UPDATE: There is now a dedicated tool for my kits, you'll want to use the one mentioned in this guide instead of the Guitar Configurator: retrocultmods.com/download-the-rcm-programming-tool/ This new tool will do all of the pin mapping for you, and make customizing things much simpler! Grab my kit from the links below: Etsy (Worldwide): www.etsy.com/listing/1407138702/diy-modding-kit-for-guitar-hero?ref=listings_manager_grid&variation0=3440511020&variation1=3394310885 Direct Shop (US Only): shop.retrocultmods.com/products/diy-modding-kit-for-guitar-hero-controllers?variant=44758405021987
Hey Retro will this one fit in one of those rare 10 Button Hyperkin Power X PS2 guitars?? How do I make it fit or mount it in a Hyperkin?? The Hyperkin Board is longer and wider in length. Or should I use this in a SG build or a Stratocaster RB Build or World Tour Guitar??
The current dedicated tool doesnt work properly. when i go to use it, it doesnt register my start and select buttons as inputs and it doesnt seem to have any options to add or remove configurations. Unless i am doing it wrong, I can no longer play Clone hero with the current config because my start button isnt even programmable. or being noticed. The previous version of the guitar configurator v9.4.9 was what ive been using. and it worked just fine. But now when i go to use it, it doesnt work properly either. I need help or a tutorial or something because im really upset.
@@baileymcmahon7509 The new Sanjay tool absolutely doesn't work at all. Just stick with Guitar Configurator. You may have to revert the raspberry Pi to it's default settings in the newer software if you made the mistake of using it first like I did.
Thanks for making these tutorials man, sadly I was a biiit late and modded my World Tour about 1 month ago with the zero board so I didn’t have this tutorial but still your others served to help me figure it out. You’re doing Gods work making Guitar Hero Arduino modding relatively affordable and accessible.
Got my kit in the mail yesterday. thank you so much for this video, bought my old gh4 world tour guitar back to life after the down strum failed on me way back in the day doing the endless setlist in rock band 2 (luckily still had my les paul to finish). this kit works great so far feels amazing!!!!!! just followed instructions were super clear, everything so far works flawlessly . Thank you!!!
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you, I went really slow and took a few days to complete the guide since I haven't touched a soldering iron since I was 14 in high school.. but everything turned out great! Even managed to properly splice in an extra wire after I accidentally tore out the ground wire from the board somehow.. 😅 Thanks again!!
Accidentally got the kit that required soldering months ago. Finally got a soldering iron today. I messed it up a couple times because of the extra plastic bullshit inside the Les Paul, but I got it working and IMMEDIATELY set new high scores in multiple games. Works FANTASTICALLY. THANK YOU!
@@destroymarcy It's a couple of the ones at the end of the daughterboard that the frets are on, near the wire that leads down the neck to the main board. Just assemble it as normal, and see if there's anything that gets in the way. It's easy to see when you're putting it together.
Just finished installing the zero board in my xb360 world tour guitar I got from ebay back in 2021, so glad to finally get into clone hero after playing gh metallica as a kid!
Just finished installing this on my sticker-bombed childhood PS2 Kramer. This kit gave it new life after sitting in the garage for over ten years. Thank you for the concise tutorial. I'll definitely get more kits from you. Although I wasn't able to get the tilt to work, everything else is fine. Maybe I messed something up.
Going to get this in a few days after I check to see if I have all the screws needed to open my broken les Paul. Should be a good soldering test and a fun project. Thank you for your dedication!
@@retrocultmods would a T8 work in place of a T9 bit? Or more specifically would I be able to get it done with everything in ifixit’s Moray Driver kit?
