One bitter cold December morning in 2007, Guitar Player’s associate editor Barry Cleveland and I were invited to the Moog Music factory. After we were sworn to secrecy, we were promised a peek at the prototype Moog Guitar months before it was unveiled to the public. Moog president Mike Adams introduced us to Paul Vo, an inventor who had dedicated years of his career to developing the new instrument. He explained how it worked, but that gave us only a vague idea about what to expect. We then got a live demonstration, but it wasn’t until we had a chance to play it ourselves that we fully realized the potential of this innovative electronic guitar.

The concept of electronic guitar is hardly new. Guitarists such as Robert Fripp, David Torn, and The Edge (of U2) rely heavily on electronic effects to achieve their signature sounds, giving each a thoroughly unique voice in a world of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page wannabes. Over the years, various manufacturers have paired guitar controllers with synthesizer modules in configurations ranging from the ARP Avatar to the Roland VG-99. The Moog Guitar is neither a synth nor a controller (although the Moog Guitar’s new MIDI option does allow you to use it as a controller—more on that in a moment).

One sound that has long fascinated guitarists and their audiences is infinite sustain—the ability to play and hold a note for as long as the player wishes. Like most instruments, guitars normally produce tones that die out a few moments after they begin. Guitarists have long admired the quality of sustain in a guitar, a characteristic normally resulting from its physical materials and construction. What if it were possible to carry guitar sustain to the extreme, making a note last as long as it can on an organ or a violin? Numerous inventions have given guitarists this ability, including the EBow, Gizmotron, Sustainiac, and a handful of others. Each has had its shortcomings and limitations; Paul Vo sought to overcome those limitations.

Body and Soul
The Moog Guitar Model E1 ($3,495 MSRP, $3,195 street) is a double-cutaway guitar with a body that’s slightly smaller than a Fender Stratocaster’s. It has two pickups, an ebony fretboard, locking Jin Ho tuners, and bridge-mounted Graph Tech piezo saddles with an internal preamp powered by a 9V battery. Unlike the original Paul Vo Collector Edition, which was built by a single luthier, the E1 is assembled on a production line with less exotic (and less expensive) materials. When I asked who built the E1, Moog Music told me that was confidential, but it appears to be a very well-made guitar. The body is alder rather than mahogany or swamp ash topped with maple, and the hardware is chrome rather than gold.

FIG. 1: With so many knobs and switches, it will take you awhile to learn your way around the controls.

My review guitar was equipped with the optional Wilkinson vibrato bridge, which is well worth the extra $154. Unless you simply dislike whammy bars, I consider it essential.

The E1 has a set-in neck that is constructed of three pieces of wood, tightly fitted and glued to the body. It has an ebony fretboard, jumbo frets, and a Strat- or Tele-like 25.5-inch scale length; to me, it feels like a Fender neck. Set-in necks are something you see frequently on acoustic guitars, though Gibson and a few other non-Fender electrics have them, too.

Although the only fret marker is a single mother-of-pearl Moog logo at the twelfth fret, the neck has dot markers on its side. The low action and jumbo frets allowed me to play with a very light touch; for faster players, this would allow faster playing. The neck was set up at the Moog factory, but the first string’s action was so low that it caused some fret buzz, especially at the first fret. Unfortunately, the neck went out of whack when the weather turned cold and wet. It bowed ever so slightly, and because the action was so low, several notes became unplayable. A minor truss-rod adjustment took care of the problem.

The recessed control panel has five heavy-chrome knobs and three multi-position switches (see Fig. 1). Output jacks are mounted on the side, just where you’d expect them to be, and there’s no pickguard. The E1 comes with a standard-issue black Tolex-covered case, as opposed to the Collector Edition's fancy tweed case.

The guitar’s main output is a 5-pin connector whose other end connects to the E1’s footpedal. The cable also carries electrical power to the guitar’s circuits and control signals to and from the pedal. In addition, a standard 1/4-inch output carries the piezo pickup’s signal and nothing else (see Fig. 2). You need the 5-pin connection and the pedal to take advantage of the Moog Guitar’s unique qualities.

