The Hammer Jammer Will Go from Intangible Viral Video, that You Argue About, to Mass-Produced Physical Item

Remember the Hammer Jammer? The little $30 accessory clamped on to the bridge area of a guitar, where its 6 hammers could strike the individual strings, creating a tone not unlike a hammered dulcimer. We were amongst the throngs of musician sites to cover the gizmo, which lead to the prototype batch selling out almost immediately. All we had left in the wake were demo videos and a comments section on fire with vitriol.

Now HJ inventor Ken McCaw (please god let him have business cards that say “inventor of the HJ”… I could amuse myself for hours in a bar if I had a stack) and his Big Walnut productions (because of course the inventor of the HJ would have big walnuts) has taken to Kickstarter, to fund the mass production of his unexpected hit accessory.

 The Hammer Jammer was invented in the 90’s, with about 2000 samples produced at that time which were never pushed into the mainstream guitar market for a number of reasons.  However, Ken McCaw, inventor of the Hammer Jammer, who is also a film composer, used the Hammer Jammer on a trailer for a feature film released in Europe about five years ago.  From that, interest for this unique invention began to grow around the world.

The demonstration video in this Kickstarter program was posted on YouTube in January 2014, which went viral.  It became obvious quickly that this unique invention is now ready for the guitar market. All Hammer Jammer samples were sold within a couple weeks, to players in 60 countries, many of them young guitarists beginning their careers.

This Kickerstarter program is for the purpose of building new tools for the device, which will include some requested modifications which will provide additional instrument applications.  It has also been learned recently that the Hammer Jammer provides a legitimate and highly useful device for handicapped persons, and players with arthritis and other issues which make finger picking and standard picking technique prohibitive.

Because of the cruel realities of supply and demand, you’ll now need to cough up $65 to reserve a Hammer Jammer of your own. Or you can get a whopping discount: 2 for $130! Ken McCaw is keeping the original price though, and then subtracting an additional $5, if you’re buying one for donation to a wounded veteran. Wow, that’s the kind of good deed that makes me feel like shit for all those HJ jokes a couple paragraphs ago.

If you want to be a Hammer Jammer Backer, head over to the Kickstarter page.

Source: Guitar World