Brian Moore Guitars i8.13

This guitar has all the bells and whistles. See the detailed reviews on this page for a complete list.

I put my '63 Gibson SG in the closet for this one. Why? Well, the SG was a little beat up (which was good for giging, but the back of the neck was a little chipped). Also, I use a roland GR-1 and the GK-2A pickup was always out of position with the SG, so the synth tones crapped out all the time.

Switching between these guitars was like going from a 57 Chevy to a 06 Porsche. The neck is thin, but not super thin like a Jackson. But it has a good solid feel, not flimsy, and very fast. Good tuners and headstock set up (4 + 2 not 3 + 3).

The guitar body is on the small size, but not 'dinky'. Fantastic flametop maple laminate top, Duncan pickups, and decent hardware. But the mini switches look like they will need to be replaced in 5-10 years.

Well with the roland synth, you can sound like anything. But the guitar itself has a good tone, but nothing near the FAT SG tone I was used to.

Humbuckers are good, but the single coil is a bit off. Its just thin, not 'bouncy' like a strat. Havent had a chance to get to know the piezo, but what I have heard wasn't so special, just a good flat clean tone.

This is where this guitar excels. It is a speedster, and succeds at looking and feeling that way. Get it in red! All cars and guitars should be red.

As I said, so of the switches on the face of the guitar probably wont last, but of you treat this guitar well, it will be just fine. Haven't seen anything except normal wear and tear, mostly due to my own incompetence.

Have giged with this and no backup, and will continue to do so.

N/A

Very happy. My older 335 copy in my closet now has the SG as its new friend. It will be awhile before they meet my BM 8.13.

Standard Brian Moore i8.13. It comes with 2 double coil p/u's, and piezo for acoustic tones and a midi pickup. Standard bridge, Sperzel locking tuners. It has a coil splitter, and you can blend the 3 pickup systems to create some original sounds.

I will give the guitar a 10 here. I love to tone of this guitar. I pretty much stick with it for recording, due to that sweet tone (particularly for leads) and the quiet pickups. My Strat is more fun to play, but is noisy and just doesn't sing like this guy.

Ok - here's where I lose it a bit. This guitar has been set up twice - once I returned it to Brian Moore to have them check it. The action simply pales in comparison to my Strat. Shoot - my Taylor acoustic even smokes it. The intonation has always been off. If I play bar chords, for example, up the neck - there is NO WAY they are in tune. Never since I've had it. It works well for lead only, where you can bend and move around musically. I simply can't use it for chords. Also - the MIDI tracking stinks. I've had many guitars try to play a simple piano line beginning to end without strange notes and such and it has never been done successfully on this guitar. What was really disappointing was when I shipped to Brian Moore and they sent it back saying "everything was checked and worked fine." I was pretty shocked.

I've had it 2 years and it's been in the shop twice. But only for setup issues - nothing on the guitar has failed. Sometimes the switches that allow you to change from magnetic to MIDI to piezo doesn't work. Strange.

Pretty slow replying to e-mails. The last time I sent the thing in I sent 2 or 3 e-mails in a weeks time before I got a reply back. However, the guys are very friendly once you get a holt of them.

I've been playing for 25 years. I've had quite a few guitars in that time, some good some bad. This one could be great, but it's just not. Killer lead tone that really cuts through a mix, however. The pickup options are a cool idea, but they fail to come through - in my opinion. I'm looking to sell mine on Ebay soon and replace it with something else - not sure what just yet. Apparently from the reviews some have had better luck than me, but my advice is to be cautious before you buy. Spend time with it - I mean quality time. Check out every chord position and see if they are in tune. Get a tuner and check notes in different octaves. If they're out of tune - pass on the i8.13.

2003 model - Brand New.
All the features have been covered in detail already.

