https://sanjay900.github.io/guitar-configurator/guides/direct.html

This summarizes most of what I did (reminder: my project was to keep most of the hardware in tact, just change the core electronics and end up with something wired).

He has a page on there breaking down the different MCs you can use, but I’ll summarize: get a Pi Pico. They are the cheapest and perfectly suited to this project. If you have a different one or think you may want to repurpose it, I could see weighing pros and cons, but if you are buying something new just for this, I’m not aware of any argument for anything other than a Pi Pico.

I got this one for my first project and then added this breakout board for my second go, making the second one almost solder-free. You could save a few bucks and just get a raw board, but it’s tiny and while I’m a competent solderer I didn’t want to mess with it (hence the first one with the headers pre-soldered and then the breakout board where I just said to hell with it).

For tilt, i got these. They seem fine so far- they are dirt cheap and easy to work with, I haven’t played enough yet to really say for sure how good they are, but I set them up with two in line at a barely offset angle. The only other downside is that since they have a little ball in them, you can hear it a bit (this is very nitpicky of me- you can’t hear it while playing, just if you’re listening for it while putting it away).

Oh and I used strumfix plus for both of my projects. Couldn’t recommend them more.

I had some challenges with the Jaguar controller related to the ribbon cable but my guess is that’s irrelevant for you.