Rock Band….rocks. The major downside is that the equipment they ship with the game is quite poorly-made for the most part. For instance, one of my drumsticks has already broken, as has the strummer on the guitar. Apparently more than a few people are having problems with the strummer though to their credit EA has made it easy to return the guitar and get a new one.
A couple friends have seen their bass pedal break already and I’m sure mine will as well, as it’s very cheaply manufactured. Luckily, some enterprising fellow is selling an aluminum plate you can screw onto your pedal, thus saving it from your perhaps slightly over-zealous rocking. I played on a reinforced pedal last night and it was delightful. Just ordered one for myself, and I suggest that anyone else who aspires to to Neil Peart status pick one up as well.
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December 15th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Ryan Shwayder
Just got my replacement guitar because mine was double strumming, and my bass pedal is going to die soon too (already see cracking). I love the game, but I wish they’d shipped good hardware. If you put that metal plate on there, it voids the warranty, and I’d rather not buy an entire drum kit if the sensor on the kick pedal goes out or something.
December 15th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Pentharian
Easy solution to your problem, Ryan, is the wonderful world of duct tape.
I wish I had a 360 to play this. As it is, while I enjoy GHIII, The wii version is lacking. Somehow they screwed it up so it only outputs mono sound, and there are still not extra guitars available.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Derek
Hey, here is the updated auction the other link has quantity 0 left.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rock-Band-Bass-Pedal-Reinforcing-Plate_W0QQitemZ280185390852QQihZ018QQcategoryZ122517QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Thanks for the mention in your article!!
December 31st, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Chris
Try the Woodrock Pedal.
It will not void your warranty and is incredibly sturdy. Lots of good reviews. www.woodrockpedals.com
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
somerandomgothperson
Yeah I was finally beating Nightmare by Crooked X on Expert, and during the middle, my bass pedal snapped so that it looks like the whole board was off, am i screwed??
here are som pics
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii96/somerndmgothprsn/DSCI0018.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii96/somerndmgothprsn/DSCI0016.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii96/somerndmgothprsn/DSCI0017.jpg
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Dayers2
Here is a cheaper bass pedal. Can use screws or tape.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESSOX:IT&item=280188342416&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m239.lVI
January 6th, 2008 at 8:18 am
jaisin
I gots a idea,, I did it to my pedal already but if you go and take away 2 or 3 winds from the spring,, IE cut them then stretch the spring back to original length it makes the pedal alot easier to use. The action is way lighter.
Plus when you get your new pedal, assuming it does show up, you can glue a piece of wood or something to the front of your pedal base so that the front of the foot pedal is supported for your heavy footed people.
Its that whole middle of the pedal being the hinge point thats going to keep breaking that plastic POS.
Heres another Idea too, I havent done it yet, I have to wait till feb for my second drum set to come in but the plug in for the bass pedal is a mono plug. Hmmmmmm now with a Mono “Y” connector from radio shack, you should beable to have double bass pedals.. What ya think?
This is just my finding, Keep rockin guys and dont be discouraged, its just a game made from plastic.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Matt
Double bass pedals make me hot!
January 13th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Winkdot
Ok, mine died this weekend, so I went to Lowes and starte looking around for a way to fix it. I found two straight and flat steel strips about 1″ wide that had pre-drilled holes in them. I believe they are used for decking or someting. I then got a little sack of bolts and nuts that fit the small holes. Took them home, removed the petal from the base, glued the two broken parts togther, then alligned the metal strips on top of the petal side by side. Took a dril and went through the pre-drilled holes and through the plastic petal. Put the small bolts in and put on the nuts. Fired up Rock Band and finished the medium solo game. It worked great. Not as pretty as some of the above fixes, but it cost me about $3.50. I think it will last a very long time.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
GuitarDudeMatt
The same thing happened to my bass pedal as what happened to somerandomgothperson’s!
I’ve only had this game for about 3 days and it’s already broken!!! Well, hopefully I’ll get my replacement from EA soon. They said it would take 1 - 2 days so I should have it soon… hopefully!
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
GuitarDudeMatt
I think I might have been going a bit crazy with the pedal as I was testing expert (”Attack”) to see what it was like. But it should at least last longer than 3 days!
Something tells me I’m not gonna get a replacement pedal for a while (I live in Canada so it’ll probably take longer to go through customs and all that stuff!).