Brought this guitar to replace/back-up my very tired sounding Ibanez with yamaha G10 hexaphonic pickup (never did like the GK2!)
Faced with a choice between the lesser priced 18.13 and this model I think the addition of the Seymour Duncan pickups and Spertzel tuners has made for a very nice guitar.
At the moment I'm running it into my roland VG88, through a samson poweramp into a marshall 1960 4X12.
Compared to the Ibanez/G10 set-up the Brian moore has an altogether "brighter" sound.
The piezo output is strong and the sound, particuarly on the bottom E string is much better than the ibanez.
Tracking of the synth is faultless.
Haven't tried blending synth, piezo and electric sounds yet but individuually they all sound great, especially the neck Seymour Duncan through a laney 30 watt class A valve amp. Some buzz around the 3rd and 4th frets was sorted by the dealer - the neck, although very fast, has a great feel to it.

The maple capping looks simply awesome.
The rest of the guitar is finished well, although I did get my dealer to do a full set-up prior to collection.
These are well made guitars.
Only time will tell as the durability of the electrics.

This will be my main gigging guitar but I will deffo take the ibanez as a backup.
After dropping my les paul I think I'll invest in a straploc for the Brian Moore - it is one delicate looking guitar. As much as I rate the builders I wouldn't want to test its strength!

Have had no contact with Brian Moore themselves.

I'll give it a 9 because its early days!
Overall impressions is that this is a very versatile, carefully built and finished guitar.
If it was stolen I would weep and replace it with the same model.
I'm looking forward to using it live as its a nice weight to have round your shoulders - balance is perfect.
Wonder how many people will ask "what guitar is that?"

These have been listed in the prior reviews and are very extensive, so I won't repeat. Check out the Brian Moore website for a list of complete features. If this guitar doesn't get a "10" for features, I don't know what does. Bought a separate two-guitar gig bag to take the Moore and my Fender to gigs.
I guess the only thing I MIGHT ask for is a Floyd Rose with a D-Tuna, but I am using a trem less and less these days. I like the fine tuners more than anything. Still a "10" though.

I bought this guitar to be my "everything" guitar on my cover band gigs. I've been carrying a Wolfgang and/or Les Paul and a "Roland Ready" Strat to play everything from the time frame of Elvis to Good Charlotte. I use a three-channel Peavey Ultra 1x12 combo with Boss stomp boxes and the Roland GR-33 Guitar Synthesizer. It's a pain switching back and forth for the guitar with the best tone for the song or if I need synth access. I can't run all the guitars through the GR, and the different guitars need different tone and volume settings. I didn't want to mount another Roland pickup on the Wolf or Paul because the strings are very high off the body and the Hex pickup needs to be very close to the strings to work well. Aside from that, there are not many options. I have a Fender which is okay, but the single coils are limited in tone. I'm not just a huge Strat fan, and don't think I would want to play exclusively on one all night. So while I thought about pickup modification, I soon ruled it out. Checked out the Godin, but didn't like the neck or the synth tracking, or the look, really. So, enter the Brian Moore i8.13.
This guitar can cover it all. Hank Williams to Alice In Chains. The Duncans sound very good. Outstanding clean tone. While I don't think it gets as good a heavy sound as my Paul, and certainly not my Wolf, it does very well and is MUCH more versatile than either of those guitars. The single-coil setting on the bridge is a bit thin, but a Boss EQ pedal beefs it up nicely and cuts some of the highs. If you've played an electric with a piezo, I would say the tone on that is a bit above average. Nice and clean, but the maple top makes it a bit bright. Running through my LR Baggs Acoustic DI yields some very nice clean tones. I hesitate to use the word "acoustic". It's nice, but it ain't my Tacoma Jumbo. But no question, a better "acoustic" tone than just using magnetic pickups. If the single-coil sound was better, I would give it a "9". After the warranty expires, I will probably experiment with another pickup in the bridge position or rewire the Duncan JB so the front coil is engaged instead of the rear. I did this on my Wolf and it sounds much better in single-coil mode. So I have to go "8" here, though "8.5" would be more accurate.

The action was good and the guitar played great right out of the box. However, the pickups were too low, and the nut was too high and leaning backwards. The intonation on the first three frets was bad. Notes fretted very sharp. I had an authorized Moore dealer remove the nut and re-install correctly. Also had those horrible .009 guage Elixir strings yanked off and set-up with GHS nickel .010s. Intonation is now dead-on and playability outstanding. Finish was flawless. Absolutely beautiful. All electronics worked as should. But, because of the poorly done nut (huh, huh, he said "nut"), I have to give the guitar a "7" in this category. A $1600.00 list guitar should not have than problem, although I've picked up $3000.00 Les Pauls that were worse.

