Wishlist for future Rocksmith editions...

To get into proper setup you have to deal with checking and correcting neck bow which could lead to people damaging their guitars (most folks have beginner guitars which may not be fully correctable and truss adjustments could just damage the neck further leading to liability issues). Also true setup would include fret checking and levelling, again a liability issue.

I don't think that has to be a real obstacle.

Back in the day, every book on the "Guitar for Dummies" shelf had some kind of information on intonation and setup. "Guitar Handbook", "Barnes and Noble guide to Guitar", "Beginner's Guide to Guitar", etc etc.

Even if we do assume that it's just too dangerous to tell people how to adjust a truss-rod safely, and that Ubisoft would be opening themselves up to devastating lawsuits if they showed how fret-leveling works, even if we agree to stipulate that all that stuff is right out, too risky...

Even then, it would still be really helpful for a lot of beginners just to know if their guitar had intonation and setup problems, to know that the strings are not supposed to be an inch of the fretboard at the body fret, etc. Even if the only instruction was "sounds like you better take your guitar into the shop", it would be helpful to learn why Rocksmith's note-detection is all wonky above the 7th fret.

And you could still show people how to adjust intonation on a tune-o-matic bridge; how changing string gauge can affect tone, intonation, and playability; how to properly change and wind strings; when to change strings; why strings break; why frets buzz, etc etc.

I personally think the risks of at-home neck adjustments are way overblown, but even if you're not going to tell people how to do guitar-maintenance, you can at least give beginners enough information to know whether their guitar is working correctly.

/r/rocksmith Thread Parent