Brian Moore Guitars i2.13

If it can mix acoustic piezo pickup and mag pickups, I would give it a 10. I do not like Y cable because I use a Podxt Live for acoustic & electric, so splitting signal is not necessary. Godin xtSA or LGX-SA is better on this.

I like 24 3/4" scale.

Mag pickups are a little noisy. They sound a little too bright. Otherwise it sounds awesome.

The acoustic is not bad at all. However because of the solid body, the acoustic sustain is kinda long, sounds not very natural.

I bought it used so I adjusted action by myself. Plays great now. The neck is thin which I like.

I sold my Godin xtSA because its neck was too thick and big.

It feel solid and reliable

I sent an email regarding to wiring diagram, no response... oh well.

I have been playing for 20 years now. I play classical, electric and bass.

I would recommend to my friends for this guitar. I love the short scale and thin neck. I hate it can not mix acoustic&electric.

Yes, I would buy another one if it's stolen.

All of the features are listed on the Brian Moore site and mostly top quality, I particularly liked the sperzel locking tuners since I have used a floyd rose for so many years and was all too happy to get rid of the tremolo bridge for a fixed bridge. 30 Years of string changing and bridge gymnastics--floyd intonation can change after each restringing--will do that to you.

I have owned and played this guitar for quite some time--hundreds of hours playing time-- so I'll start with the best and worst first. This guitar has an amazing professional tone with the SD neck pick-ups and no distortion--its world class. Many have commented on the coolness of the pickups and that is true, but only for the bridge pickups. And I have used Fender Amps and studio direct mixers, it does not matter. I am not certain why the neck and bridge have such a disparity, and it could be the weight of the guitar itself, but being a non metal player, I do not use the bridge pickup anyway, nor have I tried to tweak them by raising or lowering the pickup itself. I have played through better sounding and cheaper metal type guitars that were equipped with Dimarzios and Bill Lawrence at the bridge and they sounded better for that genre. The guitar is amazingly light and a nice change from the heavy les pauls, however it is not the best balanced for sitting and composing. I originally purchased it for the accurate midi tracking so that I could access my Native Instruments synths and some piezo but I find that playing it straight is far better than I had imagined. The piezos are a nice feature and sound authentic as though the guitar were a thinned down Ovation, not a true acoustic.

The action, fit, and finish are all very high quality and should be on an instrument at this cost. It is a fast guitar that is easy to play but I am not fond of the laquered neck since after playing for several hours it has a tendency to accumulate 'sweat gunk' from the palms--my biggest gripe. This is an innovative instrument, and a very attractive one that I would recommend for anyone interested in breaking out of vintage sounds and walking into the digital age. It took me months to make a buying decision given the complexities of digital setups and computer interfaces. For instance, should I wait and buy Brian Moore USB? Alas, it does not matter for synth access since Roland owns the 13 pin interface. I know that I had alot of questions on the computer synth interface side and I hold advanced degrees in engineering and software. If you want to sound better than the folks did in the 50's and 60's I recommend this guitar. If you like to sound like Bill Haley and Jimmy Page, try something else.

The one complaint I have in the set-up is the fact that the neck is laquered and not palm oiled or "flat". This is not a problem for the les paul player, but I really enjoy a flat finish on the back of the neck versus the 'greasy' feel one gets from the laquer. My sweat will produce its own grease.

The craftsmanship here should hold up for at least 30 years if not abused. The frets (some) are a bit "gritty" on the string bend, thus the metal might be pitted. The electronics and potts are very quiet for my studio recordings and introduce little to no noise which is one of the reasons that I needed to upgrade my old guitars.

No need for customer support, but I might if I decide to add the USB interface.

I have been playing for 30 years now...and thats even hard for me to believe. This is a very innovative instrument from the jack placement, light weight, midi interface, and body contour for ergonomics this is one well thought out design and one that I was willing to support as I grew weary of all things vintage. Come now, there must be a better way, and Brian Moore is not the end all, but a very good start and one that I recommend.

Not sure the year, I am guessing a 2004/2005 as it arrived in perfect condition with the plastic protection still on the case and electronics cover. You should all have the specs on this guitar from previous looking so I won't go into it in detail. It's got the onboard 13pin system with 2 humbuckers/ pull pot with coiltap. Mahogany neck and body with flame maple gold top on body and headstock. Rosewood fingerboard with abalone inlays. Sperzel locking tuners.

Sound is great so far. I have tested it out and it runs the gammut from light jazz sounds to blues and rock. The pickups are a bit tame and don't cater to the metal head in me, but I don't let metalhead out of the closet too often. It is a very well rounded guitar. Shredders will probably want a hotter pickup. I tested out the 13 pin system and compared it to my old guitar with the roland gk setup and it tracks much better without even adjusting the sensitivities - right out of the box. The synth electronics work flawlessly and are very intuitive if you are switching from a GK external pickup. Can't rate this a 10 because there is no such thing. I like it. A lot.

