Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar | Live Demos at NAMM 2020

We brought the final pre-production Studio MIDI Guitars to the annual NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Trade Show in Anaheim, CA this past week, and invited guitar players of all types to experience what we consider a massive breakthrough for the Modern MIDI Guitar in terms of accuracy, low-latency, and price point accessibility.
Now Available: jamstik.com/pr...
If you have questions or comments, please send them our way and we'll do our best to answer and keep the community informed.
If you're new to MIDI, the main benefit is that every note played or chord strummed is tracked digitally in a music production environment or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Ableton Live, Logic Pro, or GarageBand.
On top of assigning virtually any digital instrument sound you can think of to the natural way you play guitar, you can record the instrument's output and edit your creation however you like.
You can delete or add notes, change the tempo or note duration, or even change the instrument sound however you like. A helpful illustration is to understand how the piano gave way to the electric keyboard or synthesizer. The Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar is essentially the guitar version of a synthesizer while at the same time being a fully functioning analog electric guitar. It is our hope that it provides guitarists a level of creative expression and reliability not yet experienced, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of more players out there.
Our goal with the product was to deliver a quality guitar with high performance and reliable MIDI tracking abilities, and from people's reactions, we're pretty excited about coming through on that vision.

[@Trazziiee]

You know you’re playing god when the guitar starts playing the piano.

[@seanirvin3258]

I pre-ordered mine in black a couple days ago! I can't wait for this on my birthday :D

[@JamstikGuitars]

Awesome! We can't wait to deliver it!

[@seanirvin3258]

@@JamstikGuitars Are the pre-orders almost filled up?

[@thetiler]

Can you compose into tablature as you play fingerstyle guitar polyphonically on the fly in Guitar Pro 7.5? By that I mean with 100% accuracy all the way up the neck of the midi guitar?

[@JamstikGuitars]

Great question! Yes, it works great for scoring in Guitar Pro by entering notes step by step, however, you will need to add things like hammer-on, slides, bends & other articulations manually after the note information has been entered since their software offering does not currently support real-time MIDI implementation. We'll hopefully work with the development team at Arobas Music to allow for more integrated compatibility in the future to make those extra features a reality!

[@brwong96]

YOU HAD DJS PLAY IT TOO - Slushii is amazing didn't know he also played guitar. I just checked your site about left handed ones and joined the waitlist- would 100% order when this is available for us southpaws.

[@33lenehan]

Ordered, can"t wait!

[@nerginsali4363]

The sounds sound very bad, it's not realistic at all. If you buy a normal guitar and put a GK 3 on it, you can get much better live sounds, thanks to the Roland Gr 55 and the best midi guitar on the market is Godin, there is nothing like it right now.

[@lelandvandermeulen9099]

@Jamstik Smart Guitars I just preordered one of these, and am beyond stoked! My question is, if I wanted to set the guitar up with a lower action, is this easy to do, and does it have any effect on the MIDI pickup and its abilities to track everything properly?

[@nylonpython]

Running through Serum alone is cool and Serum is an amazing VST. But imagine running a serum stack with an amp emulator like Guitar Rig or Fortin.

[@Ancaja123]

The tracking on this seems SO much better than the Jammy Guitar. I can't tell, does this have a physical midi out?

[@chulkim9278]

TRS-MIDI output. I wish it had a standard midi output, but then again it has USB-C MIDI and Bluetooth MIDI. Still, I need to see good video demos showing how well it tracks midi before I decide to cancel my pre-order.

[@legendaryoutcast4440]

It isn't

[@Floydandsome]

@@legendaryoutcast4440 It isn't what? Not tracking better than Jammy or it doesn't have a midi out?

[@rickraydubs]

I need this in my life.

[@JamstikGuitars]

Let us know if you have any questions!

[@paolo-1283]

Cool invention, it needs to have a floating tremolo. This will be a good guitar for playing Van Halen stuff without keyboards! A Hendrix cream or Olympic white body color and black hardware would be perfect.

[@benireges]

Incredible invention

[@barankaypakoglu7643]

In order to convince potential buyers, please make a video demonstrating how accurately the polyphonic melodies are recorded inside a daw. When you play an E chord for instance, the midi notes that are picked up by the daw, are they clean? or does it also trigger unwanted intermittent notes here and there like midi guitar software does?

