Mustang Pro Guitar - String Tension Homebrew Mod

[Airtrooper719]

I came up with this method in the first week of owning my pro guitar after noticing that I could not hold down a tight alternate picking pattern for the Clouds Over California custom upgrade, even though before RB3 it was a song I jammed out for many years.

It simply involves tough, folded cardboard and a couple of sticks of gum (or a foamy substance if you have it).

You can experiment with different materials in the house if you want.

As a side note I also removed all the individual strings and attempted to stick a set of D'Addario 10-46's on it in place of the nylon strings, although the ONLY problem was that on the bridge side of the guitar which houses the Piezo pickups for the E, D and B strings has nowhere to anchor the ball-ends onto, so that idea was immediately proven impossible unless I could manufacture a machine head post inside (I may do this in future experiments if I can get the measurements right)

Anyhow.... back on topic. The cardboard + gum method kills two birds with one stone, the cardboard is designed to prop both ends of the strings upward from the body which tightens them up and provides less bounce, and the gum not only gives good feeling feedback from the strings, but prevents crosstalking (where picking one string usually results in 2-3 strings ringing out in-game causing dropped single notes).

I have a video here that I created for my dudes DeadlyOnSundays and colorofmoney which may help. It really does work, but one thing I forgot to mention in the video once you have rescrewed everything back up, go into Practice Mode, start up "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter on 70% Tempo (as this gives you about 1 minute of empty fretboard) and test how lightly you can pluck a string. You should be able to tap each string with your pick (lightly) and it should NOT register as a strum, after that, Test by accurately plucking 2 strings at once (powerchord style) Going EA, AD, DG, GB, BE... if at any point 3 strings rung out, then look at adding more gum above the rubber suppressor of that string.

After that method, I managed a tasty 97% 5 Stars on DevilDriver - Clouds Over California which is by far the song which demands the tightest alt picking on Pro Guitar that I have played so far. Before the mod, I could not pass the song, I would fail out 1/4 of the way because the strings had way too much "give" on them, and no feedback/rebound to aid with alternating and string skipping.

Video is here (hope you understand a broad Irish accent!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiWp38bw0I4

Hope it helps some of you out there.

[Airtrooper719]

I came up with this method in the first week of owning my pro guitar after noticing that I could not hold down a tight alternate picking pattern for the Clouds Over California custom upgrade, even though before RB3 it was a song I jammed out for many years.

It simply involves tough, folded cardboard and a couple of sticks of gum (or a foamy substance if you have it).

You can experiment with different materials in the house if you want.

As a side note I also removed all the individual strings and attempted to stick a set of D'Addario 10-46's on it in place of the nylon strings, although the ONLY problem was that on the bridge side of the guitar which houses the Piezo pickups for the E, D and B strings has nowhere to anchor the ball-ends onto, so that idea was immediately proven impossible unless I could manufacture a machine head post inside (I may do this in future experiments if I can get the measurements right)

Anyhow.... back on topic. The cardboard + gum method kills two birds with one stone, the cardboard is designed to prop both ends of the strings upward from the body which tightens them up and provides less bounce, and the gum not only gives good feeling feedback from the strings, but prevents crosstalking (where picking one string usually results in 2-3 strings ringing out in-game causing dropped single notes).

I have a video here that I created for my dudes DeadlyOnSundays and colorofmoney which may help. It really does work, but one thing I forgot to mention in the video once you have rescrewed everything back up, go into Practice Mode, start up "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter on 70% Tempo (as this gives you about 1 minute of empty fretboard) and test how lightly you can pluck a string. You should be able to tap each string with your pick (lightly) and it should NOT register as a strum, after that, Test by accurately plucking 2 strings at once (powerchord style) Going EA, AD, DG, GB, BE... if at any point 3 strings rung out, then look at adding more gum above the rubber suppressor of that string.

After that method, I managed a tasty 97% 5 Stars on DevilDriver - Clouds Over California which is by far the song which demands the tightest alt picking on Pro Guitar that I have played so far. Before the mod, I could not pass the song, I would fail out 1/4 of the way because the strings had way too much "give" on them, and no feedback/rebound to aid with alternating and string skipping.

Video is here (hope you understand a broad Irish accent!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiWp38bw0I4

Hope it helps some of you out there.