IS THE XBOX 360 GUITAR HERO II X-PLORER GUITAR DEFECTIVE?

There have been numerous complaints across the internet regarding the X-plorer guitar included with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, and yesterday word began to circulate that RedOctane’s customer service had notified someone that there were two (2) models of guitar that were in fact defective.

The reported problem with the guitars, aside from having the worst back button in the history of the franchise, is that the whammy bar is partially or totally unresponsive, the yellow fret button sticks, the “tilt” function for Star Power works, but only sporadically and that some form of issue with the strummer exists, be it that it’s too loose, too tight, doesn’t work, etc. (For those wondering about my comment regarding the back button, that’s the button used to activate Star Power if you don’t feel like tilting the guitar – and it’s miniscule and recessed on the X-plorer)

According to Kotaku, one of their readers got the following response to his queries regarding some of the issues he was having with his controller;

“We have isolated this issue to two model numbers that can be found on the guitar’s packaging. The numbers are 95065 and 95055. We are asking that customers who puchased their items from a retailer perform an exchange with that respective store (for a model number other than the defective two listed above). Customer’s who purchased through our online story can complete an rma request for their defective item and we will exchange it for a fully function guitar controller. We do apologize for the inconvenience and will [resolve] these matters.” – Quote from RedOctane customer support as per the Kotaku article

Since my guitar is a 95055 and it most certainly has lag issues with the whammy-bar, I started to look to see if there was any official word regarding that comment. In searching through RedOctane’s site and the official Guitar Hero forums, I couldn’t find anything other than links back to the Kotaku article or other sites that had picked up on that quote. There was no official comment from RedOctane to be found.

Here is what I did find in my search for answers;

1. It appears that there are only two models of guitar – the 95055 and 95065. The few sites that stated the box they had said “95067” advised that the guitar inside was labeled as a 95065.
2. I Called my local Gamestop (where I bought the game) and they advised they haven’t heard anything about the issues with the guitars or any kind of a recall / return request.

Given the horror stories about some of the guitars and the fact that mine, while off, isn’t badly off, I’m really inclined to hold onto it for a few more days until someone knows something concrete as I’d hate to bring it back and get one that’s even worse. (Especially since the only guitars out there are apparently the problematic 95055 and 95065 models)

So, is RedOctane really asking people to return their guitars? I don’t know. I know I’ll be holding onto mine at least until next week in hopes that someone makes an official, on the record, statement about this whole mess.

• Red Octane Responds To Defective 360 Guitars– Kotaku
• Red Octane says two Xbox guitar models “defective” – Joystiq
• Official Guitar Hero forums – Guitarherogame.com