Brian Moore Guitars i2p

Mine was made sometime in 2003. It's basically a Les Paul "clone" with mahogany body, set neck, bound fingerboard and body, Sperzel Tuners, piezo equipped bridge (seems a bit on the cheesy side), and medium frets. Also has a Coil tap for one of the humbuckers on the tone pot. Pickup configuration is HH. There is a volume and tone knob for the hummers, and a volume knob for the Piezo. The output jack is stereo, and requires a "Y" cable. I suppose the good people at Brian Moore figured that most guitar players would plug one side into a guitar amp and the other side straight into a PA or Acoustic amp. FORGETABOUDIT! Who the hell wants to lug two amps around with them, or worse yet, have the weight and inconvenience of TWO guitar cables coming out of their guitar? Also, if you go wireless this would require you to have TWO wireless units (one to send the humbucker signal, one to send the piezo signal). Solution? I re-wired the guitar so that the coil tap switch on the tone knob switches between the Piezo and the humbuckers. With that mod, the guitar is VERY useable for the gigging musician. You just cant blend the humbucker and piezo sounds, but I can't see why anyone would want to do that anyway.

I had to make a few mods to get the guitar to sound good. First, I'll say that this "aint no Les Paul" There seems to be some low middle frequencies missing (400hz - 900hz), with an empahsis on the high mid frequencies (1200hz - 2Khz). In laymens terms, it doesn't have the beefy sound of a Les Paul. Sounds kinda like what you would expect a Les Paul with a bolt on neck to sound like. This is probably due to the thinner, lighter body (it is comparatively lighter in weight than a real Les paul). The stock sound may or may not work for you. It didn't for me. To get the sound I wanted I made the Piezo/hummer tone switch mod listed above, and replaced the JB and Alnico pro Humbuckers with a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the Bridge and an Air Zone in the neck. I then wired the two pickups out of phase, which gives me a thinner, quackier sound in the middle position only, which I find perfect for rythm work.

Not good. Perhaps mine was a factory second (although there were no markings to indicate this). I owned an i8 in the past and the fit and finish was much better. I purchased this guitar sight unseen, and I was a bit disappointed. Definitely not the quality I had expeced from Brian Moore. There was a LOT of color bleed from the stained areas into the unstained areas. Also, I HATE the frets on this thing. I don't know what the fretwire was made of, but it feels "gritty" when I bend strings. I do a lot of string bending too, which has kept this instrument from being my "main" axe. I'm going to get this thing re-fretted with Jumbo wire at first opportunity. Stays in tune pretty good....nothing to write home about. The "piezo" bridge seems kinda cheesy in quality to me, which may be the tuning culprit. Usually I start by replacing the tuners when I have tuning stability problems on my guitars, but since this guitar alreay has Sperzels I know this isn't the problem. Can't replace the bridge with a Tone Pros because of the piezos......so I might be stuck with the mediocre tuning stability. I will say that the nut cuts were very shoddy, so I am going to cross my fingers and get a graphtech nut installed. Hopefully that will help. Again....tuning stabilty isn't bad, but I still have the urge to go to the pedal tuner between EVERY song in the set. I don't do that on my most stable guitars.

Seems pretty durable. We'll see.......

The web site is a complete waste of time, and a total piece of crap! Hard to find documentation (it's there, you just have to look REAL hard. No users forum, no online shop, nothing. Haven't called them yet, but they did take some time (4 days) to answer an email that I sent them. I asked about the stereo plug and how to work around that system. They hadn't a clue. Ya think they would hve been able to send me a schematic for the wiring mod that i did. Nope! i had to figure that out on my own. Anyone wants it done, email me and I'll do the mod for $50. You'll have to pay for shipping both ways as well.

I've been playing about 20 years. I've owned a guitar shop for about 5 years, and have personally owned over 50 guitars in that time. I play semi-professionally in a cover band about every other weeknd, and do some recording as well. What i like most about this guitar is the piezo capability and cool looks. What I hate the most is the brain dead piezo layout (stereo cord) and the frets. I don't think I would buy it again if it were lost or stolen, primarily because I don't ever do the same guitar twice (so many guitars, so little time). I've never owned an American made Brian Moore guitar. I'm sure they are very nice. This Korean made guitar feels more like a Chinese made axe. Just not a lot of attention to detail. My advice would be to pass on this one.

I bought my i2p a few years ago in a used guitar shop for $800. I immediately loved the sound of it and the versatility that the piezo in the bridge provides. The two Seymour Duncans, the coil tap, the stereo output, the blendable tones with the magnetic and piezo pick-ups - all of these provide a great variety of sounds. I am a musician who plays out often. I was used to doing a lot of switching around of guitars at gigs because I play a wide variey of musical styles. Now I take one guitar - this one. It sounds great, whether you're looking for that warm Duane and Dickey sound or you're trying for that brighter Clapton "Blackie" bite. It's not hard to look at either; the figured maple top and the mahogany body, the Les Paul shape, the ebony fretboard, the gold hardware, the unusual head stock - it has garnered many compliments from players and non-players alike. Also - the ergonomic design and the relatively light weight make it easy on the 'ole 46 year old bod... My only reservation is that there is a little difficulty in switching smoothly from a purely acoustic tone to the magnetic pick-ups in the heat of the moment.

Rich, full sound. Sometimes maybe a little too warm for certain kinds of situations, but the overall variety of tones makes up for that. I play it through a combination of amps - a vintage Peavy Classic and a Fender Blues Junior, and occasionally, with the stereo output, I can send the piezo and magnetic pickup signals separately.

