Removing the Rock Band Guitar Head.

It's a frequently asked question on the net, and one that on the official Rock Band forums keeps getting deleted... Can you remove the head from the Rock Band Guitar? The short answer is "no". You can't just pull it off, once it's on it's meant to be on permanently. However, with a little risk and some tools, it's possible.

Of course, doing this may void your warranty. Do not follow these instructions unless you are prepared to accept the risk that you may have to purchase a replacement unit.

That said, the part that you're disassembling is not an active part of the game. There are no switches or wires in it, it's just plastic and metal on the head stock.

There are 4 screws on the back of the head, remove them and remove this screw holding the metal plate in place. Note that this photo was taken on the re-assembly phase, in other words the head is already removed from the neck of the guitar.

Here is a picture of what we're trying to achieve. Note a few things: the notches on the outside of the prongs on the left, they snap into the metal spring locks in the head on the right. Also note that on the left side of the head here are little tabs. They lock into the neck so you can't just slide the neck up away from the head.

What I did was to use some small needle-nosed pliers and pull out the metal tabs in the head. I first used the sharp corner of the needle nose to catch on the metal tab where it turns in and captures the neck to pry it up a little, so that it was above (instead of flush with) the plastic, so that I could then have something to grip with the pliers. Then I just grabbed the metal tabs and pulled them out of the plastic head.

Once that was done, the head and neck slid smoothly apart.

I then put the metal tabs back in, put the metal plate (above) back on, and put the plastic back on.

Another couple of shots of the head and neck.