Introduction: Guitar Hero: Guitar Mod

About: Hi I'm chaoschao99 a frequent user of instructables. I have made over 70 projects from this website and have started now making stuff for other people to use. Thanks and remember Subscribe!

 This is my first Instructable so please leave criticism or things I should change or do better on future Instructables. I have always wanted to make an Instructable after years of making other peoples and I always do so many projects but just never take any pictures. This time I was prepared with a camera so here we go. 

Have you ever been playing Guitar Hero on a huge note streak and had star power but didn't want to either tilt up your guitar or press the button because you would think you would mess up? Well i sure have. In this mod you will simply move the button into a more convenient place so that you will not mess up.

This Instructable will require a small knowledge of sautering and electronics. 

CAUTION!!!!!! Opening your Guitar Hero guitar WILL void the warranty. You may break your Guitar in the process of modding your controller so I am not responsible for you breaking your guitar. Do this project at your own risk.

Materials:
1 Guitar Hero controller from Guitar Hero World Tour( mines from the X-Box 360)
Wires
sauter
electrical tape
2 pushbutton switches( you can buy these easily from Radio-Shack)
Tools:
Knife ( or wire strippers)
Medium sized Phillips head screw driver
Very small kit of flathead screw drivers (this is for the star pin screws, or you could simply just use a star pin screw but i don't exactly know the right size)
Dremel
Sautering iron
Silver sharpie

And thats about it! lets get started!
(Also feel free to post pictures of your modded controller!)


Step 1: Opening Up the Controller

 What were are going to do is open up the controller. Flip you controller over to find a lever that you can move. Move this lever and take off the neck of the guitar. When you have that off, put your fingers underneath the part where the neck is to pry off the faceplate( see picture for details). Once you have the faceplate off you will find some screws. There are 12 star pin screws use the tiny flathead screw driver to take off the star pin screws. Just take the screwdriver and place it in the star pin screw until it stays. Then just unscrew the star pin screws. If you seem to not be able to grip the star pin screws your screw driver is too tiny. If it doesn't fit then that means you have to just try to put it in or it is too big. I've mastered this ability from opening up many X-Box 360 controllers for various mods. It is all just practice so keep with it until you have all 12 out. Once you have all 12 out then move on to the 4 philips head screws on the top of the guitar near where the neck laid. Take these out and you should be able to pop off the back with your fingers. Look on the front of your guitar and see where the star power button lays and the start button lays. Then go back to the back of the guitar and unscrew the two phillips head screws that are there and slowly remove the star power button. BE CAREFUL BE CAREFUL BE CAREFUL! The star power button is connected to a circuit board so don't yank it out just flip it over so you can see it. There will be a rubber thing that pushes the buttons. You can throw away the plastic start buttons and star power buttons if you wish.

Step 2: IT"S SOLERING TIME!

So now it's time to solder. What you need to do is look at the circuit board. What you should see is that there are straight lines that almost touch and then at the beginning of where the lines start there are copper dots. These dots are your solder points. Solder two wires onto two points for the start power and then solder two more wire to two points for the start button. This was really hard to explain so just try and look at the pictures to see what I mean.

Once you have your points soldered, then what you need to do is connect your four wires to the push button switches. What i have done is I have soldered two more wires onto the push button switches themselves to add to the wire length. You can solder these wires together, but I decided to twist them together and tape them with electrical tape. Either way is fine to do.




Step 3: Drill Holes (giggity)

 Well this one is up to your personal preference. What you should do is put your hand on the guitar as if you were playing and see where it would be the most accessible to put on the front of the guitar. My buttons are where my hands would rest if I was playing so this is totally up to you. You just get the silver sharpie and mark where you want them and drill the holes. After drilling, put the pushbuttons in and secure them. What you will have to do is then tape down the wires inside of the guitar where it will not interfere with any buttons and make it so the back will close on it too. Then close the back and screw back in the screws. Then what you need to do is either drill two big holes to fit the faceplate over the top of the guitar, or drill one big hole. I chose to drill one big hole. Drill the hole(s) and snap the faceplate back on. Put the neck back in and then tape the hole that is there from the old star power button with electrical tape. 
Thats just about it! Thanks for coming to my intractable and please leave comments. 
(p.s.)( If your buttons don't read then blow out the connector to the neck for fragments from drilling the hole. If your buttons stop working, cut open the black electrical tape with a knife to see your connections. If one is broken thats your problem. If that isn't it, the open it up and check everything.)