[@Zenonbuster]

The only reason I want one

[@babykabitaafonso6426]

bonjour j'ai ma guitar jamstick mais je n'arrive pas de telecharger le software comment je dois faire Aide moi svp

[@vicesquadpunk]

The ABSOLUTE test for this guitar is how fast it can accurately track on the low E. and A string whilst picking 16th notes at medium/high tempos....

[@nylonpython]

From the look of it you can just repath all the string inputs anyway. Make all your strings a low e,

[@Dr.Jekyll]

Nylon Python, that doesn’t really feel normal, though. The goal is MIDI input through playing a GUITAR, and a guitar doesn’t have 6 low E strings. So you can “just” use a keyboard, too. But you see, you’ve missed the point.

[@mitrikgaduk347]

@@Dr.Jekyll This is like a DAW user talking to a Guitar Player, some things get lost in translation. The point he made wasn't about it feeling natural but the "input". For example, in Ableton Live, you can set ANY midi input to always play in C Minor no matter what note you hit. So the assumption if this is a midi-controller is that you could just map everything to a Low E so regardless of what you play it won't matter. That's the point of a controller, to control a software, it all depends on how you use it. "Feeling normal" is subjective, whether or not the controller emulates a real guitar is what you were asking, he answered with what someone understands about Midi, not an actual guitar, your question is in relation to the capabilities of the midi instrument's input accuracy and whether or not that accuracy is "realistic" enough. This is why there is such a divide between those who use Midi and digital instruments and those who use acoustic or "real" instruments (acoustic or otherwise, honestly "real" isn't even a descriptor anymore, we live in the digital age), it's because the two groups of people don't understand eachother, one is technical, one is emotional.

[@Dr.Jekyll]

Mitrik Gaduk, I appreciate your response, but I think you misunderstood my comment. I didn’t ask a question at all. I’m staying that guitar player wants to play his instrument, regardless of MIDI. A guitar has thinner and thicker strings. So it must have those. A guitarist who wants to use a guitar to input MIDI input does not want to change his guitar 🎸 not something it’s not, a guitar with all low E strings. I was not talking about how well the MIDI instrument can emulate a guitar. That’s what you think I was talking about. And if I play a guitar, I have no need for software to emulate guitar sounds. Nonetheless, guitarist DO want the expression of the natural string to transfer to MIDI. But that’s a different discussion. I was merely stating that using all low E strings to make the MIDI input better is not a working solution because the whole point is to enter MIDI date by playing a GUITAR, not something that looks like a guitar but has all low E strings and therefore has improper string tension, tuning, dynamics, etc. That’s like saying why not have a keyboard player just learn to use QWERTY to play his instrument instead of learning on a real keyboard. You still get MIDI input, right? But that argument is stupider because using a QWERTY typing keyboard is NOT THE SAME as a piano roll keyboard. Just like a guitar string with all low E strings is NOT THE SAME as a regular guitar.

[@nylonpython]

My point is that you can literally program it to do anything you want. Whether that's make your entire guitar a low E string or a standard EADGBE . You can even play multiple instruments at the same time by routing sets strings to run different VSTS. It's a midi controller, it's point is to control midi in a similar way as playing a guitar. But there's no requirement to actually make it play anything like a guitar. If i want something to track actual normal guitar parts, i'll just use one of my actual normal guitars.

[@lovely-shrubbery8578]

I’m sold

[@zehraxa4421]

Hey, He is Dave!

[@chulkim9278]

I'd love to hear some MIDI/VST demos recorded in a studio without the guitar sound.

[@JamstikGuitars]

Thanks for the comment-we'll get more demos filmed and uploaded this week!

[@rzlflow3531]

0pps

[@friendlycanadian1834]

Cool very talented

[@snappy-strat-snacks1551]

I don't think this instrument is really about how close it comes to a guitar as much as how well it facilitates guitarist being able to access other sounds to accommodate writing or composing songs.

[@deangelisstudio1]

Can this be used to write tabs ?

[@JohnnyHands]

Can you mute strings like a regular guitar? The original Jamstik did not have that capability.

[@chrisparkerynot1319]

legato and slides are avaible? and bending?

[@Diabolicalppp]

2:32

[@foxymusic29]

would i be able to use it as a bass guitar as well?

[@robertwoodcock-valentine9215]

yes

[@robertwoodcock-valentine9215]

there are midi bass outputs so technically you could play this guitar as a bass.

