Another mystery Alps, "YH-B"

[Daniel Beardsmore]

At some point, it was noted (without a reference!) on the XM page on the wiki that the Guitar Hero controller used an XM switch. I decided to research this. I still have no proof of what XMs look like on the inside, but photos of XM switches on a Ducky (that don't show the rear contact plate) tie in with photos from Ripster of unknown switches (that roughly tie in with Alps.tw's T3 switch) that basically match (ignoring the blatant mistakes) some drawn-badly-from-memory 3D renders of the insides of the Guitar Hero switch (and his switch photo looks like a normal Alps clone). So they're probably XM (specifically, the KSB-C clicky switch).

One company sells replacement strum switches for the Guitar Hero controller.

You can see from the photo on that page that these have three legs and two PCB mounting pins. (Nowhere does he say how you're supposed to put them into the Guitar Hero controller PCB that only has holes for the normal legs.)

The third leg goes into some dummy piece of metal:

Mystery Alps clone legs.jpg (180.14 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

From what I can tell, it doesn't do anything:

Mystery Alps clone third leg.jpg (211.22 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

All the parts:

Mystery Alps clone parts.jpg (472.21 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

The numbering on the upper shell does not resemble Xiang Min KSB switches. The writing reads "YH-B", which looks to be a consistent marking of some kind. This turns up nothing.

The front contact plate is a very close match (but not exactly the same), but the rear contact plate is a derivative. Also, all the parts are bright silver colour, instead of a brass rear contact plate and a copper click leaf. Also, the click leaf is a different shape in several ways.

This is not a Taiwan Tai-Hao APC series switch (they're very distinct). It's likely not a Xiang Min KSB series switch either. If it was, they wouldn't deliberately sell one with fixing pins and the wrong number of legs.

Who makes it? Don't know. Hopefully the Guitar Hero Repair guys will say. Sadly, it doesn't match anything on Alps.tw's huge page, so it won't solve any of those regardless, although it may offer a lead to follow.

(Once I have a good idea of whether this is a real keyboard switch, I'll see if I can manage some proper photos for the wiki; the ones above are terrible. I also notice that the four tabs on the lower shell look to be far too small to support plate mounting, so this may indeed by meant solely for PCB mounting, and the vestigial tabs got left over.)

[graboy]

I discovered this on my own when I opened up my GH guitar. I found it at the same time when I was still researching mechanical keyboards, but didn't own one yet. You may have found this on your own, but there are a few different versions where the internals of the guitar vary. As far as I know, all guitar models that were produced after the release of Guitar Hero IV: World Tour do not use these switches. An easy way to identify these guitars is that they have a "touch-pad" that resides lower on the neck, whereas the guitars produced prior do not. RedOctane, a division of Activision, created these guitars, and they were shut down in 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RedOctane

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yeah, their instructions and video show bog standard "lever type" microswitches. These switches are for the older controllers. As such, they don't explain what I'm meant to do with the spare leg and fixing pins — remove the leg and snip the pins with sidecutters? (If I had a controller. I don't.)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Added to the wiki, with comparison shots of the internals compared to those in the Xiang Min KSB-C, the switch believed to have been supplied in the relevant Guitar Hero controllers:

[wiki]YH-B Alps clone[/wiki]

Guitar Hero Repair have ignored every attempt I've made at contacting them, the miserable toads. However, one thing I have concluded is that (even if this switch does fit, and from what I can tell, it won't) it must be a product already on the market.