Hammer Jammer is a Gamer Changer

Slappa de…guitar? This was just called to my attention, and I am now calling it to yours. Have you ever wanted to turn your guitar into a hammered dulcimer? Because I sure as shit never have. Until now!

ADVERTISEMENT

The Hammer Jammer (available direct from Big Walnut Productions) is a cheap ($30) device that you clamp to your axe that uses piano-like hammers to create percussive sounds and play your guitar with a totally different type of attack. For that kind of money, it’s in the same category as a capo, slide, tuner, or a cable, just another accessory to have for occasional use for certain things. Like FUN!

I’m for it. Thoughts?

Written by

As Editor-in-Chief of Gear Gods, I've been feeding your sick instrument fetishism and trying unsuccessfully to hide my own since 2013. I studied music on both coasts (Berklee and SSU) and now I'm just trying to put my degree to some use. That's a music degree, not an English one. I'm sure you noticed.

Latest comments
  • But can you slap like Tosin with it?

    • i think you can slap and sound like yourself with it.. ;-)

  • This is really cool. I wish I had $30.00.

  • 6 string bass? pls? :3

    • just for the different sound

      • It doesn’t look like it would fit a 6-string bass because the string spacing is different. Although I would be curious to hear it. Maybe they should get on the bass versions.

  • Metal motherfucker, do you play it ?!!

    • Why play metal when you can play fucking music?

      • Metal is also music. Not all metal ofcourse, as not all music is music…

        • like Asking alexandria, bvb and avenged sevenfold. yeah they’re not metal. not sure if they’re even music :D

      • because metal is good and is music? maybe that’s why.

        • i feel like everyone who pulls the “metal” argument out forgets this… Metal is an extremely technical and skilled style… what we’re saying is, is metal has more talent in it (not more than classical) but it’s not JUSTIN BIEBER or NIKKI MINAJ stupid… like green day stupid… like not… nickelback bad… see what i’m saying… people realize that when we say “metal” we mean Alexi, Dave Mustaine, Yngwie, you know actual technical and skilled metal, not this new shit… just bar chords and unstructured bullshit

      • metal music actually takes a lot of talent to play if you actually play real metal. not all of this stupid bullshit that everyone calls metal. metal has way more meaning behind it and much more talent and passion behind it than any other form of music so you sir can go suck a fuck and stop being a judgmental prick about what kind of music you hate.

        • Whoa… whoa… whoa…. That is highly debatable that Metal has more talent, passion, and meaning behind it than any other genre…. I mean honestly do you know how hard it is to write a symphony for a 200 piece orchestra (for example), and the fact that those musicians are so talented that they can be just given a sheet of music and play it almost perfectly the first time through without ever hearing it… And in regard to passion, if you’re dedicated to creating music, it doesn’t matter what genre you are in and it could still be more passionate… Well fuck, I bet that any old Mariachi band plays with more heart than whoever the fuck you’re talking about…

          • you sir, nailed the nail on the nail. PREACH!

          • The guy said ‘real metal’ versus ‘stupid bullshit that everyone calls metal’. He didn’t compare it to symphonies and such, only to things that are clumped within the same genre. If you’re going to rant, at least read more than half a sentence first…

          • Actually, I take that back, I missed a line of the comment somehow. My apologies.

          • You really, really can’t just play it first time. The composer hears something in his mind, and it will always be of a different ideal until the artist himself can instruct the orchestra playing it. Playing a piece correctly tonally is easy, but matching the composer’s ideal is not. It can sometimes require hundreds of hours of practicing, both singularly and collectively. Very often the music undergoes tens of revisions as well, while being learned.

        • All music takes passion and work. Noone is listening to pantera all the time. Got to ad some pink Floyd and some public enemy and incubus

        • you sir, need to leave your house once in a while, and smell the roses, comparing one piece of music to another is an impossibility, because each piece comes from a different though, a different frame of mind, and a different human, THEY ARE ALL EQUAL!

          • Well man,I wouldn’t say there all equal.I mean…would you put drone metal on the same level as classical music?Or contemporary pop with jazz?How about nowadays “screamo/shitcore” with classic/iconic metal music?

            Sure it’s all music but they are not all equals.Sure certain music genre’s may have more depth to it to the listener than others(like loving drone and hating classical)but it still doesn’t change the fact that other forms of music require much more skill and/or emotion to pull off.

            But that’s just,like,my opinion man.

