Originally Posted By: TRYUK
I have recently tried out the Jamstik Studio MIDI guitar and was very disappointed with it. Considering the cost the actual guitar was equal to any guitar in the £200 range I have tried. As for the MIDI, very hit and miss despite spending hours getting it set up. In the end I returned it as totally unsuitable.

So, my question is are there any MIDI guitars out there that are good quality with MIDI electronics that actually work well?


I have an old Casio Strat MIDI controller that works well:

https://www.ebay.com/c/1103439199

But there are things that you should be aware of when working with any guitar MIDI controller.

1-You can't play it like you play a regular guitar. You must be very articulate in your fingering and picking. You can be a little sloppy in your guitar playing but MIDI will pick up everything, thus you will be doing a lot of editing. Strumming is a good example in that playing a guitar it is fine but not so when using MIDI.

2-It takes a few string vibrations for a MIDI guitar controller to decide what note you are playing. Thus the thicker the strings the longer the time. I use 8s on my Casio.

3-Keeping #2 in mind if you want to play say a cello lead on a MIDI guitar playing in it on bass strings will induce latency, again do to the string vibration. But on the Casio and I'm sure on other MIDI guitar controllers there is an octave setting. So I can play the cello part on the thin strings and have it sound an octave lower. The same with a bass guitar sound. With higher octave instruments I set the guitar to sound an octave higher.

4-Any guitar MIDI controller has to be set up for your playing techniques. This can be a daunting time consuming taste but will worth the effort.

If you think you can pick up a guitar MIDI controller and just start playing then you are kidding yourself. If you can read music and have the time getting a new MIDI keyboard controller is an option. Also if you are going to use the guitar controller to on wind instruments then you would be better off with an AKAI EWI-USB wind controller. I have a guitar, keyboard, and wind MIDI controller and they all have areas where they excel over the others.

I hope this helps and good luck.

Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer.
It's called the Heineken Maneuver.

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware