Brian Moore Guitars i88.13

2 of em' used $500 black, $386 Natural stain: Year 2001 made in Korea, 22 frets, Controls, 1 volume H/H pickup, 1 volume piezo synth, 1 volume piezo accoustic. Tone, 1 for H/H with pull knob for coil splitting. 3 way toggle H/H which becomes essentially a 6 way. Pickup model... generic? RMC's for piezo. Passive H/H, active Piezo and synth, for only piezo the 9vdc battery is very handy how the door clicks open tooless, but.. I can not hear the diff between no battery and a brand new one! Besides 90% of what I play goes via Roland GR, so its phantom powered mainly. Body, Solid Mahogany body (looks like 1 piece..) Strat "type" cut but far longer eaves. The wood grains are matched so closely only if you look under a bright light, you can see joins. I can confirm 1 vertical section, I think there are two, but as I said it is so well grain matched it looks like a single piece. Neck, maple with rosewood fingerboard. Guitar #1 Black gloss, nothing special. Guitar #2, whooo hooooo!!! dark reddish stain over natural mahogany, no blems, no fillers. Bridge, solid anchored, through the body string grommets, aside from the RMC piezo. nothing special. Both had stock Brian Moore no brand tuners, swapped for Sperzel locks. Neck goes from absurdly thin and narrow on headstock to thin at neck. Frets slightly smaller than jumbo;s but larger than standard wire. Accessories? bought them both used. sooo... lots of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts? :-)

jazz, funk, r&b -Christian music!
amps- Roland JC's 2-55, 1-77, 1-120, Peavey Standard & 4x12 cab, GK ML250, combo of any 2 at a time. Roland GR 30 synth
Very quite on most settings. electronics are better on this 88.13 than on the newer 81.13.
Sounds, (mag pickups) Hums's - from a thin Les Paul, to a fat strat. Synth, you name it! 1000's of sounds if you can handle it, Piezo on accoustic, no settings, one sound only, must be eq'd by amp. BIG drawback, acoustic cannot be blended into synth output. only Mag and synth. tracking is very good, magnetic pickups, ehhh.. not horrible, crisp, tonal body much superior to the 81.13 due to the coil splitting but still missing a little punch, have to get some Seymore's in these pups. dislike? cant get all three voices out of the synth output like the Godin. only mag and synth.

Ahhh.... one other thing, the 88.13's come with a 250k volume pot on the synth, which means 65-70% before you begin to hear a peep out of your Roland GK... Retrofitted them both with 500k mini pots, and the control is fantasic... or how it should normally be that is..

BM 88.13 korean made and it is very smooth, I liked it so much after I bought my 1st one I bought a new 81.13 (mistake!). So I lucked out on a cherry used 88.13 to add to the stable. Bought them used so how they came from the factory I'll never know. One thing that I have a peeve about is the saddles on the bridge for every BM I own, is that all three can only go so low before its totally bottomed out and the strings will never touch the 22nd fret. (not that it would sound any good) but just the fact that both E string saddles are resting on the bridge as low as it will go with no further downward adjustment possible bug's me... if .. I .. could. only.. lower the action another .0001 milimeter ....

playing regularly on #1 black. So far no matter how cheesy the guitar I haven't experienced one falling apart on me while playing, no matter what brand..... Hardware is solid. Swapped strap buttons for Schaller locks so all my tools have the same interface.. It better hold up, little too lazy to lug and tune up two guitars only to use one of them.

While I have yet to call for this unit, in contacting for my other BM, they are extremely helpful, email is best as they respond very quickly.

player since 74' first paying gig 77'. dances, parties, expo's, concerts, studio work, 5 nite a week club gigs. now only play Christian modern to oldies at church, events, or recording.
Equip: Godin XTSA, Les Paul 77 standard, Kramer Tneck dmz2000, Fender Strat MIJ 84, Fender MIM Roland Ready, Fender custom strat, (2) Brian Moore 88.13, 2-Godin SD, 2 gk2a's currently on custom strat, soon to be on one of the Godin SD's. (amps) Roland Jazz Chorus amps, 2 jc55, 1 jc77, 1 jc 120, 1 GK ML250II, 1, Peavey standard head, 1 Peavey Musician, 1 Peavey Bass. Roland GR30 synth, Roland GR 33 synth, Roland rack reverse gate reverb,Alesis rack effects, & oodles of foot pedals I dont use at all.
the synth pickups "very good tracking" night and day over the gk 2a, or the roland ready, makes synth playing feel like a regular guitar rather than having to drastically change playing action with the synth hex setups. Brian Moore is so light, you almost forget you have it on.