The footpedal appears to be have been fashioned from Moog’s EP-2 expression pedal and uses the same “string-and-spring” mechanism to smoothly change its value (see Fig. 3). A knob on the side lets you change its output to match the input impedance of your amp or other hardware. The pedal’s connections to the outside world include an XLR jack for the 5-pin cable, a 1/4-inch audio output that connects to your amp, and a control-voltage (CV) input that lets you modulate the E1’s electronics with an outside source. A locking power jack connects to a lump-in-the-line power adapter, the kind that comes with some external hard disks and laptop PCs. Other than its metal base, the footpedal appears to be made entirely of hard plastic, which could affect its roadworthiness; it looks like a hard fall at the wrong angle could easily break the treadle, but I didn’t test it. Moog Music sells a replacement for $179.

The Inside Track
Inside the guitar, a 6-layer circuit board stuffed with nearly 3,000 components controls powerful magnets in the proprietary pickups. Moog calls it a Harmonic Control System, and indeed, it does give you unprecedented control over the vibrating strings’ harmonic output. Perhaps more importantly, the pickups’ magnets exert a powerful influence on how long the strings vibrate. Whereas sustain works by creating a sort of magnetic feedback loop that keeps the strings vibrating until you stop them, mute works by damping the strings’ vibrations, often described as sucking the energy out of them.

FIG. 2: The E1 offers a standard 1/4-inch output along with the 5-pin connector.

The guitar’s controls are labeled on a black, adhesive-plastic sheet you can peel off once you’ve memorized their locations, if you like. Next to the master volume knob, Vo Power determines the magnetic intensity of the pickups; turning it up increases their sustaining or muting power. A 5-position switch lets you select which pickups are active. You can select either the bridge or neck pickup alone, both pickups either in or out of phase, or the piezo bridge alone.

The Harmonic Balance knob changes the equilibrium of magnetic intensity between the two main pickups. Because the pickups are located at slightly different points along the length of the strings, they magnify or attenuate different resonances, and Harmonic Balance makes the most of those differences by allowing you to sweep the harmonics. Similarly‹though not as dramatically‹the Piezo Blend knob adjusts the balance between the piezos and the main pickups.

The Tone/Filter knob either works as a traditional tone control or controls the filter resonance in Filter Mode, depending on the Filter Toggle switch position. That switch also determines whether the pedal controls the filter cutoff or the harmonic balance. The E1 offers two filter responses; one is a traditional resonant lowpass ladder filter—controlling its cutoff frequency with the footpedal produces a sweepable, exaggerated wah-wah—and the other is an articulated response that produces an auto-wah effect.

The Mode Selector switch lets you select Full Sustain, Controlled Sustain, or Mute. The Full setting sustains all strings in all positions at any volume, whereas the Controlled setting excites only the strings you pick or pluck, which encourages sustain and inhibits the others from vibrating. Mute chokes all the strings, resulting in a staccato plunk.

Fingers on the Frets
The first time I was alone with the E1, I played until my fingers were sore. By the time I managed to snap out of my sustain-induced rapture, I noticed that the back of the guitar had gotten a little warm and stayed that way—not surprising when you consider that heat is always a byproduct of analog electronics. As long as the pedal is powered up, you can even play with full sustain without amplification.

FIG. 3: The included footpedal is a necessary link for controlling the E1’s electronics and routing audio to your amp or mixer.

I played the E1 for four weeks through a Fender Super Champ and routed it direct through a PreSonus MP20 mic preamp and MOTU 2408mk3 audio interface into Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4. The neck felt really comfortable in my hand, and the guitar was a joy to play every time I picked it up. I especially liked playing chords with open tunings; the unfretted strings rang out while my fingers controlled the articulation and sustain of the fretted notes.

Musically, I connected with the strings’ vibrations through my fingers as well as my ears. Compared with other guitars, my playing technique had a more significant effect on the dynamic tone; in other words, how I picked or hammered on a string greatly influenced the timbre of the notes I played. And I loved the sound of fading with the Vo Power knob rather than the volume knob.

