It’s been a while! Hope you guys enjoy the video and demo song (which is very different stylistically from my previous tunes). If you’ve tried the Jamstik, let me know what your experience was like!
Wow! Great way to follow up the lite and fun “unboxing video” with your most in-depth and scholarly review yet. Your candor in overcoming the problems with guitar defects only to discover the many benefits of the MIDI controller is a worthy lesson for all. Loved the new music and listening with Air Pods made for a very enjoyable experience. There is so much to learn with this video as you have demonstrated to your viewers the ease of using MIDI to control software instruments, while at the same time,enjoying playing them on the guitar. Throw in the ability to make tabs and that is yet another gem for your viewers. I missed your work,but I can see that you have been busy creating a video that will benefit all who take the time to view it. I suspect that will be many who will view it several times. Simply exceptional work!
One of the most detailed reviews I’ve found and much appreciated being a 63 yo fart, just recently retired and now with some time on my hand and getting back into my love of guitar that sadly for the past 40 years could only be picked up occasionally with kids, business, taking care of sick parents, etc, not whining just life and I encourage young musicians to find a way to at least stay connected for a few minutes each day. I’ll figure this out with the help of detailed musicians like yourself as I’m still trying to figure out why the tracks I made with the Jamstick Studio I just bought in Garageband are all greyed out on my Mac desktop computer in Finder no matter what format I choose to “output to disk”, but I may be an “old dog”, but I love my guitars and can still learn a few new tricks thanks to people sharing like you, so kudos and thanks!
Thanks for watching and i’m glad you enjoyed the video! I honestly don’t know how to fix your specific issue as I haven’t used Garageband for a while, but i hope you manage to get it sorted. Regardless, I hope you continue to enjoy playing more guitar and learning new things. It’s never too late to learn, and with all the free help available online, this is arguably the best time to learn new things as a guitarist or musician in general.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you saying that. And yeah, piano with pitch bend just doesn’t sound “right” to me, so that was one of the first things I figured out how to do when I loaded up the software for the first time.
Fantastic job Seth! I love your music. It is fun, creative and it just keeps getting better. I am amazed how you play and compose your songs with the different instruments creating such beautiful music.
Thanks for the demo Seth! I just bought the Jamstik studio and I’m in love. The pickups leave more to be desired but as a midi controller or if you layer the guitar with VSTs it really shines.
Thanks for watching! And I agree. Using it as a MIDI controller is a lot of fun and its honestly all I use the guitar for at this point. I’m lucky in that I have more than enough great guitars at my disposal to where I can get by using this only for the midi.
1) Thank you for the effort of making this video. :-) I feel like adding: 2) The "MIDI Pickup", although named so in the manual, can't be a "MIDI pickup", as there is no MIDI to be picked up. Instead, it must be a magnetic pickup like the Roland GK-3 that picks up the signals of the individual strings, then sends these individually to some circuitry that distills the MIDI messages from those signals. Like a Note On message when the signal exceeds some threshold and a Note Off message when the signal drops below some threshold (not necessarily the same one). - This also explains the importance of the "1mm" matter: limitation of interference between adjacent strings. 3) The difference between Zyvix's approach with the Jamstik Studio and Roland's approach with the "13-pin cable" is the location of the circuitry: aboard the guitar, with the constraints in space and battery power, or in a pedal board on the floor, using external power. Both have pros and cons. Roland allows you to use a separate MIDI channel for each string. This allows you to make different use of each string, like playing different instruments in a multi-timbral synthesizer. Glancing at the Jamstik Studio manual, I don't see such option. 4) The Jamstik Studio will allow you to have everything on you, like a battery-powered synthesizer module (like both miniEngine devices by MidiPlus, or of course a smartphone or tablet) and a (not too big...) battery-powered active loudspeaker. You could be in a marching band with that. - I can't remember testing this set-up as a whole. 5) You (viewers) might also be interested in the Mooer GTRS guitars (and similar gear) with multi-effects on board. And there is an Irishman offering the perfect electric guitar, but I've forgotten the names of him and his TH-cam channel. 6) Yes, I have both a Jamstik Studio guitar and two Godin guitars with "13-pin" connectors and some Roland/Boss gear. And a spare Roland GK-3 pickup.
Thanks for all that helpful info! One thing that I can add to your 3rd point: You actually can have a separate MIDI channel for each string just like the Roland. To my understanding, this is what allows you to be able to transcribe into Guitar Pro with it accurately depicting what string each note is played on. I also just quickly tested this in Kontakt and I can load 6 different instruments/sounds for each string, but the mapping in Kontakt is the opposite of Guitar Pro for some reason (Channel A or 1 is High E in Kontakt, but the Low E in Guitar Pro).
Thanks for the great review. I'm tempted to get one, but I'm concerned about the shoddy build. I guess many of those issues can be remedied, but the MIDI functions really are nice.
Thank you for your kind words! My honest advice, if you don’t NEED it right now, hold off until they have a sale. I think the asking price may be a bit high if the quality is the same as mine across the board, but some people seem to have received the Jamstick without any quality issues.
Nice one mate. I'm glad you played examples where you thought like a synth player, not a guitarist. I've got the same one and I've had so many problems with it. I'll be doing my own review once I get the Jamstik boys to sort out their latest update. A big tip I can give you is DON'T UPDATE THE SOFTWARE, especially if it's working for you. They are really hit and miss with these updates. I like the tip on polishing the frets. The guitar is truly awful, but I think that it does a good strat impression!
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your own experience. I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems too. I was hoping that maybe I just got a slight lemon in terms of QC, but that may not be the case. I’m not sure what version of the software I’m on, but just to clarify, do you mean the Creator Software or the Guitar Firmware itself?
Nice review. A really serious MPE+ guitar, with pressure sensitivity on the frets etc, something which can leverage guitar skills to synths, is long long overdue. This is at least a baby step in that direction.
Thank you. And I agree completely. Audio-MIDI conversion is serviceable, but it definitely has limitations that would be rectified by making a purely digital controller.
I don't understand what makes this guitar "MPE" as opposed to other midi guitar pickups that also track individual strings with independent midi channels. The more I understand about the jamstik, the more it seems like buying a decent traditional guitar and adding a standard midi pickup like Fishman Triple Play would be a much better option.
Great job bro…..I met the 1975 ..great band I think this beats the ancient Boss system that is a large investment….and you get a guitar to do both midi and guitar tracks simultaneous Dressing the frets with my SteMac kit took an hour and now it shreds. I don’t what your playing the guitar through, but it sounded great through my Mesa Dual Rec. The Boss system was a nightmare and I sold it because I wanted to smash it with a 10 pound hammer. Use the Plug in Xfer Serum and it’s glorious
Thanks for watching, and good to see a fellow the 1975 fan! I’m glad to hear you’re liking yours, and sad to hear that yours also had rough frets. It seems like that’s not too uncommon. I’m playing through an Axe Fx 3 in the video. Like I said, I don’t think the pickups sound bad per se, I am fortunate enough to have several guitars that sound better so this is just mediocre by comparison. That said, it’s definitely serviceable. Just a touch too much weird mids to my ear, but through a Dual Rec, I’d imagine that’d help balance it a bit since those are usually a tad more scooped by default. I really want to try the Boss system with the SY-1000 even though I’ve seen mixed reviews on it. This is definitely the more versatile solution since it works with pretty much any MIDI instrument and I own NI Komplete so I had plenty of stuff to try it with. Never tried Serum but I’ve heard good things. Are the presets good for someone like me who is still VERY new to dialing in synth sounds and isn’t sure where to begin?
