphone input, and both work flawlessly.

/me wipes brow.

B.



For the little bit I played (Score: 1)
Posted By SirPoonga on Tuesday, April 03 @ 18:28:37 EDT
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For the little bit I played last night I had only one problem. The tilt sensor seems sensitive. It was triggering my star power at half way and I wasn't ready to use it.

My whammy worked just fine, I have the phone jack near the cord version.



Whammy Bar Issue (Score: 1)
Posted By EbolaVirus on Tuesday, April 03 @ 19:21:03 EDT
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I missed a note or two due to the whammy bar.I think that the whammy bar is too close to the strum bar as compared to the original ps2 guitar. Actually the original PS2 guitar is bigger and has a longer neck than the 360 guitar..


Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By biggdogg40509 on Tuesday, April 03 @ 20:12:09 EDT
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i'm with you, i sometimes find myself wanting to go for the whammy when i should be strumming. maybe they shoulda made the strum button stick out a little more or something. or maybe it's just me.





A little Viagra... (Score: 1)
Posted By ShakesItUp on Tuesday, April 03 @ 19:28:27 EDT
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...will help with any unresponsive whammy bar issues you may have.

My guitar worked fine from the box. I'll be doing a bit more extensive research this evening.

m/ o_O m/



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By SHOWOFF_A16 on Tuesday, April 03 @ 20:20:55 EDT
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The demo model I played at Best Buy had this problem. It was the white guitar if I remember.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Gorbash on Wednesday, April 04 @ 00:11:49 EDT
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Wait there is a pedal jack?



Whammy issue (Score: 1)
Posted By SunDevil56 on Wednesday, April 04 @ 02:34:36 EDT
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I was having an issue where I would go for the whammy bar and the second I used it, it would make me miss a note. It has happened several times, and I sent out an email to all my friends on my list but none are having the problem so far. Maybe its just me.



No whammy problems here (Score: 1)
Posted By eboy71 on Wednesday, April 04 @ 09:04:27 EDT
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No problems from my end. I was able to whammy my ass off all night.



Guitar with Jack by Power (Score: 1)
Posted By blueorder on Wednesday, April 04 @ 09:42:33 EDT
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Did thorough testing last night and didn't have any issues with the guitar that I could tell.

I did have a couple of problems with the game though when first starting it up. When I went to start the first song in career mode in froze in the "Loading" screen. Rebooted the Xbox and everything has been fine since. Also, before that reboot, in the character selection screen, the previews of the character wouldn't show. Everything is fine now...



Well im Left Handed (Score: 1)
Posted By tmxx32 on Wednesday, April 04 @ 10:09:21 EDT
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So the whammy bar is always in my way, but it seems to work just fine, plus i got the achievement Hendrix style.



My Whammy is b0rken (Score: 1)
Posted By T3muJin on Wednesday, April 04 @ 12:49:27 EDT
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I've got the whammy bar problem. I read on the guitarhero.com forums that it is a software problem, not a hardware problem. We'll have to wait for Red Octane to confirm though.


After more "testing"... (Score: 1)
Posted By SirPoonga on Wednesday, April 04 @ 13:20:33 EDT
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After more testing last night I found out it depends on how I use the whammy. If I just jiggle it a very little bit like I normally do it works fine. But I use its full motion it won't be detected. That sort of suggests it might be a software issue with the ranges it is expecting to read.





I had a problem but I fixed it. (Score: 1)
Posted By Txcountymounty on Friday, April 06 @ 16:14:48 EDT
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I was very dissapointed to find out that my controller had the whammy bar problem. I fixed it though and here's my little tutorial
http://www.stynk-monkey.com/?p=181



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