How To Fix A Xbox 360 Whammy Bar Guitar Hero Controller

O-rings around the base of the whammy bar Trouble: You take a Guitar Hero 2 X-Plorer controller for Xbox 360 and the whammy bar is loose. You lot desire the whammy bar to tighten up without having to take apart your guitar and yous don't desire to go through the exchange process with RedOctane.

Solution: Get four (iv) size AS568A-008 (3/16" inside bore) neoprene o-rings. Slowly push each one over the end of the whammy bar (the neoprene will stretch, but take your time with it because you don't want to intermission the ring) and downward to the base of the whammy bar every bit tight as you lot can. Four rings will encompass the entire base of the whammy bar up until the bend. When they're on, it'll look similar the film.

The o-rings volition generate simply enough friction to brand it then the whammy bar moves easily merely volition stay in place when you permit go, leaving it in like shooting fish in a barrel grasp for the next time you demand it. Putting multiple rings on will proceed the bottom one from slipping away from the guitar body and losing friction. Getting them to the bend in the whammy bar makes it just that much more than secure because it'll take more than effort for the rings to round the bend and come loose.

Too Much Particular: I tried several ring sizes and materials to go here. Size 8 is just big plenty to barely go over the whammy bar end and still fit snugly effectually the bar proper. Neoprene is the correct material because other materials either don't stretch quite plenty or don't offer enough friction. For example, I bought some rings from the Home Depot plumbing section that had an "oily" or "slick" experience to them because they were probably Buna-N and treated for resistance to oils and liquids. (I blogged about how I was learning also much about o-rings.)

Where To Buy: I bought my o-rings at McMaster-Carr. In the search box on their site, put "AS568A" and it'll get you to the o-ring page. From at that place, select the "AS568A Dash Number" as "8" to get the ring size set. Finally, select "Neoprene" as the material. Equally of this writing, they only carry one product that matches those criteria. It's a bag of 100 o-rings that costs $2.48 (no, you can't get a smaller pack or buy individual rings - they're an industrial supply store, not a consumer goods shop). Shipping was nigh $five via UPS ground for me.

We tried this out last night in a feverish game of GH2 and it works pretty well. The rings never had to be pushed down or adapted, it just worked. A sub-$10 solution and not having to really open up the guitar? Can't ask for much more than that.

UPDATE: While I'm happy to assistance folks out, I'm non in the o-band business organisation. If y'all desire some o-rings, caput over to McMaster-Carr and selection some up.