Guitar Hero Controlor With Light Up Buttons!

Ok, so I know that you have probably seen the guitar hero light up buttons before. But this is different only because in the other ones the only way they showed how to do it was to make new buttons and frankly I am lazy. So I decided what the hell lets try just putting some LEDs in the original buttons. Another thing that is different about this "mod" is the LEDs are always on instead of only going on when the buttons are pushed. So now to get on with it. I will start out with what you will need,

Soldering Iron
Solder
Pliers
Wire Cutters
Wire (doesn't really matter the size but i would recommend small just because it is easier to fit in the guitar)
LEDs (I used 12 and white ones are the best)
File or Dremel (I used the dremel it saves time)
Electrical Tape
Small & Med Size Phillips Screw Driver

Step 1:

Take it apart. To do this flip it over and look for all the screw holes, they arnt hard to find!

So now thats done take a look and bask in the glory at how such a simple thing can make you waste so many hours of your life....awwww.....ok now back to business.

Step 2:

Now locate a power source. This one took me some time to do, the reason is that I used 2 different colored LEDs (Red and White) now both of these LEDs have different power ratings so after a bit of fiddling around I was able to find 2 power sources.
the first was for the red LEDs. ONLY USE THIS ONE IF YOU ARE USING RED LEDs OTHERWISE THE WITH ONES WILL NOT WORK! So anyway if you look at the "mainboard" of the controer, you will see the cable that connects it to the PS2. You will also see many colored wires there. The two that I used were the GREEN and RED ones. As far as which ones were positive and negative just test it out with the LED (I don't remember). So just solder a wire onto each of these and then tape it up. Now for the LEDs that most of you will probably be using the white ones. I found this power source by accident. It is in two different places, so to speak, one wire has to go to the orange wire that connects to the PS2 and the other goes to....well just take a look at the picture it is a little hard to explain so ya. But it works.

Step 3:

Hollow out the buttons. This part was a little hard to do. Well it was until i found my other bit for the Dremel. So there are two ways to do it, the first is to use a file a slowly file down the inside of the buttons, or two (I personally like this one) use a Dremel and go very fast. Heres a before and after shot of the buttons as you can see I took out the horizontal plastic parts so that the light would be more visitable.
BEFORE: AFTER:
Sorry about the picture of the after one that was the best one. But anyway so you can see what has to be taken out. You have to this to all of them. But a word of caution to those of you who want to use the Dremel you need to try to keep as much of the middle part with the two holes because that is the part the pushes the button down. So ya just keep that in mind when your doing that.

Step 3:

Measure out the length of wire and then solder up he LEDs. I'm not going to put a pic up of that because it is pretty self explanatory. What I did was put 2 LEDs in each button except for the blue one because it is very dark I put 4 of them in there but you can put as many as you want.

Step 4:


Try and cram everything in so you can put the guitar back together. Just try to make it look nice and neat use the electrical tape if need be but do the best you can to make the wire avoid the screw holes because if it covers it then you have a tough time putting the guitar back together




Step 5:

Have a ball testing it out. So ya thats it any questions/comments just post them. One little side note here I did not do this but i will when I do my next one is use hot glue to keep the LEDs in place and to light up the buttons better. It is all up to you on what should be done. I hoped you enjoyed my tutorial and that it goes well for you if you decide to try it out.

Van Halen 2007

Van Halen 2007

Ok so I am not only going to talk about the Van Halen show but also the trip to NYC that we took along with the show. So the day started out with Andrew and I heading off the the Milford train station and just as a side note here no matter where I go weather it be a show or on vacation the weirdest people talk to me. So with that said, we are standing there waiting for the train to come and all of a sudden we see all of these girls maybe the oldest was 14 or 15. They are all standing in a group waiting for the same train we are when all of a sudden this old guy came up to them and started talking to them for a bit and the only thing we could make out of the conversation were the words, penis and teach. So all of the girls walk past us and away from the old guy. Now he decides hey you know what why don't I go and talk to these two guys here. So he comes over and Andrew says to him hey don't you think those girls are too young for you, so the guy goes nah man I was going to teach them you know I have experience. Then the bastard put his hand on my shoulder, I dont liked to be touched by strangers (no not like that you sickos). But I was starting to get freaked out. Just then the train came so we quickly got on and he did not.

