Moog Guitar Officially Released
Moog Music enjoys playing mind games. On April 1, 2008 they released a cryptic trailer on their website featuring a new guitar product. We performed a little forensic investigation of the video and were able to pull several “flash frames” showcasing a gorgeous new guitar with seemingly endless sustain.
Many other music news outlets reported the news as clearly an April Fools Joke, but something rang true to our editors and we followed the developments closely. We learned that the product was indeed real and would be released officially at this year’s Summer NAMM show in Nashville.
Aside from the infinite sustain, there are several other features that make the Moog Guitar stand out in terms of technology…
FULL SUSTAIN MODE – infinite sustain on every string, at every fret position and at any volume, we call it “Vo Power”
CONTROLLED SUSTAIN MODE – allows you to play sustained single or polyphonic lines without muting technique. The Moog Guitar sustains the notes you are playing while actively muting the strings you are not playing.
MUTE MODE – removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato articulations. The mute mode has never been heard on any other guitar; the Vo Power stops the strings with the same intensity that it sustains them.
HARMONIC BLENDS – use the included foot pedal to shift the positive energy of Vo Power in Sustain mode and the subtractive force of Vo Power in Mute mode between the bridge and neck pick-ups to pull both subtle and dramatic harmonics from the strings.
And it really wouldn’t be a Moog if it didn’t have a…
MOOG FILTER – control the frequency of the built-in, resonant Moog ladder filter using the foot pedal or a CV Input.
“Take the powerful combination of sustain and mute…add the ability to move that power between the neck and bridge pick-ups, and suddenly you can pull both subtle and dramatic harmonic blends from the strings,” said Moog Senior Engineer Cyril Lance. The Moog Guitar’s creative power is further enhanced by the built-in Moog ladder filter. Both the harmonic blending as well as the ladder filter are controlled from the included expression pedal, according to Lance.
There are five Moog Guitar Controls:
» Vo Power this is the amount of coherent power that is applied to the strings to either sustain or mute them.
» Piezo Blend blends the piezo output with the Moog pick-ups.
» Harmonic Balance shifts the Vo Power (sustain/mute) power between the neck and bridge pick-up. In the center position the power is balanced between the neck and bridge.
» Master Volume controls overall volume including both the Moog Pick-up output as well as the piezos.
» Tone/Filter controls both tone and the resonance of the Moog ladder filter dependent upon the position of the Filter Mode Toggle switch.
The first ever Moog Guitar will be the limited edition Paul Vo Collector Edition Guitar. The AAAAA maple top guitar with a mahogany body and ebony finger board will be individually signed by inventor Paul Vo and will carry a sealed Certificate of Authenticity identifying it as the first ever Moog Guitar.
The late Bob Moog and Adams often spoke of entering the guitar market, but it was not until Vo’s invention that Moog Music felt it had something truly innovative to bring to the guitar market. “Clearly, this guitar meets the definition of a Moog product that Bob ingrained here at Moog Music: A Moog product must be an inspiration to the creative process of making music,” Adams said.
There are three switches:
» Moog Guitar Mode determines the application of the Vo Power. There are three positions: Sustain, Controlled Sustain, and Mute
» Filter Mode Toggle with three positions: Standard Guitar Tone, an articulated Moog filter (e.g similar to an auto-wah), and classic Moog Ladder filter
» Five Position Pick-up Selector Switch: Piezo, Bridge only, Out of Phase, In Phase, Neck only.
The Moog Guitar – Paul Vo Collector Edition costs $6,495, and is available now. More information on the Moog Guitar – Paul Vo Collector Edition.
