Players often get quite passionate about Strandberg guitars – they either really love the lightweight headless wonders or they're very vocal in their hatred. The innovative Swedes behind such polarizing creations have now joined forces with MIDI masters Jamstik for a powerful six-string beast named Chameleon.
The idea for Jamstik began in 2013 as a MIDI-powered practice/learning device that you could throw in a backpack between noodling, and pair up with an iPhone to make sounds through an onboard speaker or via headphones.
It had real guitar strings to keep your hard-earned calluses intact, five equally spaced frets for real-guitar feel, and lots of sonic potential thanks to mobile music production apps. A custom learning app also put a teacher in your pocket for anytime/anywhere lessons, and your new plastic pal was battery powered and portable.
The original Jamstiks found crowdfunding success on Indiegogo and Kickstarter, and grew to seven and 12 frets by 2018, and even to something approaching a full-sized guitar the following year – with passive humbuckers and MIDI pickups, but still no headstock. That full guitar vision was realized in 2023 with a S-type beauty called the Studio MIDI Guitar, which was joined just last year by a stripped-back, more accessible version called the Core.
Now Jamstik has entered familiar yet uncharted territory for a premium hybrid instrument in collaboration with Strandberg Guitars. It's not the first notable partnership we've seen in this crowdfunding success story – that honor goes to Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater. The Chameleon is very much a Strandberg at heart, with Jamstik MIDI wizardry cooked in for good measure.
For readers unfamiliar with Strandberg Guitars, the company makes bizarre-looking, headless axes that have been championed by modern guitar heroes like Tosin Abasi, Plini and Sarah Longfield, as well as musical genius Jacob Collier. The body shape is equally weird, and crafted for comfortable seated playing.
But for me, it's all about the neck. Rather than a rounded C or slim D profile that you might wrap your fretting hand around on other models, Strandberg's often feature the patented EndurNeck – which rocks a flat back that runs at a slight twist from nut to pickup, and is designed for excellent ergonomics.
It feels very strange at first, but going back to a regular neck profile after playing a Strandberg for a wee while seems like very hard work. At least it did for me. These instruments can divide opinion like no other, and buyers can expect to pay a pretty price to own one. But they've earned a significant and dedicated following, particularly among modern players.
The Chameleon that debuted at the NAMM expo in Anaheim, California, recently retains much of the Strandberg DNA, including that striking body with comfort contouring for the picking arm and belly as well as two leg carves that help present different neck angles while seated.
There's a generous heel carve to allow comfortable access to the dusty end of the 24-fret rosewood fingerboard atop a roasted maple EndurNeck. And of course, all of the tuning is undertaken at the bridge end. You don't get fan frets like you'll see on some Strandbergs, though. This guitar rocks Custom Hot Bridge and Custom Vintage humbucking pickups controlled using a five-way switch.
The special Strandberg isn't just a full analog electric guitar, but comes packing a MIDI pickup system courtesy of Jamstik. Each string has pitch detection capabilities cooked in, "enabling musicians to control software instruments, hardware synthesizers, and digital production tools from a single instrument." As well as the familiar analog output jack, players also get USB-C for cabling direct to a computer, TRS-MIDI to control hardware, and Bluetooth for control and config through a smartphone.
"By embedding our MIDI technology into Strandberg's guitars, we've built an instrument that supports modern creative workflows while still feeling unmistakably like a world-class guitar," said Jamstik's Jonathan Keller. "Strandberg's craftsmanship and ergonomics gave us the ideal foundation to make MIDI feel expressive, musical, and completely natural to play."
While you can grab yourself a regular Strandberg for a little over a thousand bucks – though stock instruments can get as high as US$8k – the Chameleon is priced about the same as a Metal NX6 model at $2,199.