Korean made bought in 2003. Features already listed by others. excellent value a whole lot of guitar for the money. Very nice comfy shape and light too. Only let down by the original no name Korean magnetic pickups. The revised edition of this guitar now comes with seymour duncan 59 and JB humbukers as standard. I put on some Carvin M series pickups.

Rating with the original pickup is a 6. I suspect with the Duncans it probably a 9. but for me with the Carvins it an 8

with the carvins the sound in clear and on the bright side. sounds very good but not much meat. I play inchurch mostly so its amixed bag of light rock, pop, reggae ( i live in Jamaica) and R & B. Havent used the piezo for acoustic sounds much but it does work and sounds better than one would expect. I think it needs a decent acoustic preamp and it would be amazing. The potential is there. A friend of mine who has used roland GR synths for years was blown away by how good the tracking and feel of the synth out put was. He is planning on getting a Brian Moore.
Oh yeah this guitar also has coil split on the tone knob. Usefull tonal contrast but agian kinda thin. But i think the fatter pickups like the SD's would improve things. Still the audience could care less about guitarists obsessing about tone as long as it sounds good so in the real world it works.

excellent not a flaw or problem. The one issue i have is the jack placement. after the novelty wears off its just annoying particularly when using a guitar stand. unless the stand has agood bit of clearance its easy to put some strain on the cable and jack.

its a guitar not a baseball bat. no reason why it shouldnt last unless its abused.

Been playing from the 1970's. Seriously from 1988 when i bougfht my first electric guitar. the only real impovement that i think it needs is good meaty pick ups. The thin light body needs help. However considering the cost of the new i2000 series, you can get one of these slap on some SD's or whatever and you will have a bargian. rating with replacement pu's: 9

I got a black 88.13, 22 frets, bolt on, mahogany body, rosewood neck, no name pickups, RMC piezo and midi pickups, and no name tuners. Very thin neck, volume, tone, and piezo volume controls along with synth controls. NOTE*** I immediately replaced my pickups with a duncan '59 and JB and the tuners with spertzel locking. I also rewired it to work better for what I do. email to find out more about this

I play in church, and use this as my main guitar. I bought it just to be a synth controller, but when we lost our keyboard player I stsarted using it live. We play classic style rock with a little bit of acoustic influence. Not what you'd normally hear in church, more like in a smoky biker bar:) Guitar sounds great from every output. The synth, a GR-33, tracks perfectly, the piezo is extremely full, and with the new pickups, the magnetics are thick, but can cut if I need them too. (really recomend replacing pickups with Duncan '59 and JB) I put 2 seperate coil taps on my guitar so it can do anything from vintage tele to over the top BC Rich. I usually play through a hot rod dlx with a slight overdrive. volume and tone controls are very sensative and offer a wide variety without changing amp channels

mine had a nasty fret problem at the 3rd fret. Had it in the shop 3 times to get it fixed. I play with really high action by most people's standards, but I'm a rhythm player so I don't mind, I just can't stand buzz, and I dare you to get this guitar to buzz. (people have tried and failed) The finish is plain black and is holding up well to the punishment I put it through at least 3 times a week. We set up church at a school every week so my guitar gets hauled around, left in the trunk, thrown across the room, (in the case of course) and just generally abused. (not to mention what I do to it while I'm playing)

I abuse the hell out of my guitar!!! (see above) I agree with the other guy who said what a terrable place for a synth jack, it sits right on the cable when you put it on a stand, but other than that, great. I would never play anywhere without a backup, but I did go out and buy a BM 8.13 to back this one up. (pretty bad, an upgrade as a backup, but I love this guitar, it just feels like home.) I have seen one of these guitars have a problem with the piezo bridge, but it was a music store demo that got dropped about 6 times. I have never had problem 1, and I don't anticipate ever having one.

I'm currently working with Cary at brian moore about getting a custom shop model. He's great and very helpful. As for this guitar, I've never had the first problem so I haven't needed to contact them

overall, this is not the most expensive guitar I own, but it is my gigging guitar. When I have my choice of which one to play, this is the one I reach for.

Made in Korea 2001, 22 frets, Mahogany body, rosewood neck, H/H pickups each with coil tapping, pickup models unknown, color said to be amber but is really light brown not yellow, transparent finish, 25.5" scale, came with Elixir nanoweb strings (excellent), has three different kinds of sound generation: the magnetic pickups, a piezo pickup, and a 13-pin roland digital piezo connection. I have used them all. Hard tail bridge. The neck is exquisitely thin, and the guitar itself is wonderfully light. It is much lighter than my other solid body guitars (Samick, Washburn Idol, 2 steinbergers, Cort flying-V). No vibrato arm.

When I bought a Carvin amp I found how great this guitar sounds. Until then I thought the only good tones were with both pickups on simultaneously, whether tapped-coil or humbucker mode. Through the Carvin amp but with no effects pedals (only the Carvin built-ins) this guitar was able to give me whatever I wanted, from surf to blues to metal. I get beautiful tones, and more so than my many other guitars. I can also get excellent piezo tones, they sound like a lovely bright acoustic guitar. It works well through my Roland V-guitar and GR-33 systems. My rating reflects its use with the Carvin amp.

It was set up very poorly at the factory. Everything was off except for the neck itself. THe neck is very stable, despite its thinness, a sharp contrast with my Carvin DC-200, which is not as thin but not as stable either. So I filed down the grooves in the nut (which were much too high), set the intonation, and set the bridge height. This improved the playability from annoyingly mediocre to excellent. The exceptionally thin neck is a dream to play. This is the most playable guitar I have ever tried. I don't think it's fair to downrate the guitar because the manufacturer didn't set it up right, since I could do it myself. I have the low E string down as low as the guitar allows me to set it, but I would prefer to try it a little lower; not a big deal but let me say that a rating of 10 is not perfect. No problems with the finish.

It seems durable and dependable.

They didn't respond to my complaints about the low E string, but then I didn't press it.

I've been playing for 35 years. I love the thin neck, it's the best I've ever played. I love the beautiful tones, the versatility, and the lightness. I wish it had a vibrato arm. If it were stolen I'd replace it (but I wouldn't replace my Carvin).

2001 Brian Moore i88.13
Made in Korea, assembled in NJ.

This guitar is for anyone looking for electric, acoustic and synth output out of one relatively inexpensive axe.

22 frets, solid mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, abalone dots.

Strat style body however the top "horn" is long to offset the lightweight body. The top of the instrument is rounded (falling away toward the edges). No pickguard or any access panels are visible from the top. Very attractive instrument.

The bottom back edge houses the Roland 13 pin jack for getting synth output to a GR or VG device. See gripes below.

The back houses the access plate for the electronics, pop-out battery compartment for the piezo active electronics and a carved out access to the stereo phono plug. The phono output is TRS. Tip=magnetic, Ring=piezo, Sleeve is ground for both. If a mono plug is inserted to the first stop then you can get piezo out on a mono jack.

Three volumes (magnetic, piezo, synth output)
One tone that also splits the coils when pulled up (magnetic only)
Three way selector for magnetic (bridge, neck, both)
Three way selector for Synth output (magnetic, synth, both)
Unfortunately the piezo cannot be routed out the synth path.
Up-down selector for GK(ish) synth control. Function differs based on model of synth connected.
Cheap tuners. Fixed bridge with piezo pickups.
I don't know what kind of magnetic pickups are used.

Includes stereo y-cable for the piezo and magnetic output and some allen wrenches for adjusting the action.

I play Christian praise music in front of a church live every week. I play a blend of hymns and contemporary, running the gambit from Amazing Grace played with a big pipe organ sound to Third Day praise songs like "Your Love O'Lord" having a heavy electric grunge sound. I also play a lot of acoustic guitar fingerpicked pieces. I play through a Roland GR-30 synth and a Pandora PX3 into a Peavy keyboard amp and from there into the church PA.

I don't have much time to transition songs and sometimes play through the transition so changing guitars is difficult. I needed a guitar that did everything on a tight budget. The Brian Moore is fitting that bill.

The built-in Synth output was the most important aspect of the guitar to me. The RMC pickup system tracks well and drives the GR-30 as well as can be expected.

The piezo pickup sounds natural and even gives me a good bottom end. I'm running it through a pandora PX-3 with some compression and a little reverb but other than that it required no EQ. I was very impressed.

The magnetic pickups are perhaps one of the weakest pieces on the guitar. I don't rely on them much so it's not a problem for me but they seem very anemic and don't have much range of tone. I can barely hear a difference when twisting the tone knob through its range. However I'm comparing this to an Fender American strat that I've played for seven years and traded in on this guitar. The Strat had an amazing range of tones so maybe a dual humbucker guitar isn't supposed to have that kind of expression. I owned a Les Paul copy (Aria ProII) twenty-five years ago and I seem to remember it having far better sound but the years can do that. I think if I ever wanted to play some serious Christian Rock I'd need to replace the pickups with something better. I am by no means an expert on humbuckers so I won't offer anymore opinions.

Overall the guitar is clean sounding, I don't hear any noise from the magnetics, the piezo is full and the synth output just plain works.

The guitar came setup beautifully for the strings that came from the factory (9s). It required a truss rod adjustment for heavier strings.

