Moog Paul Vo Collector Edition

If you're reading this review, then you probably already know that the Moog Guitar is a "sustainer guitar," and it comes with a whole range of features that support this function.

-Full Sustain (All strings sustain at the same time)
-Single Note Sustain (One note sustains at a time/Each successive note cancels out the last note played)
-Mute Mode (Strings don't sustain at all and sound "plucked.")
-A series of knobs that control how much sustain is applied.
-Ladder Filter
-Envelope Follower
-CV Input (ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES)
-Piezo and humbucker pickups complete with the ability to control the blend between each and all...
-etc.
-Also, includes a pedal which can be used for a variety of things -sweep filter, blends, sustain level, etc.

The guitar sounds great for what it is, and what it does. Any audiophile will tell you that the best way to make something sound great is to use the best quality parts and the FEWEST parts. That's why high-end stereos never combine functions. The amp and the pre-amp are always separate, and the pre-amps don't usually even have treble and bass knobs. It's all about minimizing what goes into the chain. Well, the Moog guitar, unfortunately, has 3000 (so I've heard) parts in it. So, does it sound as good as a Les Paul plugged straight into an amp? No. The basic guitar tone, in my opinion, is a bit dark and muffled sounding. For that reason, I personally only use this guitar for it's sustaining capabilities. If I want a basic guitar tone, then I'll use another guitar. The Moog is not brutal or anything, but to my ears, it's 20-25% "less good" sounding than a custom shop les paul. But, all is not lost by any means.

Once I ran the guitar through a compressor, chorus, etc., it started to come alive. It just takes time. It took me quite a few hours of experimentation and playing around to get this guitar to sound great, but now that I know how to do it it's much less of an issue. It's just that you really need to fiddle with the amount of sustain, pick-up blending, etc. so that the harmonics don't "run away on you" and start to sound atonal. GET TO KNOW THE VO POWER KNOB! IT'S YOUR FRIEND. (You can also use the pedal to control the "level of sustain/Vo power." Too much and the guitar starts to squeal quite a bit.

One of the MOST IMPORTANT things to know about getting UNIQUE sounds out of the Moog guitar is that it has a CV input. This guitar really COMES ALIVE when used with the Moog MP-201. Because with it, you can send square waves, triangle waves, etc into the guitar. (If you want to save money, and you have a synth with CV out, you can use that). This allows you to get sounds out of the Moog that you can't get with any other guitar that I'm aware of. It's great, it's TOTALLY ANALOG and I highly recommend that you try this.

So...in conclusion, for what it is, I'm giving this guitar an 8 in terms of sound quality. Could it be better? Yes, it could, but given the amount of electronics in it, it sounds pretty darn good. In terms of variety and uniqueness of sound, I'd give it a 10, so that nets out to an average of 9.

Excellent! Plays as a great boutique made guitar should. It's lighter than one would think given all the electronics inside, and the fit and finish are up to snuff. My only complaint is that the pedal feels a bit cheap. Very plasticy. For a $5000 guitar, the pedal could have at least felt like better quality. That's why I'm giving it a 9 instead of a 10.

Guitar is too new to really evaluate reliability and durability, except to say that it doesn't feel delicate or anything like that. The only thing to remember here is that there are a lot of parts inside the guitar, so I would expect more problems in the long run as there is "more to go wrong" than in a standard guitar. So, I think it'll be par for the course given the complexity of the guitar. Having said that, I'm going with "no opinion" since it's too new. I'm hopeful that Moog - which has a great reputation for high-quality gear - has built this guitar to last a long time.

One can never rate customer service until they have a problem. Well, I had a problem and their customer service was outstanding. A full 10 out of 10 here!

Overall, the Moog Guitar is a very special and innovative piece of gear. I even believe that it is fairly priced for what it is. Any boutique guitar will cost you $2500-$3000. So, for an extra $2000-$2500, you get a very beautifully executed and complex sustainer system that's 100% analog. Should it be your first guitar? No. Should it be your second? Maybe not. But, the Moog Guitar offers something that no other guitar offers. The sonic possibilities are extremely compelling, and very engaging. If you're into writing music, the Moog Guitar will allow you to add very unique sonic elements to your tunes that no other guitar can. For that reason alone - even with a few warts and a bit of room for tonal improvement - this is guitar is definitely worth owning. Hats off to Moog for doing something truly innovative to an instrument that has basically remain unchanged since the Fender Telecaster made its debut in 1952.