Guitar Hero Hacks: Star Power Pedal!

by bofthem

26K4026

Intro: Guitar Hero Hacks: Star Power Pedal!

Don't let anything stand in your way of monster scores. Shred with ease with this simple and hella sweet looking Guitar Hero Hack.

It all starts with an audio extension cable from your local electronics store. It's really simple to wire this up to your controller, and then to a pedal. I used a trucker's horn, bought at Kragen, as the pedal.

For this you're gonna need:

STEP 1: Cut Up Your Cable

No, I'm not talking about running your barge's anchor through the deep sea data lines, strangling a large portion of Europe's internet access, I'm talking about dismantling your audio cable in preparation for its mystical journey to the heart of nerds, rocking out in their basements.

Use your scissors to cut the housing off the female end of the cable. If your heart starts to flutter at the prospect of undressing this female, you seriously need to get out more, maybe get a haircut and start dressing in trendier clothes... seriously, it'll do you good. Anyway, cut this end off with about six inches of cable to spare. Strip the wires on the end and roll them together. Gather up all the insulation wires as well. Tin these two wires in preparation for the circuit board. Do the same for the other end of the wire.

STEP 2: Pop the Hood

Now it's time to pop open your controller and see what makes her tick. It's a mess of screws, so remember to keep track of them. Put them all in a bowl or something, because they will roll away on you. So, you'll see two contacts wired up to the select button, the one that activates star mode. All you need to do is solder on the wires that are connected on to the female cable end here. I put a daub of hot glue over them just to make sure they don't go anywhere.

Notice how I have a few inches of extra cable here? That's so if anything happens, and the cable pulls out, I won't have to go back and resolder everything, it will just pull out some of the spare chord. In a little while, you can just tape your little loop to the guitar body somewhere out of the way.

STEP 3: File: Save

Take a marker, and draw around where the plug will fit. Try to estimate the exact size of the plug, and make sure to check your fit as you work on the hole. You'll want to take a round file and take away material to make a spot for the plug without going overkill. When everything fits smoothly, hot glue the sucker in place, and tape up the spare chord.

STEP 4: A Switch in Time

Now, all that's left is to stick everything back together and put the screws back in. You can easily wire up the trucker switch by screwing the wires in as pictured, and then hot gluing them down. That's it. Now you may rock. Seriously.

Rock on!

26 Comments

X#01 13 years ago

is there a way to make it work for the drums

X#01 13 years ago

is there any way for it to work for the drums

rollingstoner357 16 years ago

can someone elaborate for me how to make a petal to activate starpower

Azor 15 years ago

if u use a normal 3.5 audio jack and use the rock band bass pedal, I think it would work. I think.

supanerd01 15 years ago

I'm not sure, but I do know that the Guitar Hero World Tour pedal doesn't work, because it's a pressure sensor as opposed to a switch.

Azor 15 years ago

i think (i could be wrong) that the rock band pedal is a magnet activated momentary contact switch. Again, I could be wrong....

Rick Z 15 years ago

This Mod worked perfectly on my guitars I set this up on my fender guitar for guitar hero world tour and on My peak all wood guitar and the star power is now on a foot switch which makes things a lot easier and more realistic I do have a question guys I also have rockband 2 and am wondering if you could add this same mod on the 5 position rotary switch and a 2nd pedal to select effects if this is possible It would be awesome to build a pedal board and make things really fun

Mercenary Wubby 15 years ago

Hi I was wondering if anyone knew the size of the male and female cables he used? Were they 3.5mm jacks and cables like ipod jack size? Or were they 6.35 like guitar jack size? Thanks!

alucard820 15 years ago

I have a question do you do the same thing for the Guitar Hero 3 Les Pual controller?

mikeisawesome 15 years ago

THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have Rock Band. I want to know if this works on rock band. Thx. :-)

neesh0 15 years ago

there is another instructable for the rockband controller, just search rockband

hallufias 16 years ago

how the hell am I gonna get this thing

bofthem 16 years ago

"I used a trucker's horn, bought at Kragen, as the pedal." Like... second paragraph of the instructable, dude.

super_genius 16 years ago

haha so you finally got it.. sweet. and i doubted you..
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