Many people seem to be having trouble passing the Rocksmith soundcheck. I have passed the Rocksmith soundcheck using several guitars. Following is how I do it.
Guitars I have used to pass the Rocksmith soundcheck

I passed the Rocksmith soundcheck using this Jose Ferrer El Primo classical nylon-string guitar fitted with a clip-on piezo pick-up
I have managed to pass Rocksmith‘s soundcheck using the following guitars:
- Yamaha F310P acoustic guitar using a transducer (piezo) pickup blue-tacked behind the saddle on the body of the guitar
- Ibanez miKro GRGM21M (¾-size electric guitar)
- Cort Earth-Mini guitar (¾-size dreadnought travel guitar) with a piezo pick-up clipped to the headstock
- Jose Ferrer El Primo classical nylon-string guitar (½-size) with a piezo pick-up clipped to the headstock.
Yes, that is right. I passed the Rocksmith soundcheck using a ½-size, children’s, nylon-string guitar with a $2 eBay piezo pick-up clipped on to the headstock! On the other hand, the Ibanez MiKro electric guitar with the volume set at five, passed the Rocksmith soundcheck with ease.
How to pass the Rocksmith soundcheck
Guitars put out a wide variety of sound levels from their electronic pick-ups. I suspect that my kid’s classical, nylon-string guitar using a $2 eBay pick-up clipped to the headstock is down the bottom end of the scale. At the other end are expensive electric guitars with hot pick-ups.
By undertaking the soundcheck, Rocksmith seems to be trying to identify the maximum sound level that your guitar can put out. Rocksmith then adjusts the game’s internal sound level accordingly. This ensures that the game functions properly and the various musical elements are in balance, including your guitar.
By getting you to undertake the soundcheck twice, my theory is that the game wants you to try harder on the second soundcheck, thereby playing the loudest possible!
So give the game what it is expecting by doing the following:
- Soundcheck #1: starting strumming moderately loud, increasing your strumming volume to loud (do not play the loudest possible)
- Soundcheck #2: start strumming loud, increasing strumming to very loud — your absolute loudest possible. Use a firm pick and play both the down and up strokes to maximise the strumming volume produced.
This technique to pass the Rocksmith soundcheck has worked well for me on my acoustic and classical guitars. My electric guitar passed without needing to use this technique. Let me know if it works for you in the comments box below.
hi am just a little kid first time playing guitar i have a cheap kids guitar and i did the sound check four times. i got to the part where it says “STOP” and it still didn’t go to the next menu. what is a “2 ebay pickup” i think i need one if u passed with your kids guitar.
Which part of the sound check is stopping you? The volume check or tuning? If you are already plugged in, your technique may be letting you down.
Hi I couldn’t pass the soundcheck part with my squier stratocaster i tried everything you said but … Should I buy a pizeo pick-up to mount on a classical guitar ? I think we need a pre-amplifier circuit board for piezo disk to make sound bigger . Do you interesting in electronics ?
You should be able to pass the sound check easily on a Squier. Which part of the sound check is failing? The volume or the tuning?
the volume but the second part .I strum at first then it says stop and then game goes on saying plug your jack bla bla bla turn on your volume … (but it happens on second one)
Josh
I have not experienced this problem with Rocksmith. The game does require you to perform the sound check twice. Are you getting a sound level registering the first time around?
I am assuming that your guitar plays okay when plugged straight into an amplifier?
Has anyone else experienced this problem and found a solution? If so, can you post a response below?
Rex.
me too, Can you resolve this problem or not?
Manel
See my reply to Josh above. Unfortunately, I have not experienced this problem myself.
Rex.
Thank you. I tried with guitar of my cousin and this problem happened again.
Thank you. I tried with guitar of my cousin and this problem happened again.
I think my problem is in my soundcard because i tried a piezo disk to my yamaha C-40 and it didnt worked too 🙁
I formatted my pc vista to seven, the Rocksmith began giving well as soundcheck
I have a Yamaha FG700S steel-string acoustic, and I used a Seymour Duncan pickup and some other stuff to hook up the guitar to the Xbox. The game recognizes my strumming and everything, but I can NOT get past the tuning. I managed to fool it in the first couple of strings by playing chords, but I’d like an easy solution to get past the tuning. My guitar is tuned fine, but the game doesn’t seem to respond (ie, the needle doesn’t move or anything). I also looked up how to skip things, and it seems that nobody can “force skip” anything. Please help me make my game not a waste of money.