Action is fantastic. I have some minor buzz on the low E, but have not changed out the old strings yet. I suspect that will shape up and its not very noticeable. I think the truss may need a minor tweak to put a bit more curve on it. The pickups need to be adjusted but this is not a new guitar and looks like either the bridge PU was too hot for previous owner on the low strings or someone incompetent adjusted the PU height.

The fit and finish: I cannot find a flaw on this guitar after staring at it for hours. The finish is perfect, the construction is damn good. I have some other guitars, one of which is a heritage american made (old gibson shop) that had HORRENDOUS attention to detail on the finish, fret dressing, etc. This guitar was made by people who care about quality. Hate to say it, but its fit and finish is top notch regardless that it came from somewhere else. The Sperzels will need to be loosened and adjusted as a couple sit in an angle that just appears funny to me. The biggest flaw I have found is that the pickup surround for the bridge PU is mounted somewhat out of square/alignment with the guitar and the pickup. On really close observation it looks crooked to me. I haven't measured it but I know its not level. I am funny like that. The top is beatiful flamed maple, however it does not exactly bookmatch. Flamed top with a mirror image bookmatch is the stuff of very expensive custom shop work, so no problems here. The flames are consistent, just you can tell where the seam in the middle is. The pots and switches appear to be decent quality, are tight, true and no noise. The tunamatic bridge looks like it will fade or get corrosion with use. So do the Gibsons. Very well built guitar for the money.

strap buttons are dangerous. Will replace these with lockers ASAP. The finish appears durable with no spots appearing very thin. No idea how easy it is to scratch and I dont want to find out. Not enough experience to form an opinion, its solid and looks like you could drop it and pick it back up. I don't plan on doing that.

No experience

Have been playing 24 years. Have had all kinds of gear from carp to decent. Currently a Martin and Larrivee acoustic, a Parker Fly deluxe, Heritage Millenium, the Moore and a couple throwaways/beaters. I would probably replace this if stolen, or hook up with a Godin. I compared to Godin on features, price, looks, cost. The Godin was a very close second. I like the Godin LGX-SA perhaps a bit more in terms of features, but the necks on the Moore's can't be beat for playability. It just felt better. I like the looks of the Moore better as well as the set neck and quality locking tuners. The rest is pretty much comparable between them.

I've had this guitar for a couple of years. It is strikingly beautiful, which probably influenced my decision considerably. The beauty of the matched top is to die for, especially at this price. It is basically a Les Paul style guitar with very high frets, Seymour Duncan mags, and RMC split piezo pickup under the bridge suitable for driving Roland syths or VG processors. It has a stop tailpiece, Sperzel tuners, short scale, active electronics, and a coil split switch. Made in Korea.

Between the mags and the piezo, it's incredibly versatile. The basic mag tone is very warm. The split coil tap is very helpful when playing through a very muddy tube amp. I'm done with Floyd trems, so this guitar suits me fine. Best thing about the guitar is the looks, first rate.

Action too high, needs adjustment. Frets are too high also, harder to deal with unless you get them filed down. Mine had a buzz I had to work to get rid of. The top is stunningly beautiful. There were no finish flaws on my guitar, though I took a chance and bought it mail order.

I've gigged this guitar quite a bit. The stock strap buttons are useless, even though the rear button is on the back. A strap lock is mandatory. I mostly use the 13 pin Roland connection, but recently I switched to a tube amp using the mags. Unfortunately, the quality of the 1/4" jack and volume pot are crap, having rarely been used but defective nonetheless. The pot is very noisy and did not recover with exercise, the 1/4 jack intermittent. These parts aren't standard stuff, nor easy to get to to replace. The factory didn't want to send me the parts, they wanted me to send the whole guitar back. No thanks. The electronics suck anyway, so it's time to rip it all out and replace with some quality parts. While I'm at it, I'll wire it up so I can blend in the piezo, which is not currently an option. Instead, you're expected to use a stereo cord which branches into two cords. You ever see a guitarist with two cords hanging from his guitar? Me neither. I won't be the first. I'll remove the factory wiring and preamp and hook it all up passive. The Sperzel tuner on the G string is worthless, I couldn't figure why my g string kept going out of tune until I finally just wound it on the peg in the time proven way.

They seem nice enough, but I would have liked them to send me replacements for the defective parts. They wanted the guitar back, which would put me out of business for a while.

