MIDI guitars have been around for nearly 40 years but have always been a bit niche. Does the Jamstik Studio break that mould and become a truly useable instrument?
In a recent article I wrote for MT I discussed accessibility in music technology as something that needed further exploration. One of the key points I made was that the interface for getting music into a DAW or Score Editor is, for the vast majority of the time, a keyboard. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this in principle – the keyboard is visual, has a simple mechanism, and is relatively easy to understand.
But the simple fact is, there are an awful lot of people who aren't primarily keyboard players, and it seems that things could be made much more accessible if other instruments could input data to a computer in the same way as a piano keyboard. However, there are a great number of difficulties related to this. A piano key is, when all is said and done, a button. Admittedly a very sensitive button – but a button, nonetheless. There aren't multiple ways to play the same note, and intonation is never an issue. This is not true of a lot of other instruments – including the guitar.
History
Using guitars to control other electronic instruments has been around for a surprisingly long time and began with a Roland pickup that generated a control voltage to trigger a synth. This evolved into the GK-Series of after-market MIDI guitar pickups that they still make. There were also some weird attempts at MIDI guitars in the 1980s, including the SynthAxe (Google it – it's weird!) but the technology has never really caught on.
Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar
The latest attempt to create a MIDI guitar comes from American Company Jamstik. They have approached the idea in a slightly different way in that the Studio Guitar is also just an ordinary electric guitar.
Most secondary schools will have some form of electric guitar but having an additional one available is rarely a problem in my book – I'm constantly asked if someone can borrow a guitar. But the Jamstik Studio Guitar has something called a hexaphonic pickup installed next to the bridge that tracks the output of each string individually, identifies the pitch being played, and sends that output as a MIDI signal.
Unboxing and playing
The first thing I noticed when unpacking the guitar is how small it is. This is a very compact instrument but still, amazingly, has a full scale-length. The other obvious feature is the lack of a headstock and tuners at the bridge end of the guitar, giving the instrument a very ‘80s feel. It's not entirely clear why this decision has been made and, as a guitarist, it feels slightly odd to me not to have a headstock at the end of the instrument and makes the guitar slightly unbalanced to play.
The tuners in the bridge are thumb screws with a slot in the top for an allen key for fine tuning. The allen key is helpfully included and slots neatly into the bridge with a magnet – but in an education setting this will get lost within minutes. The reason for this design is presumably to aid very accurate tuning and avoid accidental de-tuning of the guitar. The MIDI pickup requires very accurate pitch to allow accurate tracking for the conversion from audio to MIDI. However, I don't find that normal tuners move that much, and tuner locking systems – such as the Floyd Rose system – have been around for a very long time and avoid the lack of headstock and tiny allen keys.
The sound
I started by exploring the sound of the actual guitar before I got into the MIDI elements. This guitar is a standard two-humbucker instrument with a single volume control. It has the ability to ‘coil tap’ the pickups to get the sound of a single coil for additional versatility. The guitar is a perfectly good sounding electric and will be a useful addition to any school instrument stock. As a standard guitar it will be perfectly fine for most scenarios, but first-study guitar students will probably find their own instruments more suited to their needs.
Using the MIDI
Jamstik has helpfully included all the relevant cables to connect the instrument to a computer for MIDI control. The USB-C to USB-A connects to the bottom of the instrument and is also used to charge the MIDI elements of the instrument. When connected, my computer instantly recognised the instrument as a MIDI device, and it meant I was ready to record straight away without having to worry about any drivers.
I was using Logic as my DAW of choice and began by loading up a stock software instrument before exploring some of the more elaborate sounds that the Jamstik Studio software has included with the guitar. The instrument worked instantly, and I found the experience of playing synthesisers via a guitar a hugely novel one.
One initial observation of the MIDI output was that it was very low relative to the equivalent dynamic level of a MIDI keyboard. I found I had to hit the guitar an awful lot harder than I would to get the equivalent dynamic or volume from a MIDI keyboard; this had the knock-on effect of not always triggering the instruments as effectively as I might like. Some of the instruments in Logic required a slightly louder signal than I could provide by playing the guitar.
The software
Given the difficulties I was having with the velocity, it seemed like the time to explore the included software. The Jamstik Creator has a dual function: it serves as both the calibration software for the guitar and a soft synth containing some sounds that really show off the abilities of the studio guitar.
The calibration section allows very specific adjustments to each element of the hexaphonic pickup, including increasing the sensitivity (hooray!). It was possible to check the tuning of each string from this view to ensure that everything was perfectly set up.The body of the Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar comes in a range of colours, including orange
The instrument library includes a wide range of synth sounds that are all in the electronic category but are quite varied and include some very useable sounds. The advantage of using these instruments is that they respond to individual string bends and vibrato rather than the pitch-bend wheel on a keyboard that bends everything at the same time. This uses something called MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE), which is becoming increasingly popular in DAWs, but is not yet universally available.
Inspiration
Once I really got into using the guitar, I found it incredibly inspirational. I am a significantly better guitarist than I am a keyboard player and found the voicings that I could achieve on the guitar, when played through a synth, really inspired me to make some music.
I gave the instrument to a few students to explore, and they also found it a really interesting method of making music. The piano keyboard is an amazing interface for inputting MIDI data, but it does restrict performance techniques to those of the keyboard. The guitar as interface isn't better, but it is different and provides wider access to those who don't have great keyboard skills.
Summary
The Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar is a truly inspirational instrument – I found myself creating music in my DAW in a way that I had never done before. The MIDI tracking is exceptional, although I did have to make sure my picking was very accurate at times and captured every nuance of my playing.
The elephant in the room that does now need to be addressed is the price. At $799 this is an expensive piece of kit and it's unlikely that many schools will be rushing out to buy a class set, but it is definitely something to consider. The price would be comparable to buying a mid-priced guitar and an aftermarket MIDI pickup, but significantly easier to manage. Aftermarket MIDI pickups are large and prone to damage, whereas the Jamstik Studio is solidly built.
Whether you think the investment in a $799 MIDI guitar is worth it to widen the accessibility of MIDI creation in your classroom is a difficult call. Personally, I have decided that it is. All of my classroom workstations have a piano keyboard, and we now have one Jamstik Studio for those who would like to use it, and it gets used in most composition lessons. This is certainly not replacing the piano keyboard as our default MIDI controller, but it is an inspirational alternative. I can thoroughly recommend the Jamstik Studio as the best MIDI guitar I've ever played.
Cost: $799
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