Guitar Gear

I purposely made the title hanging like I did because I’ve made a name for myself by not panning products. But there are some products that really don’t make a lot of sense to me. Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of ads pop up on my social media for the Jamstack portable amp; you know, the one that attaches to the body of your computer. It’s a novel idea, and the demo videos certainly do the product justice, BUT…

1. I’m not sure where I would personally find this device useful. Now I realize that it’s really not meant to be a performance amp. And I can see some real usefulness for jamming at home. But if I’m just jamming and practicing, it’s just as easy for me to plug my guitar into one of my amps, or attach my iRig to my guitar and mess around with AmpliTube on my computer.
2. At $249, it’s a pretty hefty price to pay for something that will never leave my house. Yeah, I suppose I could take it to friends’ houses to play. But when I’ve done jam sessions in the past, there’s usually some kind of drum kit. No way could this keep up with a drummer, even if he or she played really softly.
3. I searched long and hard and couldn’t find a single review from one of the major guitar gear magazines. Maybe I missed them, but the only reviews I’ve seen on this are mostly from tech gadget sites that aren’t guitar focused. And the reviews that are on general musical instrument sites seem suspiciously like paid advertisements disguised as reviews. And more than anything else, the absence of a review from a major trade rag despite all the money that’s being spent advertising this gives me pause.

If the cost was more in line with some of the micro amps that are out there, I’d probably take a more serious look. But at more than twice the price of a micro amp, it’s a tough proposition to get me to even consider equipment like this.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that Jamstack works great for what it does. But there aren’t enough compelling features to get me to buy one.