Right away, I was curious about any noticeable differences between the launch day guitar and the replacement guitar. The most obvious one was this little green sticker...

It says "PA1" in a font, and then "14" appears to be hand-written on it. Clues?

The FCC ID is a sticker-on-a-sticker on my first Strat:

And the same number is printed directly on the replacement's sticker. Must have changed FCC IDs at some point, perhaps shortly before launch. Intriguing?

This is more interesting... the USB dongle was originally a stickered affair, but is now a subtle imprint...

It's like that on the back as well, but you don't really need more boring comparison shots of that.

Here's the giant box (which comes with pre-printed shipping labels; this whole thing isn't going to cost me more than whatever gas it takes to get to a UPS store). The replacement comes inside the smaller box; it's partially disassembled just like a bundles guitar. But the return box needs to be larger since you're unlikely to crack that top neck bit off of your old controller.

That green sticker scared me for a split second...

"Those asses sent me a PS2 guitar!" I thought. Until I saw the huge PS3 type on the box. I guess the PS2 edition of Rock Band uses the same USB dongle? Does it also come with a hub like the 360 version, because the PS2 does not have enough USB ports for a full RB set.

Here's a poser... the box had this instruction sheet, detailing how I am expected to return the guitar.

Guh-what now? I don't know what crazy origami is on display there, but I certainly received no such formed cardboard inserts. Here's what's going to happen to my old Strat: it's going in the bubble wrap, which is going inside the small box, which won't be able to close, which is going inside the large box, which is getting taped shut. Fin.

Although I do intend to enjoy two guitars for a couple weeks before sending my old one back to the factory. When the hell are they going to sell stand-alone instruments? Did they forget?

But how's the new one play, right? Straight off, the new guitar does not activate overdrive simply because you reached up to pick your nose. So that's an improvement right there. And I did manage high scores on a bunch of fast songs, so my early anecdotal research seems to indicate an improved response on the strum bar. Still can't beat Suffragette City on hard though. That block of songs appears to be my breaking point.

I did just spend about an hour trying to master Last Train to Clarksville on medium. There's a tricky solo in there that would throw me, but any time I sailed through it, I would miss one of the last seven notes in the song, wrecking my 100%. My best performance was a 99%er (missed one goddamn note at the end) with a score over 70,000... which puts me almost in the top 100 players, but definitely in the top 10 players on medium. Woo! At the moment!

Truthfully, I remain unsure how much of my experience with the launch day guitar with hardass songs was me missing notes or the hardware missing notes... but things feel better so far. Either way, this whole exchange was painless and free, so why not have done with it.

If I need any further help, there's always this:

Really? A strategy guide? I guess that's one way to spend the $10 you might save by buying the PS2 version.