The Jammy portable guitar has gone through its fair share of iterations, but the company is now showing off the latest model. This new version has clearly addressed some of the potential customer concerns over previous form factors and is now ready for pre-orders.
The digital/MIDI guitar market has been a shaky one at best. For most experienced players the overall form factor and neck size limitations have been an issue. Jammy is looking to remedy most of those issues with the latest version.
The Jammy Portable Guitar:
The Jammy portable guitar is now spread across a 15-fret neck and 4-piece travel-friendly design. It will run for 4+ hours on a single charge. The neck and 3-piece body break down and can fit inside most backpacks and carry-on luggage. As a guitar player that has given a fair share of these types of instruments a try over the years, the longer neck is certainly a welcomed addition, especially with the ability to split it up into a travel bag. It still might not be long enough for you to shred solos all over the neck, but offers more than enough real estate for open chord rhythm parts.
Jammy sports both 1/4-inch and mini jack outputs for direct audio to your amp or headphones. The free companion Jammy iOS app will provide you with loads of guitar tones (acoustic or electric) along with a series of effects. You can also use a metronome and backing track functionality from the mobile app as well.
Steel Strings, Hammer-Ons and More:
The Jammy Portable Guitar has steel strings to give players a more familiar feel across the fretboard. But judging by recent first hand accounts, it doesn’t sound like some of the slightly more advanced playing techniques have been implemented yet. It might not sound like much but these are typical techniques used by guitar players all the time – sometimes even subconsciously – and are integral to the kinds of guitar parts we are used to hearing everyday. Jammy lists these features (including muting: palm and left hand) as being supported, but they don’t appear to be live in the current build at this point.
As expected with these kinds of digital guitars, the Jammy also supports MIDI over USB-C. That essentially allows players to generate live MIDI data from their performances for any DAW. In other words, you can play drums, pianos, synths, strings and basically any sound your digital audio workstation/personal library supports.
Pre-Orders:
Shipments are apparently beginning this month according to the website. You can still pre-order the Jammy bundle for $399, down from the regular $599 price tag. It includes the guitar itself, extra strings, a strap, a set of custom picks and type-C charging cable.
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