Love your work man! One thing you might consider... when the strum board may be a little loose, i will use a small strategically placed drop of hot glue on the navy part of the switch and flatten the top to the desired height as it cools. Been working great for me, just be careful with the glue
got my zeroboard before this vid came out and put it in a ps2 WT guitar! there are some slight differences between the 360 model and the ps2, i noticed. on the ps2 guitar all the internal screws are philips head, and the start select board only has 1 ground, as well as the touch bar plastic just being a part of the neck. i wasn’t sure what pins were what on the whammy bar so i actually took some wires from that to splice to start/select… i do have some extra wire though and i may go ahead and add that in now that i know! have been loving using it so far, and the only issues ive had have been from me making bad solder joints. totally worth it!
I absolutely love the idea that I can just buy a kit and mod my guitar hero controller. Shipping was quick and easy and the RU-vid video accompanied with it is clear and precise. HOWEVER!! FAIR WARNING TO ANYONE PLANNING ON DOING THIS WITH THE STANDARD SOLDER MOD. DO NOT BE AN IDIOT SUCH AS MYSELF!!! Once I had thought I was done, following the video completely, before I screwed everything back in I had noticed my connections were faulty when it came to the fret board but, everything else was working fine on the strum bar side of things. Mind you, I had already hot glued the connections to reinforced it like a dumbass. Frustrated, I tried removing the hot glue by just picking at it, but it was resistant so in a desperate attempt I tried melting the hot glue to access the solder to remove the connections. This just made things worse and now I have hot glue inside the wire ports and is impossible to remove. Now I am down 40 bucks and have to purchase the solderless version so I don't fuck up again as bad as I did. Moral of the story: DON'T HOT GLUE ANYTHING UNTIL ALL OF YOUR CONNECTIONS ARE PRESTINE AND WORKING! lol lesson learned on my part p.s. @retrocultmods You are a godsend for making these. I have the Wii adapter as well and is working flawlessly. Thank You ❤🩹
What should I do if I want to modify an Xplorer guitar which has a dead motherboard? Apparently the previous owner was messing with the guitar's circuits and burned the integrated chips, in that case I couldn't use start, select, or the guide button, much less the LEDs.
Ordered mine a couple of days ago, one question since I've never soldered before and that's what type of flux do you use, and how much do you think would be needed for this?
Bought this kit. I have a few guitars, not sure what would be the best one to mod. I have a wired ps2 sg, wii les paul and a wii sunburst (i think it's a sunburts). I have 2 of the wii les pauls but on the site it says it needs custom frets. Ideally I'd like to mod the les paul.
First of all, great job dude. Hey, do you have any tip to mod a x360 RB1 strat? I did just some basic shit like cleaning some stuff, lubing switches and put pieces on the right places and etc. Tho i really want to buy it, unfortunately the kit and even a ''new'' guitar is way too expensive for me to pay here in Brazil (literally buying the kit and the lp would cost me 60%¨of my salary).
I'm having an issue I hope you can solve. I have everything set up. Beautiful guide and kit. But the tilt function is iffy. Noticed when playing on PS3 that I can't activate in strummy sections, and even some less strummy sections. I plugged into my PC and opened Santroller to check it. Resoldered the tilt sensors and adjusted them. They work. BUT, if I hold it tilted, and them strum, I see the tilt test light on the screen will flicker for every strum. Is this a limitation of the board? Any time I strum, the "frame" that the strum registers, the tilt turns off for a frame, so I need to wait for a break to activate star power. On PC, I use a foot pedal, so no issue. But I'm starting my son playing through all the games on console first to learn, and he's holding the neck vertical for 5, 10, 15 full seconds, waiting for there to be just enough of a break in strums for star power to activate. This result is duplicated on PC, but because I can use 1,000 hz polling rate, it doesn't affect the gameplay much at all. Is there a way to fix this? It's a PS3 Les Paul originally, so using Select isn't a great option.
Just ordered one of your kits! Can't wait to put this on my guitar! I notice it got a hole on the top of the board for tap bar is it possible to make it work on this sunburst?
Thanks for supporting my kit! The tapbar inputs currently only work with digital signals, and the GH5 guitar is the only model that used digital for its tapbar, so unfortunately that won't work for your WT guitar!