With so many combinations of knob settings and switch positions, it takes awhile to orient yourself as to which combinations produce what sounds. Until I learned what I was doing, I usually adjusted the controls until I landed on a sound I liked and then stayed there for a while. Although the mute settings are interesting, I liked how they felt more than how they sounded. I’ve heard the Moog Guitar’s muted sounds compared to a banjo or a koto, and in some ways that’s true, but muted sounds are at their best when processed by the articulated filter and sound much more exotic than without it.

Sustain is where the E1 shines, though. I just loved hitting a chord in full-sustain mode and sweeping the harmonics with the footpedal as if I were playing a harmonically rich, evolving synth pad. I’ve never spent much time tapping notes on the fretboard before now, but the E1 definitely invites you to tap it. Finger vibrato sounded very nice on long sustained notes, and using the whammy bar pushed entire chords over the edge into gorgeous territory. I noticed that the guitar stayed in tune surprisingly well over time, even though I used vibrato almost constantly.

Controlled sustain is equally fun, allowing you to sustain the notes you want while unpicked strings mute themselves. This is the best mode if you want to sound like Robert Fripp or Phil Manzanera.

The Vo Power knob lets you dial in the intensity of the sustain (or mute) effect. At lower settings, the E1 plays much like any other guitar, but with just a bit more sustaining power than normal; your audience probably wouldn’t know the difference.

I was almost surprised at how good the guitar sounded through the piezo pickups alone—better than with most guitars I’ve played with piezos in the bridge. One convenience is that you can leave the piezos’ separate output plugged into a tuner, if you like. I was less enthusiastic about the guitar’s sound through the main pickups with the electronics disengaged. With Vo Power turned down and the Filter Toggle set for Tone Control, the guitar sounds fine, but it lacks the personality and character of other electric guitars I’ve played; you may feel different, of course.

Prolonging the Magic
I certainly hope the E in E1 doesn’t stand for economy. Granted, the Model E1 is much less expensive than its only alternative—the Paul Vo Collector Edition—but no one would call it an economy model. Is the E1 worth such a daunting price? It is one of only two instruments in the world that does what it does. You can find other devices that produce infinite guitar sustain, but no other guitar plays or sounds like a Moog. It isn’t just the range of cool sounds this guitar can achieve; it’s the way it vibrates in your hands and the way it tonally responds to your performance gestures. Just walking into a music store and playing one for a few minutes probably isn’t enough to fully comprehend its power. You have to spend enough time to learn how it interacts with both hands, a pick, and the pedal.

Being able to control other instruments with the E1 would give guitarists some incredible options for making new sounds. The E1-M, a MIDI-controller version of the E1, is a factory-installed upgrade comprising a MIDI volume knob, two toggle switches, and a 13-pin hex output that works with third-party MIDI-guitar interfaces (see Fig. 4). The $745 price of the upgrade costs roughly the same as a Roland GR-20S guitar synthesizer with a GK-3 hex pickup, and is almost enough to buy a Roland-ready Strat. For that much money, the MIDI response had better be phenomenal.

FIG. 4: A view of the E1-M’s 13-pin hex port.

Is the Moog Guitar the technological innovation that electronic guitarists have been waiting for? Is it on the path to worldwide recognition and acceptance? Considering the price of admission, that’s unlikely, unfortunately. It’s entirely possible some well-heeled big-name artist will record a song popular enough to make the public aware of how it sounds and thus increase demand. Still, it probably won’t be anything but a curiosity until Moog Music finds a way to drastically reduce its price. I, for one, hope they do. Having the E1 in my studio for a few weeks has been an absolute blast, and I would love to own one. Anyone who’s ever written a review of any Moog Guitar will tell you there’s one thing they dislike about it most of all: having to give it back.

Pros: Truly infinite sustain on all or selected strings. Great tonal variety. Impressive response to how you play. Tremendous fun factor.
Cons: Expensive. Gets a little warm. Mostly plastic footpedal.

Geary Yelton edited and collaborated with Bob Moog and other authors on the book, The Musical PC (MIDI America, 1992). He’s the former senior editor of Electronic Musician, and he now lives in Asheville, North Carolina.