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What is it?
While it is certainly a rewarding experience, learning an instrument is hard. Thankfully, as far as the guitar goes, there are plenty of readily-available resources, including online guitar lessons through which anyone can teach themselves, as well as a huge selection of entry-level guitars to choose from. The new Litejam RGB24 aims to combine both of these things, offering an instrument that not only serves as your first electric guitar, but also your teacher.
It does this through color-coded LEDs set into the frets that show you exactly where to put your fingers. These lights are controlled via an app, which tells the guitar which LEDs to display. For example, tell the app you want a C chord, and the app will (over Bluetooth) make the guitar light up the relevant frets, color-coded to tell you which finger should go where. A pretty straightforward concept – at least on paper.
Before getting into review-writing, I spent a decade teaching guitar, and still do a little of it here and there. So, I’m left wondering if this is something that will help or hinder students. Time to find out.
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Specs
- Launch price: $579 | £395 | €446
- Made: China
- Type: Six-string electric guitar
- Body: Basswood
- Neck: Maple, C-shape
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Scale length: 25.5″
- Nut/width: Bone, 41mm
- Frets: 24, medium jumbo
- Hardware: Litejam chrome premium die-cast tuners, chrome vibrato bridge
- String spacing at bridge: 11mm
- Electrics: HSH, ceramic pickups, bridge pickup coil split
- Weight: 7.4lbs/3.4kg
- Options: N/A
- Left-handed options: Yes, black and white
- Finishes: White (as reviewed), Black
- Cases: Litejam soft case
- Contact: Litejam
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★
Putting the lights aside for a second, the guitar itself consists of a basswood body, maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. Initial impressions are good, with no obvious defects out of the box.
The RGB24 sports 24 medium-jumbo frets that feel a little grainy under the strings, so could use a little polishing. Similarly, the action is high out of the box at a less than beginner-friendly 2mm on the low E and 1.75mm on the high E.
The Litejam Premium die-cast tuners feel robust in use for an affordable guitar, and while tuning does slip after a few over-the-top bends, it is acceptable for the price. That is until the tremolo arm is used, at which point tuning quickly wanders.
The trem also makes a lot of spring noise. I would expect a little of this with any tremolo system, of course, but the system on the RGB24 is notably louder than any I’ve tried on comparable models.
At $579, the Litejam RGB24 isn’t as cheap as some beginner electric guitars (the $379 Yamaha Pacifica 112V, for example), but we have to consider the additional tech, which includes those LED lights, Bluetooth connectivity, the app, and a USB-C rechargeable battery with eight to ten hours of life per charge.
And that tech is free from compromise, as the LEDs are bright and vibrantly colorful, the connection to the app is stable, and the app itself has plenty of imagery that makes it feel premium.
Aesthetically, I have the White finish (no fancy color names here) with chrome hardware, which is problem-free, but also a little plain when the LED’s are turned off. The back of the headstock sports a QR code, which, in my opinion, cheapens the impression the guitar gives.
That QR code takes you to a web page entitled ‘Instruction’ which advertises the included warranty, fast shipping, and a 14-day refund, then other Litejam products, before finally listing the links to manuals as the second-to-last item on the page. In other words, it’s primarily an advert permanently ingrained on the product.
Given that the customer has already spent their hard-earned cash, it feels a little disrespectful to include advertising of this sort on a bought product.
Playability
Playability/Usability rating: ★★★
Playability inevitably suffers from the aforementioned high action and grainy frets
Putting the tech aside for a second and judging the Litejam RGB as a guitar first, playability inevitably suffers from the aforementioned high action and grainy frets.
This means that playing chords and simple lead lines at the lower frets is easy enough, but bends don’t feel particularly smooth, and the high action gets in the way when playing higher up the neck.
However, this is rescued somewhat by the light strings the guitar arrives with, and could be helped with some setup work. At this point, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that the beginners the Lightjam RGB24 is aimed at will be highly unlikely to know how to do that setup.
The neck improves things as it is a comfortable C-shape. It’s not too chunky, nor is it too skinny, making it a great middle ground for those learning how to play. The Satin finish makes it easy to move around on, too.
The app, to be blunt, is impressive. It’s designed to allow the user to select what they want the LED’s on the guitar to display and does so through four sections: Chord, Scale, Play, and Learn.
It is all delightfully easy to use; for example, if I want to learn a chord, I go to the Chord section, where I am presented with a page featuring a fret diagram at the top and highly intuitive visual menus to select the Chord and Chord quality below the diagram.
When the desired chord is chosen, the LED’s immediately change to show the chord on the guitar, color-coded to indicate which finger should be used where. Easy.
Scales work similarly, with a number of options to display the scales in helpful ways across the fretboard. For example, a traditional ‘CAGED’ type shape with the whole scale shown within four frets, or what the app calls ‘Scale Flow’ with the scale spanning seven frets.