January 27th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Tim
Thats awesome that someone is making those plates. Me and my roomies rerigged the sensor and magnet on the original kick pedal to an old acual drum kick pedal i had. WORKS great but not exactly easy if you dont have old kick pedals lying around
January 27th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
corey
little ceasars pizza box…medical tape…worked untill the spring broke…so i taped it up too haha
February 9th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Cam
Has anyone tried using 2 kick pedals? this would definately fun for fills and such i havent had the opportunity to try it yet though
February 12th, 2008 at 9:57 am
ChuckRock
Was sent a replacement pedal because my original cracked. Still worked, but cracked. Got second pedal in mail. Had Y connector. Made it happen. The double bass setup was very dissapointing. It works but half-assed. If one pedal is pressed down all the way the other does not register, unlike a real double bass pedal (I have also tried using my iron cobra double pedal with a roland v-drums trigger with no results at all) I was stoked on the idea but the execution was lacking. Still it kinda works so try if you like.
Hope this helps.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Tom
Ya I broke my pedal, it snapped in the middle and i duct taped a 2″ by 5″ metal plate on the top, after about 2 weeks it snapped at the hinge and now i need to get a new one.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
David
my son lost the pedal for the drums on a ski trip. I have sent EA emails and I have called EA support. They will not let me buy one if I do not have one to replace it with. They do not see selling the pedal buy itself and if it happens it will be along time. The superviser that I talked to told me to go out and buy a new set. Now I have a useless drum set!
March 10th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Rich
David, go to support.ea.com/rockband. go through the return process and everything. The web process is automated. It will ask you to fill out some forms, and ask some questions about trouble shooting, just say it doesn’t work and it’ll start the process. Enter your address and a credit card, and when you don’t ship them back your broken one, they will charge you… Simple as that.
Don’t mess with phone support in this instance, just process the web request as you would if you did have a broken one, and they’ll send it out and charge you 28 days later.
Rich
March 16th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Ron
Rich… so your telling David to send in the request with no return item… they will charge him 125 dollars!! You might as well buy a new kit then pay 125 for a damn kick pedal! No matter what you return the charge is 125.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
megan
step number one:
Watch this video and follow instructions. Works like heaven. I just did it and now I’m happily rocking away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS5gbIbcHJQ
April 19th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Drew
Just reading over some comments in this blog and surprisingly enough I bought one of these metal petals to reinforce and fix my broken bass pedal for rock band and within two weeks the plastic piece which replaces the hinge for the pedal broke too! It seems like all of you have had better luck with this product but I was very displeased after paying the 20 dollars and seeing it break quite easily. Just warning all of you.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:19 am
Tony
I just reinforsed my petal with some adhesive foam rubber. I made some cushing blocks that don’t let the petal bend nearly as much in the middle. this fixed the bending problem I was able to feel it bend befor i did this mod and new that would be a problem so I made the fix and it works great. Ill try to post some pictures later
April 27th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
josh
dudes, these guys made this sick RB replacement pedal-pricey,yeah- but totally worth it, its a rigged bass pedal from and actual drum kit, ordered it and its dope =]
check it out at www.RockPedal.com
June 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Mike
Everyone is out of stock on all metal pedals except for www.valuepedal.com . I ordered mine last thursday and just got it (monday) … just like the pic and its a real drum pedal conversion. priced a bit cheaper but not by much…
btw its all metal not just the foot part
July 13th, 2008 at 11:45 am
paris
hey guys! I just found a kick ass pedal on ebay! totally by accident because they dont have it listed under the normal seach like replacement pedal blah blah N E WAYS!
I messaged tyis seller and you can put your name rightinto and it ligts up with lights!! Sick!
check it out
http://stores.ebay.com/Neo-Lyte-Lighting-Products
not to bad price wise it was a little out of my range but in the end it looks to be stronger and 10x cooler than all the others
July 13th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Shea
Base of my pedal is cracked so replacing just the pedal piece is not enough. The pedal shows a nice “Y” crack near the hinge as well. I think both happened at the same time.
Going EA express replacement route but also purchased an all metal $80 unit. I might try the 2-to-1 RCA and see if two pedals work once I get both of them. If not, I’m sticking with the all metal one.
The base of the pedal is cracked on both sides, just in front of the “heel hole” near the hinge. They’ve responded by removing some tension from the spring, but I think that might be missing the point. If you play on carpet (as I do) the pedal is not supported by the four pads and I think that’s the weakest part of the base of the pedal.
I’ll have both an EA “gen 2″ pedal and a metal one from ValuePedal.com. Anyone tried a 2-to-1 small RCA to run two pedals yet?