This thing is so light and has so many bells and whistles you can't help but be afraid you're gonna' break something. But it seems to be made well. As others have stated, the 13-pin jack is scary. But it's the same on my Fender, so I guess that's all there is available. I will always take the Fender with me as a backup, but mainly just for if I break a string during a set. Have used it for four gigs exclusively with no problems.

Flat out 10, no question. I've talked to these guys by phone and via email and they have returned all my calls and emails promptly and answered every question. When I was worried I didn't get the included stereo "Y" cable, (it was "hiding" under some packing at the bottom of the box), they were going to mail me out one for free. Pretty good website - wish there were discussion forums, though.

I've been playing since 1977. I own and have owned many guitars. For what I wanted and the choices currently available, this guitar rocks. I would replace it with another, no question. I wish the body was a bit thicker for some more beef, and I don't care for the weird-mounted strap button and input jack. But I can play this thing for four sets and follow a Beatles tune with Commodore/KC and the Sunshine Band horn parts and then on to Creed and Nickelback. And play an "acoustic" version of some Floyd or Eagles between sets. NOTE: The synth output is hot. I had to adjust the string sensitivity on the GR-33 to the lowest settings. It takes awhile to get used to if you've been using the Roland Hex pickup. But the GR-33 has multiple guitar settings, so I have one for the Fender and one for the Brian Moore so I won't need to adjust.
For all the electronic features, plus quilted maple/mahogany, and locking tuners, it would be hard to find an equivalent at any price. I prefer this guitar over the Godin, not question.

2 humbuckers (SD's) w/ tone-push-pulll coil split (splits both), 3 way switch, midi on/off switch, toggle switch for midi bank change (up/down), midi volume, piezo volume, master volume and tone. Stereo out, 13-pin midi out. Other features include locking tuners, "innovative" jack output position and a gorgeous blond finish. I purchased mine used and received a hardshell case. I wish it had a switch to direct piezo or humbucker to standard 2-pin guitar cable rather than the 3-pin stereo y-connect. Oh well, nothing that an external a/b switch couldn't solve.

I play in a Christian praise band which implies my music style covers about everything from country, rock, funk, jazz, ballad, to you name it. This guitar works well for about any style. The Seymour Duncan JB's are extremely versatile, I wouldn't use another pickup in this guitar. I also own an American Strat (Roadhouse Strat) that has very quickly become my "backup" guitar. I can't see playing the Strat when I have a Brian Moore i8.13. The "true" Strat sound isn't in this guitar (nor should it be) but the coil-tap/single sound is very usable and makes this a perfect compliment guitar to my Strat. The piezo output is the best I've heard. I've demo both Godin and Parker and none compare. The sustain is as good as any of the neck-through i2000 series that Brian Moore produces. Most likely due the i2000 series guitars are all light mass guitars. The midi support is also top-notch. I use a Roland GR-33 guitar synth and am very pleased with the notation accuracy I get with this combination.

This is a beautiful guitar. The forth fret was ever-so-slightly lifted above the fretboard which caused some third fret buzzing. I re-pressed the fret and it's been awesome ever since. I bought mine used, maybe the previous owner caused this, I'm not sure. The guitar is finished with a one-piece quilted maple top (natural) which I think is beautiful. It's the prettiest guitar I own. The neck is thin, but not too thin which makes it extremely fast. There are patterns I couldn't attempt to play on my Strat that I can play on this guitar with ease. It's the main reason this is now my main electric guitar setup. I also like the location and spacing of the switches. When you have as many knobs & switches on a guitar as this, spacing is critical so you don't make any mistakes during voicing transistions.

The guitar is built very, very well and should last a lifetime. I take very good care of my gear and don't expect to see any issues with reliability. I play numerous times each week in practice, song developement, and praise band/church. My only fear is that it gets so much use, I'm going to scratch it, and then my prettiest guitar will have a flaw. Oh well, it will still be my best sounding guitar no matter what.