The highlight for me is the ‘Learn’ section, where Litejam has curated a selection of songs. Playing these songs will display the required frets in real time on the guitar’s LED’s, and the track can be slowed down and looped so as to help nail those tricky sections.
Similarly, the Chord Section contains a ‘Progression’ page where a chord progression can be selected and then played through, again with the LED’s changing in real time. In short, it’s all very clever.
However, there is a flaw here. The lights line up perfectly with the strings from a bird’s-eye perspective, looking directly down on the fretboard from above. But in a playing position (i.e side on), the gap between the strings and LED’s changes this perspective slightly, meaning things don’t line up quite as well. This isn’t a deal breaker, rather something that just needs a little adjusting too.
A bigger issue is that once you are playing the guitar, your fingers are on top of the LEDs, which often renders a selection of them blocked from view. For example, a finger on the third fret of the A string will get in the way of the LED’s on the third fret of the D, G, B, and high E strings.
This isn’t a problem when you are learning chords one at a time, but it does make playing through scales and along with the aforementioned tracks awkward if you are relying on the LED’s.
When you are ready to turn them off completely, the lights can enter a Perform mode, where they will illuminate in various patterns. There is no escaping the fact that this looks cool.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★
Litejam lists the pickups as ‘HSH ceramic’. In other words, a humbucker in the bridge, a single coil in the middle, and what Litejam calls a mini-humbucker in the neck. It’s important to note that this is a single-coil-sized ‘blade’-style humbucker rather than a version of a Gibson-style mini-humbucker.
Purveying through all the pickup positions available via the five-way selector is a low end that feels a bit hollow, and a brightness that is a little harsh with low gain and clean tones, but a lot of fun when a good helping of gain is applied.
I am using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV with a Browne Amplification Ethane dual drive pedal for some grunt, and when I’ve got both sides of the pedal on, the pickups’ relatively high output and brightness lead to saturation that retains a nice articulation, especially on the bridge pickup.
The bridge humbucker is split in position two, which, in combination with the single-coil middle pickup, makes for a Stratocaster-reminiscent quack. It’s a similar story in position four, with that soft, scooped tone made famous by Strat players the likes of John Mayer.
My favourite pickup is the neck humbucker, as it offsets that brightness a little, making those cleans and lightly driven sounds more palatable while working well for distorted, cello-like leads.
This particular model suffers from a clicking sound when gain is applied (often associated with digital circuitry getting in the way of the audio). This could be a fault within this specific example of the guitar, rather than the instrument in general.
Position two yields a Stratocaster-reminiscent quack
Verdict
A novel alternative to chord charts and scale diagrams
Considering the Litejam RGB24 as just a guitar first, it is obvious we are talking about a beginner electric guitar here. It needs a good setup, tuning stability is not perfect, and the pickups can be harsh while lacking low-end punch. But these are the sort of compromises you might expect on a cheaper guitar.
The app, however, is very impressive. The Bluetooth connection remained stable throughout the entirety of testing, and it displays a lot of information and options in a way that is very easy to understand.
The LED’s are equally as impressive, particularly in how they change in real time to reflect the Litejam official tracks in the app. The concept, however, is a little flawed given that your fingers will inevitably cover LED’s as you are playing, making it hard to keep up with those real-time changes. Instead, where it works well is in showing the learner where to place their fingers when learning individual chord shapes, scales, and arpeggios.
It is a novel alternative to the likes of chord charts and scale diagrams that may well inspire a few more players to pick the instrument up. However, with tablature and (relatively) easy-to-understand chord charts, I suspect that a lot of learners may be better off investing the money in a higher-quality instrument and making use of some readily available online resources.
As a teacher, I am a little wary of students leaning too heavily on the LED lights, too. I want my students to be doing a little thinking, as it is the process of figuring things out that leads to more efficient learning.
In my opinion, the lights are great to get learners started and to help them check that they are playing things correctly, as long as the aim is to eventually turn them off.
Furthermore, the hard part of learning guitar is in developing the co-ordination, muscle memory and finger strength to play those scales and chords, rather than just knowing where to put your fingers.
Guitar World verdict: The Litejam RGB 24 is an impressive piece of kit. It shows learners where to put their fingers in a novel way, which may just encourage a few more players to start learning. However, most may benefit more from a higher-quality guitar and readily available online resources.
|
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Build quality |
Some compromises as you would expect considering the price point and tech. |
★★★☆☆ |
|
Playability/Usability |
In need of a setup, but the app and LEDs work impressively well. |
★★★☆☆ |
|
Sounds |
Lacks low end punch and a bit harsh in the high end. Great for high gain. |
★★★☆☆ |
|
Overall |
It will inspire some players to start learning, but the concept isn’t flawless and the guitar is in need of a setup. |
★★★☆☆ |
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Paul Davids