[@vlove888]

Can you change the strings and lower the action?

[@bjrnbrynemo9059]

Do you even change strings on this thing? If not, wouldn't the strings get kinda... sweaty after a few years? Do you need to tune it?

[@JamstikGuitars]

Sorry for our late reply here! It's a standard electric guitar, so any metal strings will work just fine. The MIDI pickup is magnetic, so the guitar requires you to use metal strings rather than nylon. The Jamstik ships with 9s, but standard electric guitar strings will be compatible, so if you'd prefer to use 10s, you certainly can. With the headless design, the tuning is done at the bridge, and there's a magnetic tuning handle built-in to the bridge for quick and easy tuning. Let us know if you have any other questions!

[@CMane]

Cool.

[@DjazzStyle]

I wish it came with a Trem 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@johnp82]

Is it possible to have a regular electric guitar sound, but digital? In other words, can you have a good electric guitar sound while avoiding the need to tune it and stay in tune?

[@Romancandle5929]

Guitar Rig Pro from Native Instruments is a super solid guitar sampling library. Choose your amp, pedals, etc. Check it out

[@TocoaPuffs]

I'm just reading through replies here. You still need to tune this. It's a normal guitar with midi built in.

[@johnp82]

@@TocoaPuffs I hope one day they'll invent a completely digital guitar that never goes out of tune.

[@EZ-nc8fr]

Will it work with fl studio

[@beav15]

Cool concept, however I won’t be bought in until I also hear regular tones from this guitar: The midi playability is cool, but how does it sound as a regular guitar plugged into a regular amp?

[@dustbunnys]

Hmmm, if you have infinite sounds at your disposal with the midi, you could just use any midi generated guitar tone plugins! Infinite guitars!!!!!!

[@askeen8796]

It's also a regular guitar with a 1/4 inch jack

[@DanEsposito]

Does this need to be tuned like a regular guitar?

[@JamstikGuitars]

Hi Dan, yes, it is in fact a regular guitar at it's core with true vibrating strings, and our onboard MIDI processing uses pitch recognition to determine note & velocity. So, whatever the guitar strings are tuned at will be interpreted and translated directly. The tuning system is slightly different than headstock based tuning pegs, but is easy to learn and involves cranking the bridge based tuners with the included tuning wrench. (The wrench conveniently stores magnetically inside the bridge.) We'll also have a digital tuner built into our software for ease of operations.

[@thezestychunk5575]

How well does this work with alternative tunings?

[@imissmykids4206]

My guess would be that you could change the tuning in your DAW or something? Idk

[@thezestychunk5575]

@@imissmykids4206 thanks for the reply, I ended up checking their website and it’s supports pretty much any tuning!

[@WforWrath]

slushi!

[@vividill08]

Yall need to get some real killers to play these guitars, something in the vein of how Spectrasonics has top flight virtuosos do Keyscape demos. Would love to hear this in the hands of Justus West, Isaiah Sharkey, Julian Lage, Jules, Melanie Faye, Rosenwinkel, Yvette Young, Tosin Abasi, Colin Cook

[@gaptooth2164]

is the guy at 1:19 playing a song ? need the name, it was beautiful

[@Homie3794]

That kinda sounded like dogshit

[@Sean-ct8cv]

@@Homie3794 ok

[@legendaryoutcast4440]

Playing 3 basic chords is a song.. Oook

[@gaptooth2164]

@@legendaryoutcast4440 Chords are included in songs. I don't know if it is a song, which is why I asked idiot

[@alanwayne369]

@@legendaryoutcast4440 But it's beautiful then it's fine.

[@nico8a260]

SLUSHII 2:13

[@robysimprobysimp4776]

Che suoni di m..... !!!

[@truthfinder4973]

hahahaah beat maker we gonna pay you back its are turn lol

[@steevencoogan8754]

no one can olay the damn guitar

[@KingGrio]

Please bend a string

[@musicMARKOO]

This is not yet good...The keyboard, you can not play correctly through guitar...you need more years of working...sorry but I am just truly a lover of experiment...Pink Floyd and progressive bands from 70 s had given you a very hard job and task to do...you have to exceed and to upgrade their futuristic sound!!! You can do it better.....Jamstick is future...so please...maybe it is about plugins and software....

[@BrendanThompson]

"i am a lover of experimental things" "why is this not a keyboard which is not experimental because they have existd for centuries" i dont think this is for you dude