No experience here

Overall, you can't go wrong with this guitar. Awesome midi support, the best piezo sound out there and those Seymour Duncan JB's are sweet. Truly the best sounding guitar, most versatile, and best looking guitar I own. To get this type of sound/features in other competing products, plan on spending $2K on up. I was initially pessimistic in purchasing a Korean guitar but after owning it, I know "without" doubt that it's in a higher league than my American Strat and many other American guitars. That was painful to discover but I'm recovering nicely... Especially now since I have a Brian Moore i8.13. Makes it all better...

O.K., we're talking about a 2003 Brian Moore I8.13. I've heard it called the "Swiss Army Knife of Guitars" and that's a spot on description. This thing is a feature machine! All of the ".13" Brian Moores give you magnetic pickup output, piezo output and 13 pin midi output, and allows you to use these all at the same time. Pretty killer. These guitars are made in Korea but set up in the US. It's a classy strat style body with a real nice natural gloss transparent flame maple top laminated onto a two piece Kalantas mahogany body. It's got 2 Seymore Duncan Humbuckers, JBs I'm pretty sure, and they are both coil tapping. The neck is a 22 fret bolt on made of maple with rosewood fingerboard and has a rubbed oil finish. The other guitarist in my band also has a Brian Moore and his neck has a different finish on the neck. His is more of a conventional laquer finish - I very much prefer the feel of mine. The tuners are Sperzel locking tuners. It is fixed bridge - no whammy. The strings run through the body so it resonates very well. It came with a gig bag, a very nice one at that, and a stereo split cable to use the magnetic pickups and the piezo simultaneously.

I dig the sound of this guitar. I play a mix of alt/emo/progressive and the Duncan humbuckers sound great. The coil tapping is a handy feature - it makes the guitar incredibly versalite. If you are looking for more Strat type tones you can drop out a coil and it sounds real good, but my heart lies in the crunchy stuff. I play through a Mesa V-Twin pre into a Sovtek 50 head into a Marshall 1960 4x12 and it sounds very nice. It sounds even better into the Mesa Dual Rec that my bandmate has. Holy crap it sounds sweet! The only thing that stops me from giving it a 10 is the fact that a Gibson Les Paul sounds better, maybe a PRS or a Hamer Archtop, too.

This thing came well set up and is beautiful. No notable problems anywhere. The only thing I'll need to to do is get it set-up due to my tuning preference (C#, G#, C#, F#). The guitar palys like a dream! The neck is comfortable and fast and did I mention I love the oil finish on the neck? Also, the guitar itself is an ergonomic masterpiece. It's ingeniously designed so the top is genlty curved - it somehow fits better. It is also of reasonable weight. All of these things make this guitar incredibly comfortable and non-fatiguing to play.

The actual guitar itself is built very, very well and should last a lifetime. Go figure why the Korean strats suck so bad if these guitars are so nice. The only concern I have is with the 13 pin jack. It makes me nervous. The connection is 13 very thin pins set inside a long cylinder which inserts and snaps into the guitar. The connection design is not Brian Moore's (I'd imagine it's Roland's) so I hate to not give them a higher score but it feels like if you pull the stupid thing out wrong the you might leave a pin or two behind, or god forbid you step on the cord it feels like you'd screw the pouch and completely wreck it. Also, the 13 pin jack is where the normal 1/4" cable goes (the 1/4" goes on the back of the guitar - you'd have to see it). It's very hard to plug the 13 pin cable in with the guitar on because you can't see around the body to make sure the connector is lined up. That sucks. I've started plugging the thing in before I put the guitar on.

I had two questions for the Brian Moore folks so far and they responded by email within 24 hours! Top notch. With that said, I have had no problems with the guitar and the true merit of a company is when you see how they react to when something goes wrong, horribly wrong...

