Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar (Orange Matte)

This guitar is really cool! From researching Jamstik in the past, I was worried that the guitar would feel more like a MIDI controller, or even more like a toy. However, taking it out of the package I was immediately put at ease. It has the look and feel of a high quality regular (albeit headless) guitar. And as I discovered after that, it has the sound and playing experience of a regular guitar, too!The lack of head on the guitar gives is a very modern and sort of edgy appearance. It's also smaller than all my other guitars, but only by a little bit. Enough to make it more portable and easier to not knock things over in the studio, but not so much that it feels like you're playing a miniature instrument.So, for studio work or traveling, it's really nice, and it holds its own with a lot of good normal (e.g. non-MIDI, non-headless) guitars. But on top of that, you get an entire world of MIDI connectivity and accurate tracking that opens up so many possibilities that it's almost mind-boggling.The tracking is really accurate, and controlling other virtual instruments (or even FX) with it is a really unique, and really awesome, experience. This is great for guitarists in the studio, and it's also great for studio musicians in general who want a new type of controller that offers new possibilities.If I were playing out at a gig, and if I just needed a regular guitar, then I would probably just take one of my normal guitars, but that being said, if the Jamstik Studio is your primary guitar, then there is no reason you couldn't use it as a normal guitar for playing out. Where it really shines is in the studio for any combination of recording, jamming, or sound design.Tuning the guitar is pretty simple, but it does require a tool and could be just slightly easier. Still, it's much easier to tune my Jamstik (and keep it in tune) than with my floating bridge guitar, you don't need to keep the tension balanced across the strings, you just need to tune each string correctly using the provided tool.I haven't had to re-string the guitar yet, and I'm not even sure if it uses normal strings or not, so I will update my review if I run into any challenges when the time comes.If you're looking for a MIDI guitar, or if you're a guitarist looking to inject some fresh sounds into your songs without learning a new instrument, I really can't recommend the Jamstik Studio highly enough.

Had some issues with my initial order not shipping with the battery and had to purchase my own elsewhere. They sent me a link to their supplier, who was out of stock. So I had to track one down on my own. It was a pain and took over a week.As far as the guitar itself, I only wanted this to use as a midi controller. So I didn't care how it sounded and wasn't that concerned with how it was going to play, but after some setup, it plays fine.As a midi controller, it's.. also okay. The latency isn't great, but it's manageable for simple parts and it's easier that finding the chords on a keyboard which is nice.I also use Ableton, which has compatibility issues with MPE, so that's another issue, but it might be better with other DAWs.Basically, if you only want the midi functionality as a writing tool, it's usable. If you're expecting it to work perfectly with low latency, probably going to have a bad time.Additional note- I've been testing this guitar on Ableton 11 with their VST, Omnisphere, Serum, and Sublab.

i wanted to like this guitar. i gave them the benefit of the doubt as a kickstarter/crowdfunded kind of company. but to be honest, there's no excuse for this. it's absolute crap. calling the craftsmanship "squier-tier" is actually an insult to squier. the cuts, routing, sanding, finish, planing/leveling are all VISIBLY off. I can see the imperfections with the naked eye, and they aren't hard to find. the playability is about as good as a no-name amazon prime guitar around the $200 price point. the midi capability (when it works) is terrible. don't expect to get fancy and have ANY of your bends, trills, slides, nuances translate to midi. you'll be lucking to get straight eighth note power chords to translate into your DAW. fun fact: my usb functionality QUIT working about seven months after purchase. just won't connect to my computer/daw anymore. tried opening the back and doing the battery take out/put back in schtick that they recommend. nothing. midi is somehow fried. never dropped it, smacked it, bashed it, never let it get dirty or too hot/cold. it LIVED in it's softbag when i wasn't playing it. this thing is built so badly that it just STOPPED working. no help from Jamstik support. save your money. 3rd rate guitar craftsmanship and barely-functional midi/usb. just spend the money and put a roland midi pickup on your regular guitar.