Excellent review, especially the MIDI demos were helpful. I'm about 90% of the way to trying a Studio, but the neck width might be a problem for me; as in too narrow. I'm more comfortable with a Gibson-style neck than Fender. Any thoughts about fat finger real estate on the Studio?
This guitar has a 1 11/16” nut width, which is pretty standard for most modern guitars especially Gibsons/Epiphones. I’ve got pretty small hands, but I can’t imagine you’d have issues with the neck due to its width. You have a Fender scale length at 25.5” but a slightly wider nut. If you prefer/need fat necks though, you might run into some trouble as this is a pretty thin C shape. Again, not something I personally have problems with, but your mileage may vary. Another thing that could work that was just announced is the new GM 800 + pickup system from Boss. Not fully released yet, and definitely pricier, but from what I’ve seen it seems to have good tracking and you can use it with any guitar you can attach the midi pickup to. Once they’re out in the wild, I might try one of those myself and see how it compares. There’s also the Fishman Triple Play, but I have no experience with that either. It is considerably cheaper though, and again, you can attach it to any guitar you want.
Thank you! It works pretty well but has its limitations. You can only input one note/chord at a time, and you still have to input the notes’ proper timing (whole, quarter, etc). That said, it is slightly more faster and intuitive to just slowly play the part rather than manually entering each note with a number pad. I hope that helps!
A fantastic and comprehensive review of the Jamstik MIDI guitar. Thank you! I just started to poke around ableton with making synth music and realized I can't play keyboard. Well, I can play a tune with one finger and one hand but that won't take me anywhere to make non trivial music. On the other hand I am an advanced classical guitarist. So here's the problem - I don't play electric guitar. But looking for a MIDI guitar. Do you know anything like a nylon MIDI guitar? Have you tried the Jam origin's MIDI guitar 2? It seems one can buy a cheap electric guitar and with MIDI guitar 2 can get something pretty close to what Jamstik MIDI guitar does. Another question - is the Jam stik guitar as a electric guitar more like a entry level < 200$ guitar or more like an intermediate level guitar say > 500$ value?
Thank you for your comments! To your questions: 1. Godin makes a line called the “Multiac” that seems like it would be more too your liking as they are classical guitar with MIDI circuitry. I’ve never tried one myself, but by all account they are very high quality guitars. 2. I’ve tried the free version of the Jam Origin software a year or so ago, and the tracking with the Jamstik was much more consistent in my experience. It may be better now though, especially with the paid version. 3. The guitar itself is definitely not what I would consider intermediate level. Thats my biggest problem with this setup. It get the job done and it’s definitely playable, but it is also pretty rough around the edges, especially out of the box.
@@SethSilvaMusic Thanks for the prompt response. What I tried is MIDI guitar 2 from Jam Origin. I tried with a microphone and a classical guitar. Huge lag and tons of superfluous notes. Definitely acoustic and microphone won't work. Need to be plugged in. I am aware of the Godin Multiac guitars but those are really very expensive and MIDI guitar I just want to explore at this time. To me logically it seems a MIDI guitar should be more like a plastic light weight guitar form factor thing which would use fake strings and all electronics. It would use fretboard position where fingers are pressed and the tuning information to generate MIDI output. That would be super accurate and the device should be pretty cost effective since you don't need to make a real guitar like thing with real strings, tuning keys and wood body. Am I making sense. If you are getting what I am saying - do you know why thy don't take this route? I am seeing Yamaha made these in the 80s or even recently but they are not available in the market anymore. Please share your thoughts. Thanks.
Honestly I agree and think that we need more devices like that. The closest cost effective option would be the Jammy, but I haven’t tried one of those either, and I don’t care for the fact that they only have 15 frets, as i do prefer the range of a 24 fret. There’s really expensive boutique options from companies like Starr Labs, but again, far too expensive for me. It’d be nice to see more options from other brands if MIDI guitar gets more popular.
Really appreciate the honest review. I like headless guitars, and I love the tuning options the MIDI provides. Will this allow alternate tunings while in standard? Would I need a DAW? I'm 100% hardware and record with Roland VS recorders. Well done Sir!!! This our considering Roland pickup and Synth.
Thanks for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed it. As far as tuning goes, with the included software, you can shift the pitch the guitar up/down in semitones, but I think that requires a connection to the computer with the software running in order for that to stay. As far as needing a DAW goes, technically you wouldn’t need one as the guitar has a TRS/Midi output to send signal over MIDI to hardware units, but you’d need to send the signal to a synth or some other hardware units capable of interpreting MIDI. The guitar itself doesn’t have any sounds built in as its just a MIDI controller, and I personally have only used it to control software instruments since I don’t have any hardware. I’ve also never tried the Roland pickup/guitar synth system, so I can’t comment on that, but if you need something to not only generate MIDI but also the sounds themselves, that’s probably the way to go. Plus, the SY-1000 when used with the Roland pickup lets you digitally retune each individual string. I definitely want to try one out for myself, but the whole system (pickup and SY-1000) is pricey and I’m not sure how much use I’d personally get from it.
Bro thx for the great review! I would love to hear some orchestral sounds anyway, so that's what i am looking after to buy the Jamstick Classic VC. 😢 Thx anyway, maybe you can do a follow up video. Would love to see that. 🎉🎉🎉 Best regards from Austria, cheers Flo
Thank you for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I’m sure if you dive deep into the settings of both the Jamstik software and the software for certain orchestral libraries, you could probably get it to work okay. I feel like you’d need to use external MIDI expression and sustain pedals to get the most out of those sounds though, since the main problem I had with orchestral instruments was just due to the guitar’s inherent note decay after being struck. This made the dynamics in say, a string library for example, sound very artificial as the notes would die out far too soon with just the guitar, but those libraries are usually made with the expectation that someone will be riding a mod wheel to control dynamics while playing on a keyboard.
@@SethSilvaMusic okok, so i orderd one! Maybe i will do a TH-cam Video too, with all the open questions! 😉 I think this guitar will do the trick for me especially for layering some orchestral shorts or synth parts with some solo guitar parts or learning music theory! Will the software show the played midi notes on the fretboard?
@@thephotodetective8507 I hope it ends up working well for you! Yes, the Jamstik software shows both the note on the fretboard and the note on a piano keyboard. I showed that very briefly in the video with the screen capture when I talked about changing tunings and stuff, but its probably easy to miss.
Great informative video! They should make a more affordable version of this with just the midi pickup, don’t see the point of the humbuckers on the instrument. No one’s probably buying this as a main guitar.
Quick question - why is your bridge pickup installed backwards? The pole screws should be closer to the bridge. I'm not sure if you mentioned/explained that in the video or not, but I'm curious. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching and good catch! This is how the guitar arrived, so yet another thing “off” about the construction. I just never bothered to change it since I honestly rarely use this guitar for the electric guitar sounds anyway. I didn’t mention it in the video because I honestly completely forgot about it.
Nice review dude, would've actually love to hear you use more guitar and bass sounds. I'm not a guitarist but this seems to be good to have in your home studio and be creative with it.
Thanks for watching and I’m glad you liked it! It definitely is a useful tool. As for the more sounds point: I tried to just give a few examples of different tones/sound types, while keeping things somewhat concise, but with the VST sounds especially , the sky is really the limit. There’s so much awesome software that its honestly a little overwhelming, so for my sanity’s sake I intentionally focused it to some of the instruments included in my Native Instruments library (which in itself is still massive). I definitely will keep this in mind going forward though!