Is there a way to use the zero board with the xbox guide and dpad buttons? I can use the guitar on a modded xbox but its a little annoying not being able to use the guide and dpad
I'm using a GH5 with touch bar, can I use all stock components? I dont see need to redo the entire fretboard as it breaks out on the other side of the body with the connector
What if you dont use the controller config and you just use clone heros keybindings? Does it matter where the wires go on the fretboard since you bind them in game?
Do you know if it's doable to mod mechanical keyboard switches into the stock strum board on a Wii WT guitar (can it line up / fit properly)? It seems like a waste to gut a working guitar, plus I already have the Wii adapter, but I'd like to have better strumming. I've got some wireless PS2 guitars without dongles I'll probably try the ZeroBoard with at some point, but would love to also have a very minor upgrade for the Wii guitar's strumming.
On your site the two fret switch options are red linears and white clickys--do you happen to have any experience with brown tactiles? I've always wondered if those would provide feedback that's the most similar to what you'd feel with silicone...
I believe I do have some brown switches left, but I haven't offered them due to lack of demand. If you'd like a custom order, email me at: Collin@retrocultmods.com!
I managed to interrupt the installation process on the guitar configurator and now I don't see the RPI anymore, any way to reset it or what do I do to get it visible and working again?
Amazing kit, I was just wonder I have a ps3 aerosmith les paul and I cant seem to get the frets to fit in the shell. when I put the shell on it will push the switches out of the board.
On a Wii WT (Starburst) guitar, the included plastic spacers are too skinny to go on the standoffs for the strumboard. If I do not have them, the strumbar is too close to the switches and doesn't fully deactivate. If I set the spacers on top, the strumbar wont hit the switches. Would you say I should slightly enlarge the holes of the spacers to fit down on the standoffs to space the board out slightly?
@@pauly5497 I did this a couple days ago. Had to cut off the small ridge on the strumbar where it actually touches the switch, and put some tape on to get it thicker. Works like a dream now, but a definitely a wonky solution
any guidance on how the mod changes for the xplorer? Is it just cutting stuff out of the neck and fretboard so that this new stuff fits? or is there more too it than that?
The Xplorer mod can require you to sand material in the neck for certain models. It also requires soldering to tiny pads and cutting of traces in order to wire up the Start and Select buttons.
how does this kit work with GHWT Strum springs? noticed in the video you've left them out does this affect the playability or recentering of the strum?
Hey yo! Im thinking of picking up one of these kits and i was wondering what type of key switches are compatible with the board. For example i got a box of mxcherry blues that i think would be nice for the strum bar and fret buttons. Would they work?
I started the flash in santroller and waited until it was finished. Now the device isn't seen at all when I plug it in :-( rebooted, tried different ports, and other USB devices are picked up fine.
@@retrocultmods Tried your tool but it doesn't detect the device either. Device manager on my computer an another don't even show a new device connected. Pretty sure the Santroller flash bricked the board. I held the little button on the zeroboard for 30 sec, 60 sec, and double tapped it quickly while plugged in but nothing ever happened. Bummer since I just go it today and never even got to try it out.
Thanks! Currently there is no way to use a modded guitar by itself on a stock 360. You would need to mod it and apply a patch for the modded guitar to be usable!
hi, i'm trying to decide between your zero board kit and your pico+strum board kit. i was wondering about the start + select process on each one. when using the zero kit, would the splicing still be necessary if you're modding a ps2 kramer like the one you were modding in the tutorial for the pico+strum kit? or could we use the process in that tutorial, since there are only three wires there, and would they match up to start select and ground similarly on the zero board? presumably we'd still need jumpers to account for the length but i was wondering about the splicing part. i hope this question makes sense, thanks!
@@kvgm I already did my mod but thanks for answering! hopefully someone else can see this if they're also wondering. I also had enough of the original wires in mine to not have to use any additional jump wire to replace them and desolder the original
just purchased this kit and everything is working great except I cannot get the select button to work since I wasn't sure about the wiring. I'm using a wii les paul as well and i haven't found much information on what to wire specifically for the select / start. everything has worked just fine so far and I haven't had any other issues!