I've been playing 17 years and own more crap than I care to comment on. I bought this guitar for three big reasons. #1 it is a great guitar - solidly built and great sounding, with all the features I was looking for (Duncan humbuckers, coil tapping, mahogany body on a a 25 1/2 neck scale - I don't paticularly like the 24 3/4 scale - stop tail, string through body, locking tuners, maple top, reasonable weight). It's an awesome guitar. #2 I wanted a midi guitar and this is the shiznit. Having the midi read from in the bridge makes this bad boy track fast and accurately. It's so much better than the external mounted hex pickup it's not even funny. With that said beware - it's damn good but not perfect. Low notes are slower to track than higher notes, string noise can falsely track as notes and getting the guitar to do all the junk they say in the brochure (run synth products, run your computer, etc), well, you'd better be smart & patient cause it ain't easy or quick. Also, and this is somewhat important, running the magnetic output and the 13 pin midi simultaneously can prove noisy. You will need to use a power conditioner to help with the problem and you will just need be able to ignore the noise that's left. I'm not sure that of these problems could be easily resolved by Brain Moore, and I'm not sure they are responsible for any of them. Just don't say I didn't warn ya. Finally #3 it's a hell of a value! The guitar usually sells for $1199 and for all of this it is worth every penny.

Hard to find a guitar that can do what this guitar can do. For a conventional guitar, it's just ordinary, feature-wise, although the push/pull tone knob that provides single coil tapping is a feature a lot of my other guitars had. It doesn't have a "middle" pickup which as a "strat" guy I'd like.

While the guitar is just average feature-wise from a conventional guitar perspective, that's just the beginning. It's got an RMC piezo saddle setup that provides for dual output through the conventional output jack; You'll need a stereo Y cable to split the magnetic pickup output from the piezo output, but Brian Moore ships a nice long one with the guitar, and the piezo output adds a huge dimension to your sound (more on that later).

These same RMC saddles also drive the output for the RMC 13pin connector which can in turn drive both guitar-MIDI boxes (e.g. Roland GR-33, AXON), and the Roland VG-88 (a virtual guitar modeler).

All three outputs (magnetic pickups, acoustic piezo, and 13pin MIDI) can be used simultaneously. It sounds gimmicky, but I use two of them together (mag + piezo, MIDI + piezo) regularly, and all three here and there to good effect. Done right, you can create sounds that are just full and huge.

The guitar has controls for adjusting the MIDI, piezo, and magnetic output, as well as a toggle switch for using MIDI/magnetic/both. Also, a handy momentary switch is provided which makes toggle through presets on the MIDI unit a snap.

This guitar does *not* have the Buzz Feiten Tuning system, which I've come to believe is important, so that's a shortcoming. I understand they're trying to provide a "custom shop" guitar at less than $1000 on the street and the Feiten system, while nice, isn't cheap.

Sperzel tuners are a plus. This guitar is a hardtail, and with the Sperzels, I can change out the strings in 5 minutes, a fraction of what it takes on some of my other guitars.

I bought the guitar just to drive my Roland VG-88 and GR-33. I tried the MIDI thing first with the Roland Ready Strat which features a GK2A pickup, and was really disappointed with the tracking. The Brian Moore was a huge improvement -- the RMC saddles are vastly more effectly in tracking output for MIDI/Virtual Guitar.

Quite unexpectedly, this guitar became my favorite guitar for just about everything. It doesn't have a tremolo system, so sometimes it just doesn't cut it, but if trem isn't needed, odds are it's the guitar I'm playing. Not what I expected. And I'm feeling a little guilty, cause some fancy guitars have spent a lot more time hanging on the wall than I thought when I forked over the big bucks for them.

It's not a good guitar for that "quacky" strat sound, although in a pinch it's okay if you pull the tone knob to enable coil tapping.

The Duncans are great. I have virtually the same pickups in a Fernandes, and they sound great there too, but I think the Brian Moore has a little fuller sound, and definitely more sustain. This is perplexing, as the Fernandes is a "neck-through" axe, and the Brian Moore is a bolt-on, with a thin little synthetic body at that. But that's how I hear it.

The neck is fast, the action is clean, and that makes it sound good, too. I think the only improvements I would like to see is a SSH pickup configuration, with two Lindy Fralin single coils, and the Duncan JB in the bridge. As it is, though, this baby screams pretty good magnetically.