Thank you! Just quickly measuring, Low E, A, B, and E are all around 2 mm from the 12th fret, D and G are 2.5 mm. Again though, I haven’t touched the string height at all since receiving it from the factory, so I raised the MIDI pickup to get it about 1 mm away from the strings.
Thanks for helping me on this decision. It’s been a rabbit hole that I jumped down pre Y2K while in college to find a better way to interface midi with my preferred instrument - the guitar. Thee have been a couple that worked pretty good without being overly expensive, but since they have been largely software apps, the developers never maintained them through the upgrades of operating systems over the years. Midimorphosis was quite good in its limited capacity and it’s MacOS/Win version was better than the iOS version, which took a bit to dial in, but was fully polyphonic. But sadly they have disappeared. I’m glad I watched this video because I really don’t need another guitar that’s not something that I would really want to play. Ii realized by watching that I’m going to have to find a better interface with my existing instruments.
Thanks for this video. You answered a TON of questions I had about this heinously under covered product. I would have very much appreciated audio/video examples of the issues you described (ie, the tracking inconsistencies, or a before/after on raising the pickup). Appreciate it though. Now you need a bob o riley midi guitar to do the comparison :) Life pro tip for cheapskate viewers: there was a rockband (maybe guitar hero?) pro guitar that came out, I think a jag or a mustang. On eBay for about $60, buttons instead of frets, and native MIDI out (with a 5 pin DIN).
Thank you for watching! Honestly, this video took way more time than it should have just because of the guitar’s issues, but I’ll definitely keep that suggestion in mind going forward. Those Rob O Rilley’s are pretty pricey but do seem very cool. I’ll definitely keep that on my radar, so thanks for mentioning that as i’d never heard of them before. Also, good suggestion for an even cheaper option.
Could you make a video where you try some syncopated, high energy strumming? For example the main guitar riff in "play that funky music white boy". Everything you're playing on here is basically either lead guitar or very straight chords with no syncopation and/or muted (ghost) notes. Kind of hard to tell how well this thing would perform in those scenarios. Also if you could do that with both stock plugins and jamstik plugins that would be great since it would paint the whole picture...
Hey there! Thanks for the interest. I’m not sure if i’ll make another video dedicated to this guitar just because this video was a lot of work and like I mentioned in the review, the guitar itself isn’t really my favorite to play because of the qc issues. That said, the quick bass clip I did does somewhat cover what you are interested in. In my unboxing/first impressions video of the guitar, I also have some sound clips with the Jamstik software of you’re interested in hearing clips with it. In regards to fast notes, thats not really something that would sound natural just by triggering with midi. Because this is doing an audio/midi conversion, i’ve found fast trem picking isn’t really viable, as a lot of notes get missed or incorrectly triggered when playing that way. If you just want to play funky, syncopated stuff, the latency/tracking is good enough to handle that, at least with my setup. It just isn’t really my style of guitar playing. In regards to ghost notes, again, because the audio/midi conversion, that wouldn’t really translate since the guitar is just triggering midi notes in software. A ghost note would be hard for the pickup to detect, so it just “guesses” what note is playing and then you just have a weird staccato note in your MIDI that may or may not be right. Some software instruments have specific ghost note articulations, but usually they require use of keyswitches to get them, so you’d have to program that in after recording the performance.
Hello! The MIDI pickup is the thin black bar between the bridge humbucker and the bridge. I raised it using a mini flathead screwdriver as there are screws on either side just like a regular guitar pickup, but these screws are much smaller.
I didn’t use the Jamstik for the drums, though you certainly could. I dislike programming drums as well, but for this I used a step sequencer (in Native Instruments Maschine software) so that made it more bearable. I’d like to get drum pads or some new software for programming drums as trying to do it on the Jamstik just felt weird to me personally.
I did try that privately, and honestly thought it wasn’t very good when used that way so I didn’t include it. Maybe someone else can make it work, maybe it just doesn’t play nice with my drum software, but for me this is something that is better suited for melodic instruments. Even then, this still has some triggering issues due to being an audio-MIDI conversion rather than purely digital. A dedicated MIDI pad or keyboard is much better/more consistent for drums in my experience.
I wonder how tight your technique needs to be to use this controller?.. muffled strings or unclear picking strokes or hitting wrong strings could wreak havoc?
You do need to play pretty cleanly/deliberately, and like I mentioned in the video, you still will get occasional hiccups even in that situation. The one plus side for recording purposes is that, since you are tracking MIDI, you can edit any missed notes, accidental note triggers, etc. and IMO thats at least a little faster than hand programming everything in. Obviously performing on a midi keyboard would have less problems, but I’m personally more comfortable on the guitar. That said, this guitar definitely has drawbacks and things i’d like to see improved on in a version 2 or other MIDI guitar solutions going forward.
Eu não entendo é uma coisa... SE é um instrumento visionario, espetacular...como que não se vê nenhum GRANDE artista utilizando esse tipo de recurso???
Wikipedia has a list of artists who use midi guitar. Lots of monsters in that list. John Abercrombie Jan Akkerman Jeff Baxter Adrian Belew Matt Bellamy Ritchie Blackmore Dave Brock Dean Brown Bugo David Byrne Eric Clapton J.J. Cale Bootsy Collins (bass guitar) Amir Derakh Al Di Meola K. K. Downing Les Fradkin Peter Frampton Russ Freeman Robert Fripp Susumu Hirasawa Bill Frisell Reeves Gabrels Jerry Garcia Chris Gavin David Gilmour Jason Gobel Steve Hackett Chuck Hammer Steve Harris (bass guitar) Bob Hartman Steve Hillage Allan Holdsworth Brian Hughes Ryo Kawasaki Phil Keaggy Maynard James Keenan Közi Shawn Lane Alex Lifeson Liam Lynch Mana Paul Masvidal Bret McKenzie John McLaughlin Justin McNeil Tony McPhee Pat Metheny Joni Mitchell Steve Morse Dave Murray Bill Nelson Mike Oldfield Jimmy Page Prince Vernon Reid Sheldon Reynolds Lee Ritenour Omar Rodríguez-López Jordan Rudess Mike Rutherford Karl Sanders Neal Schon Marc Schonbrun Adrian Smith Andy Summers Mike Stern Rob Swire Ronni Le Tekrø Glenn Tipton Roger Troutman
The bridge on this guitar is a super cheap aliexpress bridge. There's a guitar company in China called NK Guitars that stopped using them because of how bad they are.
From my understanding, if it has a MIDI input, you can use the Jamstik to control it, just like you would with a keyboard controller. The Jamstik has both the USB connection as well as a TRS-MIDI adapter for connecting to hardware synths.
I’m glad to be one of the first to introduce you! It is a cool piece of gear thats still fun despite its flaws. Definitely watch out for sales if you’re looking to get one.
I’m not sure what you mean since I don’t have any experience with the gr55 unfortunately. Do you mean polyphonic in the sense of the playing more than one note at a time? Or do you mean triggering more than one sound/sample at a time?
Hello! I don’t have firsthand experience with that setup, but if the Korg Keyboard has a MIDI input, you should be able to use the included 3.5mm TRS to MIDI adapter to connect the Jamstik without issue. I’ve never tested it myself as I don’t own any hardware keyboards outside of other MIDI controllers, but it should work in theory.
