Jammy: A pointless portable digital guitar?
Another useless guitar invention?
Jammy is being billed as a portable digital guitar aimed at guitarists that would like to simulate playing a real steel strung guitar while on the move. However, it’s looks decidedly like a toy, so will it hold up and help us play riffs when we’re away from home?
Jammy
The ‘problem’ of needing a portable guitar is not a huge issue for many. I mean, ask someone that plays the drums or the cello about portability and practise, they will laugh in your face if you say that guitars are hard to travel with.
Yet every few years some ‘innovative’ company or another comes up with a solution to the ‘problem’. This time it is the turn of Jammy. To my eye, it looks a bit like a controller for a computer game like Guitar Hero and my first impression was tainted by this greatly. But having looked at it in more detail, it’s my considered opinion that it is… an utter waste of time and money.
Jammy Portable Digital Guitar · Source: Jammy
Pointless
Okay, this may sound harsh to some, but stick with me on this. What use is a guitar neck that slides up and down along the length of a virtual fretboard? This will never help you attain the proper finger strength and dexterity to play a normal guitar.
This product is fixing a problem that doesn’t really exist and so for me, it is truly pointless. Yes, there is an app (there is always an app nowadays), but I would argue there are already plenty of decent guitar amp simulation apps, looping apps, tab apps and recording apps already out there and have been for quite some time.
Jammy App · Source: Jammy
Travel Guitar
If I was going to spend any money I would have opted for something like this Harley Benton Mini guitar and in fact, I actually own one of these myself for this very reason. It’s great when I am on the move and it will fit in a suitcase if I am on holiday. Pair it up with a smart phone or a mini amp and off you go. Plus, you don’t look like a total pr**k playing it, you just look a bit like a giant…
Jammy’s makers claim it has a full-scale neck, which would have been great if it wasn’t for the fact you cannot actually move your hand up and down it physically, as you have to slide the actual neck ‘in and out’ and so solos, arpeggios and scale work are rather limited on it.
It has got a headphone socket for silent practice and you can use it with an app, but for me it falls at the first hurdle because of the neck design. As they say on Dragons Den, “I’m out”. Nice try, but for me a total fail and a waste of money – whatever it costs. It looks like a trombone and a Steinberger headless guitar were left in a dark room together with a bottle of cheap wine…
RRP – TBC
Jammy main page
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