So we arrive at grand central station at about 4ish. (The show was at the garden) Now neither of us knew how to get from GCS to MSG so it was quite funny seeing us two find our way to the show. Eventually we found it so we decided to explore around that area before the show because we had about 2 and half hors to kill before the doors opened. So Andrew says hey lets go up to the top of the Empire State Building (he has never been up there before) so we do. We decided to go all the way up to the top which I have never done before, it was quite nice. So on our way back to the Garden we see a restaurant, it was a cabaret steakhouse! But we couldn't get in because Andrew in his genius wore shorts and we needed pants. So anyway we went to the Garden and the doors were open. So we went to our seats. It is a very nice venue to see a show. We weren't far up off the ground and we could see perfectly. (Pictures at the facebook) )

So the opening band I am not sure who it was but they were good very reggieish and Bob Marleyish. Ok now the fun begins. All of a sudden this big Zeppelin starts flying around with the Van Halen symbol on it. It was cool. So the show starts now. David Lee comes up with this huge red flag and then everyone elese comes out. On bass they used Eddie's son, Wolfgang. Let me just say no matter how old all of the members get they still sound amazing! Eddie's guitar sounds great, David's vocals were amazing, Alex's drums were great, sorry to say there really isn't that much bass in VH but it was good. So they played about a 2 hour set and I loved every second of it. So the show is over now.

We head back to GCS it was easy getting back because we knew where we were going. Now we thought we were going to have to wait to catch the 1 am train home but we were lucky we stopped and asked somebody so we were able to get right on the train and then went home. All in all it was a kick ass time!

GWAR 2007 Toads Place

GWAR!

Well for thoes of you who do not what/who GWAR is I'll give you a quick overview, they are a thrash/shock rock band that is known for their crazy on stage antics. (More info here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWAR) So we got there just as 3 Inches Of Blood (3iob) was sound checking. They put on a very good show. Lots of crowd enthusiasm and they sounded great. So Im not going to lie I wasnt there to see 3iob don't get me wrong they are a great band but GWAR wins hands down. So 3iob finished their set and now its time for the fun to begin. After a lengthy setup they kill the house lights and start up the fog machines.....its time! So the band comes on stage with their crazy sci-fi/horror themed costumes. (more pictures at el-facebooko) . Now what was really cool was the fact that they didnt waste any time in bringing out the people dressed in costumes, first up was a priest. They cut his arms off and he shot "blood" all over the crowd! (the blood is just food coloring and water.) Next song they brought out the "ozze-cannon" which one of their stage-hands shoots at the crowd during the song. Now during this sang the crowd went crazy with the pushing and broke through the barrier that is up against the stage and I think a security guard got hurt. But after that song was over the lead singer said "Shut the fuck up and listen for a minute! you guys just broke the barrier that the 6th fucking barrier that was broken on this tour! You guys trampled a pregnant women, but dont worry they saved the bab....oh wait never mind you fuckers killed the baby too!" Ya they are fucked up. So after that I had to go down to the floor area (I was sitting in a seat with my girlfriend) i ditched my camera and anything I didnt want to get wet with her and headed down. I only stayed on the floor for 2 songs but I have to say I've been to many metal/hardcore shows and i have never been in a crowd like that it was rough. Now just because I was only down there for 2 songs dosnt mean I stayed clean. The character that got me was the one the only George W. Bush! He comes out saying something like oh ya I love my nice white house or something like that and then they cut off his head! I was covered in "blood"! So then i went back up and sat in the seat after that. Next up was Hitler. He came out holding his penis and started spraying everyone with it, I must say it was quite funny. There were a few more characters that came out but i cant remember them. But towards the end of the show they had this huge guy in the costume come out and it was DON VITO not the real guy but anyway so he had this huge ass and he turns around and they rip his pants off and he started to spew goo out of his ass at the crowd! ya it was nasty but freaking funny! Then in the middle of the song the lead singer took his sword and cut off his stomach and all of the guts came out and flew all over the place! Their set was over.....wait wait encore. Out comes the band, then out comes "Osama Bin-Laden" He starts to talk but the lead singer goes "hell no fuck you!" then rips his jaw off and "blood" goes everywhere. Now the set is over. As we leave I see hundreds of people covered in shit, Toads Place is a mess, the barrier and stage broke, it was a GWAR show!