@@SethSilvaMusic thanx for the answer and compliments for your video! Yes it has a 5 pin female midi input. And just another question...is it possible to play at the same time the guitar pick up and the midi? It could be really interesting play togheter but through two different independets output channels.
You definitely can run both at the same time, but I have noticed that there is a noticeable increase in the amount of noise in the guitar signal when I control software instruments via usb. I’m not sure if it would be the same with the MIDI cable since I haven’t tested that firsthand. Hope that helps!
Sorry to hear you are having troubles. Like I mentioned in the video, I just raised the pickup itself. If you happen to have a smaller flathead screwdriver, like the ones used to tighten the screws on glasses, that should do the job. That’s what I used anyway.
@@SethSilvaMusic Yeah, I raised and did get responsiveness, but overall the sensitivity and range required for fingerstyle just wasn't for me. Definitely works fine for pick playing.
@@Bodrick_G I hear you. I also wasn’t thrilled on how it works with finger-style, but it is weird because tapping and legato seem to work fine for me at least.
Farifarren: Really enjoyed your review! Three things: . Excellent playing: I'm going to nick your riff at 8:09! . Your guitar is out of tune with itself (it's not you!) very slightly. The B and G strings are culprits. I doubt this particular guitar can be re-intonated, or is worth the cost if it can be. It's the classic "if I fix the B then the G will be out of tune," and vice-versa. . Why not Jam Origin software. I'll soon buy it to accompany my new SG? Jam Origin is much more accurate, according to Sound on Sound expert Paul White, than any MIDI guitar. This dude White, nice guy, has been playing and buying MIDI guitars and reviewing them for going on 30 years.
Thanks Allan. To your points: 1. Thanks again, and yeah thats a fun riff to play. Works great with Marshally sounds 2. Yeah I hear what you mean. According to the tuner all 6 strings were intonated close to perfect at the 12th fret, so I didn’t try messing around with it given the guitar’s other problems. The lead line from the song definitely sounds more in tune with my other, better guitars. 3. I’ve actually only tried the free version of Jam Origin about a year ago, and thought it was pretty decent. I may pick up the full version since it’s fairly inexpensive. Honestly though, and maybe it’s just because I was using the free version, I felt like the tracking wasn’t as accurate as this Jamstik. I would MUCH rather play a better guitar however, so I may give Jam Origin another shot. Thanks for reminding me about it!
I’m pretty sure its their own brand of MIDI pickup, but it looks similar to something like the Fishman Triple Play but built into the guitar rather than being mounted on top of it.
Anyone have extreme latency issues? I have a fairly fast computer and I've tried all the standard fixes (reduced latency on playback, buffer size, etc...). Cheers!
I actually haven’t had any problems with latency and it seems like you’ve already looked into the main culprits. Are you on Mac or PC? I know when I was doing things on PC always had trouble with latency and never quite got it sorted out. Once I switched to Mac I had less issues. Are your issues with the Jamstik exclusively or is it with any MIDI instrument?
I experimented with that, and for me, it still wasn’t the best. The pickup stopped being able to detect the string after its sustained for a bit, even with the envelope tracking off. You can use some type of MIDI sustain pedal to get around this, but I still prefer fully digital controllers/keyboards for orchestral instrument libraries. For keys and synths though, Jamstik is pretty solid.
@@SethSilvaMusic you seem to be american ? so I don't know but I just bought a replica of a squire for my girl friend in thailand and it was just a 100$ I would not say it is the best enjoyable guitar to play but everything works and sound good, don't you think that guitar is way overpriced ?as a guitar it doesn't seem to be a better guitar that the one I just bought and definitely not worth to me to pay a pick up 700$
With the QC problems this one had, I do find it to be fairly expensive. The way i figure it though, this could be seem as a $450-500 guitar with a $200-250 midi pickup system/rechargeable battery. That breakdown makes a lot more sense, because in my experience, a more straightforward $700 guitar is usually much better as far as construction quality. It can be fun for sure, but I’d be curious to see how the tracking i this compares to aftermarket MIDI pickups
Sorry yours wasn’t very good. I have only tried the free version of MIDI Guitar 2 and it was okay, but this for me seemed to work noticeably better. Maybe I’ll try the full version and see if its any different. Thanks for watching and commenting, it really helps a lot!
@@SethSilvaMusic I have the full version and I'm not super impressed by it. tracking isn't the best and the UI is not the best. it's also very quiet for some reason in comparison with other programs on my computer so the levels aren't even
MiDi Guitar🎸 needs Modern Technology🛰 with fretboard micro chip📲 sensors to send precise midi note🎶 when string is pressed same as keyboard 🎹when key is pressed. Plus set of string vibration velocity pickup sensors by the bridge.These impulses will be merged to Midi Polyphonic expression data MPE and sent to Daw delivering 100% laser🚀 accuracy📀. Until then it's just a toy 🎃with inaccurate Ghost notes chase & frustration.🥊 Waste of time n' money🦨.
While I don’t fully agree with the last 2 sentences, I do agree with a lot of what you said. I too would like to see something akin to the Roli Seaboard in guitar format so that tracking is 100% perfect. That said, I personally don’t think this guitar is a waste of time, because it does do what it sets out to do and is a lot of fun for me personally, it just isn’t 100% perfect. That said, if something like what you’re describing is released, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, it would definitely be the superior option. This is just the best “guitar style” MIDI solution I’ve personally tried thus far, so I’m really excited to see where the technology goes from here.
@@SethSilvaMusic hope 🤞this company will Survive 🙏& continue to improve their Research and Development💲 RND midi 🎸technology to the Final gate of Victory🥇...its about time to restore guitar Glory 🍾🍷once again📯 Jimmy, Eddy,Steve Ray 🤠won't do it ⏭NOT here anymore 🤔
It’s been a while! Hope you guys enjoy the video and demo song (which is very different stylistically from my previous tunes). If you’ve tried the Jamstik, let me know what your experience was like!
Wow! Great way to follow up the lite and fun “unboxing video” with your most in-depth and scholarly review yet. Your candor in overcoming the problems with guitar defects only to discover the many benefits of the MIDI controller is a worthy lesson for all.
Loved the new music and listening with Air Pods made for a very enjoyable experience. There is so much to learn with this video as you have demonstrated to your viewers the ease of using MIDI to control software instruments, while at the same time,enjoying playing them on the guitar. Throw in the ability to make tabs and that is yet another gem for your viewers.
I missed your work,but I can see that you have been busy creating a video that will benefit all who take the time to view it. I suspect that will be many who will view it several times.
Simply exceptional work!
Thank you!
One of the most detailed reviews I’ve found and much appreciated being a 63 yo fart, just recently retired and now with some time on my hand and getting back into my love of guitar that sadly for the past 40 years could only be picked up occasionally with kids, business, taking care of sick parents, etc, not whining just life and I encourage young musicians to find a way to at least stay connected for a few minutes each day.
I’ll figure this out with the help of detailed musicians like yourself as I’m still trying to figure out why the tracks I made with the Jamstick Studio I just bought in Garageband are all greyed out on my Mac desktop computer in Finder no matter what format I choose to “output to disk”, but I may be an “old dog”, but I love my guitars and can still learn a few new tricks thanks to people sharing like you, so kudos and thanks!
Thanks for watching and i’m glad you enjoyed the video!
I honestly don’t know how to fix your specific issue as I haven’t used Garageband for a while, but i hope you manage to get it sorted. Regardless, I hope you continue to enjoy playing more guitar and learning new things. It’s never too late to learn, and with all the free help available online, this is arguably the best time to learn new things as a guitarist or musician in general.