It's amazing then, the first time you get the piezo hooked up, 'cause it sounds like a whole different guitar. You just kind of look down with a puzzled smile. It's not the sound of an acoustic guitar, but it's similar, and really pleasing in its own way. Use just the piezo and some chorus through full-range speakers, and it's quite nice. Mix it with some magnetic output to a softly overdriven tube amp, and it's exotic and rich. Add in some MIDI pad sounds from the pin out... you get the idea.

If this guitar could do good single coil sounds, It'd get a 9. As it is, a solid eight. Note that this guitar can do *really* good strat sounds through the Roland VG-88 using the 13pin output, but that's a feature of the VG-88, not this guitar... sort of. When I use this guitar live, I swith off the magnetic output completely and use the VG-88 when I need a quacky strat sound, and it's very convincing. So much so that I'm getting frustrated lately trying to get my real strats and Fender amps to sound as "stratty". Heh Heh.

Umm, I own guitars that cost way more used than this did used, and I can say I've seen more than one or two guitars that sported better fit and finish than this guitar. (I have a Suhr that is the best made guitar I've seen, but cost a multiple of the Brian Moore). I'm a believer in USA made guitars, but this instrument is an exception. Don't know how they worked this out with the Korean plant, but if you didn't know, you'd swear this was a custom shop USA guitar.

The guitar has the most beautiful body shape I've seen for an electric sold body, save for possibly a Jackson Soloist. It's very lightweight and has that certain "feel" when worn. Very Gratifying.

It's got a wide thin neck, which takes a little getting used to, but is really sweet once done. Instead making allowances for this guitar, I'm starting to wish all my others had necks like it.

The action is nearly perfect.

Nearly six months after purchase, I'm still vexed by the 4+2 headstock. It looks cool, but it defies easy location of the proper tuning peg.

The finish is durable. I've banged on it plenty and have several nice dents and scratches in the guitar. But just a few, and they required some malice. It seems as durable as any other finely made high-end guitar, with the exception of its Achilles heel: - the RMC 13pin output. This is a wonderful setup from an electronic and musical standpoint, but the Gk cord and connector just seem really fragile. Mine's still OK after enough abuse to scratch and dent the sturdy paint job, but one good "step on the cord" incident will ruin the RMC output, I know it. The GK cord has alocking connector, so it doesn't just pop out like a standard 1/4" jack. I have to be extra careful with this guitar, because if the MIDI output jack is damaged, which seems frightfully likely, this guitar becomes a major headache. Not like ripping the electronics out of a standard strat and fixin' it yourself.

No experience here

This is my favorite guitar. It plays great, it sounds great with the Duncans. It sounds great with the piezo, it sounds any way I want it with the MIDI output. The neck and action are just unusually nice. It's light weight. It's more attractive to look at than anything else I've owned.

I bought this guitar just drive the MIDI gear, and have been totally surprised. It's an all around fine instrument. Highly recommended.

This is a follow-up review: See my previous review.

Since my guitar has been repaired, I've been primarily gigging with this guitar - still very much in love with it! I've been using the piezo much, much more than I thought I would. I still don't think it sounds like a "true" acoustic but I like the sound I'm getting from it through the LR Baggs DI and straight into the board - with some fairly extreme EQ on the DI and a little at the board, it gets a very interesting sound. And when I play it and the magnetic at the same time (with my guitar cabinet mic-ed), the sound is incredibly full! I like doing some soloing on the piezo actually... admittedly, it's something that I saw John Petrucci do at the last Dream Theater show. I just recorded with it today... we got some good tones from it... used everything from straight humbucker + distortion/drive/fuzz (w/ wah) to piezo + both humbuckers tapped to piezo + neck humbuckeer tapped.

Got it back for about a week and have been playing it almost everyday (2 practices, 2 gigs and 1 recording session) - no problems yet.

