Green Fret Button sometimes “lets go”

Question

This has been happening a while, and though I can handle the situation sometimes, I eventually forget that it is going to happen, and then it does...

What happens is that while holding down the green fret, it will sometimes behave like I have let go of the button. This is very annoying when playing chords. If I press really hard with my forefinger, then I can usually not make it happen, but even then, it is hit or miss.

None of the other frets behave this way. I have taken off the button and made sure that the switch looks okay, and to me it seems like the little rubbery knob inside is worn a little, so the button-bottom may not be pressing it down at all times onto the switch (or it slips out from under the bottom of the button, which is my guess).

So, in lieu of actually going and purchasing a new guitar controller somewhere online, can anyone think of a simple solution to make that knob like new? I really like this guitar....

Answer

You don't mention what model of guitar you have, but generally searching YouTube for videos of "(guitar type) repair fret button" will pull up a few videos of someone suggesting solutions and walking you through the repair. Unfortunately, many of these can be poor quality.

You mentioned that the rubber underside of the button looked worn. This part of the button is responsible for completing the circuit on the circuit board under the button. If this is particularly worn or damaged, it might have a tough time completing the circuit. If you can switch the rubber pad on your green fret with the pad on another fret (say, orange) you might be able to confirm that this is indeed the problem.

If this fixes the problem on your green fret, you might have a bad rubber pad. One solution to this is replacing the rubber pad, although finding a replacement part might be somewhat tricky depending on the model. I read an article recently detailing a solution that involved hole-punching a tiny piece of aluminum foil and using 2-sided tape to affix it to the bottom of the rubber pad, thereby providing a conductive replacement for the rubber pad itself. I don't know how much abuse this would stand up to, but considering you probably have all of the parts handy, it's probably cheaper to try before you go to purchase a replacement.

If the "swap green and orange button pads" test doesn't work, you might have dirty contacts on the board. Rubbing them with a soft eraser will sometimes help clean off any accumulated gunk and get them to conduct a bit better.

Whenever I start to take some electronic device apart, I always budget to replace it, however :) Sometimes I get lucky, and everything fits back together and works perfectly afterwards, but more often than not I snap some little plastic tab that was holding the whole thing together, thereby costing me the device.

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