Thank you for what seems like a really honest review. Much appreciated. Your guitar playing rocks, much respect!!!!
Thank you for watching and for your nice comments! I appreciate it!
Best review I have seen of this device yet. And, you even showed playing a piano with the pitch bend switched off. Good job.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you saying that. And yeah, piano with pitch bend just doesn’t sound “right” to me, so that was one of the first things I figured out how to do when I loaded up the software for the first time.
Fantastic job Seth! I love your music. It is fun, creative and it just keeps getting better. I am amazed how you play and compose your songs with the different instruments creating such beautiful music.
Thank you!
Thanks for the demo Seth! I just bought the Jamstik studio and I’m in love. The pickups leave more to be desired but as a midi controller or if you layer the guitar with VSTs it really shines.
Thanks for watching! And I agree. Using it as a MIDI controller is a lot of fun and its honestly all I use the guitar for at this point. I’m lucky in that I have more than enough great guitars at my disposal to where I can get by using this only for the midi.
Once again great video . I admire your creativity from writing to performing your creation. Great job from beginning to end bravo Seth ........
Thank you!
Outstanding composition and demo! Will be buying one soon!
Thank you so much and thanks for watching!
I wan't one of those there thing-ama-jings with strings and things! -Nice video! 🥰
Thank you!
What an interesting guitar. This was a real fun one to watch, even for someone who doesn't play. I really enjoyed the demo on this one too.
Thanks, Niko! Always appreciate it.
1) Thank you for the effort of making this video. :-)
I feel like adding:
2) The "MIDI Pickup", although named so in the manual, can't be a "MIDI pickup", as there is no MIDI to be picked up. Instead, it must be a magnetic pickup like the Roland GK-3 that picks up the signals of the individual strings, then sends these individually to some circuitry that distills the MIDI messages from those signals. Like a Note On message when the signal exceeds some threshold and a Note Off message when the signal drops below some threshold (not necessarily the same one). - This also explains the importance of the "1mm" matter: limitation of interference between adjacent strings.
3) The difference between Zyvix's approach with the Jamstik Studio and Roland's approach with the "13-pin cable" is the location of the circuitry: aboard the guitar, with the constraints in space and battery power, or in a pedal board on the floor, using external power. Both have pros and cons.
Roland allows you to use a separate MIDI channel for each string. This allows you to make different use of each string, like playing different instruments in a multi-timbral synthesizer. Glancing at the Jamstik Studio manual, I don't see such option.
4) The Jamstik Studio will allow you to have everything on you, like a battery-powered synthesizer module (like both miniEngine devices by MidiPlus, or of course a smartphone or tablet) and a (not too big...) battery-powered active loudspeaker. You could be in a marching band with that. - I can't remember testing this set-up as a whole.
5) You (viewers) might also be interested in the Mooer GTRS guitars (and similar gear) with multi-effects on board. And there is an Irishman offering the perfect electric guitar, but I've forgotten the names of him and his TH-cam channel.
6) Yes, I have both a Jamstik Studio guitar and two Godin guitars with "13-pin" connectors and some Roland/Boss gear. And a spare Roland GK-3 pickup.
Thanks for all that helpful info! One thing that I can add to your 3rd point: You actually can have a separate MIDI channel for each string just like the Roland. To my understanding, this is what allows you to be able to transcribe into Guitar Pro with it accurately depicting what string each note is played on. I also just quickly tested this in Kontakt and I can load 6 different instruments/sounds for each string, but the mapping in Kontakt is the opposite of Guitar Pro for some reason (Channel A or 1 is High E in Kontakt, but the Low E in Guitar Pro).
@@SethSilvaMusic Thank you! You're right, and I haven't yet used the Jamstik Creator software to change that setting (manual, p.6).
Thanks for the great review. I'm tempted to get one, but I'm concerned about the shoddy build. I guess many of those issues can be remedied, but the MIDI functions really are nice.
Thank you for your kind words! My honest advice, if you don’t NEED it right now, hold off until they have a sale. I think the asking price may be a bit high if the quality is the same as mine across the board, but some people seem to have received the Jamstick without any quality issues.
Nice one mate. I'm glad you played examples where you thought like a synth player, not a guitarist.
I've got the same one and I've had so many problems with it. I'll be doing my own review once I get the Jamstik boys to sort out their latest update. A big tip I can give you is DON'T UPDATE THE SOFTWARE, especially if it's working for you. They are really hit and miss with these updates.
I like the tip on polishing the frets. The guitar is truly awful, but I think that it does a good strat impression!
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your own experience. I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems too. I was hoping that maybe I just got a slight lemon in terms of QC, but that may not be the case. I’m not sure what version of the software I’m on, but just to clarify, do you mean the Creator Software or the Guitar Firmware itself?
Nice review. A really serious MPE+ guitar, with pressure sensitivity on the frets etc, something which can leverage guitar skills to synths, is long long overdue. This is at least a baby step in that direction.
Thank you. And I agree completely. Audio-MIDI conversion is serviceable, but it definitely has limitations that would be rectified by making a purely digital controller.
I don't understand what makes this guitar "MPE" as opposed to other midi guitar pickups that also track individual strings with independent midi channels. The more I understand about the jamstik, the more it seems like buying a decent traditional guitar and adding a standard midi pickup like Fishman Triple Play would be a much better option.
Great job bro…..I met the 1975 ..great band
I think this beats the ancient Boss system that is a large investment….and you get a guitar to do both midi and guitar tracks simultaneous
Dressing the frets with my SteMac kit took an hour and now it shreds. I don’t what your playing the guitar through, but it sounded great through my Mesa Dual Rec.
The Boss system was a nightmare and I sold it because I wanted to smash it with a 10 pound hammer.
Use the Plug in Xfer Serum and it’s glorious
Thanks for watching, and good to see a fellow the 1975 fan! I’m glad to hear you’re liking yours, and sad to hear that yours also had rough frets. It seems like that’s not too uncommon.
I’m playing through an Axe Fx 3 in the video. Like I said, I don’t think the pickups sound bad per se, I am fortunate enough to have several guitars that sound better so this is just mediocre by comparison. That said, it’s definitely serviceable. Just a touch too much weird mids to my ear, but through a Dual Rec, I’d imagine that’d help balance it a bit since those are usually a tad more scooped by default.
I really want to try the Boss system with the SY-1000 even though I’ve seen mixed reviews on it. This is definitely the more versatile solution since it works with pretty much any MIDI instrument and I own NI Komplete so I had plenty of stuff to try it with.
Never tried Serum but I’ve heard good things. Are the presets good for someone like me who is still VERY new to dialing in synth sounds and isn’t sure where to begin?
Excellent review, especially the MIDI demos were helpful. I'm about 90% of the way to trying a Studio, but the neck width might be a problem for me; as in too narrow. I'm more comfortable with a Gibson-style neck than Fender. Any thoughts about fat finger real estate on the Studio?
This guitar has a 1 11/16” nut width, which is pretty standard for most modern guitars especially Gibsons/Epiphones. I’ve got pretty small hands, but I can’t imagine you’d have issues with the neck due to its width. You have a Fender scale length at 25.5” but a slightly wider nut. If you prefer/need fat necks though, you might run into some trouble as this is a pretty thin C shape. Again, not something I personally have problems with, but your mileage may vary.