The synth tracking is wonderful. The guitar uses the RMC system based on piezo pickups in the bridge rather than a magnetic GK. I was having issues with my 6th string tracking on a Strat using a GK pickup but the RMC pickup allows even sloppy finger-picking to track the synth.

The mahogany is lightly stained a dark amber color and the grain is attractive and well finished, although the finish looks thinner than what's on my Fender strat. The maple for the neck looks less carefully chosen. The grain is not straight and makes me wonder whether it will warp in the future. The neck is bolt-on so even if it does, it's not killer.
The neck is also thinner than any I've ever played. This has taken some getting used to since I play acoustics 50% of the time (Ovataion 12 string) that have thick necks.

The fretwork is very good and the finish around the edge of the fingerboard is very smooth. The back of the neck is either unfinished or very lightly finished. I like it a lot. My strat had a light finish on the neck and this is closer to the wood. I prefer this neck now over anything else I've played.

The headstock is a unique shape and very well finished.

Overall its a beautiful guitar for the money.

I play this guitar nearly every day and live twice a week, every week. It gets carried in a gig bag that I strap on with a load of other stuff every time I play out. I'm a pack mule. I can't put it in a hard case without making a separate trip for it to my car.

The strap buttons seem well mounted and everything was screwed together well. Generally the controls seem a little flimsier than my American Strat, the knobs don't offer much resistance and turn too easily, but it's all in what your used to. All the controls feel well mounted and shouldn't break off without abuse.

The areas that I'm most concerned about are the following:

Number One: The location of the 13 pin Synth output is at the bottom edge of the guitar right where it contacts a guitar stand. The 13 pin cables are delicate and this location tends to get the cable beat up a lot. I have to be very careful when I place it in a stand and when others pick it up and put it down being unaware of this I imagine I'll be replacing cables and or the connector.

Number two: The neck is beautiful... and very thin. I imagine if I dropped this guitar the neck would break at the thin join of the headstock. Not much they could have done here other than use an angled headstock.

BUT: This guitar sold new for $750 at a local guitar store, and it contains a LOT of FEATURES for that price. In general I can afford to replace some of the switches and cords for this price.

I would and do gig without a backup because I can't afford a backup.

I've emailed customer support with a number of questions and they have promptly answered every one. The guitar has a lot of features and should probably come with an owners manual but they're excellent support amply makes up for that. I havn't had to have it repaired but it has a lifetime limited warranty so hopefully they will be as friendly when the time comes.

I've been playing guitar for 30 years. I didn't get serious about it until eight years ago. I also play fiddle, button accordion, mandolin and acoustic guitars.

This guitar solves a very real need that I've had for being able to be a better one man band and carry less equipment. I really don't need the magnetic pickups with what I currently play. If BM made an piezo, synth equipped guitar that would be fine with me.

I think it's attractively finished without being gaudy. I play in front of a group of Christians for the purpose of praising God with song. I'm glad I could find a guitar that doesn't attract a lot of attention visually. It's not about me it's about Jesus.

I compared this guitar to others but there is really nothing else that does synth/acoustic in it's price range. Nearly every other guitar was custom and well over $1300.

The only changes I would make are the location of the 13pin output and better pots for the synth and piezo volume controls. They are not linear and it is difficult to make small changes to the volume especially when I'm working them with my pinky while playing live. It would also be helpful for the knobs to have markings so that I know what they are set at.

If this guitar were lost or stolen I'd buy another the next day (God and my bank account willing).

I encourage everyone who's never worked with a guitar synth to give one of these a whirl. It will really open your musical horizons. And of course I hope any of you who have not realized your need for a Savior will change your heart toward God and accept Jesus as your personal redeemer and pardon for your sins and then obey Him daily. Any questions on that front go to http://www.crosswalk.com

Bought this primarily as a MIDI controller, and for that it is terrific! Very good rosewood bolt-on neck, piezo and humbucking pickups, 13 pin MIDI connector, as well as split cable for getting both piezo and passive pickup output. Made in Korea in 2001.

I play various rock/jazz styles. The straight guitar tone is good, but not outstanding. Truly shines as a MIDI guitar controller...used with the Roland GR-33 it sounds terrific!

For the money, this is UNBELIEVEABLY well put together. Blows the doors off of the Roland ready strats.

Early to tell on reliability; seems very well made, but I only use it in home studio, so can't comment for road warriors.

This is great; had some questions about MIDI implementation, and they were answered quickly and competently. Would definately buy another guitar from them in a heartbeat.

Have been looking at MIDI guitars for nearly a year; tried Godin and Strats, and find the Brian Moore far superior. I also tried the Brian Moore 2.13 and 8.13, and thought they were excellent, but for the money, the 88.13 worked great for me. Would definately buy again.