Greatest Hybrid Guitar- 100% Functional Rock Band Les Paul

**BriGuy** · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 1894 Location: Boston

More pics on page 2

From Concept to reality:

This was a huge effort and I am finally finished with this project. I bought 2 broken Guitar Hero 3 Les Pauls and one wired Rock Band Stratocaster and combined them to produce this:

It has all of the benefits from the guitar hero fret buttons and strum bar that we all know and love and all of the functionality of the Stratocaster including (full size) solo buttons, effects selector, and adjustable tilt sensor.
I originally attempted to include the motherboard from both the Les Paul and Stratocaster to make this guitar fully functional with both games, b ut that proved impossible due to a reversed whammy potentiometer and both boards shorting out when connected to each other. The later problem could in theory be controlled using an elaborate system of diodes and switches but since I don't actually own GH3 for the XBOX this wasn't a requirement.

The obstacles were many and involved some creative circuitry aided by a breadboard and the physical modding resulted in piles of shaved plastic in my apartment. The hardest part was figuring out how to adapt the fret buttons to work for the Strat. The strat uses 10 leads for the 2 sets of 5 buttons and one common ground. The Les Paul uses 8 wires that ended up being in a crazy configuration. Thanks to anyone who tried to help me figure this out in this post, but it turned out to be really weird. Here are the details and how I overcame them:

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To adapt this board to work on the Strat, I needed to separate the common leads for the Blue/Yellow/Red wire. I did this by using a dremmel to first cut the connection at two points. I them soldered a wire to the metal circle below the red contact and them had to create a connection for the yellow. I lightly dremmeled off the coating of the wire connection at a spot I picked that was halfway between contacts. These solder contacts are very fragile so I reinforced them with a small spot of hot glue. These have to be done at a point on the edge to minimize the wire and glue bulge interference with the rubber button thing.

All of the grounds from all colors and both sets of buttons are soldered together to the one common Stratocaster ground.

The d-pad was adapted from the Les Pauls to be wired to the Strats motherboard. A bit of wire was soldered onto the edges of these contacts. One wire from each button were wired together and used as a common ground.

I had to cut out the whammy bar post from the Strat and glue it into place in the LP's body. The Les Pauls whammy is incompatable with the Strats.
The Effects selector was also cut out of the Strat and glued into place. The start and back buttons use a separate ground in the Les Paul that is now a common ground for the Strat. The tilt sensor is just duct taped into place and can be adjusted for angle. A lot of other bits of plastic and stuff needed to be cut out to make everything fit. The Strat's circuit board is held in place by velcro tape.

The XBOX button was hidden in the back, glued into place. I also made a removable chord in preparation for the dual use wireless Les Paul and this turned out to not be needed, but is kind of handy now anyway. There is also a switch near the back that I used to use as song selection mute button. Now it serves as the on/off switch for my green LED light.

I filled in the hole left my the moved XBOX guide button originally with a clear glass gem counter with green foil underneath. That looked pretty good because it would catch the light and sparkle green.
It has now been replaced with an white LED light sitting in a green faceted plastic casing. It looks pretty slick when played in low light.

I finished it all off with a custom guitar skin from www.herogear.net that I originally submitted the simpler design that looks like my concept above. The guy who runs HeroGear, GTJem (of painting guide fame) took my concept and ran with it. He found a high rez almost 3D kind of image that I was happy to swap out my design for. I was so happy how it came out!!

**Check out all of those pics on page 2.
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**BigZ7337** · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 2022 Location: Williamsport, PA

Nice job, that guitar is freaking sweet

While I'm on a 360, I'm still curious if you think this mod would work for the ps3? Making the les paul compatible with RB.
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**Nivlheim** · Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 873 Location: Norway

Duude that's awesome! I was thinking of moving my strat parts into a LP shell for a cleaner look and a tighter strum bar (the old explorer shell has seen better days), but this outdoes my idea ten to one lol

**suckaface** · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 7:50 pm Post subject:

I was wondering if this was possible.....the full sized solo buttons are a great touch. Is there any way you could switch them to the regular 5 buttons so you could play normally, then tap the solos without moving your hand?

Anyways, well done!
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**Nivlheim** · Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 873 Location: Norway

**Spironic** · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

Awesome job!

Looks like it could use some paint to flush in the part where you attached the extra buttons, though.

**BriGuy** · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 1894 Location: Boston

I'm working on putting the final touches on it which include cleaning up the neck connection, filling in the former XBOX button hole and putting the new skin on. I'll be updating this soon when I have some more free time.

As for the solot buttons. They work in the same manner as a Rock Band Stratocaster. The buttons closer to the body can be played for the whole song, but they autostrum for solo's and big rock endings. I'm starting to get used to the button placement (which is farther out than a Strats) but I will still get my fingers lost and not be able to recover as quickly as when I use the main set of buttons.

After a weekend of harcore rocking, this guitar has served myself and my friends greatly, and I recommend this type of mod to anyone who has the time, money, and talent to pull it off.
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**Mikos24** · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 124

Give you $100 to make me one for the ps2, depending on how long it'll take.....

**xEsCxInSaNITy** · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject:

This is awesome, could have made the buttons closer together though.

**nickaix** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 6

Sweet mod. Really sweet. I can appreciate the trouble you went thru, too, b/c I'm trying something similar.

I'm trying to put Xplorer guts into a 360 Strat to create a dual-function doomsday device. I'm experiencing some of the same problems you did, what w/ the boards shorting each other out, and the 8 wire vs 6 wire fretboard stuff. I think I got that much figured out (lots and lots of diodes!) but any words of wisdom are totally appreciated!

What I really want to know about tho, is the reverse-polarity Pot. Do you know if it's the same on the Xplorer as on the Les Paul? Any way it can be overcome? Any help is much appreciated!

**BriGuy** · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 1894 Location: Boston

**kevilay** · Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 148

**nickaix** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 6

Thx, BriGuy, and congratutations, btw!

**JediHero92** · Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 579

This mod is seriously amazingly awesome.

Coolest thing ever.

**kdb424** · Joined: 20 Aug 2007 Posts: 595

That's pretty awesome. I still love my Strat a lot, but that's pretty cool.