Another thing that could work that was just announced is the new GM 800 + pickup system from Boss. Not fully released yet, and definitely pricier, but from what I’ve seen it seems to have good tracking and you can use it with any guitar you can attach the midi pickup to. Once they’re out in the wild, I might try one of those myself and see how it compares. There’s also the Fishman Triple Play, but I have no experience with that either. It is considerably cheaper though, and again, you can attach it to any guitar you want.
Very helpful review - Thank you!
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you liked it and found it helpful!
Great presentation. Any updates on working with Guitar Pro?
Thank you! It works pretty well but has its limitations. You can only input one note/chord at a time, and you still have to input the notes’ proper timing (whole, quarter, etc). That said, it is slightly more faster and intuitive to just slowly play the part rather than manually entering each note with a number pad.
I hope that helps!
great content, I really enjoyed
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
A fantastic and comprehensive review of the Jamstik MIDI guitar. Thank you! I just started to poke around ableton with making synth music and realized I can't play keyboard. Well, I can play a tune with one finger and one hand but that won't take me anywhere to make non trivial music. On the other hand I am an advanced classical guitarist. So here's the problem - I don't play electric guitar. But looking for a MIDI guitar. Do you know anything like a nylon MIDI guitar? Have you tried the Jam origin's MIDI guitar 2? It seems one can buy a cheap electric guitar and with MIDI guitar 2 can get something pretty close to what Jamstik MIDI guitar does.
Another question - is the Jam stik guitar as a electric guitar more like a entry level < 200$ guitar or more like an intermediate level guitar say > 500$ value?
Thank you for your comments! To your questions:
1. Godin makes a line called the “Multiac” that seems like it would be more too your liking as they are classical guitar with MIDI circuitry. I’ve never tried one myself, but by all account they are very high quality guitars.
2. I’ve tried the free version of the Jam Origin software a year or so ago, and the tracking with the Jamstik was much more consistent in my experience. It may be better now though, especially with the paid version.
3. The guitar itself is definitely not what I would consider intermediate level. Thats my biggest problem with this setup. It get the job done and it’s definitely playable, but it is also pretty rough around the edges, especially out of the box.
@@SethSilvaMusic Thanks for the prompt response. What I tried is MIDI guitar 2 from Jam Origin. I tried with a microphone and a classical guitar. Huge lag and tons of superfluous notes. Definitely acoustic and microphone won't work. Need to be plugged in.
I am aware of the Godin Multiac guitars but those are really very expensive and MIDI guitar I just want to explore at this time.
To me logically it seems a MIDI guitar should be more like a plastic light weight guitar form factor thing which would use fake strings and all electronics. It would use fretboard position where fingers are pressed and the tuning information to generate MIDI output. That would be super accurate and the device should be pretty cost effective since you don't need to make a real guitar like thing with real strings, tuning keys and wood body.
Am I making sense. If you are getting what I am saying - do you know why thy don't take this route?
I am seeing Yamaha made these in the 80s or even recently but they are not available in the market anymore.
Please share your thoughts. Thanks.
Honestly I agree and think that we need more devices like that. The closest cost effective option would be the Jammy, but I haven’t tried one of those either, and I don’t care for the fact that they only have 15 frets, as i do prefer the range of a 24 fret. There’s really expensive boutique options from companies like Starr Labs, but again, far too expensive for me. It’d be nice to see more options from other brands if MIDI guitar gets more popular.
Really appreciate the honest review. I like headless guitars, and I love the tuning options the MIDI provides. Will this allow alternate tunings while in standard? Would I need a DAW? I'm 100% hardware and record with Roland VS recorders. Well done Sir!!! This our considering Roland pickup and Synth.
Thanks for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed it. As far as tuning goes, with the included software, you can shift the pitch the guitar up/down in semitones, but I think that requires a connection to the computer with the software running in order for that to stay.
As far as needing a DAW goes, technically you wouldn’t need one as the guitar has a TRS/Midi output to send signal over MIDI to hardware units, but you’d need to send the signal to a synth or some other hardware units capable of interpreting MIDI. The guitar itself doesn’t have any sounds built in as its just a MIDI controller, and I personally have only used it to control software instruments since I don’t have any hardware.
I’ve also never tried the Roland pickup/guitar synth system, so I can’t comment on that, but if you need something to not only generate MIDI but also the sounds themselves, that’s probably the way to go. Plus, the SY-1000 when used with the Roland pickup lets you digitally retune each individual string. I definitely want to try one out for myself, but the whole system (pickup and SY-1000) is pricey and I’m not sure how much use I’d personally get from it.
Bro thx for the great review! I would love to hear some orchestral sounds anyway, so that's what i am looking after to buy the Jamstick Classic VC. 😢 Thx anyway, maybe you can do a follow up video. Would love to see that. 🎉🎉🎉 Best regards from Austria, cheers Flo
Thank you for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I’m sure if you dive deep into the settings of both the Jamstik software and the software for certain orchestral libraries, you could probably get it to work okay. I feel like you’d need to use external MIDI expression and sustain pedals to get the most out of those sounds though, since the main problem I had with orchestral instruments was just due to the guitar’s inherent note decay after being struck. This made the dynamics in say, a string library for example, sound very artificial as the notes would die out far too soon with just the guitar, but those libraries are usually made with the expectation that someone will be riding a mod wheel to control dynamics while playing on a keyboard.
@@SethSilvaMusic okok, so i orderd one! Maybe i will do a TH-cam Video too, with all the open questions! 😉 I think this guitar will do the trick for me especially for layering some orchestral shorts or synth parts with some solo guitar parts or learning music theory! Will the software show the played midi notes on the fretboard?
@@thephotodetective8507 I hope it ends up working well for you! Yes, the Jamstik software shows both the note on the fretboard and the note on a piano keyboard. I showed that very briefly in the video with the screen capture when I talked about changing tunings and stuff, but its probably easy to miss.
That's a nice lead tone. (What amp modeler are you using?)
Thank you! I’m using the Axe Fx 3 with some York Audio IR’s in this, like most of my other videos.
Good review, thanks
Thank you for watching!
Great informative video! They should make a more affordable version of this with just the midi pickup, don’t see the point of the humbuckers on the instrument. No one’s probably buying this as a main guitar.
Quick question - why is your bridge pickup installed backwards? The pole screws should be closer to the bridge. I'm not sure if you mentioned/explained that in the video or not, but I'm curious. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching and good catch! This is how the guitar arrived, so yet another thing “off” about the construction. I just never bothered to change it since I honestly rarely use this guitar for the electric guitar sounds anyway. I didn’t mention it in the video because I honestly completely forgot about it.
Nice review dude, would've actually love to hear you use more guitar and bass sounds. I'm not a guitarist but this seems to be good to have in your home studio and be creative with it.
Thanks for watching and I’m glad you liked it! It definitely is a useful tool. As for the more sounds point: I tried to just give a few examples of different tones/sound types, while keeping things somewhat concise, but with the VST sounds especially , the sky is really the limit. There’s so much awesome software that its honestly a little overwhelming, so for my sanity’s sake I intentionally focused it to some of the instruments included in my Native Instruments library (which in itself is still massive). I definitely will keep this in mind going forward though!
Sounds great!
Thank you very much!
Great video I have the same one, can you tell us the strings height of each string on fret 12?
Thank you! Just quickly measuring, Low E, A, B, and E are all around 2 mm from the 12th fret, D and G are 2.5 mm. Again though, I haven’t touched the string height at all since receiving it from the factory, so I raised the MIDI pickup to get it about 1 mm away from the strings.