I've been playing guitar for 40 years. I own a commercial recording studio. If this were stolen, I would not buy another. I would spring the extra bucks for a McNaught guitar with better quality parts. I love how it looks, am OK with how it sounds, and hate the quality of the electronics. At this point I'd trade it for a decent USA strat, if someone would be so foolish. You can see the guitar at www.tellingstoriesmusic.com

MIDI, Seymour Duncans and RMC Piezo pickup, beautiful work. You have to look at a few of these before you buy. some of these might have slight finish flaws, but then again so do some PRS, Gibsons and Fenders. Hard case and stereo cable, amazing. better than Godin, and Fender Strat with GK input. I like how the curved top eliminates the need for a pickguard, smart!!

All styles, you just have to know how to have it setup. If you have a good guitar tech, this thing will sing. Mike C below must have bought a dud, or didn't have it setup poperly, but it looks like most here can see the versatility and value of this guitar. Try a few before you buy if you like the sounds you can pulll from this , then buy it and have a professional guitar tech sset it up . Never been happier.

These are made in Korea, so take a look at a few of these if you can. My moore is flawless.

synth works great, RMC piezo is so much better than my Fishman pickup installed on my Sadowsky Strat, the pickups are brighter than my PRS, great for lead guitar.

Patrick Cummings is awesome! Really nice guy.

Never been happier, versatility is key here.

Korean made, u woudl think it was garbage, FAR FROM THE TRUTH. I tried 2 of them, one was not setup as beautiflly as this one. Actually the other one was buzzing all over the place. But most guitar makers screw up every once in a while, so that did not deter me.
Love the MIDI pickup, much better than my SHadow pickup. And piezo is warm, which is usually how RMC piezo sound anyway. no brainer

I play ska/funk, I absolutley love it, clean crystal sounds

Had to set it up perfectly by a great guitar tech 35 miles from my house. There are 3 techs only minutes from my house. But realy good techs are hard to find. After it was setup the way I wanted it, it was amazing.

Feels solid but one pot was a bit scratchy, my tech called Brian Moore and they sent him FREE OF CHARGE a new pot and another stereo cable FOR FREEE!!!!

see above.

I would buy this again, its lighter than my PRS and it has WAY more versatility than my Ibanez Prestige. Great feel and sound.

I wont list the features, that is what webpages are for and many of the previous reviews have covered them. I will say that for the price, this is a versatile guitar that can produce a plethora of great sounds in one package. If there is any category it cannot be knocked on, the i2.13 is flawless feature wise.

The Brian Moore mohagany guitars have a very unique sound. They use Kalantas mohagany, and a slim piece at that. Don't expect your typical thick, heavy, harmonic tones you'd get from a Les Paul. The truth is, this guitar has a lot of bite and cut, while retaining a rather full sound. On it's own, I aliken it to a JCM900-- has everything it needs in the highs and mids but somewhat lacks the balls. This is ok for many styles of music and allows the guitar to be more affective in multiple settings I think, however. I disagree with one of the previous assessments that the neck is muddy, because although it is the more rounded lower sound expected from a neck, in my experience, through a Marshall DSL100, Carvin MTS3200, and various Fender tube amps, that the Alnico II is a rich, creamy, and throaty pick up. I actually far prefer it to the JB in the bridge, which only adds to the already almost excessive mids and highs on this guitar. Like I said, a ton of bite, rather high output, but very good sounding guitar. I'd like to hear it with other pickups, but as it is, it remains a very good sounding instrument.

The piezo is not nearly perfect, however a nice passable sound. I would suggest running at least an EQ between a piezo and the board so that there can be some girth added to the sound since it lacks low end.

At all of the dealers near me who sell Brian Moores (three I can think of), I have had the reverse experience compared to the other posters. I have felt the action is set up far too low on the neck from the factory. The neck is thin and fast while still being comfortable for playing rhythm. It's not as flat as an Ibanez but not as round as some Strat and LPs can be. The neck is what attracted me to this guitar initially and what keeps me playing it. The finish and top on my guitar is particularly gorgeous, and the finish on both sides is flawless. From the factory and on the showroom floor this thing was great.

The bridge and saddle, however, have absolutely horrendous finishes and the gold has worn almost completely down. I own the guitar for two years now, but it took less than six months to remove the gold from the bridge and saddle as well as from the tone/volume knobs. The tuners, however, remain as good looking as they were the first day I purchased the instrument. I would certainly use this guitar without a backup, and the only issue I have had with it reliabilty wise has been the horrid finish on the components aforementioned, and that is a minor cosmetic issue that is often encountered with gold hardware.

N/A

I love this guitar, I think it plays great and is a rather unique instrument for total control over three incredibly different sounds. I chose this guitar for its neck and flexibilty in a live situation. However, I do find that the guitar is somewhat sterile playing, and lacks that "mojo" often associated with Strats and Les Pauls. It is a great addition to my collection, I routinely play out with it and do not regret purchasing it for a second. A great guitar for someone who needs a lot on tap, from his/her feet and his/her guitar while playing a comfortable and fine looking guitar.

