Sonic LAB: Jammy MIDI Guitar Controller

US Portable MIDI control      19/02/21

If you are on any social media platforms, you will probably have seen a number of ads for the Jammy guitar. Its a custom MIDI controller which comes in a rather stylish, assassins style snap together case. 

In the model we are looking at , the Jammy G, it has a body, two part neck, strap and case which all lock together with a rather satisfying locking mechanism. We sent it to Matt Hodson (who in a previous life, played guitar) to test out.

The Jammy uses a combination of optical and electrical sensors to translate guitar playing into MIDI. with velocity, pitch bend and controller data (via the single assignable rotary encoder).

It has a USB-C connection, plus Bluetooth MIDI for connecting to the host and and included app for setup.

Also included is a rudimentary on-board sound engine with limited sounds for standalone playing. 

The strings are in two parts, a short section for playing, and the longer section for the fretboard - which is a shortened 15 fret type.

As Matt says, it doe take a little adaptation to the playing style but he found it works very well for chordal work and also finger picked. As keyboards are not his first instrument, he found it helped him quickly put in notes to pieces he was working on using a familiar method.

In terms of latency, it was impressive, though retriggering fast work was sometime a little more pernickety.

Jammy G is available now priced at £322/$449 (currently discounted till Feb 28th/21)

https://shop.playjammy.com/products/jammy-midi-guitar

Matts on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3W9F21HExKg31MAsIJ0Vsg

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