Thanks for helping me on this decision. It’s been a rabbit hole that I jumped down pre Y2K while in college to find a better way to interface midi with my preferred instrument - the guitar. Thee have been a couple that worked pretty good without being overly expensive, but since they have been largely software apps, the developers never maintained them through the upgrades of operating systems over the years. Midimorphosis was quite good in its limited capacity and it’s MacOS/Win version was better than the iOS version, which took a bit to dial in, but was fully polyphonic. But sadly they have disappeared. I’m glad I watched this video because I really don’t need another guitar that’s not something that I would really want to play. Ii realized by watching that I’m going to have to find a better interface with my existing instruments.
I’m happy you found the video useful. Thank you for watching and sharing your experience
Thanks for this video. You answered a TON of questions I had about this heinously under covered product.
I would have very much appreciated audio/video examples of the issues you described (ie, the tracking inconsistencies, or a before/after on raising the pickup).
Appreciate it though. Now you need a bob o riley midi guitar to do the comparison :)
Life pro tip for cheapskate viewers: there was a rockband (maybe guitar hero?) pro guitar that came out, I think a jag or a mustang. On eBay for about $60, buttons instead of frets, and native MIDI out (with a 5 pin DIN).
Thank you for watching! Honestly, this video took way more time than it should have just because of the guitar’s issues, but I’ll definitely keep that suggestion in mind going forward.
Those Rob O Rilley’s are pretty pricey but do seem very cool. I’ll definitely keep that on my radar, so thanks for mentioning that as i’d never heard of them before. Also, good suggestion for an even cheaper option.
Could you make a video where you try some syncopated, high energy strumming? For example the main guitar riff in "play that funky music white boy". Everything you're playing on here is basically either lead guitar or very straight chords with no syncopation and/or muted (ghost) notes. Kind of hard to tell how well this thing would perform in those scenarios. Also if you could do that with both stock plugins and jamstik plugins that would be great since it would paint the whole picture...
Hey there! Thanks for the interest. I’m not sure if i’ll make another video dedicated to this guitar just because this video was a lot of work and like I mentioned in the review, the guitar itself isn’t really my favorite to play because of the qc issues. That said, the quick bass clip I did does somewhat cover what you are interested in. In my unboxing/first impressions video of the guitar, I also have some sound clips with the Jamstik software of you’re interested in hearing clips with it.
In regards to fast notes, thats not really something that would sound natural just by triggering with midi. Because this is doing an audio/midi conversion, i’ve found fast trem picking isn’t really viable, as a lot of notes get missed or incorrectly triggered when playing that way. If you just want to play funky, syncopated stuff, the latency/tracking is good enough to handle that, at least with my setup. It just isn’t really my style of guitar playing. In regards to ghost notes, again, because the audio/midi conversion, that wouldn’t really translate since the guitar is just triggering midi notes in software. A ghost note would be hard for the pickup to detect, so it just “guesses” what note is playing and then you just have a weird staccato note in your MIDI that may or may not be right. Some software instruments have specific ghost note articulations, but usually they require use of keyswitches to get them, so you’d have to program that in after recording the performance.
Thank you! Where is the midi pickup and how do you raise it to be closer to the strings though?
Hello! The MIDI pickup is the thin black bar between the bridge humbucker and the bridge. I raised it using a mini flathead screwdriver as there are screws on either side just like a regular guitar pickup, but these screws are much smaller.
@@SethSilvaMusic Thank you!
I'm curious did you did do the drums with this as well?
I'm too lazy to program drums this would be perfect for me.
I didn’t use the Jamstik for the drums, though you certainly could. I dislike programming drums as well, but for this I used a step sequencer (in Native Instruments Maschine software) so that made it more bearable. I’d like to get drum pads or some new software for programming drums as trying to do it on the Jamstik just felt weird to me personally.
It would have been really cool to see a drumkit example in MIDI mode
I did try that privately, and honestly thought it wasn’t very good when used that way so I didn’t include it. Maybe someone else can make it work, maybe it just doesn’t play nice with my drum software, but for me this is something that is better suited for melodic instruments. Even then, this still has some triggering issues due to being an audio-MIDI conversion rather than purely digital. A dedicated MIDI pad or keyboard is much better/more consistent for drums in my experience.
I wonder how tight your technique needs to be to use this controller?.. muffled strings or unclear picking strokes or hitting wrong strings could wreak havoc?
You do need to play pretty cleanly/deliberately, and like I mentioned in the video, you still will get occasional hiccups even in that situation. The one plus side for recording purposes is that, since you are tracking MIDI, you can edit any missed notes, accidental note triggers, etc. and IMO thats at least a little faster than hand programming everything in. Obviously performing on a midi keyboard would have less problems, but I’m personally more comfortable on the guitar. That said, this guitar definitely has drawbacks and things i’d like to see improved on in a version 2 or other MIDI guitar solutions going forward.
Eu não entendo é uma coisa... SE é um instrumento visionario, espetacular...como que não se vê nenhum GRANDE artista utilizando esse tipo de recurso???
Wikipedia has a list of artists who use midi guitar. Lots of monsters in that list.
John Abercrombie
Jan Akkerman
Jeff Baxter
Adrian Belew
Matt Bellamy
Ritchie Blackmore
Dave Brock
Dean Brown
Bugo
David Byrne
Eric Clapton
J.J. Cale
Bootsy Collins (bass guitar)
Amir Derakh
Al Di Meola
K. K. Downing
Les Fradkin
Peter Frampton
Russ Freeman
Robert Fripp
Susumu Hirasawa
Bill Frisell
Reeves Gabrels
Jerry Garcia
Chris Gavin
David Gilmour
Jason Gobel
Steve Hackett
Chuck Hammer
Steve Harris (bass guitar)
Bob Hartman
Steve Hillage
Allan Holdsworth
Brian Hughes
Ryo Kawasaki
Phil Keaggy
Maynard James Keenan
Közi
Shawn Lane
Alex Lifeson
Liam Lynch
Mana
Paul Masvidal
Bret McKenzie
John McLaughlin
Justin McNeil
Tony McPhee
Pat Metheny
Joni Mitchell
Steve Morse
Dave Murray
Bill Nelson
Mike Oldfield
Jimmy Page
Prince
Vernon Reid
Sheldon Reynolds
Lee Ritenour
Omar Rodríguez-López
Jordan Rudess
Mike Rutherford
Karl Sanders
Neal Schon
Marc Schonbrun
Adrian Smith
Andy Summers
Mike Stern
Rob Swire
Ronni Le Tekrø
Glenn Tipton
Roger Troutman
Not crazy about the sounds, but your demonstration and presentation was done very well
This guitar is the Chinese brand LEAF-100 with a midi pickup added. I don't know what it has to do with him?
I bought mine three months ago still haven't played it yet hard to even get it to stay in tune.
The bridge on this guitar is a super cheap aliexpress bridge. There's a guitar company in China called NK Guitars that stopped using them because of how bad they are.
@@mistersadaimusic Just got rid of it took a loss but lesson learned even the software sucked.
@@kevinjackson7539 the triple play system seems to be the way to go for this stuff.
Nice Chops!
Thank you!
I'M NOT DANCING IN MY LIVINGROOM TO THESE JAMS... 👀🙃😬 lol
Glad to hear you’re NOT digging it lol
Can this be used to play keyboards or rack mount synths or is it just meant to use with a computer?
From my understanding, if it has a MIDI input, you can use the Jamstik to control it, just like you would with a keyboard controller. The Jamstik has both the USB connection as well as a TRS-MIDI adapter for connecting to hardware synths.