FOLLOW UP REVIEW HERE: The company was able to repair my guitar and ship it back to me in about 1 week's time (not that it had to go that far - same state). I lost track of how many days exactly. They told the store it would take less than 2 weeks and they made good on their promise. Good going!! They replaced the circuit that was having a problem. The reason why they wanted the guitar back in their shop is because they claim that the board is a fairly expensive piece and would like to do the installation themselves - fair enough. In any case, the warrantee that came with the guitar took care of the bill except for the shipping which I had to pay - to me, that's understandable. I still think they could have been more responsive to the first repair guy who took a look at my guitar. But nevertheless, since we agreed to ship it back to the company, it's been a good experience. It restores my faith in the company and I'm now much more willing to purchase another guitar made by them.

The guitar is lightweight, loaded with features, has good sustain, versatile and able to translate every expression. I'm still trying to get used to the 2+4 config though (keep tuning the wrong string)!
Sound wise, the guitar as-is, is indeed more "vintage" as they advertise. But I believe that just simply putting different pick ups can change that significantly. Lastly, my experience with this company has shown me their dedication in customer satisfaction. So overall, I would definitely recommend this guitar.

2 humbuckers (SD's) w/ tone-push-pulll coil split (splits both), 3 way switch, midi on/off switch, toggle switch for midi bank change (up/down), midi volumn, piezo volumn, and, of course, master volumn and tone. Stereo out (guitar comes with a long Y-cable), 13-pin midi out. Other features include locking tuners, "innovative" jack output position and, if you can consider this a "feature", a gorgeous finish.
I wanted to give this catagory a 10 but I feel I need to take a point off for (a) the "innovative' jack output position is great if you have a wireless system - it's placed so that you can run a short cable to your strap very easily... however, I'm used to having my cable run over my strap and downt to the jack so it can't be pulled if I step on my cable... this jack is placed higher in the back than the strap button... I haven't had a problem but it doesn't give me warm fuzzies... (b) I wish there was a piezo/magnetic switch... this way I can set the piezo volumn and leave it where it is... would also make going from magnetic to piezo much easier too. The list of features definitely made the guitar more attractive than other guitars in the same class. Guitar also comes with case.

This is my primary reason for buying this guitar (and trading in 2 Ibanez for it). I find that the guitar is very musical (although I do agree with the person who swapped out the JB... I'm not sure if I'm in love with that pickup... used to have SD Custom in one of the Ibanez mentioned and I think I liked that pick up better). I find the guitar to have wonderful sustain which is very important in the way I play. I think the guitar has an inspiring sound - everytime I play it, I find it hard to put it down. I find the split sounds to be useful... if I need "real" single coil sound, I'd use my strat but this guitar's split coil sounds are good enough. I think the piezo sounds okay - again, I think I can get through a certain sound with it so I don't have to set up an acoustic. I wouldn't play an acoustic gig with it though. The piezo sounds better when ran through a DI (I use an LR Baggs). You can get a pretty neat sound when running both the piezo and magnetic sounds through the PA (I tried this with a Tech 21 Trademark 10). I guess the midi sounds okay... I don't use it right now (I don't have guitar midi stuff).

Action is okay - I do miss my low action Ibanezes. Everything seems like they're where they should be. The finish is just simply gorgeous in my mind. I'm going to give this catagory just a 7... please see reliability/durability for reason - I think there might be a design flaw.

Here's the catagory that I wanted to review about. I haven't had any problems with the guitar EXCEPT with the piezo. One day (after gigging with it maybe 3 times and doing 3-4 rehearsals), it just started cutting in and out. I brought it to the shop and what I found out was that something rubbing against the circuit board in the guitar causing the piezo to have power/battery problems. To me, that's half the guitar so it gets a 5 in this catagory.

This is actually my second guitar. The first time, I was unhappy with the guitar. The shop sent it back and got me a another one (this one) which I'm much happier with. (With the first one, I put 10s on the guitar... the guitar comes with 9s... set it up and either the action was way too high or it buzzed badly... even after the shop set it up for me, it was doing the same thing). The company reacted and got me another guitar in reasonable time. But with the problem mentioned in reliability/durability... the company has been unresponsive. The repair guy had problems contacting the company to order the part (the circuit board) my guitar needs. 4 weeks later, he brought it back to the shop. The shop contacted the company and rather than sending the board, they'd like us to set them the guitar for them to repair it themselves. I need to bring the guitar back to the shop for them to send it still. I may post another review about the outcome of this repair - I hope that the company will redeem itself.

