What is it?
MIDI was first introduced in the early 1980s and kick-started a revolution in the composition and production of music.
From easy programming of synthesizers to creating complex multi-instrument scores, it allowed musicians to streamline their processes to a degree that would have been unthinkable before. It’s still the technical standard for music programming, with millions of users worldwide.
For all this ubiquity, and all this ease of use, MIDI still exists on the fringes of consciousness for many guitarists. There are plenty of MIDI-capable amplifiers and effects out there, but the proportion of buyers that use those features is anyone’s guess.
And what of the MIDI electric guitar? In theory, a fantastic crossover instrument that allows guitarists to communicate in this universal musical language, creating notation that can be read instantly by any other MIDI instrument, and allowing notes played on the guitar to be heard in the voices of other instruments.
In practice, though, dedicated MIDI guitars are often quite a compromised proposition, with tedious setup procedures, plus latency and triggering issues severely hobbling the guitar's expressive potential.
In theory, these are the problems Jamstik is here to solve. The company has become known for its MIDI guitar architecture, and now its technology finds a new home - in an instrument by Swedish ergonomic guitar mainstays Strandberg.
Specs
- Price: $2,199 | £1,799
- Made: Indonesia
- Type: Six-string MIDI-enabled electric guitar
- Body: Meranti
- Neck: Roasted maple, EndurNeck profile
- Fingerboard material/radius: Rosewood, 20”
- Scale length: 25.5”/648mm
- Nut/width: Plastic, 42mm
- Frets: 24, DHP 28HFS stainless steel
- Hardware: EGS Arc fixed bridge and tuners
- String spacing at bridge: 52.5mm
- Electrics: Strandberg Custom Hot bridge humbucker, Strandberg Custom Vintage neck humbucker, 6-channel hexaphonic MIDI pickup, Volume, Tone, 5-way pickup selector
- Weight: 4.7lb/2.1kg
- Left-handed options: No
- Finishes: Chameleon gloss
- Case: Strandberg gig bag included
- Contact: Jamstick
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★☆
I’ve reviewed a couple of Strandbergs in recent months, their design and execution impressing each time. In order to sit at a similar price point to its non-MIDI stablemates, this model is based on the more affordable Boden Essential; it concedes some features to the Standard models, but the essence is still there.
The body is meranti and the roasted maple neck is capped with a light-coloured rosewood fretboard - and this is the first Strandberg I've played with straight, rather than fanned, frets. Two own-brand magnetic humbuckers mix it with Jamstik's six-channel hexaphonic MIDI pickup, with all its processing built in - no need for cumbersome outboard gear here.
The usual excellent build, feather-light weight and fantastic balance is present and correct and, of course, the company's ergonomically-optimised EndurNeck profile makes an appearance too.
Rather than the usual satin, here we’ve a tasty gloss ‘Chameleon’ finish, for which the guitar is named. True to its namesake, the finish changes in the light between shades of green, grey and purple.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★½
All the guitar parts of this MIDI guitar feel as good as you’d hope. Every Strandberg I’ve met has been fantastic to play, and the Chameleon is no exception. It's a delight to sit, or stand, with it for hours on end, the lightweight ergonomic design exerting minimal strain on your body.
If you’re new to Jamstik or to MIDI guitar in general, though, you might expect the mental strain of setting up the tech to make up for it.
There’s certainly the question of exactly how to connect the guitar to the computer – Jamstik supplies a MIDI-TRS cable, and a USB-C data cable, but if you've no MIDI interface or no USB-C input on your computer, neither will be much use. Luckily, I had a data-enabled USB-A to USB-C cable to hand.
In practice, the Jamstik Creator app (and its extensive associated sound library) works very well, and provides easy access to an impressive range of sounds. It can also be used as a plugin on your DAW – I loaded it into Logic, and was able to record straight away using sounds chosen from the library.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★☆
There’s quite some novelty to the Jamstik experience. As a fairly hopeless keyboard player, it was very gratifying to hear myself finally sounding competent through a variety of synth sounds. A key part of Jamstik's USP is the promise of extremely low latency, and indeed it is barely noticeable; it should pose no functional issue at all for most users.
And of course, everything you record is able to be read by any other MIDI instrument – so if you want to create a large score but guitar is your only instrument, it’s a whole lot easier to achieve that goal.
It must be said that, in my experience, the tracking and triggering were good but still not perfect – and even the best MIDI guitar still requires you to play differently than you otherwise might. Machine-like precision is paramount when recording accurate MIDI and, though the clever processor recognises bends, slides and vibrato, for some players, the expressiveness of the guitar can still be lost in the process.
it can still be used as a normal magnetic-pickup guitar, with all the aplomb of other Strandbergs we’ve seen recently
Further tweaking of sensitivity settings, pickup heights and so on will all steer you closer to an ideal setup. It's more involved than ‘just’ recording guitar tracks, of course, but never lose sight of how much more utility is on offer here.
And in all of this, the quality of the Chameleon shines through – making the aforementioned precision that much easier. And it can still be used as a normal magnetic-pickup guitar, with all the aplomb of other Strandbergs we’ve seen recently.
Verdict
The Chameleon is significantly more expensive than the non-MIDI Boden Essential on which it's based, but the tech creates so much added value that there's little use comparing the two.
It's the MIDI guitar to beat
It has all the strengths of the usual Strandberg experience, with a huge amount of extra utility, and with that in mind, the price makes more sense.
Is it a foil to all the issues with previous MIDI guitars? Perhaps not – but with this technology, and the strength of the instrument it's mounted in, it's the MIDI guitar to beat.
MusicRadar verdict: The Strandberg x Jamstik Chameleon certainly lives up to its name – providing access to sounds you'll never have heard from a guitar before. The MIDI guitar remains an esoteric idea for most, but that idea has been executed to an extremely high standard here.
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
Build quality |
It’s a tight and accomplished build, but it is appreciably based on the entry level Strandberg to justify this MIDI technology at its price. |
★★★★☆ |
Playability |
Always a Strandberg strength, and this is no exception. Superb – and some players will feel happier with the non-fanned frets. |
★★★★½ |
Sounds |
The MIDI tech is very well-executed, but still requires some care, adjustment and adaptation to get the best from it. |
★★★★☆ |
Overall |
If a MIDI guitar is what you need, Jamstik are doing great work. This is its most compelling product yet. |
★★★★☆ |
