Why won't my Rock Band 3 Squier guitar detect when I play the higher strings?
Solution 1:
A helpful post from Reldan
I’ve been playing with mine all evening. There are three ways you may need to adjust the sensitivity for detecting plucks.
Adjust the height of the pick-up. This is the boxy looking thing below the string near the bottom. There are a couple small phillips head screws on either side that let you adjust how close to the string the pick-up is. The farther away, the less sensitive.
Adjust the height of the string themselves. Where the strings attach to the base are a pair of tiny hex-screws that match the small allen wrench included with the guitar. These adjust how high each individual string is. Again, the closer to the pick-up the more sensitive it will be.
Inside the battery box are a couple of small phillips head screws holding in a thin plastic strip. Take these out and underneath are 6 gold potentiometers – one for each string. Loosen them (counter-clockwise) to increase sensitivity and tighten them (clockwise) to decrease sensitivity.
A combination of these adjustments has my guitar, which originally would barely register the G or high E, working fine.
Solution 2:
I eventually figured out that it's the pick I was using. I was using a thicker, rubber-like pick that felt really nice to use, but apparently had too much give to it.
Switching to a cheaper-feeling pick that's really just a tiny little slice of plastic improved things tremendously. I went from not being able to trust my instrument to feeling completely in control.