    • ED SHEERAN

  • Cooooool

  • take my money. wanna try some crazy death or thrash with it

  • I liked the slap-funk-guitar thing; pretty cool little item, unusual…

  • This would be great for someone who has lost function in their pick hand or maybe lost it altogether in an industrial accident. They can use their nub to play guitar again. Great invention. I love it.

    • I have a nub from a motorcycle chain, and while I can hold a pick, I can’t finger pick for shit. I think I’m gonna get one.

  • Looks like an aid to help learn finger style living without the pain and flamginco. Its another way to cheapen guitar players. But hey if the hammer seperayes me from everyone else. Everyone should buy it

    • Get over yourself. Nothing will separate you from “everyone else” because nobody has heard of you in the first place.
      Let other people play guitar how they want to play guitar.

      • You said I was stopping anyone from using it. I bet you won’t buy it. Taking its side like you know first hand.

    • This obviously isn’t an “aid” for learning anything, or living without the pain of flamingos. It gives you a different attack, hence a different sound. Not a shortcut.

      • Did you see the video?

        • yep I did douchebag

          • Then you understand that you should like a dunbass, dumbass.

  • Do they make one with only one slapper that I can put on my Djent stick… or maybe on my weiner?

    • Lord I hope so because I can’t afford the $30 one but could probably shell out $5 for the Djent stick addition.

  • Interesting…

  • i would buy a guitar just for this

  • do want

  • I can see using it to rapid pick every other string or other chords without hitting all strings. I also think its taking away from learning how to finger tap and eight string slap capabilities that should be learned first. Its like driving a motorcycle with training wheels.

    • Please check out Tosin Abasi to see what this can’t make you sound like.

      • How does it detract from tapping? Tapping uses both hands on the fretboard man, this only contacts the strings over the pickups/soundhole. The slapping thing is true though it would get in the way of that. I also doubt that most people who want to sound like Tosin would see this as a way of emulating him. Afterall, the mechanics of slapping, while in some ways similar to what this device offers, is very different. The way I see it, this device is a new possibility and nothing more. In the hands of a creative/talented/inspired artist, it allows for something that cannot be created in any other way. I bet Tosin could come up with lots of interesting things with this. An artist interested in the effect of the music, not its method of creation.

      • Is this nathan from cape girardeau, missouri?

  • I used to do that with pencils and chopsticks.

  • I suck and I’m better then that, and I CAN play upside down

  • Want to see shredding with this :)

  • Sheesh.. Get a pic will ya lol.. Kinda cool..

  • i have six flamingos that just tap at the strings that i tell them to, with telepathy. will this thing fit in my fanny-pack?

  • I think most people commenting on this are being a little quick to assign some sort of meaning to this device, a piece of technology when ultimately it is the person using the technology that determines its value and purpose. It is a tool that can be used to create a different sound than playing with fingers or a pick. Can it be used as a crutch? Probably. Should it? Definitely not. But I think you are ignoring that this is not intended as a “Way to play guitar without knowing how to play guitar.” Rather, it is an attempt to provide guitarists with another possibility. A different color on the painters pallete or chisel in the sculptors tool set, there if the artist desires it. In fact, I would think it would be useless as a way to play guitar, sans-practice. After all, it only allows you to attack the strings with a keyboard-esque mechanism for the right hand. All of the work with the left hand is still required of the player, otherwise it would only be open strings.

    • This is the only intelligible comment I’ve read so far.

  • Why use that thing when you can essentially create the same sound traditionally without it sounding generic? Seems like a lazy way to play guitar in my opinion.

    • well, as every utility, you can use it to be lazy, or to do awesome stuff with it that was not possible before.

  • but then how would i do da palm m00tz

  • Jinxy Bear will change the face of music with this device. Very cool!!

  • someone please give one of these to guthrie govan and film the results

  • Or you could just learn how to slap a guitar like a bass.

  • seems like no one here actually has the product to even speak on, but i agree its not for the beginner but just another tool very intriging for a fingerstyle player also. ive order mine they prices are gonna go up get them while they are still in this prototype form.

  • Just bought one of these. It’s the fucking shit man seriously. Mine has a tiny bit of rattle but I ay have gotten a defective piece. I’ve since emailed them about it to see if I can head over to the shop and maybe get a replacement. Other than that, you guys are gonna fucking LOVE this shit.

  • They should make one for base guitars too.

  • sweet!

  • it’s $70.00 now as of May 2017.

leave a comment