Wireless Les Paul Loose Neck Fix

By JP • Mar 18th, 2008 • Category: Guides, Guitar

The Guitar Hero III wireless Les Paul controller is, in my opinion, the best guitar controller on the market and is what I use as my primary guitar for Rock Band.  However, there is a critical design/manufacturing problem with the detachable neck that can cause a lot of grief and missed notes - a loose neck.

While this mod currently applies only to Xbox 360 Rock Band players, it’s still applicable to both the 360 and PS3 versions of the GH III wireless Les Paul controller.  The Wii version, for what ever reason, doesn’t seem to be afflicted with this problem.

I noticed a problem with my Les Paul controller from the moment that I played “Slow Ride” on Guitar Hero III.  I was missing notes left and right that I knew I was hitting, especially red notes.  After a while, I realized that it had something to do with how loose the neck was in the socket.  It seemed like if I used pressure to hold the neck in place, my accuracy improved greatly. 

After playing a friends Wii version of Guitar Hero III, I realized what a rock solid guitar neck could feel like on the Les Paul controller, so I sought out to mimic that feeling on my Xbox 360 version. 

This mod not only made the neck of the wireless Les Paul controller rock solid, but made it so that missed notes can only be blamed on the player, not the controller.

Tools Required

  • Torx driver
  • T10 bit

Torx Driver with T10 bit

Repair Guide

Step 1 - Remove Neck From Guitar

On the back side of the controller, move the lever near the neck from locked to unlocked allowing you to detach the neck from the guitar body.

Backside of GHIII Les Paul Guitar Controller

Step 2 - Remove Screws

Using your Torx driver and T10 bit, remove all Torx screws from the neck indicated by the circled locations in the pictures below.

Screw locations at base of GH III Les Paul controller neck

Screw locations at head of GH III Les Paul controller neck

Seperate the two pieces of the detached neck.

GH III Les Paul controller neck seperated

Step 3 - Move Connector PCB

This step is the meat and potatoes of the whole process, so pay close attention. Move the connector PCB from behind the first set of notches to in front of the notches at the base of the neck so that they are not visible.

PCB location before moving
Before

PCB location after moving
After

Step 4 - Reattach Neck Pieces

Before reattaching the neck pieces together, make sure that the ribbon cable for the buttons are clear of the screw holes. 

GH III Les Paul controller neck cable routing

Align the top piece of the neck so that the notches align up correctly with the moved PCB and tighten the pieces together with the previously removed torx screws.

Step 5 - Connect Neck To Body

Insert the detachable neck back into the socket on the guitar body. It may take a little more force than before, but make sure that the neck is completely inserted. You’ll know that it’s inserted all the way when you hear it click into place and the release lever is completely in the locked area.

You should now have a wireless Les Paul controller that feels sturdier, and more importantly, be much more consistent and accurate.

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11 Responses »

  1. RedSkuLLz on July 29th, 2008 at 3:30 am:

    I had that same problem with my guitar. I did this before but it still had some problems so I wired the neck into the controller. Now I cant really detach the neck but I never needed to. Now the guitar is 100% accurate.

  2. chris Chadburn on July 30th, 2008 at 1:26 pm:

    hi my guitar yellow and red buttons have stopped working if you press the butons really really hard they sometimes work i am wondreing if there is any way of fixing this problem or do i have to buy a new guitar
    many thanks

  3. Slaatch on January 25th, 2009 at 10:42 am:

    Thanks JP! Discovered your post from an Amazon review on the Les Paul. The yellow button on my son’s guitar had stopped working. Followed your instructions and his guitar is back to 100%! Much appreciated.

  4. Armando143 on March 9th, 2009 at 12:02 pm:

    Hey man , thanks !!!!

    I just got this guitar and had problems with the green button, now works more than great thanks to your tip !!!

    Rock on !!

  5. WAPPFFFffff on April 1st, 2009 at 6:00 pm:

    Thanks for the information on how to fix this dude, the pictures helped a lot. It is very appreciated

  6. kurt on April 13th, 2009 at 9:35 pm:

    I still would never buy the les paul. I bought one and returned it because the buttons wouldn’t work, the new one I got still didn’t work so I got my money back. 50 bucks for a guitar I have to repair myself? no thanks! I got one of the guitar hero 1 guitars and it works great, same strum bar and it was only 15 bucks. Only down side is you have to plug it in but who cares, better than that piece o crap.

  7. ramon on May 4th, 2009 at 12:29 pm:

    I had the same kind of issue, but the red and green buttons didn’t work out of the box. It was an open box product that had never work because inside the neck the ribbon cable had been broken by a screw during manufacturing of the product. I twisted the weirs together and it works fine now.

  8. DD on May 4th, 2009 at 1:52 pm:

    I love you man. I about bought a new guitar. Wish I could reducs the tilt sensor pick-up though…

  9. RB on May 31st, 2009 at 10:13 am:

    Um….i still dont get step 3. what isa PCB?

  10. Hal 2000 on June 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm:

    I had the same problem, but with my orange button. This made my advancement to expert nearly impossible. You’re my new hero. Thanx, man.

  11. Yo on July 21st, 2009 at 4:13 pm:

    the PCB in this case is the part where all the small cables are solded on to, the white clip at the end of the guitar (to the right)

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