OK, I just preordered one. Lots of people are saying there aren't many videos that really show how good the tracking is, which is true but have you seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dVLQaz-Y6g

How bad can it be? I guess these videos are made to play up to the strength of the device but really, it sounds pretty good to me!

I used to have a GK3 which I loved and I have been trying to get back into that sort of thing. When I saw the ads I pretty much got one straight away. I will make sure to post a little stress test video when I do receive it.

Nothing invokes my confidence in a product like NAMM show floor video footage... Yep, seen it. Been months now.


Also price drops before the product is even released is peculiar.

They could do a lot more to try to sell this, if they have a strong product that is ready to ship, if they want that preorder money, IMHO. As a rule I don’t preorder any tech, one always ends up as a beta tester for 6-18 months and/or not being quite as expected/very delayed. At one time this was supposed to ship around April, but I imagine with current events that’s no longer the case. Now says May. Product was announced last July.

@ kslight OK, it's a NAMM video, but so what? They don't look like they are faking anything? Maybe the guitar in question was manually calibrated by the Jamstik engineers and the tracking you get out of the box may not be as good but OK. All guitars need some attention before sounding their best.

As for why it is getting delayed and the price is dropping, the preorder confirmation I got says number 1399. My guess is that for one reason or another they are not getting a lot of preorders (maybe for the reasons you mention).

I am still researching options for all-in-one midi guitars (which should have the best tracking) and I have seen the ROR models which look amazing but very expensive and with incredibly long delivery times. The Godins look interesting but for some reason you can't find a proper demo video (they all focus on the analog pickups which sound fine but I mean you have a MIDI guitar and you don't even try it! .. Why did you even buy one?)

Any other options?

Alternatively, what would you recommend as a build-it-yourself option? Is a flat body (something like a Strat) + GK3 still the way to go?

Let’s hear some direct recordings (not to check sound quality but tracking quality), more emphasis on playing (versus just some kid noodling like they’re at guitar center), let’s hear it hooked up to an external synth not just their software, let’s see what the recorded midi looks like (how accurate that is). Those are things I’d like before spending money.

I agree that guitars like this seem largely misunderstood and or oddly marketed and it’s hard to find good demos of anything that tell all. It’s a real niche product and by definition has a learning curve.

This seems marketed at a young player that has no prior experience with this type of guitar and is going to only use it connected to a computer.

It’s disappointing to me that they didn’t take this product just one step further and add a 13 pin out just to round the whole package out... especially now that Roland is back with the SY1000 the market is probably ready for a new Roland guitar.

I dunno what the best build it yourself option for this is. I only have the 80s Roland guitars/basses.

I would rather have a midi out than a 13-pin anyday - so no issues there.

But the lack of documentation and clear demonstration of the instrument as a controller keeps me from spending the money. Getting pretty tired of these kinds of projects where people want the money for nebulous information before they have even done the work to bring the product to market. Especially when it comes to anything related to guitar midi control. We are still in the 80's despite 40 years of people "working on it". Evolution in this area is slllloooowwwww.

Wake me up when we get there.

I have - now - finally tried it out, thoroughly, and it's neither better nor worse than anything already out there. Latency, mis-triggering, and a couple of other idiosyncrasies irks me the wrong way still. MIDI wasn't made for guitar, neither MPE or MIDI 2.0.

First, if they should go headless, they should change the entire bridge assembly out. Since it seems important that it stays and is in tune, the small crank key (remember when you had to start automobile engines with a crank at the front? ) is nothing but a major gaffe.

Use regular headless bridges, they're around, and no one has to have a license since the patent has ran out since long time ago. It's easier to have the Steinberger type where you can tune with fingers only, and even use double balle end strings to your liking or not. If one should have it, I would love a tone control on there too, for regular guitar sounds. Rather wished a tone control, than a tap switch for single coil tones. Although the actual guitar felt just ok to play with regularly, it's nothing new under the sun.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

1. I definitely want MIDI out directly from the guitar, and no adaptors, or KLUDGES made for it to work.

2. If they bothered to make a special proprietary guitar to go with the Hex MIDI pickup they should walk that extra mile with making it in composite material, especially neck AND body to buck and isolate all resonances, in order for the strings not to resonate or cause mis-triggering by dead spots, or wolf notes along the neck.

3. And this one beats me. Seriously. Today, most people, or more and more, resorts to plugin synths of their PC's and Macs, and in there, there's always an inherent latency too no matter how little. And whatever this is, it's added on top of a) this guitar pickups latencies/conversion b) IRL real time latency from speakers to your ear (3-5 ms in normal cases). So all this adds up to the c) "onbard" latency of 7-15 ms it takes. I felt that the response of lower strings was more latency that higher notes. It lagged big time when I tried it.

And today when we are seeing such things like JamOrigin MIDI Guitar 2 with about the same latency and the same tracking idiosyncrasises like hardware hex pickup equipped guitars, polyphonic, but that you can use ANY guitar with ANY cable or ANY pickup, I wonder where the ***** the demographic for things like these exists? Where's the customer base? And considering price of MG2 compared to this hex equipped guitar.

The JamStick has absolutely no better tracking/latency than MG2 (JamOrigin Midi Guitar 2), and works the same. Some glitches here and there as always, in note conversion. If there was something "killer application" or killer design in hardware on alternative detection of pitch that made this one superior to all others already out there, then it would - maybe - have some viable merit.

Still the tuning mechanism is way out of anything ergonomic and workable. If you lose that small tiny crank key, as people do with picks and allen wrenches to FR systems, you're toast basically. This one rubbed me the wrong way, the most of it all. Wonder what they'd been smoking at the design table...don't wan't any of it. They should use Occams Razor in that case, when designing.

Verdict: meh-diocre.

This thread has proved a very good read, following!

In other words, "meh".

I suspect that's because this is the only type of customer who might actually be convinced to spend money on the product.

I just saw this on sale for the first time. I like that this is a single unit instead of requiring a modified guitar and a floor processor. Any new opinions on this? I had a GK-3a and couldn't get along with tracking. Is this any better?

So I just discovered this and it seems like it might be the thing I’ve been wishing for for some time. It seems like it has been out for a little bit now and there are some reviews, but I’d really be interested in some user experiences if anyone has laid hands on one, especially if they’ve tried it with some hardware synths. Guitar was my first instrument and as I’ve gravitated toward synths in the last decade+, I’ve dreamed of a decent guitar option since keys are not as intuitive for me. Now that this has been out a moment some real world reactions would be ace.