Beautifully contructed guitar. I have owned a variety of Gibsons, made in the USA. You would think that these guitars (Gibsons) would have great quality control. I have had neck problems and nut spacing problems, etc. This Brian Moore has obviously been constructed very, very well. I have had no problems with any part of it after four years of heavy use. The action is beautiful; in fact, it was so fast when I first boaught it, I had a hard time adjusting to it. I was used to playing a '67 SG, a very nice guitar with great tone (of course, it's the tone I grew up listening to...) and going from the SG to the BM was a little tough, mainly because I had a hard time "seeing" the BM fretboard and feeling where I was. But I have since had some great "bonding" experiences with it and it feels great.

Very, very dependable. It has stayed perfectly set up, no intonation problems, no switching sounds, and the finish looks like new. There is a little wear on the gold hardware, but that is perfectly natural and give the guitar some distinction - kind of like a fountain pen's nib adjusting to one's handwriting. It came with a very nice SKB case. (The only problem with the case is that the guitar fits so tightly in it and it is so small that there is only room for a tuner and not much more.)

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I'm not going to waste your time telling you what it does have, it's a standard i2p, and all info can be found at http://brianmooreguitars.com/ I'll tell you why I give it an 8 and not a 10. Everything that comes with the guitar is fantastic. But there are 2 things that should be options and or standard.

1.The piezo is excellent and I'll discuss it more in the sound catagory, but the way it is set up is not very functional. The guitar comes with a "Y" cable. One end is supposed to go into an amp for the magnetic pick-ups, and the other end is supposed to go into an acoustic amp, pa, mixer, etc. If you don't have 2 amps, you're out of luck. Unless you have a multi-channel amp like I do. I have a Roland keybord amp that has 4 channels. I specifically bought it for guitar, not keyboard. The problem with the guitar is the piezo and magnetic pick-ups each have a volume knob, but do not have a switch to turn one or the other off. So lets say you're playing the acoustic part to Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. You have your peize volume up and your magntic pick-up volume off. Then you get to the solo and you want to kick in the magnetic. You have to turn down the piezo volume and then turn up the magnetic volume. It's impossible to do in the middle of a song. I wrote to Brian Moore and a very helpful tech told me that they can do an electronic conversion. They will add a switch the the guitar that will determine a mono or stereo output. That way if you're on mono, you can get piezo and magnetic through one amp. I was told a blend knob will also be added so I can turn it one way for magentic, one way for piezo, or keep it in the middle for both. This will solve the above mentioned problem, but I think a 3 way switch (mag, piezo, or both) would be easier and quicker than a knob like Ernie Ball does. I was told the whole conversion is less than $200.

The only other feature not available is a trem. How come you can't get a trem on a single cut??? PRS now offers a single cut with trem. but we all know the price of these.

The guitar sound fantastic. The stock pick ups are Seymours. Put on the neck pick up, add chorus, and add your piezo. WOW. It sounds like 2 guitars being layer togethered. Very nice. You can also split the humbuckers. The guitar sounds great and is VERY versatile.

LOVE the feel. The neck is pretty thin. MUCH thinner than a Gibson or PRS. I have a PRS and PRS guitars are WF (wide fat) or WT (wide thin). I don't find them to be wide at all. And I don't find them very thin. The Brian Moore feels wider, maybe it is or maybe because it's thinner it gives the feel of being wider. But chords like B7 are much easier on the Brian Moore than on my PRS. The body feels very nice too with the contour shape. No digs into the forearm. GREAT NECK!

Can't comment, have it for only a month. But it is made with excellent parts, neck joint is very tight, and I don't see any problems in the future.

Wrote 2 e-mails to them. Very nice replies. Very quick and very informative.

Fantastic guitar. I know what you're thinking, "But it's made in Korea". I have news for you. Many of the overseas guitars are made as well or better than USA guitars. But ususally guitars made outside the US use crappy wood and crappy parts. Fender Mex guitars use shit wood and crap electronics compared to the US models. Brian Moore uses top materials and the craftsmanship is excellent. Ibanez Jems, Gretsch Brian Setzer, excellent guitars made outside the USA. Don't let the made in Korea fool you. I tried to buy a Gibson Standard 3 times. One had a bad neck joint. One had gaps in the neck binding, And one actually has file burns on the fretboard below the 12th fret! The were made terribly. BRIAN MOORE RULES

For being made in Korea, it's a definate threat to American made guitars. I bought my i2p in 2001. It has 22 frets and a three Kalantas mahogany neck. It is a set neck construction. It also has a Kalants mahogany body with a natural figured maple top. The hardware is all gold: gold sperzel locking tuners, gold covered humbucking Seymour Duncan pickups, gold tunomatic bridge with RMC Piezos. Along with the piezos, it has a pot that splits the humbucking pickups. There is also ivory binding aroud the body and the headstock is unique shape which matches the body. Last but not least it's shaped like a Les Paul.

I listen to a vast styles of music. Since the i2p is so versatile because of the coil tap and the piezos, it is flexible with my musical taste. The humbucking Seymours are very strong so you can get that Gibson Les Paul sound. The coil tap allows you to make the humbuckers into single coils and they sound great. You are able to get some of the Strat sounds but not all because their are only two pickups. It also has a great sustain.

The action on the fingerboard is smooth. I was told that the neck of the i2p is very similair to a neck of a Paul Reed Smith. I have not played a Paul Reed Smith so I can't really can't vouch for that. As far as I can tell the i2p does not have any flaws. The gold hardware has not rusted or oxidized. The finish of the guitar is just absolutely beautiful.

This guitar is a great axe to use in gigs. Mine has been very dependable in live shows.

So far I have not had to deal with customer support

I have been playing guitar for 8 years. I also own a Parker Nitefly and the Brian Moore i2p is my main axe. It sounds superb through my Mesa Boogie DC-5.