Remember when Guitar Hero used to be a thing? No? Well, that might be because you fancy yourself a real musician.

But for those who want something in between the completely simulated and completely authentic guitar experience, there’s Jamstik, a MIDI guitar controller designed to interface with the iPad, iPhone, and Mac.

At just 16 inches long, the stick boasts real strings and frets, but no bulky guitar body, so you get the nuances of playing the guitar, without actually having to schlep the guitar around like a roadie hipster.

Also seen at CES 2015

“A guitar controller should feel and perform like a guitar,” says the company, noting that it wants players to capture their “unique style and expression.”

Jamstik uses infrared light to "see" what a player’s hands are doing in real time and scans the fretboard so that it can detect what a person’s fretting hand is up to before the picking hand ever hits a string. Thus, because the Jamstik "sees" activity in real time, it's an extremely fast MIDI controller.

For those who think MIDI players would sound lame and limited in note range, the company says the performance D-pad on the Jamstik actually gives access to more than twice the note range of a traditional 21-fret guitar. Jamstik also comes with a rechargeable battery and WiFi connection.

Don’t know how to play the guitar, but you’d like to? The company also has an app called JamTutor, to teach you the ropes (or, rather, strings), without you having to commit to buying a real guitar first. The app, which is actually a free download on the iTunes App Store, uses Jamstik's finger-sensing technology to get you going through the basics of playing guitar “without the hassles of tuning, lesson scheduling, or grumpy (and expensive) guitar teachers.”

Are you at CES? Did you see something cool? Tell us about it in the comments section below.