China's budget music hardware maker Joyo Technology has launched an ultra portable amp rig that's aimed squarely at players who practice a lot, but don't want to lug around a small combo amp, mess around with smart device interfaces or only listen through headphones. The stomp-like, battery-powered Jam Buddy rocks two small speakers and Bluetooth for jamming along to favorite songs playing on a smartphone.
Joyo says that its Jam Buddy has been 2 years in development, and was designed as a more practical alternative to practice amps and smart gear that require players to frequently take their hands away from the instrument to alter the tone. The 156 x 183 x 75 mm (6.1 x 7.2 x 2.9 in) orange or black box has 2-inch stereo speakers rated at 4 W each at the top, an instrument input to the right, a headphone jack to the left and a built-in rechargeable 7.4 v/2,200 mAh battery that's claimed good for 3 hours.
The guitarist has clean and overdrive channels to choose from, with footswitches allowing players to switch between channels and classic or high gain drive modes. Knobs on the face are used to adjust volume, tone and gain, as well as mixing in the included delay effect, and the company says that players can daisy chain stomps between the guitar and Jam Buddy for more control over tone. Finally, there's Bluetooth 4.0 technology cooked in to allow users to feed in backing tracks from a wirelessly connected smartphone.
The Jam Buddy is available now for around US$100. Have a look at the company's promo video below to see what's on offer. Of course if you'd rather leave the stomp box at home and have the sounds and effects built into the guitar itself, then the Vox Apache or upcoming Fusion travel guitars might be a better fit.
Source: Joyo