A “Harmonix spokesperson” (really a PR rep) sent us this today:
As sometimes happens when new products first go into manufacturing, we discovered an imperfection with the strum bar in an early production run of guitars that were shipped at launch. We want to inform you that we have since identified and fixed the issue in all subsequent production runs of the guitars. If you are experiencing a problem with your guitar or any of your other Rock Band instruments, simply visit the customer support website (http://support.ea.com/rockband) and we will send a replacement immediately. Harmonix is dedicated to creating 100% customer satisfaction and to those of you who’ve encountered any hardware issues, we are sorry for the hassle.
That would seem to confirm the “two models” theory of guitars; unfortunately they did not confirm that there are two separate models of drum kits. I have follow up seeking confirmation.
Update: The same Harmonix spokesperson followed up with me to say: “We’ve not had any reports on faulty drums.”
Previously: Fix Your Broken Rock Band Strum Bar [BBG]
We have rock band in the office break room, so it gets a lot of play from a lot of different people. We’ve had it since launch and so far the strum bar on our guitar has gone bad and the pedal on the drum kit has snapped in half. Both ended up being fairly simple repairs though our pedal is now laminated with an extra layer of plywood.
“We’ve not had any reports on faulty drums.”
Except for the one that I submitted on launch day – the blue pad does nothing, which was actually a relief; realizing that it was a hardware problem, and not me completely sucking at the drums.