Moog + Guitar = Bsus4ever
By Caleb Hill
| Posted in Guitar
It’s been months since Moog released their first Guitar. I had the pleasure of holding one once. Perhaps the revolution took a while to happen in my mind, but it seems something has snapped into place: this is an absolutely amazing instrument.
The Moog guitar should appeal to anyone who considers themselves more than just a guitarist; someone looking to create interesting and unique soundscapes and effects without the fuss of peripheral equipment. This guitar was made for you.
Moog are well known for their superb quality analog synthesizers and effects and this guitar stays true to that whilst utilising radical new ideas.
The body is high grade swamp ash or mahogany and it’s capped with “AAAAA”-grade flame or quilted maple. The guitar benefits from a set neck, unlike a Strat, while it shares its 25.5” scale length and double cutaway design. Ebony adorns the fretboard and it’s equipped with Sperzel locking tuners and a special Moog-modified Wilkinson bridge… and that’s the tip of the iceberg.There are Graph Tech piezo saddles on the bridge, but most of the magic happens thanks to the 2 single-coil pickups that are custom-designed by Moog.
They can actually take over the world… Ok, maybe not, but controlling the resonance, sustain and harmonics of the strings is no problem. The guitar has many modes which allow Full Sustain (self-explanetory), Controlled Sustain (guitar mutes strings not played) and Mute mode in which the guitar prevents any sustain, resulting in a staccato-like feel. Great for adding clarity to your speed picking and making other guitarists jealous. For the sake of keeping the number of knobs down, controlling all the parameters of sustain/drive and muting is made easier with the controller pedal which can even adjust the overall gain of the pickups! Now can you understand why it’s taken a while to get my head around it?
Music making technology is advancing every day and it’s time we guitarists all caught up. There’s got to be a direction here somewhere… perhaps the Moog guitar is it.
About Caleb Hill
An early entrant into the musical world, I started on the Piano aged 6, and moved on to the guitar in my late teens. Since then I've spent large amounts of time in bands and recording studios learning as much as I could about guitars and what makes them tick. I currently play for an indie-rock band in and around London. I started at DV in 2007 managing guitars in the Barnet store and now, even though I no-longer work in the store, find myself learning new things about guitars every day.
Tags: Moog Guitar Flame Maple Ebony Technology Analog Sustain