I guess it's a love/hate relationship. I love the guitar... the way it sounds... its features... it feels right... the shape, weight, and balance is perfect for me... in my mind, it's a very professional guitar all the way down to the finish. I actually tried out one of the USA made ones (which are in the next price range) and liked the Korean ones better! (The USA ones are too heavy for me) But I have had problems with this guitar and I'm not having a easy time getting my problem fixed. I'm going to give it an 8 for overall because I love it more than I hate it! :)

Features? How about:
* Gorgeous highly figured maple top over kalantas mahagony body
* Vintage sunburst finish
* Sperzel locking tuners
* Seymour Duncan pick-ups JB Bridge(well... read on, I replaced the bridge pu)Alnico neck
* RMC piezo bridge
* 13 pin Roland synth output
* All the Roland synth controls (synth volume, S1/S2 switch, three way synth/magnetic PU selection
* Piezo volume knob
* 22 fret maple neck w/rosewood fingerboard and abalone dots. Very thin and wide, very flat 15" radius fingerboard.

This made in Korea guitar is PACKED with features! For the money, you cannot build a guitar yourself with everything this ones got (I was actually considering it before I stumbled upon the Brian Moore).

A tremelo system would put this guitar over the top!!!

I play original rock/prog instrumentally focused music, you can find samples at http://www.geocities.com/jack_wrightdude. I was not happy with the tone the SD JB provided in the bridge position, it was no more than "generic" nondescript sounding, if not even muddy. Harmonics were unfocused and weak. When split, all the bottom just dropped off. Notice the use of past tense here, I have since replaced the JB with a PRS Dragon II and it really brought this guitar to life! I do like the SD Alnico in the neck, when split, its got a nice midrange notch that give you a bluesy, very convincing single coil sound.

The piezo output sounds very convincing. Be sure to route this to a PA or other full range amplifier. A little chorus and reverb doesnt hurt either.

The fit and finish on the i8.13 is spectacular! Flawless vintage sunburst finish. The highly figured maple top is gorgeous, posessing an almost a 3D effect as you turn the guitar back and forth in the light. I've got Fenders, PRS's, and a G&L and the Brian Moore has the tightest neck pocket fit of the lot!

The neck needed an adjustment when I got it, but I dont see that as a big deal. In fact, it needed another adjustment when I went from 9's to 9.5's. Once the neck has the proper amount of bow, the action is excellent and the fret work great!

I dont have any experience with Brian Moore guitars nor do I know anyone who has. The woodwork is emaculate, I dont see any problem there. I did open it up to take a look "under the hood" and was slightly alarmed at the bundle of wires and the seemingly random routing. The i8.13 seems quiet, but I also couldnt help notice that there was no shielding in the wiring cavity.

Customer support gets high marks! They have answered all my email inquiries within two days, were very friendly and helpfull.

I bought this guitar primarily for the synth access (of course its good looks dont hurt either!). I couldnt bring myself to velcro a wart on one of my other guitars, and by the time you put a 22 fret neck on a Roland Ready Strat... The i8.13 by the way tracks flawlessly through my Roland GR-33 right out of the box! (and of course you can tweak the input levels on the GR-33 if you feel the desire).

No doubt the guitar is very well thought out and is replete with innovative features including the jack location on the upper back. At first I thought this was a superfluous gimmick but if you practice your scales sitting down on the couch with the headphones while simultaneously watching TV, you will appreciate the fact that the chord is out of your way.

I have been playing for 25 years on Fender's, Gibson's, PRS's, G&L's and I have to say the thin wide flat neck is something I am struggling with a bit. Otherwise... you simply cant beat the price/performance ration of this Guitar!

If lost or stolen would I but the i8.13 again? Lets just say if the 13pin Roland access was available on a PRS at the time, it could alter the landscape significantly...