ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 5, 2008) – The much-anticipated and much-talked-about Moog Guitar will debut at Summer NAMM in Nashville. The Moog Guitar is “a fantastic axe designed to be played by the best musicians in the world,” says Moog Music President Mike Adams.According to Adams, The Moog Guitar opens the guitarist to a whole new musical vocabulary: “It’s not a guitar synthesizer; not a MIDI guitar; not an effects processor,” Adams said. “The guitarist is intimately connected to The Moog Guitar because it works its magic on the strings themselves.” See the attached FAQ for additional details.
The first public demonstration of The Moog Guitar will be at the Moog Guitar Showcase, featuring Kenny Vaughn and Fareed Haque with Garaj Mahal. The Moog Guitar Showcase will take place at Nashville’s renowned 3rd and Lindsley on Friday, June 20 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $10.
The Moog Guitar will be demonstrated to media at NAMM at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 21 in Moog Music’s NAMM Booth 2030.
The first ever Moog Guitar will be the limited edition Paul Vo Collector Edition Guitar. The AAAAA maple top guitar with a mahogany body and ebony finger board will be a much sought-after axe even without the addition of the patented Moog electronics. Each guitar will be individually signed by Moog associate and guitar inventor Paul Vo and will carry a sealed Certificate of Authenticity identifying it as the first ever Moog Guitar.
The Moog Guitar offers three unique modes…Sustain, Mute and Controlled Sustain. In the Sustain mode, it provides infinite, powerful sustain on every string and at every fret position; Mute removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato effects; Controlled Sustain allows the musician to play sustained, single-note or even polyphonic lines with strong sustain and effortless clarity. In this mode, the Moog Guitar sustains the notes being played while actively muting the notes not being played.
“Take the powerful combination of sustain and mute…add the ability to move that power between the neck and bridge pick-ups, and suddenly you can pull both subtle and dramatic harmonic blends from the strings,” said Moog Senior Engineer Cyril Lance. The Moog Guitar’s creative power is further enhanced by the built-in Moog ladder filter. Both the harmonic blending as well as the ladder filter are controlled from the included expression pedal, according to Lance.The late Bob Moog and Adams often spoke of entering the guitar market, but it was not until Vo’s invention that Moog Music felt it had something truly innovative to bring to the guitar market. “Clearly, this guitar meets the definition of a Moog product that Bob ingrained here at Moog Music: A Moog product must be an inspiration to the creative process of making music,” Adams said.
“As one person told me, ‘Only Moog could have done this.’”
For more information and video on The Moog Guitar, visit moogmusic.com. Go to www.moogmusic.com/upload User name: mguitar Password: sustainmute for more photos.
I wanna axe Moog a question about these...
ReplyDeletewhat is a guitar?
ReplyDeleteYou know, this thing is probably cool but as far as guitars go, this thing is freakin' ugly.
ReplyDeleteAesthetically, this is the very LAST thing I expected from Moog. Like Benjamin I'm sure they have some really cool sounds but, DAMN are they ugly. Though I'm sure Steve Vai or your average M.I. student would eat it with a knife & fork. I'd heard some grumblings about what's gonna become of the Moog company after Bob had passed and,...well I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut.
ReplyDelete> I'd heard some grumblings about what's gonna become of the Moog company after Bob had passed
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like Moog after the Norlin buyout...guitars! Haha. Maybe they'll start contract manufacturing missle parts.
way ugly, and a bad idea in my opinion,,
ReplyDeleteBut does it have a D-Beam?
ReplyDeleteI think its purdy....
I think they look nice. Would like black, though.
ReplyDeleteis that lou reed?
ReplyDeleteYep.
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm. I agree with Lou Reed -- I want one the moment they go on sale.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I agree the initial model is u-g-l-y. Can they put this tech on a resonator guitar? I'd hold out for that.
It's not exactly an impulse-buy pricing point, though -- the initial edition costs US$6,500. I hope to goodness they cut that down when it goes into a normal production run, because that's nastily expensive.
ReplyDeleteDidn't a guitar synth spell the end of ARP?
ReplyDeleteAs a guitar player I would also like to reiterate from my first comment that those guitars are quite fugly.
in all seriousness, Moog is doing what the namesake is most known for: creating a new performance instrument. People will play these and create things we haven't yet imagined. The idea of manipulating the strings physically isn't new, but it is surely the ease of expression that makes this instrument. Moog always listened to his users and their ideas helped form what synths are today. Surely the idea of a pitch bender or mod wheel were not easy to invent - it involved the collaboration of creator and consumer to bring these about. The same will hold true for the guitar. Moog will put this in the hands of people who will feedback (literally) their adds and subtracts and it will become even more refined. I think if I was around to see the first pitch bender on a monosynth, I would have flipped out as well as smack my hand to my head saying 'of course!'. This is what Moog does best and freakin-A, they are at it once again. Would you have bought a Minimoog Model A? This is the Moog Guitar Model A, and it's just plain exciting to see something genuinely new as a controller. Theremin, Synthi, Moog Modular, Minimoog, Jupiter-8, DX7, Prophet VS, Continuum, Moog Guitar... don't stop till you get enough!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, add Resonator Neuronium to that list too - Juergen's equally the mad professor...
ReplyDeleteI'll amend my first post after watching the video.. Sounds/seems pretty cool (also me being a guit player, but less frequently these days).. But why no all black..? that would make it better looking in my opinion and more moog-like.. I suppose we'll see what people can do with it in no time..
ReplyDeleteI want it NOW.
ReplyDelete"People will play these and create things we haven't yet imagined."
Exactly.
I want to be one of them.
I played it and really liked it. But as a guitar, I play only older designs and this is far from what I want.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool for sure. I wouldn't say it's ugly, but it would be cool if there were some other body designs too.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing... Even though there has been no production models, there is something very close to this in the US-patent no. 4075921 (from the year 1978). It is the Ebow patent but in addition of the regular Ebow, there is a version in the patent that is installed in guitar and has a separate sustainer for each string.
Not to take any credit away from Moog, but I just think it is interesting.
People at Moog have probably done a lot of work making it really playable (sustain the strings that are played and mute the others etc.).
I get your point Mod, but the MiniMoog A wasn't the most ugly piece of kitsch I've ever seen... it was beautiful. This is a major design detraction from the Moog "look" that we have come to know and love. If they could make effect pedals look like moog products, why not a guitar? Why make it look like something you got from those egg-machines with talking animal animatronics when you where a kid?
ReplyDelete2 words on this
ReplyDelete-Ebow
-(Fernandes) Sustainer