Did you even try it directly connected to a hardware synth?
Unfortunately, no since I don’t own or gave access to a hardware synth.
wtf first time I hear of this. too good to be true.. need one!!!
I’m glad to be one of the first to introduce you! It is a cool piece of gear thats still fun despite its flaws. Definitely watch out for sales if you’re looking to get one.
can you do polyphonic sounds with this like gr55??
I’m not sure what you mean since I don’t have any experience with the gr55 unfortunately. Do you mean polyphonic in the sense of the playing more than one note at a time? Or do you mean triggering more than one sound/sample at a time?
Hi, is it possibile to connect directly the jamstck guitar to a Korg keyboard and play the keyboard by playing the guitar?
Hello! I don’t have firsthand experience with that setup, but if the Korg Keyboard has a MIDI input, you should be able to use the included 3.5mm TRS to MIDI adapter to connect the Jamstik without issue. I’ve never tested it myself as I don’t own any hardware keyboards outside of other MIDI controllers, but it should work in theory.
@@SethSilvaMusic thanx for the answer and compliments for your video! Yes it has a 5 pin female midi input. And just another question...is it possible to play at the same time the guitar pick up and the midi? It could be really interesting play togheter but through two different independets output channels.
Meaning a real guitar cabinet for the guitar pick up and an frfr cabinet linked to the korg
You definitely can run both at the same time, but I have noticed that there is a noticeable increase in the amount of noise in the guitar signal when I control software instruments via usb. I’m not sure if it would be the same with the MIDI cable since I haven’t tested that firsthand. Hope that helps!
Mine just came in today and I'm on hour two of trying to get my strings closer to the midi pickups. What a nightmare.
Sorry to hear you are having troubles. Like I mentioned in the video, I just raised the pickup itself. If you happen to have a smaller flathead screwdriver, like the ones used to tighten the screws on glasses, that should do the job. That’s what I used anyway.
@@SethSilvaMusic Yeah, I raised and did get responsiveness, but overall the sensitivity and range required for fingerstyle just wasn't for me. Definitely works fine for pick playing.
@@Bodrick_G I hear you. I also wasn’t thrilled on how it works with finger-style, but it is weird because tapping and legato seem to work fine for me at least.
Farifarren:
Really enjoyed your review! Three things:
. Excellent playing: I'm going to nick your riff at 8:09!
. Your guitar is out of tune with itself (it's not you!) very slightly. The B and G strings are culprits. I doubt this particular guitar can be re-intonated, or is worth the cost if it can be. It's the classic "if I fix the B then the G will be out of tune," and vice-versa.
. Why not Jam Origin software. I'll soon buy it to accompany my new SG? Jam Origin is much more accurate, according to Sound on Sound expert Paul White, than any MIDI guitar. This dude White, nice guy, has been playing and buying MIDI guitars and reviewing them for going on 30 years.
Thanks Allan. To your points:
1. Thanks again, and yeah thats a fun riff to play. Works great with Marshally sounds
2. Yeah I hear what you mean. According to the tuner all 6 strings were intonated close to perfect at the 12th fret, so I didn’t try messing around with it given the guitar’s other problems. The lead line from the song definitely sounds more in tune with my other, better guitars.
3. I’ve actually only tried the free version of Jam Origin about a year ago, and thought it was pretty decent. I may pick up the full version since it’s fairly inexpensive. Honestly though, and maybe it’s just because I was using the free version, I felt like the tracking wasn’t as accurate as this Jamstik. I would MUCH rather play a better guitar however, so I may give Jam Origin another shot. Thanks for reminding me about it!
Does it let you bend with synth sounds?
Definitely! You can bend with any sound that responds to the pitch modulation wheel on a standard keyboard, whether its a synth or a piano
what type of midi pickup does it use?
I’m pretty sure its their own brand of MIDI pickup, but it looks similar to something like the Fishman Triple Play but built into the guitar rather than being mounted on top of it.
Anyone have extreme latency issues? I have a fairly fast computer and I've tried all the standard fixes (reduced latency on playback, buffer size, etc...). Cheers!
I actually haven’t had any problems with latency and it seems like you’ve already looked into the main culprits. Are you on Mac or PC? I know when I was doing things on PC always had trouble with latency and never quite got it sorted out. Once I switched to Mac I had less issues. Are your issues with the Jamstik exclusively or is it with any MIDI instrument?
apparently you to turn off the envelop tracking for orchestras
I experimented with that, and for me, it still wasn’t the best. The pickup stopped being able to detect the string after its sustained for a bit, even with the envelope tracking off. You can use some type of MIDI sustain pedal to get around this, but I still prefer fully digital controllers/keyboards for orchestral instrument libraries. For keys and synths though, Jamstik is pretty solid.
@@SethSilvaMusic and pretty expensive too !
@@SethSilvaMusic you seem to be american ?
so I don't know but I just bought a replica of a squire for my girl friend in thailand and it was just a 100$ I would not say it is the best enjoyable guitar to play but everything works and sound good, don't you think that guitar is way overpriced ?as a guitar it doesn't seem to be a better guitar that the one I just bought and definitely not worth to me to pay a pick up 700$
With the QC problems this one had, I do find it to be fairly expensive. The way i figure it though, this could be seem as a $450-500 guitar with a $200-250 midi pickup system/rechargeable battery. That breakdown makes a lot more sense, because in my experience, a more straightforward $700 guitar is usually much better as far as construction quality. It can be fun for sure, but I’d be curious to see how the tracking i this compares to aftermarket MIDI pickups
Bought one, returned cuz it was garbage. I use MIDI Guitar 2 software with a regular guitar and it’s fine.
Sorry yours wasn’t very good. I have only tried the free version of MIDI Guitar 2 and it was okay, but this for me seemed to work noticeably better. Maybe I’ll try the full version and see if its any different. Thanks for watching and commenting, it really helps a lot!
@@SethSilvaMusic I have the full version and I'm not super impressed by it. tracking isn't the best and the UI is not the best. it's also very quiet for some reason in comparison with other programs on my computer so the levels aren't even
Just increasing there’s not a single thing in t her world that is e more more the rough rates and guitar
𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘮 😌
You need some time to love something...
MiDi Guitar🎸 needs Modern Technology🛰 with fretboard micro chip📲 sensors to send precise midi note🎶 when string is pressed same as keyboard 🎹when key is pressed. Plus set of string vibration velocity pickup sensors by the bridge.These impulses will be merged to Midi Polyphonic expression data MPE and sent to Daw delivering 100% laser🚀 accuracy📀.
Until then it's just a toy 🎃with inaccurate Ghost notes chase & frustration.🥊 Waste of time n' money🦨.
While I don’t fully agree with the last 2 sentences, I do agree with a lot of what you said. I too would like to see something akin to the Roli Seaboard in guitar format so that tracking is 100% perfect. That said, I personally don’t think this guitar is a waste of time, because it does do what it sets out to do and is a lot of fun for me personally, it just isn’t 100% perfect. That said, if something like what you’re describing is released, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, it would definitely be the superior option. This is just the best “guitar style” MIDI solution I’ve personally tried thus far, so I’m really excited to see where the technology goes from here.
@@SethSilvaMusic hope 🤞this company will Survive 🙏& continue to improve their Research and Development💲 RND midi 🎸technology to the Final gate of Victory🥇...its about time to restore guitar Glory 🍾🍷once again📯 Jimmy, Eddy,Steve Ray 🤠won't do it ⏭NOT here anymore 🤔