Guitar Hero Killswitch Mod - Awesome for Jordan by Buckethead!

I think Buckethead is an AMAZING guitar player, and since they have Jordan in GH2, I decided to make a Killswitch.

First of all, A killswitch on a regular guitar cuts out the pickups on the guitar. Doing that causes a cool effect as heard in Jordan. Since the GH2 remotes are plastic, and don't have pick ups... The killswitch does the exact opposite. It acts as if you were strumming, but instead you are pushing a button. It may make it easier, but it still looks cooler.

This is purely for fun, and really has no point to it except to look cool.

Disclaimer: Try at your own risk, I am not responsible if you screw things up and break your remote.

This is my first Instructable, so please critic anything that is wrong...
P.S. Thanks to Weissensteinburg, I got the boxy things to work.

Step 1 What you need...

I thought this Guitar Hero Mod was Really easy, and It only took me 30 minutes, but you will still need a few things.

-Guitar Hero Remote
-2 pieces of Wire (about 6 inches of each)
-Drill
-Drill bit that is the same size as the button
-Soldering Iron
-Soldering Wire
-Electric Tape
-Scissors
-Wire Stripper or teeth

Comments

[psychofish25]

Great instructable, I did this today because after I got my haircut I stopped into radio shack and bought a few switches. Anyway, I also read that if u solder a wire from the select button wire to the circuit board (shown above) it'll come out the same way. I heard this is how people have been makign kill switches. Anyway, I think the extra button looks great (if you install it right). 45 minutes well spent I should say. Thanks.

[GorillazMiko]

Yeah, if you do that then when you strum (up or down, depends which one you soldered it to), it will activate star power... Since the select button is connected to up or down strum, when you have star power, and you press it, it will activate star power... so this instructable is very helpful.

[psychofish25]

Good point, I was also thinking of taking my other GH2 and soldering wires so that each fret button acts as a strum bar, this would eliminate they need to any kind of strumming all together, do you guys think this douns like a good idea?

[Azor]

Do the rock band idea and add 5 more buttons, and wire the new buttons to it so u can strum on the normal one, and tap on the new ones

[Fudgey13]

there is a guy on youtube who made a made somewhat like that. but he didn't make a tutorial. what he he did was he managed to wire in two switches which you see on the out side of the guitar, and he flips them both, and it lets him just tap the normal buttons with no strumming on the regular notes, and of course the hammer-ons. it was pretty cool.

[musick_08]

I'm thinking about doing that if i can get like 2 more controllers for cheap. It's pretty easy to do

[KevinSaw]

no... that defeats the purpose of the game.... the concept of lining up the strums and buttons is what makes it fun. Also, you would look like a noob and would be able to pull off some pimpin' pull-offs and hammer ons

[psychofish25]

Yeah i dnt mean to actually play with it competitively, just for fun

[KevinSaw]

lol, i guess... what ever floats you boat. Also i am in the process of designing a min guitar hero remote. should be pretty cool :D

[GorillazMiko]

What do you mean? You'll have 10 buttons on the fret board? If yes, that would be cool haha.

[psychofish25]

No i mean like u could just push the button nd that would both press the button nd pick at the same time, eliminaing the need to pick at all, i thot itd be a good idea

[GorillazMiko]

Yeah... this is basically what the instructable is about, except if you solder the select button to the strum button then it is kind of the same thing.

[trevyboy]

wats the killswitch evan due!!!

[Glockenator]

it tops the singal from going to the amp so when its pressed you dont hear anything

[PieMaster777]

Whats the point of it on guitar hero?

[trevyboy]

ya thats what i was thinking too

[PieMaster777]

Ikr does it even do anything?
I have one on my actual guitar and its an awesome effect, but i don't understand its point on a guitar hero controller.
What does it do?

[trevyboy]

well idk but i wouldnt even want to buy all the stuff and risk damaging my guitar hero guitar if it doesnt even do anything thats remotely cool

[Trogdayton]

Heh, very nice man. I wish I could mod it to make me play better... I play expert, but routinely lose to my roommate. :)

Thanks, great instructable!

[345138]

im scared ill break it

[toogers]

than don't do it.

[Spense09]

whats a killswitch?

[toogers]

it kills the power, so it turns the guitar off. it's an on/off switch.

[qwazy9]

k i have a question will this work with a gh3 wii les paul guitar? cuz i really dont wanna risk a 70$ wii guitar >.> ty

[KevinSaw]

probably not

[MilotisX]

Hey, this doesnt effect the actual strumbar does it'? Like splitting the voltage can sometimes reduce the percentage of actual registered clicks, can't it?

[Facially Challenged]

Great instructable, I plan on trying it in the near future. Would it be possible to wire up two killswitches to one guitar. The guitar I plan on putting the switches on has the strummer broken so I'd like to put two on their so I can better handle the speed picking parts of Guitar Hero.

[REA]

you could just replace the dead switch wit a new one (from Radio Shack) and install the kill switch.

[Jake Turner]

Hey, great Instructable. I popped one of these into my Gibson SG, makes playing tough sequences and mopping up 5 stars on medium much easier. Thanks for posting it!

[Yerboogieman]

the buttons at radio shack like that are 4 for about $2-3

[illi11]

what egzactly does the kill switch do? please send me a message.

[345138]

im gonna add a button so you can switch from strumming with buttons to just buttons

[23Maniax]

My first killswitch test failed, but I learned how to properly set the connections and now the switch works for good!

[Clayton H.]

When I tried this all I got was a hunk of plastic with a button on it.

[KevinSaw]

how did you mess it up? Messed up the solder?

[Clayton H.]

Well I fixed it and it works fine now.

[Clayton H.]

I don't really know

[jco221]

if anyone has seen the game rock band the new controller is going to have the top 5 buttons like guitar hero but then will have an extra 5 solo buttons down lower is it possible to make 5 extra buttons on a guitar hero controller just for fun when a solo comes up or something if anyone can help i would love it

[Thornburg]

I made this over the summer, and ran over this forgetting to comment. This is really cool looking. I made mine look like a volume knob, though yours looks better.

[locofocos]

Okay, apparently some people don;t know what a kill switch is. It would normally open the circuit going to the pickups when pressed. When you press it, no sound would come through the amp from the guitar. Bucket-head would tap it in certain parts and let the string ring the whole time, so it's like you're plucking the string really fast. This is the opposite of a kill switch. Pressing this switch in once complete would be the same as hitting the strum bar up or down (depending on which connections you soldered to).