What good are all these features if the setup is off. These guitars are made in Korea. They are nothing like the American Made ones.
They are pretty though, they just sound ugly.

Maybe if the intonation was set the sound wouldn't be so muddled and loose. Maybe if the neck was set the strings wouldn't buzz.

The paint job is beautiful. Action is super high with buzzing strings and intonation so off that it's a nightmare to tune.

I'm shipping this POS back in the morning. I've had it for 3 days.

No customer service at all. These people will not even reply to an email. Don't buy Brian Moore stuff unless it's American, and if you do, don't expect any kind of customer service.
As far as Brian Moore guitars are concerned, once it's out the door, you're on your own.
And don't let the door hit you on the way out!

People need to know that Brian Moore's Korean made products
play like Fender Squires and cost more than signature series Strats.

This guitar is like a swiss army knife. Piezo, humbuckers, split coils, 13 pin access. Mine has a beautiful quilted top, gold hardware. It is the best looking guitar I have ever owned. It has a unique output jack location for the mag outputs, which I thought I wouldn't like but have found it to be pretty intelligent. I don't particularly like where the bottom strap button is, but it works with the output location well. I bought mine with a fitted case. Given that the body and neck are made in Korea, for the price, I would have expected a ebony fretboard but the rosewood is OK.

I play in a Worship Team at church and I need a broad range of tones. I have the Brian Moore hooked to a Boss GT-6 and GR-33, that go directly to the house system. At home I also go directly to a mixer and play through studio monitors. The pickups are good. Not sure why a previous review said it is not good for metal. It sounds good distorted or clean. This guitar covers alot of ground, before even hooking up a synth or VG-88.

The guitar was setup perfect for me. The finish is perfect. The neck is perfect for my hands.

I think this will be a highly reliable guitar. The electronics are quite complicated however, so time will tell.

never talked to them.

I've been playing for over 15 years total. This is my second attempt to get into the world of guitar synthesis. Previously I had a Fender US Strat with a GK-2a mounted on it and ran it into a GR-30. That setup was pretty unreliable and embarrased me a couple time with rogue notes popping up out of nowhere. Not so with the Brian Moore. You CAN get sloppy and the GR will bite you but it is reliable enough to play out with if you play with a little care. It is light years ahead of magnetic hex pickup guitars in tracking on a GR-33, plus it is great guitar in it's own rights. If you think guitar synths are a joke, you've never tried it on this guitar.

I would buy another one if this is lost. I have not seen too many quilted top ones though, so I doubt I'll find another just like it.

Comfort contoured body
Set neck construction
Kalantas Mahogany body and quilted maple top
Finished Carried onto headstock
Ivoroid binding
22 fret, Mahogany neck
Rosewood fingerboard
24.75"
Seymour Duncan JB Bridge Seymour Duncan Alnico Neck Coil Split
Sperzel Locking Tuners
RMC piezo in bridge
13pin RMC

I play a mix of blues and rock. It fits very well in there. The combination of pickups is great, and really suits my style. Enough so that I would think about doing an upgrade to these on another guitar.

They are not suited to Metal!

The coild split enhances the tone, and is well worth it.

It is currently fed through a Spider II or PODxt, both of whic react very well with the guitar. So much so it starts to show the flaws with modelling amps.

The piezo produces a very bright and rich acoustic sound. But be careful to EQ, as there is so much output there, it can get muddy quickly. Rolling off the volume helps a touch.

Blending the Piezo and Magnetics is where the guitar jumps out. It is great with a bit of delay on the pickups. And is the reaosn why this guitar was bought.

The finish is fairly flawless, although the top used isn't, and the book matching of the top is slightly off. I have the cherry sunburst, which really shows the maple off when the sun hits it right.

Iveroid binding adds a touch of class, as does the abalone inlays.

There is a touch of bubbling in the gold finish on the bridge, but seems to be well fixed in place, and not likely to come away. In honesty it could be the original metal below the gold.

Set up from the factory was good, but I don't like the choice of 9s on a scale length of 24 3/4" So it has gone up to 10s

The frets have been fnised wth a god deree of quality, and in all it plays like a dream.

But as comments abouve about the top and bridge, I will have to give an 8

It will withstand being on stage, but I don;t know how long it would last looing as pretty as it does now.

The hardware seems rock solid appart from the volume control lifts slightly. Something I will be speaking to Brian Moore about.

Just out of personal preference I wold have another guitar as a backup like, but this would certainly do the business for almost all shows

I really like the lifetime warrenty. I like the check out form from the factory too. Makes all the difference knowing someone has sat with your guitar and got it rght before sending it out.

I really like this guitar, and it quickly became my main guitar. If I have the money I'd have another, though I would spend more time in the shop really checking it over.