@@retrocultmods i used the gibson white les paul, but i figured out the wiring through some trial and error so everything is working perfectly fine. thanks for making these kits!
On the world tour guitars, are you able to keep the functionality of the tap board if you splice it’s wires into the wires of the corresponding fret? (i.e. green to green, etc). Or does that not play nicely with the configurator?
Yes, you can solder them to the GP18 and GP19 (as well as VCC and GND). However you won't be able to add mech frets with this method. Additionally, this drastically slows down the polling rate for the frets, so it is not recommended.
Where am I able to get replacement tilt sensors? I was trying to adjust them because they weren’t being detected in the software and one of the legs on it broke off
So have this xbox 360 les paul and the wiring is a bit different. On the start and select board, it has vbat, start, select, and col1. Where would i wire the vbat on the zero board?
i really want to do this for my Xbox xplorer, any tips on whats different with this model? also is there any afermarket fret buttons or rubbers that i can replace?
I have an Xplorer breakout board coming out soon that will be a drop in replacement for the Start/Select/Home button board, which is currently what makes the Xplorer mod difficult. There's lots of great sellers on Etsy that make 3D printed frets that will work with my kits, just let them know you are using them with the RetroCultMods slotted fretboards! (Also if you get my Xplorer Solderless Kit it will include the frets and breakout board)
If you want to have the full functionality of the original guitar, you'll need to wire up the whammy, start/select, tilt, dpad and home buttons as well.
Any major differences for the Wii les paul? I've already ordered custom frets to (hopefully) avoid that issue and I've noticed I'll need to do some desoldering. Any unique challenges that come with that model though or should I be good to go?
@@retrocultmods I did end up needing to mod the body a bit, had to cut the standoffs behind the frets (replaced with stacked foam tape) so the neck would fit back together. Works great tho, got one of each kit now, same steps for both
Hey i have one question. What is the actual difference between this Zeroboard and the other Board (universal strumboard?)with the pico adapter included you are selling? :)
The difference between the Zeroboard and Universal board + Pico is the Zeroboard has all the components of the Pico on the board already, so it saves you a lot of soldering work!
Technically yes, but the fret will have a couple ground wires you'll need to splice together and the traces may not be labeled, so you'll have to figure out which wire goes to which button. I suggest just changing out the fretboard too as it's not that difficult (and maybe even easier if you have no soldering or electrical circuitry knowledge) and mechanical switches feel really nice.
Hey Kevin plugged mine in to Configure and computer cant recognize it and on the board its the small chip on board is scorching hot to the touch and terminals to whammy
It's nearly the same, just a bit of a different Start/Select layout. I'll be getting all the different layouts together and be putting the info in the pinned comment.
@@graham_lewis i ended up getting the full kit * well worth it btw* but I was told that the only way to do it with the old fret board was if it has six wires like the kramer does
For that you'd need to use a separate LEDs. You could however use the pin labelled VBUS on the ZeroBoard to the power pin of the LED to power it, as long as you also connect the ground pin of the LED to a GND pin on the ZeroBoard.
@@retrocultmods I wasn't sure if vbus would be overkill for some 5v RGBs I have laying around. I'm also not versed in how electricity exactly works yet, but I do component repair (like HDMI port replacements) regularly at work. Do I have to use a resistor?
@@DriftKingfromTekken3 If you're using a standalone LED, yes you'd need a resistor. If you're using an addressable RGB LED (like APA102s) then you wouldn't! Also make sure your LEDs are rated for 5V and you should be fine.
@@retrocultmods they're not addressable, just two pins. And definitely 5v because I've used some to add slow changing RGB to playstation 1 power supplies, and that green led was 5v. Thanks!
@@retrocultmods does this mean I could wire addressable LEDs up to the fretboard with the "regular" ZeroBoard and they would be controllable with the software?
